Secrets of Spain Trilogy

by Caroline Angus Baker

  La chispa,

  I hope the ship is offshore before you find this letter. I will find Alejandro, I promise I will. I had no idea he would run after you boarded the ship. I can’t leave him behind, even though I want to be with you. I know you say you hate me, but I swear, wherever you land with Scarlett, I will find you. I will marry you. Please, don’t let Scarlett’s baby end things for you and me. She is happy for me to let her and the child go for good. She longs for her home now. She cannot take any more pain. But you, my preciosa, you and I have so much more to come.

  I fear that Alejandro may never overcome his pain of losing Sofía, the same way I would never get over you if I was to lose your love. I know you don’t agree with Alejandro’s decision to give his son to Scarlett. I’m sorry for the pain this causes you, but only time will prove that the child will be better off. One day you and I can have children of our own.

  Por favor, la chispa, keep the ring on your hand. It belongs to a part of a special collection of jewels that was given to my stepfather, Sergio Medina, from my father, the King. Both the King and my family are in exile in Francia. If you get in trouble, go to Sergio with the ring, and he will help you. I can’t believe you have left España, and I may never see you again. I will do all I can to find you. Please remember I love you. I will always be searching for you.

  Cayetano

  “Jesucristo en el cielo,” Cayetano muttered.

  “What?” Luna asked him. “Do you know what the letter is talking about?”

  “I have no idea!” he exclaimed, and waved the note in her direction. “But I know who Sergio Medina is!”

  “Who?”

  “Medina, as in my ex-wife, María Medina Cruz.”

  “Oh, come on. So what if my grandfather knew a Medina family? There will be thousands of Medina’s in Spain.”

  “María was born in France. So was her father, Leandro. Sergio and Pilar Medina had two daughters and a son, and they went to France during the Spanish civil war. Their son, Emilio, was María’s grandfather. Sergio, her great-grandfather, was given a title and money for marrying Pilar Ortega in 1915. Pilar was one of the King’s mistresses. Sergio took on the baby from his friend the King, because the Queen was mad at her husband for having so many illegitimate children.”

  “How many were there?”

  “Officially four illegitimate children, on top of the five children born to the royal couple. But they say there could be more. Pilar was one such mistress, a young maid who worked at the Palace. She and her baby were shoved out the way for a substantial price paid to Sergio Medina to make it look like it was his baby. It wasn’t a well-kept secret. In fact, the Medina’s are quite proud of their family’s history. They have researched it all.”

  “My grandfather, Cayetano Ortega, was the illegitimate baby of the King’s mistress?” Luna said sceptically.

  “You may find you can track Cayetano down in the birth records if you look up Cayetano Medina instead. That is why you could never find Cayetano.”

  Luna looked at the note. “It sounds too far-fetched.”

  “What part? That you and my ex-wife are related? Or that your father and the King are first-cousins?”

  “I’m sure many people in Spain can claim the same. There could be a thousand people who could claim some kind of connection to a royal family that has endured as long as Spain’s has.”

  “Yeah, but first cousins? That is pretty impressive. Your great-grandfather was a King.”

  “And it’s your wife that holds the details to my family, assuming we are correct. María, who I met just this morning and reminded me that you and her are a couple.”

  “Ex-wife. Don’t forget the ‘ex’ part of that sentence. I’m sure I can work on María. Her father, Leandro, has been a fan of his family tree his whole life. I’m sure he would love to know the whereabouts of the illegitimate baby and his family.”

  Luna half-smiled. “You know, it never occurred to me that there would be anyone else to find. I never wondered who Cayetano’s parents were, or if there were more children. I always assumed that there weren’t.”

  “I will call Sofía tomorrow. She can check Cayetano Medina at work on Monday. No wonder the church records in Cuenca brought up nothing; Cayetano wasn’t from there. He must have found his way there from Madrid when he was young.”

  “Why turn your back on a powerful family?” Luna said. “It could have saved his life during the war. He could have left the country early on.”

  “More mysteries, preciosa. There are still so many. It raises many for my family, too.”

  “Like how it seems that Cayetano and Luna were getting married and she left Spain.”

  “As far as I know, that never happened. When Sofía and I went to South America, like I told you about, Papá said it was the first time anyone in our family had travelled aboard.”

  “So, what the hell is he writing about here? He is sending Scarlett and Luna away. Scarlett seemed to be pregnant in the note. Maybe that was what broke them up.”

  “I see,” Cayetano said. “Maybe my grandmother was engaged to your grandfather, but he cheated on her with Scarlett.”

  “My grandfather is illegitimate, and a jerk. Wow,” Luna said matter-of-factly.

  “Shit happens, we know that for sure.” Cayetano leaned over and read the note again, as Luna held it gently in her fingers. It had been written in haste with a blunt pencil, and hard to read. “Oh no,” he muttered.

  “What? Are you looking at the part where it says that Alejandro and Sofía had a baby, but Scarlett had the baby with her on the ship?”

  “Yeah, it’s weird.”

  “It says ‘Alejandro won’t get over his pain’. Did Sofía die?”

  “Maybe… no death record for Sofía… no birth record for the baby…”

  “Add that to the mystery list.”

  “What… what if ‘the baby’ is… your father?”

  “What?” Luna squinted. “No, Scarlett had a baby with Cayetano. It says right here that she was pregnant. Scarlett never hid the fact that my father was born to Cayetano, as shameful as it was during those times.”

  “Was she telling the truth? I mean, your father’s name was Alexander…. Alejandro…. Alexander…”

  “Yes! Alex was born in New Zealand. Records say so.”

  “Scarlett was a nurse. She would have access to be able to make fake records.”

  “It’s New Zealand, not the fucking wild west. The records are accurate. Besides, if she had arrived in New Zealand with a baby, they would have recorded that.”

  “You have checked the shipping records of when Scarlett came home?”

  “Well, no,” Luna admitted. “I never thought it as relevant. I knew she came home in 1939 and Dad was born soon after in a small local hospital…”

  “Sounds suspicious.”

  “No, I refuse to believe that Scarlett isn’t my grandmother,” Luna said. “And frankly, I’m offended you suggest otherwise!”

  “Sorry, that wasn’t my intention, Luna. I promise.”

  “Already my grandfather is the son of a whore,” she muttered. “I guess you need to be careful what you wish for. Of course, we could be totally wrong. You know, my mother, Thelma, her family was completely normal and well-adjusted. None of this crazy shit.”

  “I hope that Scarlett and Cayetano are your grandparents! Imagine if your father was Alejandro and Sofía’s baby! That would make us distant cousins. I really don’t want to find that I have been having sex with my cousin for the last two months,” Cayetano chuckled.

  “That is exactly what you’ve been doing,” came a deep voice.

  Cayetano and Luna both looked up, with expressions like naughty teenagers. Paco Beltrán stood in the doorway to the room, with a face far more angry than the storm outside. Luna needed no introduction, it was like looking at Cayetano, 30 years into the future.

  “Papá,” Cayetano said as he stumbled to his feet, his leg sore from sitting on the floor. He hopped on
one foot for a moment to try and feel more comfortable. “What are you doing here?”

  “You’ve done it, haven’t you?” Paco said, and approached the pair. “You stole from me, and you have gone against everything I have ever told you.”

  “Papá, no.” Cayetano put a hand out and pulled Luna to her feet. He could see she looked nervous. She had inadvertently walked into the ongoing battle between father and son. “This is Luna. I needed your chest to help her.”

  “The girl you scooped up off the street?” Paco shot back. “The mujer who has caused so much trouble these last few months? Have you any idea of the damage you have done to my son?” he said to Luna.

  “She hasn’t done anything, Papá…”

  “Your bloody leg, and then all the questions you have fired at me! Your mother told me that you have been sniffing around my family home in Cuenca…”

  “You mean the building still belongs to us?” Cayetano chose to ignore the rest, he wouldn’t dignify the accusations with an answer.

  “I don’t give a shit about those old buildings in Cuenca,” Paco fired back. “You have betrayed me.”

  “I’m sorry,” Luna said. She wasn’t afraid of the angry man, but she really hoped he would shut up. The kids were asleep not far away.

  “My mother was very important to me,” Paco said to her. “All I have is a chest of her things, and it’s been violated.”

  “But, Papá, there are photos and letters about Cayetano Ortega! That’s Luna’s grandfather. He and Luna’s grandmother, Scarlett…”

  “Luna? Luna Montgomery?” Paco interrupted his son. “You’re Scarlett’s daughter… granddaughter? Of course, just look at you. You have the eyes.”

  “My grandmother died before I was born,” Luna said tentatively. “I have never seen a photo of her.”

  Paco leaned forward, and grabbed another small box from inside the chest. He ripped it open, and photos fell from his hands. He grabbed one and thrust it at her. “Look, that’s Scarlett,” he said. It was almost some kind of accusation. “It’s like looking in a mirror.”

  Cayetano and Luna held the photo. The picture was black and white, but her hair practically glowed in the picture. It must have been fire-red. Her eyes were eerie in the black and white photo, they looked almost translucent; that was where Luna’s ice-blue eyes came from, just like her father before her. “Oh my God,” Luna muttered. She was the spitting image of Scarlett Montgomery. Now she was real; she was not just a story, but a woman who ran to Spain for her ideals and went home a troubled single mother.

  “That woman, that scheming redhead, destroyed my mother’s life,” Paco said. “Mamá was in love with a man and Scarlett stole him from her.”

  Cayetano and Luna shared a look. “She told you that?” Cayetano asked.

  “Sí,” Paco replied. His tone was so bitter, so angry at a person he never knew. “Cayetano Ortega was going to marry my mother. She loved him so such. She cried every night in her bed. He abandoned her. He took her to Valencia, to protect her when the war ended, and instead he left her in the port, and disappeared. Scarlett turned and went home, and my mother had nothing.”

  “So, Cayetano was never your uncle, like you told Mamá.”

  “No, Alejandro was my uncle. Another loser.”

  “He had a baby? Scarlett took his baby?”

  “She tried.”

  “Where is the baby now, Papá?”

  “The baby died very young, my mother told me. So no, Luna, your father is not the baby of Alejandro and his wife.”

  “No, she is part of María’s family. Cayetano is the illegitimate baby of Pilar and the King. Did you know that all this time? You knew María’s family always looked for him.”

  “Yes, I knew,” Paco sighed. “I didn’t want to tell anyone. I didn’t want anyone to know that my mother was in love with a bastardo like him.”

  “So, you lied the whole time I was married to María?” Cayetano fired back.

  “I never should have let you marry into the Medina’s. It’s wrong. Dirty. Like this Luna is!”

  “Hey!” Luna spoke up. “I realise this is very ugly, but you can’t be rude to me, no matter how much Scarlett hurt your mother.”

  “Rude? Like you have been? Going through my private things?” Paco said right in her face.

  “Damn it, Papá, it’s also my family here. It’s Luna’s family in this box. She doesn’t know them. You hold the answers to everyone’s lives in your chest and you are in the wrong!” Cayetano yelled.

  “You don’t want to know the truth!” Paco said. “I should never have let you marry María, and now, with this girl, now I have no choice but to tell you the truth.”

  “What, Papá?” Cayetano asked, his arms now folded over his chest. This was all too overly-dramatic and ridiculous. “What happened?”

  “My mother went to Valencia when the war ended,” Paco said, his voice now steady. “Instead of helping her, Cayetano and Alejandro abandoned her there. Scarlett got on a British ship and left her trail of destruction behind. My mother had nowhere to go. She managed to find a phone she could use, and she only knew one number, the house of Ignacio Reyes, where her father was. She rang him, and he was able to tell her where to go to see a friend of his. They arranged to get her to Madrid. Spain was undergoing huge change, and Ignacio was the only one who would help her. These people who claimed to be friends and family, and a lover…. no one cared. Her father, Juan Pablo, was murdered before Luna arrived in Madrid. He got flushed out by troops and killed, to be made an example of what the new government and regime was capable of doing.”

  “And she married Ignacio to be safe?”

  “Ignacio Reyes was gay,” Paco said. “That was illegal under Franco. Luna provided a cover for him and he kept her safe. She produced a baby, and Ignacio was listed as the father, for their mutual protection. When Ignacio died a few years later, Mamá was rich and able to raise me.”

  Luna took a deep breath, and a shudder came from her lungs. “Cayetano Ortega is your father,” she said to Paco. “Isn’t he?”

  “He was,” Paco said, his voice now quiet. He had never said that out loud, not even to his own wife in 40 years of marriage.

  Cayetano looked to Luna. That was the moment his heart broke. More broken than it had ever been before. “Our fathers are brothers,” he mumbled and she nodded. “We are cousins. We are family.”

  Tears had come to Paco’s eyes. “It was all right for you to marry into the Medina family, even though I am member of it myself,” Paco said to his son. “You only share a great-grandmother with María. It wasn’t enough of a connection to be a problem. I saw you with María Medina, and I thought… this was it… this was the connection I would have with my father. At last. It was like a sign.”

  “That was why you pushed me to marry María like you did,” Cayetano said. “It was good for you.” His voice had started to shake. He was the one who felt betrayed. But none of that mattered; he already knew that the potential life he could have with Luna was over.

  “I’m sorry,” Paco whispered. He had never cried in front of his son. “But if this girl is Scarlett and Cayetano’s nieta…”

  Luna shivered. All of a sudden this whole thing seemed so dirty. They were covered in the shame of actions that were already 70 years old. Their lives and their troubles had been left a secret, only to hurt people later on. Her eyes drifted back up towards Paco. He was her beloved father’s brother. She searched of some kind of resemblance. They were born to the same man, yet there was nothing. Both Luna and her father had taken after Scarlett, and Paco must have taken after his mother. There was no point in searching for a connection; there was none.

  “Papá,” Cayetano said, and swallowed hard. “How sure are you of this?”

  “I’m very sure. Mamá wanted to marry Cayetano, and she loved him. There was no doubt. She left him because he had got Scarlett pregnant. Cayetano had admitted it to her, there was no doubt that the baby belonged to him. Scarlett wrote
to Mamá for years, and Mamá never wrote back. Not once. The pain was too much, but Scarlett tried so hard.”

  “Have you read these letters?” Luna asked.

  “You can read them, but you won’t find anything in there what I haven’t told you. But no, I never read any of it.”

  Cayetano was just... aghast at the situation. He looked at Luna, and she looked as mortified as he did. They were cousins. First cousins. He looked back at his father. “If you weren’t such a liar… it would… it…” He couldn’t say it. He couldn’t tell his father that he could have prevented him having sex with his own cousin, even though Paco already knew what was going on.

  “If I had known she was Scarlett Montgomery’s girl, I would have told you sooner.”

  “I think I need to go,” Luna said with great hesitation. “I think that you two need to sort this out between you. I’m going to wake up the children. I need to go.”

  “No, no, no,” Cayetano pleaded when she turned away from him. He pulled her back by her elbow, and saw the pained look on her face. “No, stay here. The boys are asleep. Please.”

  “You have children here?” Paco asked.

  “Yes. Luna has two sons, and she never lied to them about who their father was,” Cayetano said. “They won’t have horrible lies thrown at them, no hidden agendas, no deceitful, selfish, manipulative demands placed on them.”

  “You need time with your father.” Luna pulled her arm from Cayetano’s strong hand.

  “It’s the last thing I bloody want!’ Cayetano cried. “I still, after this time, don’t get why you kept this a secret!”

  “The world was different place back then!” Paco tried to convince him. “People were being killed for their beliefs. A hiding Republican woman, and her gay Nationalist husband, they were scared! I grew up in a house of fear! Even when I was 20 when my mother died, she was still scared! She begged me never to tell anyone the truth, because she was afraid it would come back to hurt me. I promised her when she was dying that I would stay quiet.”

  “You never had to lie to your own family,” Cayetano said. “None of us would have done anything with the information, and it’s useless anyway! We have nothing to be afraid of now.”