He was either angry or some other emotion, deeper and more disturbing, made his arms steel-hard around her, and his mouth and chin as unyielding as rock. He set her down gently enough in her bed, however, and drew the covers up over her legs without a hint of embarrassment for her lack of covering.
'If you are so anxious to leave here,' he said in a tight, clipped voice, 'you should take care that you do nothing foolish to hinder your recovery.'
Holly had never felt so small and uncertain of herself in her life before, and she looked up at that dark, implacable face through the concealment of her lashes. Her flesh still retained the warmth of his body, and she had only reluctantly slid her arms from around his neck, but she was not at all encouraged by the fierce expression on those hawklike features.
'I'm all right,' she said at last, in a small, meek voice, and he looked at her down that arrogant nose as if she was being too stupid for words.
'If Doctor Valdare considered you to be "all right",' he told her scathingly, 'you would not have been told to remain in bed.'
Holly found the argument daunting for a moment, then she put her hands together in front of her and looked down at her twined fingers. 'I got tired of staying in bed,' she told him, and glanced up hopefully for some glimpse of understanding.
There was no sign of relenting, however, only that grim, tight-lipped look that was discouraging enough to send her heart plummeting into hopelessness. It was Helena, she guessed ruefully. His father had told him about Holly's suspicions and he was treating her with the contempt he thought she deserved.
'I think it far more likely that you simply object to doing as you are told,' Marcos said, and Holly would have protested. The steady, black-eyed gaze held her silent, however, and she merely shook her head.
He neither moved nor spoke for some moments and after a while it became unbearable. He stood at the head of the bed, his face in the shadows, and the dark implacability of him unnerved her at last.
'I'm - I'm sorry I didn't - I mean I'm sorry about you not knowing I was leaving,' she said, choosing what was probably the lesser of two evils, and one black brow arched in disbelief.
'Do you expect me to believe that, when you asked that I should not be told?' he asked. 'I find that very difficult to believe, senorita!'
Holly's hands clenched hard over that unfriendly formality. 'Oh, don't start calling me senorita again!' she begged hastily. 'I've been here long enough now to know it isn't just polite, but a way of putting me firmly in my place!'
Marcos's black eyes looked down at her steadily. 'Since you seemed unwilling to allow me even the privilege of being told of your departure,' he said in the same cool voice, 'I assumed that you wished to be on formal terms. I have no wish to force my friendship upon you, senorita.'
'Oh, please don't!' Holly begged, and the tears again gathered in her eyes as she looked up at him appealingly. 'I - I don't feel well enough to quarrel with you, Marcos!'
'I am not quarrelling,' Marcos stated adamantly. 'I am merely trying to keep our - relationship,' one expressive hand gave double meaning to the word, 'on the formal footing you so obviously prefer.'
'But I don't!' Holly cried desperately, trying not to cry. 'I don't want -1 mean, I don't—' She put a hand to her aching head. 'Oh, I wish I could go! I wish I could have gone when I was supposed to, then you wouldn't even have to bother being formally polite to me!'
Holly felt tired and exhausted, her head ached abominably and she wanted to cry like a baby as she leaned back on the softness of the pillows and turned her face away from him. For a very long time he said nothing, but when he spoke again his voice had lost a lot of its cool hardness and there was a hint of that thrilling warmth in it that shivered along her spine like an icy finger.
'Are you so very anxious to leave us, Holly?' he asked, but Holly did not answer. Instead she shook her head and, after a moment, one strong brown hand slid warmly against her neck, the strong fingers cupping her jaw and turning her to face him again. One brief glance revealed a softer line to his mouth and his fingers lay against her face gently. 'Why, nina?' he asked softly.
'I - I have to go,' Holly told him, succumbing to the very emotions that had made her decision necessary. 'I - I think I've been here long enough, Marcos.'
His thumb moved back and forth caressingly, almost sensually, on her cheek, and Holly was helpless to resist the uncontrollable desire for him that even that light touch aroused in her. 'Is it Helena?' he asked softly, and Holly hastily moved out of his reach, feeling that same cold chill of reality that his mentioning Helena always produced.
But Marcos was not prepared to let her escape so easily. "Holly?' He cupped her face again in his hand and she was forced to look up, if not to meet his eyes. 'You are blaming Helena for your accident,' he said, and the inflection in his voice made it all too clear that such a thing was too ridiculous for words. 'Why, pequena?' he insisted. 'Is it that you seek revenge for the times Helena has been - unkind to you?'
'It's because it's the truth!' Holly said in a small, tight voice. 'Although it suits everyone not to believe it!'
'It does not suit everyone not to believe it,' Marcos argued quietly, still unbelievably calm when she had expected an explosion of indignant denial in defence of Helena. 'But you have to be wrong, Holly, you must see that.'
'I don't see it!' Holly declared violently. 'Why do I have to be wrong? Is it because everyone finds it unbelievable that Senorita Mendez could do such a thing and not admit to it? Or because the accusation comes from a - a nobody like me?'
'Now you're being silly!'
'Oh, stop talking to me as if I was a stupid child!' Holly told him shortly. Her head was aching and she wished she could decide whether she wished herself miles away from him at the moment, or even closer than that light touch on her face. She was trapped, unable to even get up and walk away from him and sooner or later, she knew, she would say something that would shatter his present calm and rekindle that stern implacable expression he had worn when he came in.
'Naturally you don't want to believe anything against Helena,' she went on bitterly. 'She's too important to you, and Doctor Valdare doesn't want to believe it because he's probably known her all her life!'
A hurt, childlike vulnerability showed in her eyes for a moment. 'I did think Aunt Nan would have believed me,' she said wistfully. 'But I suppose she's become as Spanish as the rest of you in the ten years she's spent here and she can't believe that a well-brought-up Spanish girl could do anything like running me down in her car.'
'Please don't blame Dona Ana,' Marcos told her firmly, a warning glint in his black eyes when she looked up at him. 'Perhaps your aunt has acquired some of our ways in the time she has lived here with us, but she would not judge you unfairly, and you will not speak of her so.'
Tired of being blamed, of getting the worst of every attempt to tell them the truth, Holly felt the sudden need to retaliate, and Marcos was nearest. She stuck her chin in the air and looked up at him meaningly, her soft mouth firm and angry. 'Aunt Nan certainly has acquired some Spanish customs,' she told him. 'Such as not liking to find you in my bedroom.' She challenged him deliberately with the provocative tilt of her head and the look in her eyes. 'And now you're here again,' she said. 'That's surely not the done thing for a Spanish gentleman, is it?'
'Sagrada Madre de Dios!' Marco breathed softly, and dropped down swiftly beside her on the bed. His fingers dug cruelly into the tops of her arms, his mouth, hard and bruising and completely ruthless, stifling the cry she made, while the lean hardness of his body pressed her back into the pillows.
It occurred to Holly, briefly, that she should have made some attempt to push him away, but even had she had the strength to accomplish it, she had no desire at all to do anything other than respond to the almost savage way he kissed her. His hands and arms had a bruising strength, one arm holding her so close that she could feel the erratic throb of his heartbeat against her and the other hand twined in the soft darkness
of her hair, keeping her firmly where he wanted her.
'Marcos!' Her mouth, freed of that fierce assault for a moment, breathed against his ear, and her hands curved either side of his head, bowed low to press his lips against her neck and throat.
It was staggering, therefore, when only seconds later he drew back, his hands strong but oddly trembling on her bare shoulders, a dark, unfathomable look on his face and in his black eyes as he looked down at her. Slowly he got to his feet, his hands sliding down her arms, leaving her reluctantly, it seemed.
'I should not have done that,' he said, in a quiet, cool voice, while Holly fought to ease the erratic shudder of her breath as she lay back on the soft pillows trying to understand what he was saying to her. 'Dona Ana is right to frown upon my coming into your room, and I will not do so again.'
Holly shook her spinning, throbbing head slowly, looking up at him, still half dazed with the sudden change in the situation. 'Why - why did you come, Marcos?' she asked in a whisper, and he held her gaze steadily for a moment, his black eyes quite un fathomable in the cool shadiness of the room.
'Perhaps for the same reason that you looked down from your window, pequena,' he said softly. 'We both dream too much, I think.' A small, rather bitter smile touched his wide straight mouth for a second. 'You are a dream I cannot afford to have too often, nina mia. Forgive me!'
With one of those stiff, formal little bows he turned and strode across the room to the door, turning momentarily to look at her, briefly and disturbingly. 'Adios, nina mia,' he called softly, and Holly tinned away her head, her eyes already misted with the tears she knew she could no longer hold back. That 'adios' had sounded so very final.
CHAPTER EIGHT
If Marcos's visit the previous day had been a surprise to her, Holly was even more stunned when Aunt Nan came in the following afternoon, to see that she was accompanied by Helena. 'A visitor to see you, baby,' her aunt announced as she came into the room, and it was easy to see that the visit was none of her choosing, and that she was plainly uneasy about it. 'Do you feel like visitors?' she asked, and Holly inclined her head, unsure just how to respond to that question without being rude. Helena Mendez was the last person she wanted, or had expected to see, but she could scarcely say as much.
Helena looked as stunningly eye-catching as always, and the sight of her did nothing to reassure Holly that some ulterior motive did not lay behind the visit. Her tall figure was flattered and revealed by a dress of clinging dark blue silk that wisped about her elegant long legs when she walked, and she wore a wide-brimmed hat over her black hair, the same blue as the dress, and with a band of pale blue and white chiffon circling the crown.
She looked smart and elegant and as hard as iron, and Holly's heart was already beating a little faster when she looked up at that dark, unfriendly face. 'It's good of you to come, Senorita Mendez,' Holly murmured politely.
Helena's black eyes went to the mound under the bedclothes where Holly's left leg bulged with its plaster cast. 'You have a broken leg?' she asked.
'Holly also has concussion from a bad bang on her head,' Aunt Nan told her, before Holly could answer for herself. 'She needs to rest a lot, Helena.'
Helena inclined her head, but showed no signs of expressing regret at having disturbed her, or sympathy for her injuries, and Holly wondered what on earth lay behind the visit. Certainly not concern for Holly's health, of that she was certain.
Aunt Nan looked anxious, as well she might, Holly thought ruefully, for in the circumstances Helena was even more likely than usual to have the upper hand Holly was vulnerable enough to her brand of malice when she was on her feet and in full command of her faculties, but being confined to bed and conscious of the clumsy hump of her plastered leg beneath the covers, she felt completely helpless.
'You are recovering, I understand,' Helena said. She stood beside the bed and from Holly's half sitting position in it, looked to be even taller than usual.
Holly nodded, her eyes wary. 'Yes - thank you, senorita.'
'Bueno! Then soon you will be fit enough to travel, si?'
The reason for the unexpected visit was quite clear suddenly, and Holly almost smiled when she realized it. Helena had obviously only just learned the truth at last; that Holly had been on the point of leaving when the accident occurred, and she could well imagine what a bitter pill it must have been for her to swallow, realizing that but for her own vicious action, Holly might have been gone a week ago.
'I hope to be fit enough very soon now,' Holly agreed. She was finding it very hard not to enjoy the thought of how Helena must be feeling, but even such a minor sense of revenge was rather sweet, and she felt quite entitled to it in the circumstances.
Helena turned to Aunt Nan after a moment or two of rather telling silence, but her smile was a mere caricature of friendliness. 'Please do not let me detain you, Senora Delgaro,' she said in her smoothest voice. 'I know Don Jose will be wanting you, and I would like to speak with Senorita Gilmour for a few moments, that is all.'
She might have been dismissing a servant, Holly thought, instead of her hostess, and she saw the way her aunt frowned. 'It is time for Jose's tablets,' she said, but was obviously loath to leave Holly to Helena's mercy. 'But - I think perhaps Holly would like me to stay, would you, baby?'
Helena's lip curled derisively at them both, and her black brows flicked upwards in a scornful arch. It was obvious that she interpreted their fears all too easily. 'You need have no fears for the safety of your niece, senora,' she said. 'I wish only to speak with her.'
'Yes, of course you do,' Aunt Nan allowed, quietly. 'But please don't stay too long, Helena. Visitors aren't really very good for Holly at the moment.'
'You do not trust me, senora!' Helena asked softly, and her black eyes challenged Aunt Nan to deny it. 'I can assure you that I have only the interests of your niece at heart, Senora Delgaro.'
Aunt Nan looked from Helena to Holly, seeking a solution and apparently finding none but to leave them alone. It was difficult for her to refuse to leave them, Holly could see that, but just the same she faced the idea of her aunt's departure with a cold sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.
'Will you be all right for a few moments, Holly dear?' her aunt asked, and Holly could do nothing else but nod agreement. Anything else would have branded her as afraid of being alone with Helena and, while it was true to a certain extent, she was unwilling to admit it, especially to Helena.
'Yes, of course I'll be all right, Aunt Nan,' she said. 'You go and see about Tio Jose's tablets.'
Holly seldom claimed the relationship with her host so openly, and she saw Helena frown over her familiarity, but she felt that in some way it put her in a stronger position. Holly was already part of the family, however remotely, while Helena still sought admission to it.
'All right, darling, I'll see you a little later.' Aunt Nan smoothed professional hands over the bedcovers, and brushed back Holly's hair from her forehead in the same soothing motion. 'Don't get too wound up, dear, will you?' she said, half under her breath, and Holly smiled at her.
'I'll try not to,' she promised.
If only Helena would sit down, Holly thought, she would not appear so overpoweringly tall as she stood beside the bed, and she tried to persuade her to do so as soon as the door had closed behind her aunt.
'Please sit down, Senorita Mendez,' she suggested, indicating a chair some distance away, but Helena shook her head, frowning impatiently.
'I prefer to stand,' she said, and narrowed her dark eyes as she looked down at Holly. 'I did not realize that you had intended to leave so soon,' she said after a moment of speculative scrutiny. 'You told no one that you were going.'
There was to be no preliminary sparring, it seemed. Helena meant to have everything out in the open from the start, and somehow Holly found it almost a relief. 'I told Aunt Nan and Don Jose,' she said quietly. 'I didn't consider it necessary to tell anyone else my plans, senorita.'
'You did not think t
hat Marcos should be told?'
The black eyes were narrowed, challenging, and Holly lowered her own when she remembered her reasons for not wanting Marcos to know she was going. 'I didn't think it was necessary,' she agreed.
'Why?'
The one word was almost spat at her, and Holly looked up swiftly, startled by the vehemence of the question. 'I - I just didn't think so, that's all,' she said.
'Hah!' Again the vehemence of the reply made Holly blink. 'You did not tell Marcos, I think,' Helena said, 'because you would wish that he would ask you to stay on if you did, huh?'
'I did nothing—' Holly began, but Helena dismissed the interruption with a disdainful hand.
'You could not bear the thought of being wrong about it,' she went on. 'To have to face the fact that Marcos would not care when or how you went, so you did not tell him about it!'
That's not true!' Holly denied quickly, and hoped her voice sounded more convincing to Helena than it did to herself.
'Pah! I do not believe you!'
It was difficult, in the face of such provocation, but Holly held her temper firmly in check, and sat with her hands in front of her, held tightly together. 'That's your privilege, Senorita Mendez,' she said quietly, and Helena stared at her for a moment, obviously puzzled by her lack of response.
Then she clamped her lips tightly together, and a faint flush coloured the olive skin over her high cheekbones. 'I also understand that you accuse me of being responsible for your accident,' she said, seeking another tack, since her first had failed to have the desired effect. Her black eyes glittered angrily and Holly noticed how much more pronounced her accent seemed than usual. 'You are foolish to make such accusations, sucia! No one will believe you!'
'I've already discovered that,' Holly admitted frankly. 'But it makes no difference to the truth, Senorita Mendez. I know it was you and so do you, but since I have no intention of suing you for dangerous driving or anything else, it doesn't really matter whether anyone else believes it or not.'
Rebecca Stratton - Castles in Spain Page 11
