Don Joaquin's Pride

by Lynne Graham

  ‘Are you normally this slow on the uptake in the morning, querida?’ Joaquin teased with husky amusement as he thrust the door shut behind him.

  She was discovering that she could not meet those extraordinary green eyes without being intimately aware that she had conceived his baby. It was bad enough that she was terrified that at any moment Roger might appear to find out who was visiting, but to be burdened with yet another big guilty secret where Joaquin was concerned was all of a sudden just too much for Lucy to handle. Sheer nervous tension made her tummy lurch with nausea.

  ‘Are you ill?’ Joaquin began to question with a frowning look of concern.

  With a stifled moan of chagrin, Lucy raced for the bathroom, but she had the presence of mind to close and lock the door behind her. She was sick. In the aftermath, the loud thumping on the door demanded her attention.

  ‘Lucy…don’t be stupid, open this door!’ Joaquin urged with considerable impatience.

  Hurriedly freshening up, capable of considering nothing but the reality that she felt absolutely awful, Lucy went dizzily back out to the hall.

  ‘Suppose you’d collapsed in there?’ Joaquin curved a supportive arm round her slim shoulders and then with a muttered curse in Spanish lifted her into his powerful arms to carry her into the lounge opposite and lay her down on the sofa. ‘I’ll get a doctor. You’re just not a very healthy person, querida. I think you need a really thorough medical examination—’

  ‘No, I—’

  ‘Lie there and keep quiet,’ Joaquin instructed, standing over her clutching his mobile phone with an air of serious purpose. ‘How could I have taunted you with the amount of time you have spent out of work in recent years? It is obvious to me now that you suffer from a great deal of ill-health.’

  ‘I really don’t need a doctor,’ Lucy began, trying to sound forceful enough to stop him in his bossy tracks.

  ‘Allow me to tell you what you need.’

  ‘But you don’t know—’

  ‘I know it’s not normal to look green,’ Joaquin slotted in crushingly.

  ‘I’m pregnant…’ The confession just escaped her in a weary burst of resentful frustration at his refusal to listen to a word she was saying.

  But this time Joaquin had listened, and the phone dropped clean out of his hand as he involuntarily loosened his grip on it. His lush ebony lashes lifted, revealing stunned green eyes. But then the oddest thing happened. He screened his gaze again, threw back his wide shoulders as if he was squaring up to a challenge, and said only the slightest bit unsteadily, ‘Sí…so you still need a doctor.’

  ‘Talk about interrupting at the optimum wrong moment…’ another male voice groaned from across the room.

  In all the excitement, Lucy had totally forgotten about Roger. She was still caught up in the drama of having told Joaquin she was pregnant without actually having intended to tell him. But the sound of Roger’s apologetic intrusion was an even greater shock, and she reared up off the sofa just in time to see her sister’s large bulky fiancé backing speedily into the hall again, looking almost comically embarrassed by what he had overheard.

  ‘Por Dios…no wonder you acted so weird when you saw me at your door!’ Joaquin framed thickly, his accent growling along every carefully enunciated syllable. His bronzed skin had an ashen quality as he studied her with seething contempt.

  ‘I think…I think it’s time that I explained something to you,’ Lucy muttered tautly, thinking frantically fast and seeing that full confession was the only option left. ‘But could we go somewhere else to talk about it because it’s kind of private?’

  ‘Roger Harkness…what need is there of privacy to explain his presence here in your apartment?’ Joaquin demanded with volcanic force, spreading both arms wide with the sort of volatile expressive body language that was extremely intimidating. ‘You got back into bed with your ex-fiancé after sleeping with me. I neglected to offer you an option sufficient to keep you out of other men’s beds! You came back here to him last night…you slut!’

  Lucy turned pale as death. ‘It’s not like that, Joaquin, because—’

  Joaquin focused on her with a dark blistering fury that only seemed to heighten with every second which had passed since Roger’s hasty exist. ‘And now you’re pregnant and you can’t possibly know which of us is the father…I’ll get DNA tests done when the baby’s born. In the meantime, he’s welcome to you, if he still wants you, but only after I’ve beaten the living daylights out of him!’

  For a staggered instant, Lucy was paralysed to the spot by that unashamed threat of violence. Joaquin strode out of the room like a man on a mission. Lucy regained the use of her limbs and surged in his wake. ‘Joaquin…for goodness’ sake!’

  But Joaquin was throwing wide every door he came to in search of a fight, indifferent, it seemed, to Lucy’s efforts to prevent him. Nobody was more surprised than Lucy when Roger failed to appear. She reckoned that her future brother-in-law must have walked straight out of the apartment to give her and Joaquin peace to talk.

  ‘Infierno!’ Baulked of his prey, and incredulous that Roger had evidently just gone out and left them alone together, Joaquin grated in wrathful frustration, ‘What sort of coward is he that he runs away from a fight?’

  ‘Please just calm down for a moment and listen to me,’ Lucy urged feverishly.

  Joaquin turned ferociously bright green eyes full of condemnation on her. ‘Listen? Listen so that you can whisper lying explanations into my ears and try to convince me that the child you carry is mine?’ he countered with savage derision. ‘It will snow in hell before I listen to you again!’

  And with that highly emotive smouldering condemnation, Joaquin strode out of the apartment.

  Lucy was in a sobbing heap on the sofa when Roger reappeared. ‘So that was Joaquin Del Castillo,’ he remarked as Lucy crammed a tissue to her mouth and sat up, struggling to pull herself together again. ‘I feel really sorry for that guy.’

  Stunned by that most telling admission from her sister’s fiancé, Lucy gaped at him.

  ‘Yes, I know the whole story. Cindy kept me up until dawn talking about it,’ Roger revealed. ‘I’m more or less beyond being shocked now, but she didn’t mention that other matter…the one I really would rather not have overheard.’

  ‘Cindy doesn’t know and I’m not going to mention it just yet,’ Lucy muttered tightly on the subject of her pregnancy. She realised that she was kind of beyond shock as well, after the distressing encounter she had just had with Joaquin. The guy she loved, the father of her baby, had just walked away, thinking all sorts of crazy horrible things about her.

  ‘I want to thank you for looking out for Cindy while I was away,’ Roger said flatly. ‘I owe you…we both owe you on that score.’

  Lucy gave him a blank look.

  ‘Come on, Lucy. Your common sense prevented her from making a bad situation ten times worse. If she’d lost her head and dug her heels in, she most probably would have ended up in court accused of fraud,’ Roger stated tautly, his frank open face stiff. ‘Quite frankly, it’s fortunate it was you in Guatemala!’

  Lucy was embarrassed. She could see that he was still angry with her sister.

  ‘With my help, Cindy will pay back every penny with interest to that old man,’ Roger told her squarely.

  ‘But she didn’t mean to hurt anybody,’ Lucy pointed out hurriedly, before he left the room, still looking really grim.

  Her thoughts turning to her own situation then, Lucy accepted that she had got herself into an awful mess. No matter which way she broke the news, Joaquin would be outraged by the manner in which she and her sister had deceived him, and Lucy knew with a sinking heart that she would have to wait until the wedding was over before she risked telling Joaquin the truth of her identity.

  Roger’s faith in Cindy had been shaken. The very last thing Roger needed now was to see her twin confronted by Joaquin in a righteous rage. That might just be the straw that would break the camel’s
back. Lucy already suspected that Roger had used this report for his firm as an excuse to put some distance between himself and her twin while he came to terms with what he had been told. What if Roger decided to call off the wedding? Lucy saw for herself that the situation could still go either way. Right now, marooned with Roger’s parents, forced to go on pretending that she was a happy bride-to-be and entertain visitors, poor Cindy had to be really suffering.

  So, although every instinct Lucy possessed was urging her to track Joaquin down without further loss of time and tell him that she was not Cindy Paez, she didn’t feel that she could dare take that risk in case it rebounded on her twin. But, at the same time, it really hurt Lucy to leave Joaquin believing that she had already turned to another man and that she couldn’t be sure of who had fathered their child. Right now, Joaquin truly believed that she was a slut. Hadn’t she been in his arms yesterday? However, in about forty-eight hours she could get in touch with him and sort it all out, she promised herself wretchedly.

  In the afternoon, Lucy went out and walked round the shops, with their wonderful festive displays. Roger had been pacing restively round the apartment, looking increasingly uncomfortable at her presence. That had worried Lucy even more. Naturally he would start feeling awkward if he was toying with the idea of dumping her sister two days before their wedding.

  Yolanda called her on the mobile phone she had given her. ‘Have you still got Joaquin with you?’ she asked brightly.

  ‘No, he’s long gone…I mean, he didn’t stay long,’ Lucy rephrased hurriedly.

  ‘Did he offer you the job?’

  ‘What job?’

  Yolanda proceeded to tell her that she was prepared to go back to school but only as a day girl, not as a boarder. Joaquin had pointed out that, although he could spend more time in London, he was often abroad and she couldn’t stay alone in the townhouse with just the staff for company.

  ‘So I suggested that he could give you the job of being my companion,’ Yolanda completed with satisfaction.

  Lucy looked heavenward for inspiration. Even if Joaquin hadn’t received the impression that she was a bed-hopping wanton earlier in the day, he would not have offered her such a position. Yolanda’s idea had never been destined to make it off the drawing board.

  ‘Thanks, but it wouldn’t have been a good idea for me—’

  ‘Lucy,’ Yolanda scolded. ‘You’re crazy about my brother and I like you. If he saw enough of you, he might be attracted to you.’

  ‘I think a little of me goes a long way with Joaquin right now,’ Lucy muttered, not knowing whether to laugh or to cry.

  ‘Why haven’t you told him you’re the other twin yet?’ Yolanda demanded. ‘Do you want me to do it for you?’

  Lucy paled to the gills at the offer, and felt even worse about what she had to go on to say. ‘Please don’t do that, Yolanda. I promise I’ll tell him in a couple of days. I’m very sorry that I’ve involved you in keeping a secret from your brother.’

  ‘Get real, Lucy,’ Yolanda groaned, sounding her world-weary best. ‘Do you think I tell him everything?’

  Lucy climbed out of the wedding car, clutching her posy of flowers, and followed the other three bridesmaids, composed of Roger’s three chattering sisters.

  All of them wore beautiful white silk brocade dresses, for Cindy had reversed the more conventional colour choices and chosen a wedding gown that was her favourite shade of pink. They congregated in the big church porch and then surged forward to greet the bridal limousine drawing up. Looking radiant, Cindy emerged and took the arm of Roger’s father who had offered to give her away.

  ‘You’re too early.’ One of the ushers came out to warn them. ‘Roger’s been held up.’

  Cindy went white. ‘Where is he?’

  ‘Panicking in a traffic jam!’ the usher teased. ‘Should be here in five minutes.’

  The day before, Lucy had spent a great deal of time trudging round the shops. In the early hours, Cindy had returned to London to mend fences with Roger. Lucy hadn’t the slightest idea of what had passed between the couple, but Cindy was still a nervous wreck, convinced that her bridegroom had come close to changing his mind about marrying her.

  A long low-slung black sportscar shot to a halt in front of the church steps, where nobody was supposed to park. Lucy saw it first because everybody else in the porch was too busy talking. With shaken eyes, she watched Joaquin Del Castillo vault out of the car as if he was jet-propelled, his darkly handsome features fiercely set.

  Having heard the sound of the car, Cindy hurried forward to her twin’s side. ‘Is that Roger arriving?’ she asked anxiously.

  Like somebody just waiting for the roof to fall in on her, Lucy watched Joaquin heading for the steps. Her heart was racing so fast she was afraid that she was about to faint. It seemed that Joaquin had finally found out that she and Cindy had deceived him. What else could he be doing here? But how had he found out? Had his sister told him? Was he now prepared to confront Cindy in front of all these people on her wedding day…would he be that cruel?

  ‘Oh…no,’ Cindy whispered in horror, having read her sister’s face. ‘That’s Del Castillo…isn’t it?’

  Joaquin mounted the steps two at a time. But he stopped dead when he saw Lucy, frozen on the top step and looking almost as pale as her dress. ‘Por Dios,’ he exclaimed hoarsely. ‘This cannot be. You cannot do this…I will not allow it—’

  ‘Please…please go away,’ Cindy pleaded tearfully.

  Only when Cindy spoke did Joaquin take the time to glance at the woman who stood by Lucy’s side. He frowned as he focused on Cindy, the look of disbelief in his glittering green eyes instantaneous. He stared at the two sisters. ‘Infierno…there are two of you?’

  It was the longest moment of Lucy’s life. ‘We’re twins,’ she muttered unevenly. ‘I’m Lucy—’

  ‘I know you’re Lucy!’ Joaquin gritted. ‘Do you think I’m so blind I can’t tell you apart?’

  ‘I think what my sister is trying to tell you is that I’m the one who ripped off Fidelio Paez,’ Cindy told Joaquin tightly. ‘I’m the one who married Mario and the one who persuaded Lucy to go to Guatemala in my place and pretend that she was me.’

  So intense was Lucy’s concentration on Joaquin’s stunned stillness she was conscious of nothing else. She couldn’t even concentrate on what her sister was telling him.

  Cindy just kept on talking, as if by talking she could keep any threat Joaquin might offer at bay. ‘Lucy didn’t want to do it but I made it very difficult for her to refuse…I took advantage of her—’

  Joaquin cut right across her. ‘Which one of you is the bride?’

  ‘Me…Cindy,’ Cindy responded, in visible bewilderment at such a question.

  A dark line of colour flared over Joaquin’s fabulous cheekbones. The silence smouldered for what felt like for ever. ‘Enjoy your wedding day, Cindy,’ he murmured without expression.

  Cindy backed away like someone who very badly wanted to pick up her skirts and run but who was afraid that any sudden movement might provoke exactly what she most feared. ‘Thank you,’ she whispered unevenly.

  Only now was it dawning on Lucy that Joaquin had thought that this was her wedding day!

  ‘And for your sister, that selfish, frivolous user and abuser of other people, you lied to me,’ Joaquin breathed in a terrifyingly quiet voice.

  The buzz of the chattering bridesmaids in the background might as well have been a million miles away. Lucy’s world had stopped spinning and flung her off into frightening freefall when she least expected it. It was as if a pool of rushing silence enfolded her and Joaquin.

  ‘I believed it was you who was marrying Roger Harkness today. Your sister’s neighbour laughed when he saw me outside the apartment. “All away to the church,” he said.’ Joaquin breathed in very deep and studied the pale oval of her stricken face with cold hard eyes. ‘I cannot abide lies, and every word you have ever spoken to me has been a lie, every single moment
has been based on deceit.’

  At that harsh condemnation Lucy made a tiny instinctive movement with her hand, as though she would have touched his sleeve. But Joaquin’s distaste and anger was a potent barrier and her hand dropped weakly back to her side.

  ‘No…no, it wasn’t,’ she attempted to protest.

  ‘I don’t even know your name…’ Joaquin flung back his proud dark head and surveyed her with speaking contempt.

  ‘Lucille Fabian,’ she framed chokily. ‘Joaquin, please—’

  ‘This is not the place. My presence is not welcome here. Surely you did not sacrifice so much just to cloud your sister’s wedding day?’ Joaquin said very drily, and he swung on his heel to stride back to his fabulous car.

  If Lucy had been in freefall prior to that moment, she now felt as though she had hit the ground with a bone-jarring crash. After an instant of hesitation, Lucy flew down the steps in Joaquin’s wake.

  ‘There’s Roger’s car!’ someone exclaimed behind her. ‘They’re coming in by the side entrance.’

  Before Joaquin could get back into the Ferrari, Lucy caught at his sleeve with desperate fingers. ‘I’m sorry!’

  Ice-cold green eyes clashed with hers. ‘You’re making an exhibition of us both.’

  Lucy fell back from him. A slow, painful surge of pink washed her cheeks. Turning away, she walked back up the steps, horribly conscious that the little drama being played out before their eyes had finally attracted the attention of the rest of the bride’s attendants in the porch.

  Cindy hurried forward and closed an arm round her twin. ‘I’m sorry…I am so sorry,’ she whispered shakily.

  ‘It wasn’t going anywhere anyway,’ Lucy framed, trying to force a smile and relieved when, a few minutes later, the church doors were opened and it was time to get into place with the other bridesmaids.

  Joaquin had come to the church believing that she was the bride. Had he had some mad idea of preventing the wedding from taking place? ‘I will not allow it,’ he had said. Well, what did his motivation matter now? She had never been able to believe that her relationship with Joaquin Del Castillo could have a future. But her failure to tell Joaquin the truth the day he saw Roger in the apartment had probably been the finishing blow. Right to the bitter end she had kept loyal to Cindy—but shouldn’t she have had a greater sense of responsibility towards the baby she had conceived? Ensuring that Joaquin despised her would scarcely benefit her unborn child.