The Black Invader

by Rebecca Stratton

  Kirstie had no intention of giving her any more detailed explanation if she could help it, and she merely shrugged. That's right.'

  'Something to do with your tattered Rodriguez pride, I suppose.' The probe dug deeper, determined to get at the reason for her sudden decision to leave her job, and Kirstie clung tightly to the pride she jeered at so mockingly. 'You didn't bother to tell your employer of your decision, obviously, or he wouldn't have been concerning himself with why you didn't arrive this morning.'

  If Miguel had confided in no one else about her grandfather's proposition, Kirstie decided, he would have told his uncle, for they were very close, and she was suddenly overwhelmed once more by the memory of last evening's events. 'It's more than Hkely Miguel will have told him,' she said, her voice wavering slightly. 'He must know that I can't go on working there.'

  'Miguel?' As usual the very mention of Miguel was enough to kindle fury in this explosively temperamental woman, and Kirstie noticed how her hands tightened on the rein, and her eyes narrowed. 'What has Miguel to do with you giving up your job? When did you see him?'

  Kirstie had no special desire to cause further upheaval, so she chose her words carefully. 'He came to see my grandfather and me last evening, quite

  early,' she said.

  'About business, of course!'

  Kirstie flushed, resentment burning in her blue eyes for the implied mockery of her grandfather. 'Miguel has had some minor business going with my grandfather,' she told Rosa, 'but it wasn't to do with that that he came last night. It was something that Luis and I had planned, and Miguel had found out about it.'

  'So he fired you!' There could be no mistaking the satisfaction that idea gave Rosa, but Kirstie wasn't going to let it continue.

  Her cheeks flaming she stood her ground, looking up at Rosa Montanes with the same air of pride that distinguished her grandfather. 'No, senora, he did not! He came to let me know that he'd found out what Luis and I had planned and to put me firmly in my place, but he didn't fire me! However, since I'm leaving the Montanes' employ anyway, you have nothing more to worry about!'

  'You insolent little bitch!' Fury blazed in Rosa's black eyes and Kirstie wondered how on earth anyone could be so quick to ignite; she was actually trembling with anger and the knuckles of the hands that gripped the rein showed bone-white. 'As far as you're concerned,' she grated harshly, 'I've never had anything to worry about!'

  It seemed for a moment that Miguel's kiss burned again on her lips, and when she thought of what had followed, Kirstie forgot her resolve. She was unhappy and uncertain of what her future was going to be, and she hit out wildly at the woman who had always gone out of her way to make things as uncomfortable for her as possible.

  'Yet when you saw Miguel kiss me first you were so furious you were even prepared to go to the length of having me charged with attempting to kill you,' she challenged. 'Heaven knows what you demanded in retaliation for that last time, in the stable, but as it happened I was forbidden to go near the stable again until

  you'd left. You should have gone ahead and called in the guardia when you wanted to, Senora Montanes, then you'd have been absolutely sure of having Miguel to yourself—or would youT

  Rosa cursed as Kirstie had never heard a woman curse, certainly not a well-bred Spanish woman. Kirstie recognised that she had perhaps been more malicious than she intended, but she told herself that she had cause to retaliate, and Rosa Montaiies was more than able to hold her own. She had never intended either that this should blow up into a full-blooded quarrel, but it was too late to regret it now, for there was a look in the other woman's eyes that offered little hope of it cooling off.

  Kirstie was no longer leaning against the tree, but standing beside the cool water of the channel in a tensely defensive attitude, not knowing what to expect next. Even so she could not have anticipated anything as coldbloodedly deliberate as what actually happened, and it took her completely by surprise.

  Her black eyes glittering with fury, Rosa Montanes jabbed her heels into the gelding and rode him straight at Kirstie. A swift last-minute swerve avoided a ducking for horse and rider, but the gelding's shoulder thrust forcefully at Kirstie and knocked her off balance, while at the same time the heavy bone handle of the crop Rosa carried struck her a blow to the side of the head and knocked her backwards into the water. A searing pain in her head was the last thing she remembered; that and a very brief glimpse of her assailant riding like fury away from her.

  She was in her own bedroom, Kirstie realised when she half-opened her eyes for a second, but there was a curious smell that she didn't recognise, and which made her wrinkle her nose even before she was fully aware of anything else. It was almost as if the very slight gesture was a signal, for someone moved beside the bed and someone else shifted at the foot of the bed, bending

  forward as if to peer at her, although as yet neither was identifiable.

  'Abuelo?'

  Instinct made her seek the reassurance of her grandfather's presence, and a hand on her forehead stroked gently as he leaned forward into her line of vision. 'Yes, child, I'm here.'

  She turned her slightly uncertain gaze up to him and tried to focus on his face, frowning for a moment as she tried to recall how she came to be there; then she caught her breath and tried to turn her head in a gesture of denial. 'I—I was knocked out,' she began, but her grandfather soothed her gently.

  *Don't try to talk, my dear, just stay quiet.'

  'But she rode Suli straight at me,' Kirstie insisted, desperate for fear the vividness of the incident should fade before she told someone. 'And she—she hit me with her riding crop.'

  'Rosa?'

  The familiar voice from the foot of the bed brought a surging and almost choking violence to her heartbeat, and Kirstie turned and focussed her gaze on Miguel's darkly brooding face. How ironic that Rosa's action had brought him to her. His eyes had a deep, unfathomable look that defied definition, yet somehow there was an air of gentleness and concern about him that touched her as it always did.

  'You!' she whispered, and her grandfather's hand pressed lightly into her shoulder, as if in warning.

  'Would you like me to go?'

  His voice was deep and soft, and he affected her even in the present situation when she was still not completely conscious. He was standing there at the foot of her bed and watching her in a way that would surely have sent Rosa Montanes into a fury of anger, and it seemed such a long time since she had seen anything other than passion or anger on those dark, arrogant features.

  'You—you don't have to,' she whispered.

  He looked at her for a moment, his expression defying

  her need to recognise it, then he shook his head slowly and eased himself away from the tall, old-fashioned wooden bed-end. 'Nevertheless I think I will,' he decided. *You should be lying there quietly not talking, and now that I know you've recovered consciousness there's nothing more I can do. I'll come back later when you're feeling stronger; if Don Jose will allow me to, of course.'

  'Naturally,' her grandfather told him gravely. 'You're always welcome here, Don Miguel, and I cannot thank you enough for all you've done so far. I confess I'm not a practical man, and this kind of situation would have been beyond me; I'm very grateful for your help.'

  Miguel heaved his broad shoulders carelessly and shook his head. 'If there's anything you need, please don't hesitate to call on us,' he told him. 'And I'll come later and hear the verdict, after the doctor's been.' He turned again and looked at Kirstie, a faint smile hovering at the corners of his mouth for a moment. 'Adios, Kirstie, see that you stay quiet and rest.'

  He was going, and something in her cried out for him to stay, although it made no kind of sense at all. It was just that his strong and vaguely brooding presence at the foot of her bed gave her a strange kind of comfort, and just before he reached the open doorway, followed by her grandfather, her still befuddled brain picked on something she had not really noticed at the time it was said.

/>   'Miguel!'

  Her voice was weak, but he turned swiftly, standing in the doorway with the sun in the little salon beyond outlining his broad shoulders and arrogant black head, and he held her uncertain gaze steadily. 'Haven't I said you should rest?' he asked softly, but she persisted.

  'Listen to me, Miguel, please.' He didn't come back into the room, as if he would discourage her if he could, but it made no difference to Kirstie. 'Did you believe me? Did you believe me when I said that Rosa hit me, and '

  'This isn't the time for questions; you must rest.'

  'But you said—Rosa, as if you guessed it was her.'

  Her grandfather said nothing, she noticed hazily, as if he was quite prepared to leave everything in Miguel's hands, even in his own home, and Miguel was shaking his head. 'I've said I won't discuss anything until you're feeling strong,' he insisted firmly, 'and I mean it, Kirstie. Rest and recover and then we'll talk about it. Adios, Kirstie!'

  He was gone, and the door closed firmly behind the two of them, and Kirstie sighed as she looked around the familiar bedroom. Her mind was still hazy and she felt very lazy, as if her limbs were reluctant to move. She was undressed, so someone must have done that for her, and also the smell she had noticed when she first recovered consciousness she now identified as a disinfectant of some kind, and when she put a hand to her throbbing head she found it was bandaged.

  Obviously the accident, if one could call it an accident, could have been very much worse, and she wished her grandfather would come back so that she could question him. Her head ached and she felt rather sick, but there seemed to be nothing else wrong with her, except for that curious lethargy.

  She could hear the hum of men's voices through in the salon and she was reminded of last evening, when she had stood and hstened to the same two voices. If only she had realised then what it was that her grandfather was discussing with Miguel she would have interrupted them; and if she had had the faintest idea that Miguel was going to broach the subject to her she would never have gone out on to the patio with him.

  Recalling the way he had kissed her, and what must have been in his mind at the time, she tightened her hands into fists and closed her eyes. So it was her grandfather found her when he came back, and he whispered her name anxiously, as if he suspected she had lost consciousness again.

  'Kirstie?'

  Opening her eyes, she smiled at him reassuringly. *How did I get back here, Abuelo?'

  'Don Miguel brought you.' He held her hand tightly, and something showed in his eyes for a moment that she had never seen there before. 'He came looking for you, because you didn't go to the office this morning, and when I told him you'd gone out walking he went to find you. I've never seen a man look as he did when he brought you back, soaking wet and unconscious, and for a moment I thought you might have '

  Remembering her black mood before she left the house, Kirstie reached up and clasped both his hands tightly, and her eyes shimmered with tears for the agony she had caused him. 'Did he say what happened?' she asked in a slightly unsteady voice, and her grandfather shook his head.

  'He was in a curious frame of mind and he said little beyond the fact that he had found you lying in the water and that you had a bruise on your head. I don't think it had even occurred to him to call a doctor to the spot, he seemed to want to—' Don Jose shook his head slowly, as if Miguel's mood still puzzled him. 'He carried you into the house and laid you on your bed; only then did it seem to occur to him that you should see a doctor, and he went racing back to the house to call him. Only minutes later he drove back in the car with their housekeeper and she put you into bed and bound up your head. It all happened so—so quickly that I still can't quite believe it.'

  How typical of Miguel, Kirstie thought, to have everything so speedily organised. Although his initial failure to call out the doctor was rather out of character, she had to admit, and she couldn't imagine what it was her grandfather meant about the curious mood he was in. It crossed her mind briefly as she lay there in that strangely lightheaded state of limbo, that Rosa Mon-taiies wasn't going to hke it at all, having Miguel running around after her.

  She felt sleepy suddenly and her eyelids began to

  droop, only the anxious enquiry of her grandfather bringing her back from sleep for a moment. 'I think I can hear the doctor,' he told her, and for a moment she managed to keep her eyes open, but only for a moment.

  It had been several days, and the fact that Kirstie was beginning to feel restless suggested to her that she was sufficiently recovered to be allowed up for a while. Her grandfather was dubious about allowing her to move out of bed, but she was insistent. *If I could just sit out for a little while,' she pleaded. *It's no distance from here to the salon, Abuelo, and Fd feel so much better sitting in a chair.'

  Terhaps so,' Don Jose allowed cautiously. *But if you begin to feel drowsy or unwell, Kirstie, you must promise me that you'll go straight back into bed.'

  'I promise!' She reached for her robe and was already tying it at the neck when someone rapped on the outside door. They both turned, and clearly her grandfather was uncertain whether he should stay and help her or go and see who it was. 'Somebody had better see who it is,' she told him with a smile, and as he went to do as she said she put a hand to the wild urgency of her heartbeat.

  She knew that the housekeeper from Casa de Rodriguez had been every day to keep the little barraca clean and to cook her grandfather his meals, but Miguel had called too and something about that knock did not suggest it had a woman's hand behind it. The fact that he hadn't once been in to see her was something that she had found herself resenting, however often she told herself that he was simply obeying the doctor's instruction that she was to rest undisturbed.

  She was already standing in the doorway of her bedroom when her grandfather opened the door, and she Hstened with bated breath for the sound of the familiar voice. She wanted it to be Miguel, although her common sense told her that now she was feeling almost normal again, it wasn't going to be any easier to forget

  the embarrassing position her grandfather had put her into than it had been before.

  'Senor, I hope you'll forgive the intrusion.' The voice was familiar, but it wasn't Miguel's, it was Luis's, and as Kirstie made her way to a chair and sat down in it, she could scarcely beUeve how disappointed she felt. Luis was at his most formal and polite, and he sounded quite unlike the Luis she was accustomed to. 'I wonder if you'll give these to Senorita Rodriguez,' he went on. 'I don't suppose it's possible '

  He hesitated to ask to see her, and Kirstie guessed that her grandfather wasn't going to ease the way for him. Luis did not stand as high in the old man's estimation as he had once done, and he no longer saw him as a prospective grandson-in-law.

  'Luis,' she called, and sensed her grandfather's disapproval. Tlease, Abuelo,' she begged, 'I haven't seen anyone for days, couldn't Luis come in for just a few minutes?'

  There was httle else he could do, however he disapproved of him, and Don Jose admitted him to the tiny salon with stiff courtesy. He would be far more concerned about her state of undress, Kirstie realised when she noticed him frown at her light robe, than either she or Luis, but he couldn't change his mind now. It went without saying that he would stay and chaperone them, and that wasn't going to suit Luis.

  He was carrying a huge bunch of roses which he presented to her with a slight bow and a small secret smile that her grandfather was obviously not supposed to see. 'For you,' he murmured, and as she took them from him with her eyes downcast, Kirstie realised they had come from the gardens of Casa de Rodriguez.

  Miguel had been to the cottage each day, but he'd never brought her roses and it somehow added to her discontent where he was concerned. In the event she smiled at Luis, although it didn't quite reach her eyes. They're lovely, Luis, thank you.'

  If they had been alone Kirstie knew he would have

  demanded a kiss in payment for his bouquet, but Don Jose hovering at his elbow restricted his nor
mally flamboyant manner. 'Will you take a glass of wine, Don Luis?'

  The courtesies must be observed at all times, and the invitation was as formally polite as Luis's answer. He inclined his head solemnly, at the same time managing to catch Kirstie's eye, but she ignored the wink he gave her because not even to please Luis would she make a mockery of her grandfather's old-fashioned mannerisms.

  'Kirstie cannot drink at the moment,' Don Jose explained as he handed Luis his glass. 'Your very good health, sefior.'

  His presence definitely made Luis uneasy, but there was no way he could change the situation, so Luis must perforce put up with it. Glancing every now and then from the corner of his eye made him appear oddly shifty, and Kirstie wondered what exactly he had on his mind and, more to the point, why he hadn't been before.

  'I'd like to have come to see you before now,' he told her, almost as if he sensed her question, but Jon Jose interposed quietly before he could go on.

  'It wasn't really necessary, Don Luis, when Don Miguel has been here each day to ask after Kirstie.'

  Quite clearly that was something Luis didn't like either, and his frown showed a certain petulance. 'That's the reason / couldn't come, senor. Miguel told me that Kirstie was too ill to see visitors and that in view of the fact that he had been in at the beginning, so to speak, he had more right to come than I had. I didn't agree with it, but it isn't easy to argue wjth Miguel.'

  'I imagine not,' Don Jose remarked blandly, and Luis frowned.

  His style was definitely being cramped by having her grandfather there, and Luis liked things to go his way. 'Fortunately this morning I've managed to get here without him knowing,' he said, pointedly satisfied. 'And I know how you Hke roses, Kirstie.'

  Unable to deny it, Kirstie smiled, but it was his company she was more grateful for, she had felt so cut off these past days, especially since becoming more conscious of what was going on. 'I'm glad to see someone to talk to,' she told Luis. 'For one thing, I'm dying to know what's been said about—what happened to me. I'm sure Miguel knew something, but he wouldn't talk about it that first day and I haven't seen him since.'