by Kay Thorpe
`Without me where would you yourself be today?' she came back. `It is the mingling of my blood and your grandfather's which makes you what you are.' Her tone was indulgent. `Sometimes I think that perhaps in you the mixture was over-infused!'
'But not regretted,' he said, and for a moment his eyes sought Eve's. 'We're all of us what we make of ourselves.'
`And most of us happy to be that way,' she flashed back, forgetting for an instant where she was.
Señora Perestrello looked from one to the other and a faint smile crossed her lined features. 'I'm feeling A little tired now,' she said suddenly. 'You will find the children out in the garden doing something quiet as I told them to. Perhaps you will bring Eve to see me again before she leaves the island, Ramon. I shall take luncheon alone in my room today.'
'Of course, Abuela.' His voice was unusually gentle. He bent and touched his lips to her cheeks. Adios.'
'Hasta la vista,' she replied.
Outside the door Ramon looked at Eve with quizzically raised brows. 'Well?'
Eve took in a breath. 'She's ...' She paused, seeking the right words to describe what she felt about the woman they had just left ... 'like no one else I ever met. A real character. She must have been very beautiful when she was young.'
'She was. As fair as Lynn, with the bones which defy time and age.' He took her arm. 'Come and meet the younger half of the family.'
There were four children ranging in years from about twelve right down to a toddler of three in the garden at the rear of the house, looked after by an elderly woman in the traditional dull dress of the Spanish nursery governess. They greeted Ramon with obvious delight, the younger boy jumping eag-
erly into the arms stretched out to him to rub his curly head against his cousin's chin and chatter away nineteen to the dozen in his own language while examining Eve with bright curiosity over the broad shoulder. The older ones were rather more restrained, politely greeting her in English when introduced and inviting her to take a seat under the shade of the trees. A little while later they were joined by Ramon's aunt and her eldest daughter who had been out visiting friends, and Eve found herself once more the object of female speculation as Juanita took a seat beside her on the wrought iron bench.
'I have already met with your sister,' she said in somewhat halting English. 'You are not very much alike in features.' There was a slight pause before she went on, 'The betrothal date has been agreed upon?'
`Yes, it has.' Eve felt a pang of sympathy as a faint cloud passed across the vivacious face. Hopes had been harboured here, too, that was plain. Perhaps within the family itself there had even been an arrangement of sorts before Juan had returned from the mainland with his bride-to-be. Cousins often married in Latin countries. 'It's to be after the feast of St Bartholomew.'
' said Juanita, and was silent for a moment before switching her gaze to her other cousin who was conversing some distance away with her mother. `And you are to be betrothed to Ramon—yes?'
'No,' Eve returned hastily, hoping he hadn't heard. `No, I'm only here for another week as a
guest, and then I must go back home until the wedding (five whole weeks!). Ramon thought I might like to meet your grandmother.'
`Ah, yes, Abuela,' with a smile. 'She is a very unusual person, is she not?'
`Very.' This was something Eve could say with conviction. 'You're very lucky to have her. I'd love to have a grandmother like that.'
Juanita laughed. 'Of us all I think that there is only Ramon who is not just a little afraid of her. He has always been her favourite because he is so like his father—her firstborn. Padre is also half English, of course, but it would never be guessed.'
Luncheon was served at the usual late hour, a light almost lazy meal with thoughts of siesta to follow. Afterwards the mistress of the house elected to go to her room for the quiet hour, and as the children were already in the nursery quarters that left Juanita to keep Eve and Ramon company on the patio.
'Manuel will be sad to have missed your visit with us,' she said when they were all settled in a shady corner. 'He has a strong desire to visit your country himself.'
'Encouraged by Abuela,' said Ramon lazily. 'Sometimes I believe she does it simply to anger Tio Jose because he refuses to be anything but what he is. Even now she is as difficult to manage as ever she was when Abuelo was alive.' He changed the subject, flicking a glance over the lovely little face of his cousin. 'And you, Juanita? What of your future? It's time you were thinking of a husband.'
'I am only yet seventeen,' she replied with a lift of her small chin which reminded Eve of Lynn.
`Tio Jose has his eyes on a suitable match for you, I believe,' he went on as though she hadn't spoken. 'The eldest son of the Peraza family, isn't it? Very suitable! '
'I do not care for him.' Her eyes were flashing. 'He has ears which stick out!'
Her cousin let out a snort of amusement. 'There is more to a man than his ears, pequena primal Diego is a fine young man with excellent prospects. He will make you a good husband.'
'He is dull ! ' she hissed at him furiously, and then she saw the twinkle in his eyes and started to smile herself. 'You are teasing me again, Ramon. I should have known it!' She sobered once more. `Ah, but it is all very well for you. You do not have Padre to fight against. I often wish that I also had been born a boy!'
`And deprived the world of such beauty?' Ramon shook his head at her, but the mockery was gone from his glance. 'Ask the help of Abuela. She will speak for you to Tio Jose. You can't be forced into marriage with a man you don't love, nina.'
'Si.' Her smile was suddenly brighter. 'I will do that.'
It was Juanita who saw them off when they had rested a while longer, standing at the side gate to wave to them until the car had turned the corner on to the main street. Eve glanced at Ramon as he headed up the hill, said softly, 'You really do believe in setting the cat among the pigeons, don't you?'
`Meaning?' he inquired without taking his eyes off the road.
'Well ...' She was aware that the family affairs of the Perestrellos were no concern of hers, yet something pressed her on regardless ... 'encouraging Juanita to defy her father, for one thing.'
`So? You'd prefer that she marry a man she doesn't love?'
'Well, no, I don't suppose so. It's just that I thought arranged marriages were the accepted thing here.'
'Only in those families which refuse to relinquish the old traditions, and among the Perestrellos only Tio Jose clings on.'
'What about your aunt?'
'Tia Lucia is little help. She stands in awe of her husband.'
'While your grandmother obviously doesn't.'
A smile touched his lips. 'Abuela fears no man, certainly not her own son. It's unfortunate that the only quality he inherited from her was her stubbornness. They're like two mules at a gate; neither giving an inch.'
Eve said slyly, 'I seem to remember you telling me that the old were venerated in Spanish families as head of the household. Surely then, as a good Spanish son, your uncle should be prepared to bow to his mother's will?'
The glance he shot at her had a glint in it. 'You are looking for an argument?'
'No,' she answered innocently. 'Just trying to get
things straight. I must admit I find it all a bit confusing.'
They had left the town and were climbing the hill towards the aqueduct. Ramon brought the car to an unexpected halt, took her by the shoulders and kissed her hard and purposefully on the mouth, then set her back in her seat with a gleam of derision.
'Now you're even more confused,' he said. 'You'd like me to explain our customs further?'
Eve shook her head, wondering what had possessed her to imagine that she might get away with taunting Ramon without retaliation.
'We'll count that as part payment of our wager last night,' he added, putting the car into motion again. The rest we will ...'
'We will not.' Her voice at least was steady. 'We'll just forget the whole thing, if you don't mind
'But I do mind. As I was about to say, we'll leave the rest for another time.' He lifted a mocking brow when she failed to respond. 'Come now, what is there to be annoyed about in one unexpected kiss?'
'It's not the kiss I mind so much as your assumption that I won't mind,' she retorted. 'You think you only have to lift your little finger to have women fall over themselves to accept your favours! '
'True,' he agreed blandly, and Eve knew a sudden reckless desire to pierce that hide of his just once.
'The trouble with people like you,' she began scathingly, and then stopped because he was openly laughing.
'If you're hoping to make me angry you won't succeed this way,' he said. 'Always with a woman there's this need to test the limits of tolerance, the tantalisation of wondering what would occur should breaking point be reached. Nothing frustrates her more than a man who refuses to rise to the bait, eh?' with a grin. 'Should you find my own Achilles heel it will be in circumstances quite different from these, chica, so you may as well save both your breath and invention.'
Eve subsided ruefully. He really was impossible. And, she suspected, a bit too close to the truth for comfort.
Ramon took her to the door of the villa and handed her out of the car with his customary courtesy, but left the engine running. 'There is still work to be done,' he said. 'I'll go now and relieve Juan for a while.'
Eve said carefully, 'Then I suppose we'll see you at dinner?'
She received a shake of the dark head in reply. 'Tonight I have an engagement elsewhere.' Smiling he put out his hand and lightly tipped the brim of her hat. 'Tomorrow the fiesta. Adios, chica.'
With that he got straight back into the car and house wondering if his dinner date was male or female, and hoping against forlorn hope that it might be the former.
CHAPTER FIVE
FOR the first time the evening seemed to drag, the food to taste less interesting to the palate without the added spice of Ramon's presence. Lynn had a great deal to talk about, chattering on excitedly about the wedding plans while Juan looked on tolerantly. Listening to her sister and watching her with her fiancé, Eve found it hard to believe that a little under twenty-four hours ago this vivacious, laughing girl had been looking so different. Lynn's needs were simple: a man she could love and look up to, a man who loved her enough to take the rough with the smooth. For Eve herself the problem was in no way simple because she wasn't even certain what it was that she did want. On the one hand was Gavin, quiet, dependable, familiar Gavin, while on the other ... no, not Ramon. There was no question of that. And not even someone like him, because there wasn't and never could be anyone quite like him. But perhaps somewhere there was someone with just a few of those qualities which brought her alive in this way she had never experienced before. Was that worth waiting for?
Her first thought when she woke the following morning was that she had now less than a week to go on the island. Only the realisation that this was the day of the fiesta saved her from the rising sense of depression. She got out of bed quickly, showered, and put on the dress she had chosen as suitable for a day like this, a cream cotton banded about the
skirt and sleeve edges with multi-coloured ribbon. Juan was in the pool when she went out to the terrace. She waved to him, and saw his arm come up in answer as he swam to the side. A moment or two later he joined her, smoothing back his damp hair.
`You look very gay,' he said. 'You are eager to begin the day?'
`I'm very much looking forward to the fiesta,' she confirmed. 'I've never been to a Spanish one before.'
`The beginning of the year is the best time of all,' he said. 'In January we have the bullfights down in Puerto in which all the young men take part. There is also a festival of song, and the crowning of the town's Queen. Perhaps next year you will be able to see that.'
`Perhaps,' agreed Eve lightly, doubting that she would be spending all that much time commuting between here and home. The expense apart, she had a feeling that after the wedding it would be better if she didn't see Ramon again for a long, long time. Meanwhile, and paradoxically, the thought that she was coming back again in August was the only bright spot on her horizon.
`You are reconciled to the idea of a Spanish brother-in-law?' asked Juan unexpectedly after he had lit a cigarette, jerking her out of her thoughts.
She looked at him in some confusion. 'Have I given the impression that I might object?'
He smiled. 'You have given the impression at times that you find the whole of the family overwhelming, and I have seen the doubt in your eyes. Our ways are not your ways, and you have wondered
if Lynn will adapt, if she can be truly happy so far from her homeland?'
'I may have done once, not any more. Your grandmother said yesterday that home was wherever the heart was, and I think Lynn has given hers into safe keeping.' She turned slightly away from him, self-conscious over her own turn of phrase, looking out over the valley already misted with heat. 'Few people could fail to adapt to such an environment.'
'Then stay with us,' he urged. 'Make your home with us. There is no need for you to go back unless you yourself wish it.'
Eve caught her breath. Stay here with Lynn. Become a part of this vivid, vital household. See Ramon every day. The swift flare of nameless hope waned and died. She conjured a smile, a regretful shake of her head. 'It's a lovely thought but ...'
'But far too impulsive for our cautious English Miss,' put in a satirical voice, and Ramon pushed himself away from the pillar where he had been leaning. 'Eve could never leave behind so much that is dear to her heart to throw in her lot with such as us, Juan. There's her work for one thing; her independence ! '
'If that is so essential there are jobs to be had here on the island,' said his brother mildly. 'You could even be the "English spoken" of our own place of business,' he added with a twinkle.
'We both speak English,' Ramon reminded him dryly. 'And what about the man she is to marry? The man who is to cherish her so tenderly through the rest of her years. Would you have her simply
forget a man like that?' He was addressing his brother, but his gaze was relentlessly on Eve, sardonically studying her reactions. 'This is what she wants so this is what she must have—yes?'
Her head lifted a fraction. 'Yes,' she agreed. She smiled again at Juan, wondering at the body's ability to accept direction from a mind which felt so totally at odds with itself. 'As I was saying, it's a lovely thought but hardly practical. Anyway, thank you for thinking about it.'
His eyes went from her to his brother, then back again. 'The choice is yours,' he said. 'I will see you at breakfast.'
Left alone on the terrace with Ramon, Eve drew forward a chair and sat down. She felt him move up behind her and closed her eyes as if against the glare of the sun. 'It's going to be hot down in Puerto,' she said.
'The air will be warm wherever you and I are together,' he came back. 'It's the way we react on one another.' He added on a different note, 'I've annoyed you?'
'Why should you have?' she asked without opening her eyes, then she sat up with a startled cry as her chair was hoisted round by the wooden arm. 'Why did you do that?' she demanded of the maddeningly smiling figure now facing her.
'Questions, questions, .always questions ! ' he mocked. 'I did it because I'm not in the habit of addressing the back of a head, sweet and shining though it may be.'
`It wouldn't occur to you to walk round, I suppose. ,
`No,' he agreed, 'it wouldn't.' He studied her, his upper lip faintly curled. `Tell me,' he said, `had I not interrupted would you have given Juan's suggestion some serious consideration?'
Would she? Could Juan have persuaded her against all her doubts—against her very nature even? Eve swallowed, said slowly, `You'll never know, will you?'
`I know. There's no shadow of a doubt! You'd have said no because you're afraid to stay here and accept what is between us. Afraid to realise the emotions I stir inside of you.' Eyes glinting, he leaned forward with a hand on each arm of
her chair, trapping her there. `Supposing I tell you, amada, that one way or another I always get what I want in the end. What would you say to that?'
Eve sat motionless, conscious of his nearness, of the male scent of his hair, of the olive skin stretched taut across the bones of his cheeks, and the danger of drowning in the depths of the dark eyes. `I'd say,' she managed, `that this was one time you were going to be disappointed.'
His laugh and the flick of his finger at her chin were almost a disappointment in themselves. 'I could have said it for you. The very words. One day, chica, you'll learn the value of surprise '
`If I'm so predictable,' she responded tautly as he straightened away from her, 'then I don't need to tell you anything at all. Just leave me alone, Ramon!'
He paused in the act of putting a cigarette to his
lips, regarded her consideringly for a long moment. 'You really mean that?' he asked at last on an odd note. 'You don't want me to come near you anymore?'
'Yes.' She had a sensation of being drawn inexorably along on a stream which went nowhere that she a wanted to be, and knew no way to stem the flow. 'Yes, I do mean it.'
'Very well.' He looked at the cigarette in his hand, shrugged, and flipped it over the edge of the terrace into the shrubs below. 'Then that's how it will be. Come, pequena hermana,' with a jeering smile. 'We must keep up your strength with a little food! '
The town was thronged when they reached it, the narrow streets alive with colour and gaiety. Children seemed to be everywhere, dashing hither and thither with multi-coloured balloons blown up into fantastic shapes, brown legs going like pistons, eyes sparkling in eager little faces. Ramon had ensured a good view of the cavalcade by hiring a room over a cafe on the route, with a balcony large enough to take the four of them in reasonable comfort. The clamour of voices rose about them from the crowds surging below, rich with excitement and the happy knowledge of the day's holiday ahead.