“That isn’t—”
“The point. I know.” He grinned at Lucas. “Aloysius told me his daughter had spirit and he was right.”
“Grandfather.” Lucas cleared his throat. “Are you well enough to discuss this? Because if you are—”
“Aloysius also said she was pretty. He was wrong. She is beautiful.”
Lucas felt Alyssa tense. He knew she couldn’t be happy to be talked about as if she were not in the room.
“Sturdy, too. Good conformation. Good hips. Excellent for childbearing.”
Alyssa’s face turned crimson. “Grandfather,” Lucas said sternly, “I will not permit you to—”
“My apologies. I simply meant it is good to see my old friend’s recommendations were valid.”
“Yes, grandfather, I’m sure it is, but—”
“He said the girl would make you a perfect wife, mi hijo, and he was correct.”
Alyssa looked up at Lucas. “I think,” she said carefully, “it’s best if I wait outside.”
“No!” His arm tightened around her. “Damn it, grandfather! What in hell are you trying to do?”
“Why, Lucas, mi hijo, you almost sound as if you care for the girl.”
“I do care for her.” Lucas’s tone softened. “I care for her very much. Too much to let you embarrass her.”
“Is that what I’m doing, child? What became of that spirit we just discussed?”
“We didn’t discuss anything, Your Highness. So far, you’ve done all the talking.”
“Ah. See? It’s there. The spirit. My old friend, Aloysius, described you with unerring accuracy.”
“Aloysius,” Alyssa said tightly, “didn’t know a damned thing about me!”
“He knew you were beautiful. And bright. And that you had a tendency to be stubborn.”
“I am not stubborn.”
Lucas coughed. “Uh, uh—I think this conversation should wait for another time.”
“He also knew,” Felix said, ignoring his grandson, “that you loved his land and you would do anything to restore it and keep it wild and free.”
Alyssa shook off Lucas’s encircling arm and moved nearer the bed. “It wasn’t his land, it was my mother’s!”
Felix’s smile faded. “No,” he said gently, “it was his.”
“It was hers! Hers and my real father’s. And when my real father died—”
“Alyssa. I assume you came here to learn why Aloysius did what he did. Why he sold the land to me—and why he added that stipulation. Am I correct?”
“Absolutely correct.”
“Then, you came here for the truth.”
“I know the truth, Prince Felix.”
“No. You do not.” His tone gentled. “I pleaded with Aloysius to tell you but he kept saying the time wasn’t right. I think it was the only thing about which he was not courageous.”
“Grandfather.” Lucas hesitated. “You’ve been very ill. Perhaps we should leave and let you rest. We can have this talk another time.”
“Who knows if there will be another time, Lucas? I have lived a long life. I am ready for whatever comes next but I don’t want to move on to that remaining adventure without telling this girl, and you, what you both need to know.”
Lucas moved beside Alyssa and put his arm around her again.
“Only if she wishes to hear it,” he said, tilting her face to his. “Amada? The choice is yours. Do you want to hear more?”
Alyssa looked into her lover’s eyes. Every instinct warned her that whatever came next would change her life but as long as she had Lucas with her, she was ready for anything.
“Yes. I want to hear the rest.”
Lucas bent his head and kissed her. Then he smiled, touched his thumb to her lip and turned to Felix.
“What is it we need to know, Grandfather?”
Felix hesitated. Then he cleared his throat.
“What did your mother tell you about your real father, Alyssa?”
“Only that he died when I was two.”
“And his name was?”
“I don’t see what this…” She sighed. “Montero. Eduardo Montero.”
“And yet,” Felix said softly, “you are named for the man you call your adoptive father. For Aloysius McDonough.”
“Named for him? Just because his name starts with the same letters as mine hardly means that I—”
“My dear child. Montero was your mother’s maiden name. Aloysius was your real father.”
“No! He adopted me when he married my mother.”
“He and your mother were lovers. Her family was rich and traced its lineage back to the conquistadores. His was poor.” Felix smiled. “He said he could trace his lineage back to the Irish potato famine, and the great-great-grandfather who boarded one of the coffin ships for New York.”
Alyssa shook her head wildly. “This is crazy! Why would my mother have lied? Why would Aloysius?”
“Your mother was very young. When her parents learned of the affair, they told her she could never see Aloysius again.” Felix paused. “Then she learned she was pregnant.”
Alyssa drew a shaky breath. “Pregnant? Do you mean…with me?”
“Yes, child. Her parents forbade her to see Aloysius or tell him of the pregnancy. They said she would have to give you up when you were born but when the time came, she could not do it.”
Alyssa sagged against Lucas, who drew her closer.
“She ran away with you and worked her way through the southwest as a waitress. Meanwhile, Aloysius had heard rumors of her pregnancy. He searched for her and searched for her and when he finally found her, he asked her to marry him.”
“Aloysius,” Alyssa whispered. “My real father?”
“By then, you were a precocious four-year-old. You’d asked about your father and your mother had told you he was dead.”
“But Aloysius found us! Why didn’t he tell me who he was?”
“Your mother wouldn’t permit it. She said it would be too much for a child to bear, though he always thought that perhaps, just perhaps, she felt he was not really good enough to be revealed as your true father. At any rate, she would only marry him if he agreed never to tell you the truth.”
“And he went along with that?”
Disbelief roughened Alyssa’s voice. Felix sighed and shook his head.
“What choice did he have, child? Abandon you both—or have you in his life, even if he had to live a lie.”
A sob caught in Alyssa’s throat. “And all the time,” she whispered, “all those years…”
“He treated you coolly because he was always afraid he would break down and tell you what he had vowed to keep secret. As for the land…he’d bought it piece by piece, worked it as best he could but there were droughts and fires, and then your mother’s illness took the last money that he had.”
“He should have told me,” Alyssa said. Tears ran down her cheeks. “He should have told me!”
“Si. I agree. But he was afraid you would hate him for living such a lie.”
“But why did he sell you the ranch? He knew I loved it. He knew what it meant to me.”
“He also knew you would not be able to keep it. And that pained him, that the bank would take the only legacy he could leave you, his flesh and blood daughter.”
“So you offered to buy the ranch,” Lucas said.
“Si. It was the perfect solution. I would buy it, the money I paid would loose the bank’s hold. And then, mi hijo, and then the two of us realized we could do more.”
“That stipulation.”
“Of course. I wished you to have the right wife. Aloysius wished Alyssa to have the right man, one who would cherish her and the land she loved.” Felix threw out his hands. “And here was the perfect solution.”
Silence settled over the room, broken only by the electronic pings of the machines. After a moment, Lucas sighed.
“The two of you thought to play God,” he said quietly.
Felix nodded. “I
suppose you could say that, yes.”
“You suppose?” Alyssa’s voice shook. “Playing God is exactly what you did, Your Highness. First Aloysius took it upon himself to keep the truth of my birth a secret. Then you toyed with two lives. If that isn’t playing God—”
“Alyssa,” Lucas said softly. “Amada, please, don’t weep.”
“I’m not weeping,” she said, while tears rolled down her cheeks.
Lucas’s heart filled. He wanted to sweep his Lyssa into his arms and carry her away with him to a place where she would never have reason to cry or feel anything but joy. He wanted to make her smile, make her laugh, he wanted to tell her—to tell her—
“I am tired,” Felix said. “That is enough for today.”
“More than enough,” Lucas agreed, a little coldly. He turned Alyssa to him, cupped her face in his hands and kissed her, and to hell with having an audience. “Wait for me outside, chica. Will you do that? I’ll only be a minute, I promise.”
He waited until she’d left the room. Then he went to his grandfather’s side and looked down at the old man.
“Some might say you played at being the devil,” he said quietly, “not God.”
“Si,” Felix said wryly. “Anyone can see how the two of you despise each other.”
“That is not the point, Grandfather.”
The old man sighed. “I know.”
“You did an awful thing, adding that marriage clause.”
“I know.”
“You cannot force strangers to want each other.”
“I know, I know, I know. What else do you want me to say?”
Lucas reached into his pocket and took out the contract signed by his grandfather and Alyssa’s father.
“I want you to scrawl your signature here, at the bottom, where I have put an addendum.”
“Which says?”
“Which says,” Lucas said grimly, turning the document toward Felix, “you agree that the Reyes Corporation should pay the arrears and whatever’s due the bank for El Ranch Grande.”
“If that is what you wish, mi hijo.”
“And,” Lucas continued, pointing to the addendum, “that you agree that the Reyes Corporation will deed the ranch over to Alyssa McDonough.”
Felix sighed. “My glasses and a pen are on the table.”
“And,” Lucas said, “you agree, as well, that the marriage stipulation is null and void.”
“All of that is what you wish, Lucas?”
“All of that, Grandfather.”
The old man held out his hand. Lucas slapped his eye glasses and his pen into the palm.
Seconds later, the signed amendment, together with the original contract, was safe in Lucas’s pocket.
“You did a terrible thing, old man,” Lucas said. Then he sighed, bent down and pressed a soft kiss to Felix’s white hair. “But I love you all the same. Get some rest, yes? I will stop by again later.”
Alyssa was waiting for him beside a pond that was home to a pair of swans.
Her back was to him. Lucas took advantage of that and slowed his steps so he could watch her.
She had taken an awful blow today, discovering she’d not only judged Aloysius wrong but that he was also her father.
She’d wept, yes. He would have, too, if such news had been dropped in his lap. But she’d maintained her composure, kept it well enough to strike back at Felix with courage and dignity.
He smiled. Dios, she was amazing.
Beautiful. Intelligent. Courageous. Passionate.
His smile broadened. And, though he’d be damned if he’d admit it without a fight, she could ride a horse as well as any man.
And he would never have met her, if his grandfather had not conspired to make it happen.
Lucas’s smile faded.
Still, what had been done to her was wrong. To him, too, but somehow, that didn’t seem important. It was his Lyssa who had suffered in all of this.
Not anymore.
Lucas slid his hand into his pocket and felt the heavy vellum on which the contract and the addendum were written. It was over now. His Lyssa would get her land, free and clear. He would add a substantial check so she could start the process of building it back to what it had been. She’d protest, of course, so he’d have to come up with some plan she’d find acceptable. That he wanted to invest in the ranch, maybe.
Something like that.
More to the point, the stipulation had been rendered invalid.
She didn’t have to marry him. He didn’t have to marry her. He could tell his pilot to take her back to Texas. They could put this behind them, remember it as just a brief, hot interlude.
Alyssa turned, saw him and smiled.
Was that how he’d remember it? As sex? Would he only recall his Lyssa as she’d been in his bed? Incredible was the word for that but his heart told him he would remember these days, and his Lyssa, as more than that.
She started toward him. He watched the way she walked, that proud stride that he loved. The way her hair bounced against her shoulders. The tilt of her chin, the glow of her blue eyes.
Would that glow dim, if only a little, when she said goodbye?
A thought burned its way into his brain. A crazy thought. Something he could say that would keep her here…
When she reached him, she lay her hand lightly on his arm. “Is your grandfather all right?”
“He’s fine.” Lucas took her hand in his and rubbed his thumb lightly over the delicate knuckles. “A little tired, that’s all.”
“I’m sorry.”
“For what, chica?”
“For being so hard on him.”
“You?” Lucas smiled. “You were gentle, amada. More so than he deserved.”
“What he did—what he and Aloysius did—was wrong but they meant well. And he’s so frail…”
“Trust me, chica. He’s a tough old bird.”
“He is,” she said with a little smile. “I could see you in him in another fifty years.” Her smile tilted. “But I was disrespectful and I shouldn’t have been. You love him and he loves you. He thought he was doing the right thing or he wouldn’t have done it.”
“Si. But it does not excuse it.”
“Still, I could have—”
“You could have called him a meddling old fool, but you didn’t. You could have treated him to one of those right crosses you tried on me.” Lucas brought her hand to his lips and kissed it. “I’d say my grandfather got off easy.”
“Honestly?”
“Si. And he knows it. So don’t feel guilty. If anything, he respects you all the more for standing up to him.”
She let out a long breath. “I feel better.”
“Good.” He slid his arm around her waist. How right it felt there, he thought, and pressed a kiss into her hair. “So, amada. What would you say to a drink at a little café with a view of the sea?”
“I’d say yes,” she said, tilting her head back and smiling at him.
“And then dinner. Paella, in a little inn about an hour from here.”
“Is there a fireplace?”
He grinned. “Absolutely.” He drew her closer. “And, after, a drive to Monroy. It’s a small town where—”
“—where some of the finest Andalusians are bred. I know about it. The first Andalusians sent to America were from Monroy.”
“Si. That’s right. I have a ranch there, too. I want you to see it.” His arm tightened around her as they began walking. “It’s my favorite place in all the world.” He looked down, saw her give a quick little laugh. “What?”
“Nothing. Everything. It’s just—I feel as if I’ve known you forever, and then something comes up and I realize that impossible as it seems, we’re still strangers.”
Lucas stopped and turned her into his embrace.
“In that case,” he said huskily, “we’ll just have to keep exploring each other.”
Color heightened her cheeks. “I love the idea of exploring you,” she whispered.
Lucas bent to her and gave her a long, deep kiss. She curled her hands into his shirt. When he raised his head, she swayed within the circle of his arms.
“Are you dizzy again? The doctor’s office is only a block away—”
“I’m fine, Lucas. Really.” She smiled, and the sheer intimacy of her smile made him want to drag her into his arms and ravish her right here, in the secluded little park. “It’s you,” she said softly. “You make me dizzy.”
“I like making you dizzy, amada.”
“Dizzy—and forgetful. I should have asked…Did you talk to your grandfather about the contract?”
Here it was. The moment they’d both waited for.
“Yes. Yes, I talked to him about it.”
“And?”
And, her worries were over. The contract was null and void. She would have her ranch, the money to bring it back to life…
“Lucas? What did he say?”
That she was free. Free of debt, free of him, free to leave him…
“Lucas? For heaven’s sake—”
“He said he won’t change the agreement. Not any part of it.”
“Then—then the ranch is gone.”
The expression on her face tore at his heart.
“No. No, it isn’t, amada. I have the solution.”
“You do?”
Lucas framed her face with his hands. The words that had been in his head for the past ten minutes, maybe for all his life, tumbled from his lips. “Marry me.”
She stared at him as if he’d lost his sanity. Maybe he had, or maybe he had just found it.
“What?”
“Marry me, amada. El Rancho Grande will be saved. And I’ll deed it over to you.”
“I couldn’t let you do that! You don’t want to ma—”
“Is marriage such an awful idea? People marry, create homes, have children, many of them with less in common than you and I.”
“But—but we don’t know each other.”
“Of course we do. Didn’t I just say how much we have in common? Ranching. Horses.” His voice grew husky. “We’re incredible together in bed.” His eyes narrowed. “Unless there’s someone else.”
“There’s no one else,” she said quickly, and stopped herself before she could tell him the truth, that she loved him, that there would never be anyone else but him…
The Spanish Prince s Virgin Bride Page 13
