by Penny Jordan
'I hope she realises her good fortune,' was the brunette's acid response.
'Jessica—Pilar Sanchez, a close friend and neighbour of ours.'
'Merely a close friend,' Pilar pouted, slanting Jessica another acid glance. 'Come, our relationship is stronger than that. If poor Manuela had lived we would have been brother and sister.' Scarlet-tipped fingers lay provocatively along Sebastian's forearm, the look in her eyes as she gazed up at him anything but sisterly. There was a strange aching sensation in Jessica's stomach. They could be lovers. Were they lovers? Surely not; Pilar obviously came from a family as exalted as Sebastian's own; her sister had obviously been engaged to him. If he needed a wife surely he need look no further than Pilar. Or was there perhaps some bar on such a marriage because of his relationship with her sister? Jessica wasn't sure about the Catholic church's ruling on such things.
She was brought back to her surroundings with a jolt as Pilar scolded sharply, temper flags flying scarlet in her cheeks, 'Lisa, your fingers—don't touch my dress, child, you will ruin it!'
The little girl's face crumpled. She looked uncertainly at Sebastian, who was frowning, and then towards his aunt, who said gently, 'Lisa, go and find Maria. It is time for you to rest.'
'Really, Sebastian, that child is growing impossible!' Pilar commented sharply when Lisa had gone. 'You should send her to a convent where she could learn obedience.'
'As Manuela did?' Sebastian drawled sardonically, but Jessica couldn't understand the expression in Sofia's eyes or the reason for his aunt's suddenly tense body.
Jessica had to wait until after dinner to show Sebastian the work she had done during the day. To her surprise he didn't criticise it as thoroughly as she had anticipated, instead showing her some work he had done himself.
'Initially I didn't want to give you any guidelines,' he told her, 'because it is important that we work on the same wavelength. What you have done shows me that you have a natural sympathy for our fabrics and what we hope to achieve with them. Tomorrow we shall spend an hour together in my study talking about what line the new range will take. You like the tower?' he asked her unexpectedly.
Caught off guard by the absence of his normal cynicism and contempt, Jessica replied enthusiastically, 'I love it, but I can't help wondering if Rosalinda was happy there. She occupied those rooms alone…'
'Instead of sharing those of her husband?' Sebastian interrupted. 'This is true, but it was only in the initial days that she occupied the tower. You have obviously heard the story and you must remember that she had accused her husband of seducing her, when in fact he knew he had not. He had married her to protect his good name, but he swore he would remain celibate rather than touch an unwilling woman who had already given herself to another. So matters might have continued if Rosalinda hadn't found the courage to go to him and confess that she had lied to her father, but not to conceal any affair with another man, simply because she had fallen desperately in love with Rodriguez, and wanted him for her husband, but she knew that because of the enmity that existed between him and her father she had no chance of marrying him. So she conceived her plan. She knew of the pride of both Rodriguez and her father and knew that if she were to accuse Rodriguez of dishonouring her he would be forced to make reparation. It was a bold step to take; she had to face dishonour herself— admit to her lack of chastity, perhaps endure the hatred of her husband for ever, when he knew how he had been tricked.
'But Rosalinda was beautiful as well as bold. Rodriguez could not resist her tears of contrition for the trick she had played, and she told him that she was still a virgin. She did not spend many nights alone in her tower,' Sebastian added dryly.
'So she tricked him into marriage, just as you've accused me of trying to trick Jorge,' Jessica pointed out.
He looked at her angrily. 'The two cases are entirely different. She was motivated by love, which excuses much; you are motivated by material greed, which is unforgivable.'
Why was it that no matter what subject they discussed they always ended up quarrelling? Jessica wondered tiredly as she gathered together her designs and the swatches of fabric.
'You are looking pale,' Sebastian confounded her by saying abruptly. 'My aunt tells me you worked all afternoon and then into the evening.'
'You had a guest,' Jessica pointed out, without reminding him that Pilar had looked anything but pleased at his suggestion that she stay with them. 'And besides, I enjoyed it.'
'In future you will take proper exercise.' He frowned. 'Can you ride?' Jessica shook her head.
'A pity, you could have joined Lisa when she rides with me in the morning.'
He made her sound like another child to be humoured and scolded, Jessica thought wryly.
'I can walk, or swim,' she told him. 'And besides, the sooner the work is completed the sooner I can leave.'
For some reason his mouth compressed angrily at that statement, and with one of those quickly shifting moods she was coming to dread Jessica felt a frisson of awareness steal through her. He had discarded his jacket, and the breeze from the open windows flattened his shirt tautly to his body, moulding the muscled power of his torso. His shirt was open at the neck, the pale glimmer of the white fabric emphasising the darkness of his skin. A pulse beat steadily at the base of his throat, drawing her eyes, a curious sensual tension enveloping her. She moistened her lips and watched as he moved slowly towards her.
'Jessica…' He broke off as the sala door was suddenly thrust open and a tall young man with a shock of dark hair and a mobile mouth hurried in, coming to a standstill as he saw Jessica.
'Jorge!' Sebastian exclaimed in surprise. 'Dios! What are you doing here?'
Jorge! Jessica stared in disbelief at the newcomer. This was Sebastian's brother?
It was plain that he was slightly taken aback by Sebastian's attitude. He glanced uncertainly first at his brother and then at Jessica.
'I wanted to see you,' he said in a puzzled voice. 'I had no idea you were planning to come here. You never mentioned it when we spoke on the telephone.'
'Perhaps because I had no idea you were intending your stay with the Reajons to be of such a short duration. It was, I believe, to be for one month.'
Jessica felt sorry for the younger man as he flushed and looked uncomfortable. 'That is one of the things I wanted to talk to you about, Sebastian. I…' He broke off and glanced hesitantly at Jessica, then turned to his brother, saying gallantly, 'But you have a guest—and a very beautiful one. Aren't you going to introduce me?'
To say that Sebastian looked stupefied was an overstatement, but there was a certain amount of shock as he registered the words. He too turned to look at Jessica, and she quailed beneath the message she read in his eyes.
'I thought Miss James was already known to you,' he said in icy tones. 'In fact to such an extent it is not so long ago that you were pleading with me to help you remove her from your life.' Jessica felt sorry for the young man when he flushed again, but it was obvious to her that Sebastian intended to spare her nothing.
'I am Isabel's cousin,' she explained to Jorge, ignoring Sebastian. 'There's been a slight misunderstanding and your brother mistook me for Isabel. When I learned what he had to say to her I decided not to enlighten him. For all her faults, Isabel is acutely sensitive…'
She didn't need to say any more. Jorge looked appalled, and turned horrified eyes on his brother. 'Sebastian, you said nothing about speaking personally to Isabel! We were agreed that a letter…'
'So we were, but then I had no idea that she intended to come and plead her case personally— or so I thought. Naturally my first priority was to protect you.'
'Another misconception on your part,' Jessica told him bitterly. 'Isabel… didn't tell me the full facts. She was terrified that you intended to go to England to see her. She is now engaged to someone else… and quite naturally…' She was beginning to flounder, not wanting to betray Isabel's stupidity and lack of moral fibre, but Sebastian, it seemed, had no such qual
ms.
'What you are saying is that your cousin lied to you.'
'Not deliberately,' Jessica hastened to defend Isabel. 'She simply wanted to make sure there would be no repercussions from her letter to Jorge—written when she was feeling extremely worried and almost desperate. She wanted me to tell Jorge that she fully accepted that their liaison was at an end.'
It wasn't quite the truth, but it would suffice.
'You knew I had mistaken you for her, why did you not tell me the truth then?' Sebastian demanded, watching her with narrowed eyes.
'Because I didn't want to expose Isabel to the same sort of insults I had been forced to endure myself,' Jessica told him coolly. 'Just as you wanted to protect your brother, I wanted to protect my cousin!'
'We will speak of this later,' he told her silkily. 'For now…'
'You naturally want to be alone with your brother,' Jessica supplied dryly, not adding that she was more than happy to leave them alone together.
Jorge's unexpected arrival had given her a bad shock. Whereas she ought to be experiencing relief and satisfaction that Sebastian now knew the truth, all she could think was that he might now send her back to England, and for some reason she didn't wait to analyse too carefully, she didn't want to go!
* * *
CHAPTER SIX
'Ah, there you are, I hope you will permit me to join you?'
Jessica glanced at Jorge's concerned face and smiled. She was sitting in her small courtyard, working on some of the designs, and enjoying the sunshine.
'Sebastian is working in his laboratory,' Jorge informed her, needlessly, since Sebastian himself had told her at breakfast that he could be found there should she want him. There had also been a look in his eyes that told her that there was still a reckoning to come, but that was something she was refusing to think about!
'I must apologise, for my… for my brother's behaviour,' Jorge managed at last, flushing a little. 'It is unforgivable that he should have involved you in this affair.' He bit his lip. 'He has given me the gist of what has happened between you, although why, feeling as he does, he has brought you here to the hacienda to work for him I do not know!'
He looked perplexed and unhappy, but Jessica didn't enlighten him. He might think Sebastian had told him the truth, but she knew differently.
'I was speaking to my aunt this morning and she seems to think… that is, Sebastian has given her the impression… that… that you are lovers,' he added uncomfortably, 'and yet plainly this is not so. I shall speak to him about it on your behalf. Isabel talked of you to me, I know you are not… that you do not…'
'That I'm not promiscuous?' Jessica supplied dryly, privately suspecting that Isabel had been far more unflattering in her description of her, but Jorge seized on the expression gratefully.
'Si,' he agreed, 'this is so… Sebastian cannot appreciate what my aunt thinks, for he would never expose a young woman of unblemished reputation to such an insult.'
Heavens, he sounded like something out of a Victorian novel! Jessica thought to herself. Surely he couldn't be serious? But apparently he was.
'I shall speak to him about it,' he added again. 'It is not right.'
Right or wrong, she couldn't see Sebastian being easily influenced by his younger brother, Jessica reflected when Jorge had gone.
She had been on her own for about half an hour when she glanced up, hearing footsteps coming in her direction. To her surprise she saw Pilar coming towards her, the older woman's mouth grimly compressed, two bright coins of colour burning in her otherwise completely pale face.
'You are wasting your time!' she hissed to Jessica without preamble. 'Sebastian does not really want you. He has only ever loved one woman—my sister, and…'
Jessica tried to interrupt, to assure her companion that she had no romantic interest in Sebastian. Something about the way the older woman was watching her triggered alarm bells in her mind. It struck her that there was something driven, something almost bordering on hysteria, in Pilar's manner.
'He was obsessed by her,' Pilar continued almost as though Jessica wasn't there, 'but one day he will have to marry, if only in order to have sons, and who better than the sister of the woman he loved?'
'But surely…' Surely there is Jorge, Jessica had been about to say, but once again Pilar didn't give her the opportunity to finish.
'You are thinking of Lisa,' she said bitterly, 'but she is only a daughter. Sebastian needs sons.'
Lisa was Sebastian's daughter? Shock coursed through Jessica, stingingly, followed by a hot, molten anger. How dared he question her morals when he…
'You didn't know?' Pilar started to laugh wildly. 'Of course he wouldn't tell you. No one is supposed to know about it. My sister Manuela had been his novia for many months and the preparations for the wedding were all in hand when she suddenly become ill. It was the strain of preparing for the wedding, our doctor told my parents, and Manuela was sent to Argentina to stay with relatives there. When she returned it was obvious that there was to be a child— Sebastian's child. My parents were bitterly hurt and shocked. Sebastian whom they trusted and treated like a son had taken Manuela's innocence before they were married. Preparations for the ceremony were speeded up. My mother begged Manuela to tell her why she had not confided in her before her visit to Argentina. I myself was married then. I too was shocked by Sebastian's behaviour, but I knew how much he loved her.And then just two days before the ceremony Manuela asked me if she could borrow my car.' Pilar hesitated and for a moment there was a sly, almost gloating expression in her eyes.
'She was involved in an accident near Seville, and was taken immediately to the hospital. They were able to save the child, but by the time Sebastian reached the hospital Manuela was dead.'
Jessica couldn't conceal her shock and distaste. Poor Manuela! By all accounts she had been tragically innocent and young, and now she was dead and Sebastian was left only with memories of what might have been, and a child—his child! Why then had she been introduced as his 'ward'?
'Of course everything was hushed up,' Pilar continued. 'Only the closest members of the family know of the circumstances of Lisa's birth.' Her lips twisted, and Jessica was reminded of how much she seemed to dislike the little girl—a child who was after all her niece. 'Lisa is a constant reminder to Sebastian of my sister,' Pilar continued, and with a flash of insight Jessica realised that Pilar was jealous; jealous of her sister's child.
'It was a tragic year for our family,' she added. 'First Manuela and then my own husband and parents were killed when my husband was taking them to Minorca in his plane, but worst of all— Lisa.' She shuddered. 'It is just as well Manuela died. Had she lived she would have been shunned for her sin.'
Jessica could hardly believe her ears. What Pilar was saying was positively feudal—and what of Sebastian, surely he was equally to blame, if indeed 'blame' was the word. And poor Lisa! She obviously didn't realise that Sebastian was her father. Jessica felt an upsurge of anger against him. How could he deny his daughter her right to her relationship with him? Pilar said he had loved Manuela, but in Jessica's opinion it was a poor sort of love that denied the human evidence of that love.
She was still trying to come to terms with what Pilar had told her after lunch, when Sebastian announced that he wanted to talk to Jorge in his study.
Lisa was at a loose end, and asked Jessica if she could sit with her. 'I will be very good,' she promised, 'but it is Tia Sofia's day for having her friends round, and it is very dull.'
Jessica was touched that the little girl should want her company. Her work on the designs was well advanced, and in fact she could do little until she had spoken to Sebastian, so she suggested instead that Lisa show her round the environs of the hacienda.
The little girl was an entertaining companion. Jessica had always liked children, and concealed her pity carefully when Lisa commented on how lonely she sometimes felt.
'Pilar wants to send me away,' she confided fearfully, 'but Tio Seb
astian will not let her.'
How could Sebastian deny his relationship with his child?
It was late afternoon when they returned. Sebastian's aunt was in the sala with her friends, and Lisa politely listened to their questions,responding demurely, quite different from the exuberant child she had been when she had been with Jessica.
Jessica could tell that she herself was the subject of a good deal of discreet curiosity.
'Jessica is a particular friend of Sebastian's,' his aunt explained.
'But I understand from my niece that you were here primarily to work for him,' one formidable matron said icily.
Jessica wasn't surprised to discover that she was Pilar's aunt. 'And your family don't mind?' she asked, apparently unable to believe it when Jessica assured her that they didn't. 'In Spain no young woman of good family would be permitted to stay in the home of an unmarried man without a female relative with her.'
'I am here to work,' Jessica reminded her coolly, uneasily reminded of what Jorge had said. Did these women think she was Sebastian's mistress? What did it matter if they did? And yet it was an uncomfortable sensation to have them studying her, perhaps talking about her when she wasn't there.
After they left the sala, Jessica went upstairs to her tower, while Lisa was whisked away by her maid for a rest.
The household ran like clockwork, and yet apparently without any effort on the part of Sebastian's aunt, although Jessica had noticed that the staff consulted her every day just after breakfast. It must be an enormous responsibility caring for the valuable antiques and art treasures that filled the hacienda, and she reflected that it was impossible not to admire the selflessness of Spanish women when it came to devoting themselves to their homes.
She had wanted to see Sebastian about the designs she was working on and gathering up her work she went downstairs to his study. She could hear voices from inside, one of them recognisably Jorge's and bitterly defensive.