Lise was too astonished by his gift of the fabulous materials to take him up on his remark. She cradled the silk, lace and velvet against her and there rushed through her mind all the designs she could create from these luscious fabrics, and she felt as intoxicated as if he had plied her with Spanish wine.
`How could Ana resist these?' she murmured, and she lifted a fold of the jade silk to her cheek and her grey eyes shone with delight.
`Ana is still very young, sweet but not very subtle,' he replied, and he studied Lise with narrowed eyes as she stroked her cheek with the silk. 'I can see that they appeal to you.'
`They're wonderful, and I don't know 'how to thank you.'
`I feel sure that you do,' he said, meaningly.
`Oh?' Her eyes widened in contrast to the glinting narrowness of his regard. 'I – I don't understand you. Are there strings attached to the materials?'
`You understand me perfectly well,' he said curtly. 'I wish my grandmother to have no doubts about our so-called alliance, and my gratitude will not stop at a few fabrics if you – play your part well.'
`You—' Lise flushed and bit her lip, 'you make me sound mercenary, as if I'm wily interested in what I can get out of you in a material sense. It isn't really like that, and you know it, señor. Having spent last night under your roof I am involved whether I like it or not, for I'm sure the rumour has already reached :the Condesa that you have brought home with you a – fiancée.'
And as if to support Lise's claim a manservant suddenly appeared in the doorway of the lumber room and she under-
stood some of the Spanish which he addressed to the Conde. The Condesa was asking to speak with him . . . in fact she had sent an order that he was to be brought to her apartment at once! The manservant's eyes flicked to Lise and she guessed what lay behind the Condesa's order, and when Leandro looked at her, she drew back in quick alarm at meeting his grandmother so soon. He frowned slightly, and then told the manservant that he would be along without delay.
When he was alone again with Lise, he gave her a quizzical look. 'You have no need to look so afraid,' he said. But all the same I will give you time in which to get used to the idea of meeting the Condesa as her granddaughter-in-law. Come, I will escort you to your own apartment, where you may set about the design of your dresses and try to compose your mind.'
In her present state of confusion she would not have found her way to her suite without a good deal of searching, for though the castle appeared toy-like on the outside, seen against the towering cliffs, it was far from small inside. At last they arrived at her door and he opened it for her. As she moved past him to enter the suite she brushed against his hard frame and again her eyes lifted to his face in an alarm she could not conceal. This was all too real! He was an actual person and not a dream figure, and each time she had contact with him she was made intensely aware of his actuality.
'Gran cielo The exclamation moved like a whiplash across her pale face. 'You will learn to control that look you have just given me when we are together in Madrecita's company. She has sharp eyes and her wits are in no way impaired by her years. I don't ask you to look faint with love, but on the other hand it won't do for you to look faint with fear. If we are found out in our deception the Condesa
won't order the bastinado for you. There are conqistadors in our family history, but no inquisitors!'
With these words, and an ironic bow, he turned on his heel and strode off, swiftly turning a bend in the passage so that his tall, breeched and booted figure was out of Lise's sight . .. but not out of her memory. His every feature seemed stamped upon her mind, and his every intonation rang there. She dosed her door, but his looks and his words entered with her, and she hastened to the bed and dropped the luscious fabrics down upon it, as if all at once they bumed her. They lay in a softly glistening heap, and she knew that in a while her delight in them would reassert itself, but right now she had to remove herself to the veranda where she sank down into the cane easy chair and felt as if each nerve in her body was stretched taut and must relax before she screamed, or threw a vase in order to relieve her feelings.
What had she got herself into?
This time yesterday she had been a free and happy tourist, and the little red car had not shown a sign of going wrong on a lonely mountain road.
She sighed and stretched out her legs in the trousers he disapproved of. He was giving her orders as if their engagement was real instead of bogus, and she had to accept them, or make a dash for freedom while he was with his grandmother and deep in conversation with her. Lise half rose, then sank back in her chair, allowing her head to rest in a sort of defeat against the wide fan back of the chair.
It was no use .. . she was honour bound to keep the bargain she had made with him. He would now be telling his grandmother about her . . . the Condesa de Marcos Reyes, who would soon be eighty years of age, and whose heart was not strong enough to stand- up to a sudden shock . . . such as being told that her grandson's novia had run away from the
castle. Having had her hopes built up, the Condesa would then have them shattered again, and Lise could not face the responsibility of what that might do to a proud and elderly woman who probably only lived now to see the wedding of her grandson.
The presentation of a novia would at least promise this, and Lise was too soft-hearted to shatter that promise,
She closed her eyes against the down-beating sun and felt the golden warmth against her face and her neck. Whatever happened not a word of all this must reach her brother. Both he and his wife had been opposed to this trip she had insisted on making alone, and all of this would strike their very logical and down-to-earth minds as sheer lunacy.
Her lips moved in a slight smile, but now she could feel some of the tension easing out of her body, and she supposed it was because she had finally accepted the fact that she was committed to play the part of bride-to-be of a handsome, worldly Spaniard, who was not only rich but who was titled, and whose home was a tawny-stoned castle.
If it were all true, and would end for her in wedding bells and real love, she would at this moment have been feeling rather like Cinderella to whom the silver slipper had been fitted with success. Bird calls echoed from the trees around the castle, and they seemed to hold a mocking note. They seemed to keep reminding her that it was all makebelieve and not for a moment must she lose sight of the fact that the beauty of the castle was hers to enjoy for only a few days, maybe a week and no more.
A vision returned to her of all the vivid, riotous flowers and plants she had been shown during her walk through the gardens with Leandro .. . ah, already she was beginning to think of him by name, but she couldn't face, as yet, the thought of addressing him in that way. With an Englishman it was an informality ... but with a Spaniard it seemed
strangely intimate. It was as if something in the Spanish atmosphere created a deeper awareness of men as men, and women as women. That air of good companionship so prevalent in England was absent from the man-woman relationship in Spain. It was as if a touch of the pagan still lingered here, to remind women that men still had the strength to overpower them, and so they must be charming in order to control their strong and sensual men.
Lise felt her hands gripping the arms of her chair and she realized now she was alone how many things she had noticed about Leandro de Marcos Reyes during their walk together. The way his raven-dark hair sprang back from his brow, and how the muscles had rippled in his forearm when he had raised a hand to fondle the fruit of a tree. In the neck-opening of his shirt the chain of a religious medal had glinted, a lighter gold against the tawny gold of his skin. And when he had rested a booted foot upon a low stone wall, there had been more than a hint of the tamer about him.
She wondered what were his secret thoughts when he compared a naive English girl like herself to the vivid, worldly woman whom Lise had met in England without ever dreaming that she would also meet the man who had not denied loving Franquista.
He must be secretly
amused by the comparison, for the Spanish woman had dressed with perfection, and her dark smooth hair had been a perfect frame for her camellia-skinned face, in which her eyes had sparkled like enormous dark gems. Whatever the bitterness lingering from her broken marriage it hadn't showed . . . but no wonder Leandro was opposed to the arranged marriage! It had not only hurt his mother and made her unhappy. It had also made difficult his future with Franquista. Even if he kept from his grandmother the fact of Franquista's divorce, she would be bound to learn of it from someone else and be
shockingly opposed to the match. Being of the old regime she would not recognize divorce and it would seem to her that her beloved grandson was living in sin. The shock might even kill her.
His dilemma was acute, but Lise didn't doubt that he meant to marry Franquista, and that was why he was ensuring that the Condesa did not involve him with her ward Anastasia.
Lise, as the girl at the centre of the drama, wasn't sure how she felt about it all. One half of her fervently wished for escape from the castillo, while the more adventurous half wished to stay and see what happened . . . as if it were a play! She went back into her bedroom and tidied the dress fabrics, running her fingers over the silky surface of them and trying not to imagine Audrey's scandalized face, did she know that her young sister-in-law had become this involved with a man in less than twenty-four hours. When Audrey talked about her 'settling down' she meant with some nice, reasonably ambitious, and far from unpredictable young man.
Lise was quite certain that Audrey would consider Leandro de Marcos Reyes the very opposite to her ideal `young man'. And she would be appalled that Lise, who had been so carefully brought up, so guarded and cared for by Bob, should allow herself to be talked into a bogus engagement by a man, and all because he was the very epitome of the dark and dangerously handsome Latin.
As she folded the materials Lise told herself that she was in no way influenced by his looks, his self-assurance, and his quick ability to grasp what was advantageous to him. He was ruthless, and never in her life before had Lise met a truly ruthless man, who took what he wanted as his conquistador ancestors had done.
Though she denied to herself that she found him exciting,
her mind mocked her for a little liar.
It was about eleven o'clock when Lise decided to return to the courtyard to see if there was any tea to be had. To her delight she was in time to see a maid carrying a tray to a white, lacy iron table set beneath the shade of a camellia tree, and at the table sat a young, sedate figure with a book in her hands.
Lise approached the girl and said good morning. The girl glanced up, revealing a round and pretty face framed in silky dark hair. Her eyes were large, honey-coloured, and rather shy. She returned Lise's greeting, and with reserve in her voice she added: am pleased to meet the English novia of the Señor Conde. We have all been wondering about you and could not tell what you would really be like because Leandro would not describe you in detail. I hope very much that you will like being here at El Serafin. This is the nicest time of the year, when the sun is hot but not burning. I — I would be pleased if you would join me for tea and cakes. I cannot resist cream cakes, though Madrina warns me that I shall be as plump as Florentina.'
Lise smiled and sat down in one of the white chairs that matched the table. know you are Ana. I was told by — by Leandro how pretty you are, and quite truthfully I only wish I could put on a little more weight and not be quite so meagre.'
'You are very slender,' Ana said, with a little sigh of envy. But when the plate of delicious-looking cakes was placed on the table, she broke into a smile and gazed at them with youthfully greedy eyes. 'It is no use, if I get as big as a house I cannot resist Florentina's cakes. You must taste one, or perhaps two.'
I shall be delighted.' Lise helped herself to a slice of cream and nut pastry, but it was a cup of tea for which she was thirsting, and as soon as it was poured she was drinking
it. The sun through the loaded boughs of creamy-white flowers glinted on the silver teapot, and found tiny blue lights in Ana's hair. Looking at the girl, taking note of her neat prettiness in a white dress spattered with bunches of pale mauve flowers, Lise could understand both the Condesa's wish to have her betrothed to Leandro, and his wish not to hurt the girl in any way that would be lasting.
Anastasia was nice, but far too dove-natured for the liking of a hawk such as Leandro. She would never be a challenge for him; never brave enough to oppose him in any way. Always she would submit without question, and be honey when he needed fire.
It was then, as she drank tea with Ana beneath the camellia tree, that Lise accepted her invidious position as his supposed bride-to-be. She relaxed in her seat and lifted her face to the dappling of sun and shadow. 'I hoped,' she said. `I hoped very much that we could be friends.'
But you were afraid I would hate you,' said Ana, 'because you are the one chosen by Leandro. You must be feeling very, very happy.'
`I'm ecstatic,' Lise smiled, indulging her sense of humour and yet aware at the same time that Ana would take her seriously. 'These are very tasty cakes — and, please, may I have another cup of tea? All this sun makes me feel rather thirsty.'
`You think you will like living in Spain?' Ana asked.
This was one question which Lise could answer truthfully, for she still planned to stay in Spain if Franquista's offer of employment still remained open. 'I think I'm going to love your country,' she said. 'It has a golden quality .. . here at least, if not so much in the cities. I understand from Leandro that you have lived at El Serafin for several years. How lovely to live in a castle!'
`You, also, will be living in the castle.' Ana helped herself
to another pastry and she looked at Lise from under her long silky lashes. Will you mind that I am here? You see, I have nowhere else to go and I am so fond of Madrina. She has been so good to me, and so has Leandro — almost like a brother.'
`I am delighted that you are here,' Lise said quickly, with the fervent warmth of someone who felt she was going to need a friend. 'I hope we can be real companions, and that you will show me all the local beauty spots and places of interest.'
But you will have Leandro to do all that,' Ana widened her eyes at Lise, as if detecting in her voice a small note of desperation. 'The castillo is his pride and joy, and there is much land planted with all sorts of trees and flowers, which he was once requested to allow the turistas to see, but he refused and said that El Serafin was private family property and he asked if the tourists would like their own gardens trampled all over.' A smile shimmered in Ana's eyes. 'He is afraid of no one — except perhaps he is afraid of hurting Madrina.'
`I can understand his objection to having his gardens thrown open to a lot of strangers, and I can understand his _ concern for the Condesa. He has his human side,' Lise added, with a small, rather choked laugh.
But of course,' said Ana. 'You must know of that side to him, being the girl he has chosen to be his partner in life. It is a very important role to play, and many girls have hoped—' Ana broke off and pretended that a gay and sparkling hummingbird, no larger than a large butterfly, had taken her interest. 'See how it whirls round and round the hibiscus flowers. They have a deep scented heart which is said to drive the hummingbird to distraction. It is like a jewel, no?'
`It's gorgeous,' Lise agreed gently, for she had just been
shown a glimpse of Ana's heart. The girl had hoped that Leandro would come to love her, and now she had to accept with grace that he only wished to be a sort of brother, kindly disposed but not romantically drawn to her pretty face and her gentleness. Like the gaily winged hummingbird he was attracted to what was vivid and perfumed.
Lise could not tell Ana the truth, so she changed the subject and asked if they were close to a beach. 'Where cliffs abound there is usually some ocean to be held back,' she said gaily. 'I rather like to swim, but I'm not very fond of crowded beaches. I'm greedy and like the sands and the sea almost to myself. I don't mind a frie
nd or two, and a few crabs.'
`We are above the sea, but it is a long way down to the beach. I am not fond of the water.' Ana gave a little shiver. `The waves throw you about and the salt takes all the shine out of your hair. But I do know that the English like the sea. When we heard that Leandro had become affianced to an inglesa I asked Chano Velarde to tell me about the English, as he had been there himself on business for the factory, and he told me how fair-skinned were the girls, and how they liked to wear bikinis and loved getting wet in the water. At first I could not imagine Leandro in love with a girl such as this, but now we have met I can see why he admires you. Your hair is so bright, and your eyes are beautiful, and you seem not to be afraid of anything.'
`I try not to be,' Lise flushed a little at the compliment paid to her eyes. In England people weren't given to flattery, and it had never occurred to her to consider herself anything more than fairly presentable. Now it came as a bit of a shock to realize that Leandro de Marcos Reyes would not have considered her a suitably convincing novia if she had been plain and dowdy. She recalled how he had stared at her in the light of his headlamps last night, and once he had found
out that she was travelling alone he had lost no time in entangling her in his web of deception Her flush deepened. and she sought to escape from the thought of him.
Who is Chano Velarde?' she asked, reaching up casually to cup a camellia in the palm of her hand. To think they grew like this in a Spanish garden, and were so expensive to buy in England, where they had to be grown under glass.
'Chano works for the Seflor Conde and upon occasion he comes here to the castillo.' A note of vivacity had crept into Ana's voice, and directly Lise heard it she recalled what Leandro had said about a certain friend of his and the regard he had for Ana. The intimation had been that this friend would welcome the news that Ana was free to be approached by another man with an affectionate regard for her.
'Is he nice?' Lise smiled at the other girl. I like his name.'
The kisses and the wine Page 6
