Exotic Affairs: The Mistress BrideThe Spanish HusbandThe Bellini Bride

by Michelle Reid

  ‘I’ll ask her,’ she decided. Abril looked relieved. ‘In fact I’ll go and do it now, while you finish up here, okay?’

  Nothing like striking while the iron is hot, she told herself bracingly as she went in search of Luiz’s aunt. But she was beginning to half wish she hadn’t started this, being a coward deep down inside.

  She found Doña Consuela in the main drawing room. She was just standing there, staring out of the window, watching the construction taking place on the lawn outside. And there was a sad, lonely, isolated look to her stance that touched Caroline’s heart a little, even though she now knew exactly how effective this woman had been in ruining Luiz’s mamá’s life.

  ‘Consuela…’ she prompted.

  She hadn’t even heard Caroline come in the room, she was so lost inside her own bleak thoughts. But she turned at the sound of her name, her expression as smoothly composed as it always was.

  Sometimes her relationship to Luiz is all too clear, Caroline mused ruefully.

  ‘I wondered if you would mind if I asked your advice about something,’ she ventured carefully—though why she had changed from making it a polite request to the more gentle quest for advice she was not entirely sure—unless it was because Consuela had looked a little like Luiz then.

  Luiz when he was hiding hurt, she extended sadly.

  ‘Of course,’ the older woman agreed. ‘If you think my advice will be of use.’

  Taking a deep breath, Caroline explained what she wanted to do and why she wanted to do it. Consuela Listened to her without expression, and it was therefore a surprise when the other woman smiled a brief, rather bleak smile and said, ‘You are a nice person, señorita. It will be comforting to know that I will be leaving the valley in the charge of someone so sensitive.’

  ‘Luiz cares too, you know,’ Caroline declared, instantly on the defensive, because she hadn’t expected approval from this particular source and was therefore searching for hidden criticism.

  The Condesa’s smile grew wry. ‘I know that,’ she said. ‘And, yes, it would be a perfect touch for you to have Abril as your maid of honour. The people of the valley will love you for doing it. Give the child my blessing and tell her she is relieved of all her normal duties so she can devote her time to her new exciting role.’

  While you do what? Caroline wanted to ask. Keep fading ever more into the shadows of this place that has been your home for so many years?

  ‘What will you do?’ she asked impulsively. ‘When you leave here?’

  The smile was wry again. ‘So, Luiz intends to have me banished,’ the other woman said. ‘I did wonder.’

  Caroline felt absolutely horrified that she had inadvertently stepped into something she should not. ‘I don’t know,’ she answered awkwardly. ‘Luiz doesn’t discuss his family with me.’

  ‘No, I don’t suppose he does,’ the Condesa murmured, and turned back to the window. It was a dismissal in anyone’s books. Feeling like some kind of heel, Caroline took herself out of the room without daring to utter another word.

  Next she went to search out Vito. She found him in the garden, overlooking the setting out of what looked as if it was going to be a wooden dance floor beneath a red and white striped awning.

  ‘Vito—’ She touched his arm to gain his attention then instantly withdrew her fingers again when they tingled as if they’d just touched solid rock. ‘Do you think Luiz would mind if I put his helicopter to use?’ she said.

  He swung around so lightly for a man of his size that Caroline was startled. ‘Why?’ he demanded sharply. ‘What do you want the helicopter for? What’s wrong?’

  ‘Nothing,’ she assured him, but even as she spoke his eyes were flicking in all directions, and he seemed to grow another few inches, like a bear getting ready to enfold its prey. Or, in her case, to protect its cub, she amended ruefully.

  ‘I need the helicopter to run an errand for me,’ she said. ‘A special errand.’ Then she went on to explain…

  She was just finishing some breakfast on the morning of her wedding day when her father arrived in Luiz’s helicopter. The moment she saw it was him climbing out she was up and running, out of the hall and out into the sunshine, to meet him halfway across the lawn.

  ‘Oh, Daddy,’ she sobbed, and launched herself at him. ‘How could you just walk away from me like that?’

  ‘Don’t fuss, Caro. I’m fine!’ he censured irritably as she began a detailed check for any physical signs of poor health.

  ‘You don’t look fine,’ she told him, seeing the changes in him even if he didn’t think they were there. He looked older and thinner and—She sighed unhappily.

  ‘Some place—this,’ he ventured, deliberately changing the subject, Caroline suspected. ‘Never seen anything quite like it. Coming in over the top of that mountain actually took my breath away. Did you know seven years ago that Luiz was heir to all of this?’

  ‘No.’ She was trying to catch his eye, but he wouldn’t let her, and his hands were grimly keeping her at arm’s length. ‘It wouldn’t have made any difference to the way I felt about him if I had,’ she added absently. ‘Will you please look at me?’ she said impatiently.

  He flicked his eyes to hers. She saw the guilt, the shame and the misery, and her own eyes filled with tears. ‘I love you so much,’ she choked. ‘And I’ve been worried about you!’

  His defences collapsed. On a ragged sigh he tugged her to him and wrapped his arms around her tight. ‘And him?’ he questioned gruffly. ‘Do you love him?’

  ‘Like a second skin,’ she replied. ‘But then I always have done, you already knew that.’

  ‘Yes, I always knew it,’ he confirmed heavily. ‘But I’m still sorry for getting you into this dreadful mess.’

  ‘No mess,’ she denied, then repeated it when she saw his disbelieving look. ‘No mess, Daddy. Luiz is what I want. He’s what I’ve always wanted.’

  He grimaced. ‘But not handed to him on a plate like a damned sacrifice.’

  ‘I’m no sacrifice either!’ she informed him crossly. ‘Or are you trying to imply that Luiz feels nothing for me in return? Because if you are,’ she continued angrily, ‘then maybe you should just turn around and go away again.’

  ‘I’m not implying anything.’ He sighed again. ‘Good grief,’ he added. ‘The man has twice gone to big enough lengths in his attempts to get you to this day…’

  Twice? Caroline felt that chill hit her spine again. ‘What do you mean twice?’ she demanded.

  ‘Nothing,’ he grunted, going all shifty-eyed. ‘Well, would you look at that?’ he then exclaimed in surprise, diverting her attention to the spot he was looking at near the castle entrance. ‘What’s he doing here? He never told me he knew Luiz!’

  He never told me… Caroline repeated to herself as she too turned to stare at Felipe. And so many, many things began to slide into place. Her own father was Luiz’s mole, though unwittingly.

  Oh, Daddy, she thought sighingly. And when he went to go and speak to Felipe she stopped him. ‘Watch him, Pops,’ she warned, and just the quiet use of her childhood name for him was enough to alert Sir Edward to trouble. ‘Watch every single word you say to him and watch your back.’

  ‘Why?’ he frowned. ‘Who is he?’

  ‘He’s Luiz’s half-brother—the man who thinks he should have inherited all of this…’

  Enlightenment came to him as quickly as it had come to his daughter. His soft curse confirmed it.

  The helicopter lifted off then, rendering words useless as the sounds of its rotors filled the air. Her father seemed to use the time the helicopter took to sweep off down the valley to come to some kind of decision.

  ‘Let’s go somewhere where we can talk in private,’ he said flatly. ‘I have something I want to say to you…’

  Caroline wanted to talk to Luiz. She needed to talk to Luiz. But the juggernaut called her wedding was now rolling ahead at full speed, and Luiz, she assumed, was already waiting for her at the tiny church in th
e centre of the village where, since her father had arrived, so had gathered the full Vazquez family, to witness the event taking place.

  ‘You look beautiful, señorita,’ Abril’s gentle voice brought Caroline’s anxious eyes into focus on the mirror she was standing in front of.

  The ankle-length ivory crêpe gown was quite simply sensational, even if she did think so herself. The corset-like bodice skimmed her slender ribcage and scooped low over the creamy slopes of her breasts, and the little off-the-shoulder sleeves added just the right touch of vulnerable charm to a bride who was about to walk down a church aisle towards her bridegroom.

  To add a final touch, her full-length veil was secured to her head by a delicate diamond tiara. The overall effect was simplicity itself—her style, her way of doing things.

  Her wedding.

  Luiz, she told her amethyst eyes via the mirror. You are about to marry Luiz.

  But how could Luiz want to marry her, knowing how badly she misjudged him seven years ago?

  Luiz never said he wanted to marry you, only that he needed to marry someone, she reminded those anxious amethyst eyes. And all you’ve been doing these last few days is pretending that this is a marriage made in heaven. For all you know, Luiz could be planning to cast you aside once he’s fulfilled the legal requirements of his father’s will.

  The perfect formula for revenge? He walks away from you the way you walked away from him seven years ago?

  Her stomach wanted to perform somersaults. She wanted to run to the bathroom to be sick in the nearest receptacle. She knew Luiz; she knew what he was capable of. And she suddenly remembered his scorpion. It was sitting there right in front of her now, crawling down the mirror as if ready to strike.

  ‘Señorita?’ Abril’s voice sounded concerned. Could she see that Caroline was about to lose every ounce of courage she possessed in one huge wave of guilt?

  ‘Señorita…’ A gentle hand covered her forearm, the fingers small and brown against her own pale skin. ‘You are shivering,’ the little maid murmured worriedly. ‘Are you frightened, señorita? Please don’t be frightened,’ she urged her comfortingly. ‘El conde is a good man. Everyone in the valley says so. He reminds them of his grandpa, Don Angeles. He was a good man also. A strong man.’

  ‘I’m okay.’ Caroline managed to push out the whisper. ‘I just…’ She shivered again, as if something scaly had walked over her flesh.

  With a blink she attempted to pull herself together, shifting her gaze to her little maid of honour, who was standing beside her in a simple gown of virginal white. She looked enchanting. The perfect foil for a fair-skinned bride, with her black hair and black doe-like eyes and her beautiful olive skin.

  ‘I’m fine,’ she assured her for a second time, and even managed a smile.

  Reassured, Abril handed Caroline her small bouquet of ivory roses, picked only an hour ago from the garden and woven together by Abril herself.

  Her father was pacing restlessly in the great hall when he first saw her. He stopped dead and watched as she came down the stairs towards him. ‘Goodness, Caro,’ he murmured thickly, and that was all. The rest was written in his eyes.

  She was surprised to find that it wasn’t Vito who was going to drive her to the village, since Vito rarely left her side. But this time it was a stranger who drove Luiz’s black BMW. She discovered why Vito had forsaken her only when she entered the church on her father’s arm.

  For Vito was standing next to Luiz. A Luiz who filled her heart with tears of relief when she saw him standing there in his black tuxedo, his dark head lowered and with a waiting tension clamped across his broad shoulders that made her want to sob with relief—because surely that tension meant this moment was important to him—that she was important?

  There was a stir as people began glancing round at her; the stir brought up his head. He turned, looked at her—and that was the last thing she remembered for most of the long service. For no man could look at a woman like that unless he was seeing the only person he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. And his hand when it accepted hers from her father was even trembling slightly.

  They made their vows in a hushed atmosphere where no one present seemed to breathe. But when Luiz slid not one but two rings onto her wedding finger she blinked, focused for the first time in ages, and saw a simple but exquisite diamond ring resting next to a finely sculptured gold band. She felt her eyes fill with tears.

  For this was no ordinary betrothal ring, it was, in fact, her mother’s ring. She glanced up into intensely black eyes. Luiz saw the tears and bent to whisper hoarsely. ‘Don’t…’

  It was almost her complete undoing. Then Padre Domingo spoke. ‘If you would place the ring on Don Luiz’s finger, we can continue…’

  Outside in the sunshine the villagers had gathered to applaud them. Caroline clung to Luiz as if she had been joined to him in more ways than marriage just now. She blushed and smiled and was aware of Vito standing like a mountain beside the tiny Abril, of her father looking rather sombre and drawn. She was even aware of Tía Consuela, standing cool and erect—seeing the whole thing through to its bleak finish like a martyr to her chosen fate.

  But Felipe was nowhere. Neither did he turn up when they sat down at the banquet table, now decked out with white linen and the kind of china and silverware that belonged in a museum.

  Her hand had not been allowed to leave Luiz’s once since he had formally claimed it. Even now, while they sat at the table, they were having to eat one-handed while their entwined fingers lay on the table between them.

  ‘Thank you for this,’ she said, catching sight of her mother’s ring shining like a prism on her finger. ‘What made you think of it?’

  ‘It should have been my mother’s ring,’ he murmured quietly, looking down at the ring also. ‘But she never had one so I went for the next best thing and asked your father for your mother’s ring. He brought it back to Marbella with him, ready cleaned and altered to fit your finger…’

  ‘Well, thank you,’ she repeated huskily. ‘It made everything just perfect.’

  ‘No.’ Looking up, Luiz caught her eyes with a look that set her head spinning. ‘You are what makes everything perfect,’ he said, and kissed her gently.

  The gathered assembly began clapping, halting something else that felt absolutely perfect.

  By the time they retired outside the sun had set and the garden was ablaze with twinkling lights. Luiz drew her into his arms on the makeshift dance floor as a small set of musicians began playing a waltz. It was the closest they had been except for the clasped hands since they had married, and the knowledge of that sparked between them. Electric, tantalising, utterly mesmerising.

  His mouth brushed her cheek, then stayed there. ‘You look so beautiful today. Walking towards me in the church, you made my heart ache,’ he murmured huskily.

  When she tilted her head back so she could look at him, her eyes had stars in them. But she paled a little when she remembered how she had been feeling earlier, and—more importantly—why she had felt like that. ‘I’ve been talking to my father,’ she murmured huskily. ‘He told me what really happened seven years ago. I—’

  The man holding her suddenly changed into an entirely different person. Seeing it happen stopped her words, and she watched his hardened eyes flick around the garden in angry search.

  ‘Luiz—’

  ‘No,’ he cut in. ‘I am angry with him for breaking his word to me and telling you all of this. I am angry with you for bringing it up tonight of all nights!’

  ‘But you didn’t take a single penny from him!’ It had to be said! ‘You left me asleep in bed each night and went down to play cards with him to stop him gambling with anyone else. You knew how I worried about him—so you took it upon yourself to keep him out of danger! I owe so much to you for that, Luiz!’

  His face was white, his lips thin, his teeth clenched behind them. ‘You owe me nothing,’ he rasped.

  ‘I owe you an apology,’ sh
e said thickly, beginning to tremble in his arms as the full cup of her guilt came pouring out. ‘I was in love with you. I should have known you wouldn’t do something so crass as to fleece my own father! But I believed him instead of you—when I knew what a liar he was! I don’t blame you if you never forgive me for that!’

  ‘Drop it, Caroline, before I get angry,’ he warned.

  But he was already angry. ‘You let him win thousands from you—the same thousands of pounds he then told me you had won from him! It’s no wonder he was so eager to play you again last week,’ she said bitterly. ‘He truly believed he was in for another easy killing!’

  He flinched as if she’d struck him hard. ‘I didn’t mean it like that!’ she groaned, lifting her hand to lay it in apology against his taut cheek. ‘Luiz—’

  ‘No,’ he said. ‘We will not discuss this. Not now, not ever. Do you understand?’ And he took hold of her hand to remove it, then stepped right back, turned and walked away!

  It was fortunate that the music had come to a stop just then. Luiz’s knack for perfect timing, she supposed.

  His uncle Fidel took his place. And after that Caroline didn’t see him as she was whirled around in the arms of one relative or another. When she did eventually escape the dance floor to go and look for him it was pitch dark beyond the fairylights, while the castle itself was pooled in lamplight.

  She couldn’t find him amongst the people in the garden, so she went looking for him inside. She was just crossing the great hall when a waiter came up to her. ‘Excuse me, la condesa.’ He bowed politely. ‘But el conde send me with a message.’

  Oh, the relief. ‘Where is he?’ she asked urgently.

  ‘He say to meet him at the car, just beyond the boundary wall, if you please.’

  At the car? What now? she wondered as she moved out of the house again and down the driveway to where all the cars had been left parked outside the castle’s boundary. Was she about to be hijacked again and hauled off somewhere else?