The Heat of the Moment

by Margaret Carr

  After arriving in Germany in the middle of the afternoon, they discovered that the suite Frances had booked at their hotel had one double bedroom instead of two.

  To say the look she received from Kane was suspicious was an understatement. He looked absolutely furious as he strutted impatiently back and forth in front of the reception desk. However, soon everything was cleared up and they were settling in.

  ‘If you’re ready I would like you to accompany me to my first meeting, in five minutes.’

  The tone was brisk, the face as impassive as ever but the eyes were saying something else as she turned to regard him, standing just inside her bedroom door.

  ‘We’ll go straight on to dinner after the meeting,’ he said, then turned back into the lounge.

  The meeting went well and soon they were on their way back to the hotel dining-room. They were halfway through their dessert when the entrance to the dining-room was filled with a party of chattering people. A swirl of dark green stopped by their table and Frances knew without looking up that Pilar had found them again. With a red carnation in her dark hair and diamonds on her wrist and finger she looked dangerously beautiful.

  She was introducing her friends to Kane while Frances sat quietly by until a familiar name broke through her thoughts. She listened carefully to what was being said about Firefly.

  After a hectic two days, they returned to Tenerife. Frances was welcomed back by everyone as though they had never expected to see her again, all, that was, except Maurice.

  ‘He’s gone over to the Mendoza ranch and taken that horse of hers with him,’ Pru told her.

  ‘Firefly?’

  Pru nodded.

  ‘Maurice says he isn’t coming back, that the Mendoza woman has offered him a job. Kane will be furious when he has to find another instructor at such short notice.’

  ‘Why take Firefly?’ Frances was puzzled. ‘I thought Kane was schooling him.’

  ‘Perhaps they’ve fallen out,’ Pru said with a shrug.

  ‘Well, there was no sign of it when she was with us on our flight out or when she bumped into us in the hotel.’

  ‘She was in Germany, too?’ Pru asked, startled. ‘I don’t understand. If she was abroad, how come Maurice told us she had invited him over and persuaded him to take on the overall management of the place?’

  ‘He has also placed the training of the horse into the hands of Paul Drago,’ Eduardo said.

  ‘Oh, no.’ The others looked up at Frances’s cry of distress. ‘Kane said this Drago would ruin Firefly.’

  ‘You’ve become very attached to that horse, haven’t you?’ Pru said, reaching forward to pat her on the arm.

  Eduardo leaned forward and said, ‘Kane takes time with the horse, plays with him, persuades him that he wants to do as Kane asks. Drago is good trainer, too, but he demands obedience. The animal must learn,’ and he clicked his fingers, ‘quickly.’

  ‘Firefly is young and not bred to be an event horse. Anyone can see that. I’m surprised Kane didn’t,’ Frances went on.

  ‘Oh, I think he did, Fran, but for his own reasons he keeps Senora Mendoza happy.’

  ‘Why? What does she have apart from the obvious, to persuade him to do a thing like that, to deliberately spoil a good horse?’

  She was angry and worried about the horse and what would happen to him.

  ‘Walk with me,’ Gilbert said. offering his hand to her.

  She was about to decline, saying she was tired, but one look into his face made her rise to her feet and accompany him down the steps of the verandah and across the grass to the gardens. He didn’t waste any time. ‘Senora Mendoza owns the hillside on the far side of the valley.’

  ‘Where you rest the school horses?’

  ‘Si. It has been leased for many generations and soon that lease must be renewed. It is thought the senora might not agree to this. It will break with tradition to do this but . . .’

  He shrugged expressively.

  ‘And without the land?’ Frances dared to ask.

  Gilbert hung his head on one side.

  ‘It would be difficult. Good grazing is hard to find. Most of the northern valleys are given over to agriculture.’

  They talked for a little longer then Frances excused herself for being tired and went to her room. She sat out on the balcony in her nightdress and listened to the whispering trees and the clicking song of the crickets.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  A letter came the very next day to tell Frances that her friend, Tessa, had given birth to a baby boy, weighing eight-and-a-half pounds. Both mother and baby were fine. Martin had kicked up a fuss when Tessa had returned home only two days after the birth but the baby was good and Tessa glad to be home.

  Tears rolled down Frances’s cheeks as she read it. How she would have loved to be there. Why didn’t she just pack up and go back? Her arms were getting stronger every day and even if she couldn’t ride, there were other jobs she could do back in England.

  She put the letter back in its envelope and dropped it to her lap. Self pity, this was. How her grandmother would have scoffed. Somehow horses weren’t enough any more. She longed for a little of what her friends Martin and Tessa shared.

  Shocked by her feelings, she put the letter in her pocket and went through to the office. There, she found Maurice’s letter of resignation lying on her desk. Her fingers itched to open it but she left it for Kane. He stormed into the office an hour later, snatched up Maurice’s letter and left without a word.

  Frances went for an early lunch and returned to the office at half-past one when she would normally have been resting. Some work needed finishing off and she wanted to be away early that afternoon to go with Gilbert to see Juan Carlos.

  She crossed the patio, her soft sandals making little noise. At first she saw no-one beyond the shadow of the doorway. Then as she passed from the bright sunlight into the interior of the office, she saw Kane sitting slumped in the chair in front of her desk.

  Only the movement of the tree tops and the tinkle of the fountain broke the silence. She wondered if he was sleeping, he was so still. Standing silently behind him, she watched him.

  ‘How long are you going to stand there watching me?’

  Frances jumped and leaped forward like a startled deer.

  ‘I’m sorry! Can I help with something?’

  She made her way around the desk and sat down.

  ‘No. What are you doing here? It’s far too hot to work.’

  ‘I came to finish some work I started this morning. I want to get away early this afternoon.’

  ‘Why?’

  Her hand stilled above the keyboard.

  ‘Why what?’

  ‘Why do you want to get away early?’

  ‘It will be my own time.’

  ‘I’m not disputing the fact. I’m simply enquiring what you are doing later.’

  He made it sound so normal a request, what was she to say? That she was going to watch the progress of the young man he had forbidden from the ranch.

  ‘Riding lessons,’ she said and held her breath.

  ‘Then I shall come and watch you.’

  He smiled as Frances felt her heart cease to function.

  ‘Please, don’t. It will only upset my concentration.’

  He laughed, and said, ‘I wish more people would say that instead of demanding so much of my time.’

  Thinking it wise to change the subject, Frances asked him about Firefly. A change came over his features as he pushed himself up in the chair and made to rise.

  ‘I have taken him off the livery list but wondered about training fees,’ she added, head bent forward over her keyboard.

  After a moment, she heard him slump back into the chair again and risked a glance up through her lashes. A dark frown lowered over his eyes as his fingers played an impatient tattoo on the arm of the chair.

  ‘You can take Beckworth off the payroll, too.’

  ‘I already have.’

  It must
have been something in her voice for he glanced across at her from his chair and his features lightened.

  ‘It’s a pity about the horse but he really wasn’t suitable. So, yes, you can strike the training fees.’

  ‘What’s going to happen to him?’ she asked anxiously.

  ‘To Beckworth or the horse?’

  She gave an impatient shake of her head.

  ‘Firefly, of course.’

  ‘Gilbert said you were attached to him. I’d like to say he has a good future ahead of him, but that wouldn’t be true. Oh, he might make the grade initially but I doubt he will last long. Pilar will probably tire of him and sell him on.’

  ‘What on earth made her buy a racer in the first place?’

  ‘What makes you think he was a racer?’

  The sharp question brought her up with a start.

  ‘Oh, his movements and the fact that he is a thoroughbred.’

  Her insides sighed with relief as he appeared to accept her reasoning. ‘It’s always thoroughbreds,’ he said, half to himself. ‘Pilar likes to look good in the ring and she does at the dressage and show jumping.

  Unfortunately the cross country takes stamina, not looks.’

  ‘Why has she done this?’

  ‘Put Beckworth in charge of the Ranch Faro, you mean?’ He shrugged. ‘I wasn’t even aware that she knew him all that well.’

  ‘Is she back from Germany?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘If you told her the horse was no good, would she believe you?’

  His eyebrows rose as he glanced across at her from where he sat stretched out in the chair.

  ‘I already did and yes, she believed me.’

  ‘Then I don’t understand why he is with this Drago person.’

  ‘That will be Beckworth’s doing.’

  Frances bit down hard on her lip, trying not to let him see how agitated she was. Kane rose from his seat and, crossing to the desk, placed two hands on the top and leaned forward, his face close to her own.

  ‘You really are attached to this animal, aren’t you? I’ll see what I can find out.

  With that, he turned from the desk and left the office.

  * * *

  Frances was smiling when she met Gilbert later that afternoon. He had led out the quiet little mare, Sophia, for Frances. She put her foot into the stirrup and swung up into the saddle.

  ‘I am pleased to see you looking happier today.’ Gilbert grinned.

  ‘Why not? I’m looking forward to an exciting outing and Kane has promised to find out what is to happen to Firefly.’

  Frances laughed out loud as Gilbert’s ears seemed to rise with his eyebrows at her news.

  They rode out of the yard and down on to the road. The place Gilbert brought her to was not as comfortable as the large school on the ranch but only a fenced ring with a small hut to one side in front of which was a bench. They tied their horses to the fence and Frances crossed to the bench and sat down.

  In broad, brimmed hat, dark glasses, jodhpurs and shirt, she emptied a bag of extras she had brought with her. There was water, fruit and chocolate, in case anyone was hungry or thirsty. Juan Carlos now rode a tall bay horse that Frances had never seen before. It wasn’t quite as supple as the grey stallion and it took all of the boy’s skill to get the best out of the animal.

  They still looked good, however, and Frances clapped enthusiastically when the session was over. The horse was tied to the rail with the others and the two men drank gratefully from the flask of water that Frances offered them.

  They chatted amiably for an hour before Gilbert said it was time to leave. As she and Gilbert rode back over the rough hillside and down into the valley, Frances asked him what he thought her chances were of rescuing Firefly.

  ‘I would have to be able to buy him then fly him home. My friends, the Truscotts, would take him in and care for him. If Kane can persuade her to sell him to me then with Martin’s know-how I’m sure we can manage the paper work and formalities.’

  Racing on in her enthusiasm, she failed to notice Gilbert’s silence.

  Once back at the stables, Gilbert placed an arm around her shoulders and led her up through the gardens.

  ‘It is extremely unlikely that the senora will release this horse.’

  ‘But if Kane . . .’

  ‘Because Kane will not ask it of her. He will ask after the animal’s welfare, si, but he cannot pressure her to part with it and if he did it would only encourage her to withhold it.’

  ‘But surely, the horse is no good to her.’

  ‘She is a difficult woman. She has caused much trouble in the past for many people. If Kane says she is to sell the horse then I will know someone who will attempt to buy him for you. This way it will not come back to the senor and the ranch. Agreed?’

  ‘Agreed.’

  Pilar was at dinner with the horsemasters that evening and determined to play hostess in place of Frances.

  ‘What a jealous cat,’ Pru remarked as Frances sat down beside her after giving up all pretence of partnering Kane in mixing with the clients during the pre-dinner drinks.

  ‘A dangerous cat,’ Frances replied. ‘Robert Shand particularly wanted to talk to me about extending his stay, but madam cut in and bedazzled the poor lad and led him off before he knew what was happening.’

  ‘Well, she’s welcome to Maurice. They deserve each other, those two.’

  ‘Oh, you mean his new job? Yes, that was a hasty piece of undercover work.’

  Pru chuckled.

  ‘I suppose you could call it undercover, but under the covers would be more like it.’

  Frances stared.

  ‘What are you saying, Pru? Pilar is here, hanging on to Kane’s arm as though she owned it. He wouldn’t have her in the house if that was the case.

  ‘Who’s going to tell him?’

  Frances opened her mouth, then shut it, swallowing hard when she realised the significance of Pru’s statement.

  ‘You?’ Pru asked.

  Frances thought of how easy he had been to talk to in the office, then shook her head.

  ‘No, I wouldn’t want to have to.’

  ‘Exactly.’ Pru nodded.

  Frances thought deeply all evening. Alone in her room that night, she began to put her thoughts together. By the time she fell asleep, she knew what she had to do.

  * * *

  ‘So you see, an affair with Maurice would gain her nothing,’ she told Gilbert the next morning. ‘It could be construed as a small strike against Kane as could the loss of the valley grazing. The horse is of no concern to him at all. So what is she trying to prove?’

  Gilbert’s face was grim when eventually she stopped talking.

  ‘What is it? What do you think she is planning?’ Frances persisted. ‘It is as it was before.’

  ‘What is?’

  ‘It is a long story, Frances. Meet me in the tack room after the mid-day feed and I will tell you of it. If what you say about Senora Mendoza and Maurice is true, then there will be trouble for the senor and we must find some way to stop it.’

  When she arrived back at the office, Pilar Mendoza was sitting on the corner of the desk, flicking through some files.

  ‘What are you doing in here?’

  Frances’s voice was as stiff and cold as she could make it.

  Pilar made a small pout with her lips and replaced the files on the desk. ‘When Kane and I marry, you will be the first to go.’

  She slid to her feet and walked out leaving a dumbstruck Frances.

  It wasn’t possible surely! Kane would never marry her just to hang on to his grazing. Of course he wouldn’t, she scolded herself. The woman is just indulging in wishful thinking. All the same, she decided Gilbert must be told. The morning flashed by and soon it was time to meet Gilbert in the tack room. He was sitting on a high stool by the table, his foot swinging idly to and fro, obviously deep in thought, as though what he was about to tell her was bothering him. She sat on a small stool
and waited.

  ‘Many years ago, when Kane’s mother returned after the death of her father, she brought with her a husband and his daughter. The girl was flighty and attracted to Kane. When she became pregnant, Kane was blamed. He denied responsibility, saying the baby wasn’t his. There was a lot of bad talk stirred up against the girl and not long after the child was born, the girl died in an accident. Kane was sent away and his mother and stepfather later went to live in Australia. The child was brought up by his true parent. That is the story that is told.’

  Frances waited.

  ‘And?’

  Gilbert shrugged.

  ‘It was no secret at the time that Pilar wanted Kane for herself. Her husband died two years ago.’

  ‘So now her husband is dead, she is after him again. So why get involved with Maurice?’

  She told Gilbert what had happened in the office.

  ‘Do you think she really is engaged to Kane or is it just wishful thinking?’

  ‘I think Kane is not so much a fool, but she is a scheming woman. Who knows what she is up to? We must be on our guard.’

  ‘If he were to turn her down again, would you say she was a danger to him?’

  Gilbert cocked his head on one side and spoke in a gentle voice.

  ‘You care for him, I think. To answer your questions, yes, I believe you are both in danger.’

  Frances took a step back.

  ‘I dislike Pilar very much and am anxious for Firefly, that’s all.’

  ‘Of course,’ Gilbert said and nodded gravely.

  On the point of finishing for the day, she looked up to find Kane watching her from the doorway. He came into the room, sat down at his desk and asked her to take a letter.

  Normally he would simply leave it on the machine and she could copy it off the following morning.

  It was a letter to a solicitor, confirming an agreement to a deal made between three parties, one of whom resided in Germany and one in France. This was going to enhance all parties’ shares provided it didn’t come to the public’s notice. The parties were named and she recognised a world-famous German company of saddlers.