`No,' she said firmly. 'I haven't even got so much as a passport yet, plus the fact I shall have to sell the Mini to pay my air fair.'
`Severo will willingly pay that,' Bella asserted, only to read from Reggie's proud look that she would swim rather.
`You'll have to ring him anyway to tell him a replacement fiancée is coming,' Reggie said reasonably. 'You can tell him, then, that—that I'm having passport difficulties because of the Christmas rush or something and that we'll let him know as soon as the arrangements are made this end.'
There was silence in the room for a few moments, the sisters each busy with their' own thoughts, then Bella was saying, 'I shall have to ring him tomorrow. He—er mentioned on the phone that I'd just caught him on his way out to catch a plane.'
The next evening Reggie, while half wishing Severo Cardenosa had turned the substitute offer down, and guiltily wondering how she could be so mean to have such a wish when her sister's happiness was at stake, asked her if she had been in touch with him.
Bella's back was to her as she answered, 'Yes, I rang him. He's gone for it.'
`Hmph,' Reggie grunted. 'Was he mad that you're not going?'
`Not a bit,' Bella said, turning to smile brightly. 'He's looking forward to meeting you.'
CHAPTER THREE
LOOKING forward to meeting her! It looked like it, Reggie thought some three weeks later. For three days now she had been cooling her heels in Montevideo, and still no sign of him.
He might not like it that it had been the first of January before she had left London—what a start to a new year!—but she couldn't help that her Mini had been difficult to sell. As it was, what she had got for it just
about covered her air fare with very little left over.
It didn't take a mathematical genius to work out she wasn't going to be able to pay her hotel bill, and the longer Severo Cardenosa took in coming for her the more her feelings of trepidation were turning to anger.
Had it been left to her she would have booked into a more modest establishment, always supposing she could have got in somewhere at the peak of the summer season. But it hadn't been left to her. Severo had phoned the flat while she had been at work telling Bella, since he still apparently wasn't sure of his movements, he would book her into a hotel where she was to wait until he collected her.
That she had had gigantic misgivings about coming in the first place weren't helped any to hear she was to 'wait to be collected'. She felt even bigger misgivings having now abandoned her idea that at the most she would be spending only one night in the hotel, that she appeared to be a parcel sent for on impulse but was now a parcel any old time would do to pick up.
Her churned-up feelings were further aggravated that determined as she had been after that first night spent in the hotel not to telephone to remind him she was here, after two more nights spent in sleepless worrying, her resolve was weakening.
A mood of rebellion hit her when the time for dinner approached and her stomach complained that she had eaten only sparsely that day. Why shouldn't she go down to dinner? Her room was luxurious in every detail, but so what if it did face the Rambla—the miles long river-front drive. What if her room did have a splendid view of Montevideo Bay? If Severo Cardenosa thought she was going to stay stuck in her room waiting until he deigned to collect her, then he could think again!
Downstairs in the restaurant she felt better for having
eaten, but her short burst of rebellion hadn't lasted, and anxiety again set in that she looked like being stranded. Her imagination took flight. Bella would be petrified if she saw the headlines in the paper 'British girl stranded—deserted by Uruguayan fiance'. She blinked, grinned at her fantasising and felt all loving to Bella as she recalled how beautiful she had looked on her wedding day.
Her face sobered as she left the restaurant, the plight she was in coming back to haunt her. She wouldn't ring him, though, she wouldn't, she determined. But as she neared the reception desk, the girl receptionist sent her a charming smile, and her footsteps faltered.
`Er—is it possible for me to send a telegram?'
The enquiry had left her without her realising she had the words formed, but when the receptionist answered, `Certainly, madam. I will see that it goes straight away,' she suddenly thought, why not? She wouldn't actually be speaking to that cold voice, would she?
It took some minutes to decide what to put. If there was just the recipient of the telegram to consider, there would have been no problem. 'I'm here, where are you?' would have suited very nicely. But supposing Grandfather Cardenosa was about when her telegram was delivered?
It was as she finally wrote out what she had decided to send that the extent of her commitment in this venture hit her. If she passed this slip of paper over to the receptionist then she was really in at the deep end. There would be no going back. Severo would have to come for her—or have to make some very good excuse for ignoring her wire. For Bella's sake she would have to stay and play the loving fiancee until the old man died.
She pushed her message across the desk. Oh, what a mess—and it just wasn't in her to hope the old man wouldn't take too long in departing.
`To where shall I send it?'
The receptionist's natural enquiry had Reggie apologising and rooting in her bag for the address Bella had given her. `Senor Severo Cardenosa, Estancia de Cardenosa, Cerros de Cielo,' she said, pausing while the receptionist's fingers caught up, rather proud of her accent, but glad the girl could speak English for all that, as she savoured the name Cerros de Cielo, doubting that it would be anywhere as lovely as it sounded, or as she had translated it, 'Hills of Paradise'. The receptionist rooked up. `Durazno,' Reggie completed.
Not until the next morning, still worried and having slept little better than the previous night, did she wonder if she should have worded her telegram a shade more formally. Rut by the time she was having breakfast rebellion was again with her. Oh, what the hell! If he didn't care for her, 'Can't wait to see you, darling' then that was his bad luck.
Though tempered with an uneasy feeling she was never going to see Severo Cardenosa, that he might not so much as stir himself to pick up a telephone, her mood of rebellion took a firmer hold than it had last night. She wasn't sitting in that room upstairs just waiting on the offchance that he would ring that was for sure. She was at the reception desk before she could change her mind.
`I have to go out,' she told a fresh receptionist. 'My—fiancée may telephone. Would you take a message for me?'
Hardly knowing why she had bothered, Reggie walked briskly away from the desk, leaving the cooling air-conditioning of the hotel and going out into Montevideo's sun-drenched streets. To date she had made only small excursions from her hotel, but today she was in no hurry to return.
In the Plaza Independcia she stood for an age admiring the superb bronze statue of national hero Jose Gervasio Artigas on horseback, and from the Plaza Indepencia, too well aware of the thinness of her purse, she window shopped her way along the Avenido 18 de Julio to the Plaza Cagancha, veering left along the wide Avenido 18 de Julio once more, an avenue commemorating the date in when Uruguay's constitution was proclaimed.
Since she had no intention of returning to her hotel until well into the afternoon—let Severo Cardenosa do a spot of waiting for her for a change, always supposing he had come down from his lofty high horse and bothered to telephone at all!—it was not yet midday when anxiety began to gnaw into rebellion and she started to grow fidgety to learn if he had left some message.
Walking quickly, she crossed the wide avenue, rebellion gone as she thought to try a short cut to get to the hotel the sooner. Her mind fully preoccupied, it came as something of a shock when raising her eyes she saw the one statue of all others she had heard about that she definitely had no interest in. Her footsteps faltered, panic fluttering up from nowhere to find herself face to face with Zorrillo de San Martin's famous statue of the Gaucho.
Fear was the only emotion she f
elt capable of as she looked back at the threatening gaucho. She forced her eyes away and began to hurry on, fear fading as she berated herself for the panic that had taken from her the awareness to appreciate the beauty of the sculpture. How ridiculous to feel so threatened by that dashing figure! As if it could harm her!
Reggie could have done without that inner voice that plagued while she scoffed at her imaginings that a bronze statue could make her feel so threatened, the inner voice
that said—yes, but you haven't met the real thing yet, have you?
Nor likely to, the way things are going, she thought, as she reached her hotel. Severo Cardenosa was in no hurry to show himself. If she hadn't once heard his voice, seen how terrified Bella had been, she would now be wondering if he existed at all.
Because reception seemed to have an influx of people with enquiries, she decided to leave her own enquiry of was there any message for her until after she had been up to her room and rinsed her face and hands. Taking the lift, she was soon inserting her key in her door.
And then,all thought of the nice refreshing wash she was going to have vanished, and shrieking alarm drove all thought from her mind. For her room was not unoccupied as she had every reason to believe it would be.
There in a chair he had obviously turned to face the door, long legs stretched out in front of him, his lean body at ease—at variance with the shrewd look in the most startling brilliant blue eyes fixed on her, startling especially because the rest of him, bronze skin that covered a straight nose, firm mouth and square chin, was definitely of Uruguayan descent—sat a man whose looks, combined with the steady stare he was affording her, had the fear she had experienced when looking at the statue earlier come screaming to life.
How she didn't actually scream Reggie didn't know. Afterwards she awarded herself full marks for the way her voice sounded cool and fully composed, as she asked:
`Might I enquire exactly what you think you're doing in my room?'
For a moment she thought he wasn't going to answer, that he couldn't understand a word of English. She noticed then an alertness in him she had at first missed, then found that given he had a slight accent, he was as much at home in her language as she was.
`Your room?' he questioned. 'You are the sole occupant?'
Before her reply left her the suspicion was shrieking in her that Severo Cardenosa might not have bothered to telephone. He might well have come in person to answer her telegram—this could well be him!
`Yes,' she answered, praying with all her might that her air of calm wouldn't desert her now. Bella had said he was good-looking. He was that all right. But Bella hadn't said anything about those brilliantly blue eyes that took you apart and summed you up in ten seconds flat.
`Then, senorita,' his voice had been quiet up until this point, but as it toughened, became cold and hard like she had heard it on the telephone, Reggie knew no doubt about his identity, 'perhaps you wouldn't mind telling me who the hell you are?'
`My—friends call me Reggie,' she said, reminding herself that they were supposed to convince other people they were engaged and trying for a friendliness she didn't feel in the face of the aggression emanating from him. It was clear when he didn't reply that he favoured a more formal introduction, which left her gathering what cool she had left as she set about doing the thing properly. `My name is Regina Barrington,' she amended, sure he knew anyway, and sailing on a brief moment of courage went on with flags flying, 'You, I presume, are Severo Cardenosa, my temporary fiancé.'
Without a word, Severo Cardenosa raised himself from his chair. Never once taking his eyes from her, he walked round to the side of her, his look going deliberately from her blonde hair all the way down, taking his time at various contours, to end at her sandalled feet.
Reggie was half way to crumpling before he had finished his inspection. But when next he spoke, if what he said had' been purposely designed to take the wind out of her sails, then he couldn't have managed it better.
`So,' he said, his eyes going to her long silky hair, 'the bottle blonde has been substituted for the real thing. Tell me, darling, since you couldn't wait to see me– do I get a kiss of greeting?'
`It's not that sort of engagement and you know it,' she found enough energy to retort, knowing she was going through the worst five minutes she was ever likely to spend. 'I only worded my message like that in case you wanted to show it to your grandfather.'
At the word 'grandfather' a change came over him. If he had been trying to get a rise out of her for the sheer hell of it, then she judged her reminding him of why she was here put an end to all that.
`Your passport,' he commanded after a moment when it appeared his mind wasn't on here.
`My passport?'
`I wish to see it.'
Reggie rummaged in her bag, wanting to hit him over the head with it as she handed it over. Clearly he was saying he-trusted neither of the Barrington sisters, and wanted to see for himself that she was who she said she was. A feeling of awkwardness, of shame, that because of what Bella had done her own word was being questioned beset her, kept her quiet as he checked the photograph that looked as if the photographer had had an off day, and read through her particulars.
`So, Regina Barrington, secretary, aged twenty-two,' he said, 'you have come to see what is in it for you, have you?'
`What's in it for me?' she gasped.
`You are saying you are not here on the—treasure trail?'
Never had any man made her so instantly hopping mad. 'No, I am not!' she retorted heatedly. She had always thought a girl who resorted to slapping a man's
face showed a shocking lack of self-control, but for the first time in her life she found herself fighting hard to quell the impulse. She settled for going for him verbally instead. 'You know damn well why I'm here! If it wasn't for Bella ...'
`Bella is a relation?' He chopped her off smartly. 'You both have the same surname.'
`She's my sister, as you well know,' Reggie spat at him.
Slowly Severo Cardenosa shook his head from side to side, succeeding without words in taking the stuffing out of her as he denied any such knowledge. Knocked sideways, all the heat went from her as she stared at him in shock and disbelief.
`You must know! Bella telephoned you to say I was coming in her place.' Her voice began to peter out as again he gave her that slow shake of his head. 'You told her,' she struggled on, 'that you were looking forward to meeting me.'
`Could it be your—sister lied to you?' he mocked, for all the world as though he didn't doubt Bella would lie her head off if it suited her, and conveying at the same time he thought Reggie was tarred with the same brush.
`Bella wouldn't lie to me,' Reggie stated, sounding nowhere near as positive as she would like to be, the awful truth dawning that since she could see no good reason why the man watching her so sardonically should lie, then her sister must have done. But even while she was trying to come to terms with that staggering fact, Severo Cardenosa had dropped his mocking air and was bitingly accusing her.
`Your sister told you everything that had taken place. Between you you dreamed up this little scheme of trying to take me for another ten thousand. Isn't that the truth?' he demanded, having apparently come to the conclusion that both sisters were out for all they could get.
`No, it isn't!' she flashed, her right hand itching to meet his taut cheek.
His look said he didn't believe her, without his infuriating challenge of, 'Why then are you here in her place?'
Too angry at the nerve of him to suggest she would touch a penny of his money, she spoke on a tide of temper that ignored the need for caution.
`Bella became Mrs James Usher on Boxing Day.' Sarcasm came to help her out. 'I don't think her husband would take very kindly to her carrying out this assignment, do you?'
Sarcasm got her nowhere. But the sneering way he said, 'Her husband is in this too, is he?' had her anger going over the top.
She'd waited four days for thi
s! Four days of fretting and worrying, and what had she got at the end of it?—nothing but a discovery that unbelievably Bella had lied to her, and that this—this swine of a man thought she was no better than a cheap gold-digger here to see what was in it for her.
`No,' she exploded, 'James doesn't know. He'd be absolutely horrified if he knew what Bella had done. As I was myself,' she added hotly, her deeply blue eyes flashing that he seemed impervious to her anger and nowhere near on the way to believing her. 'I took the first phone call from you—I thought it was a joke until Bella came home and said it wasn't. I didn't want to come here—and now that I've met you I wish I hadn't!'
He remained unimpressed, offering a sarcastic, 'So you have decided to take the next plane home?'
The swine! If only she could. Suddenly the terrible position she was in swamped her. She would be hard put to it to find the fare as far as Rio. Obviously Severo Cardenosa had taken one look and taken a violent dislike to her, a dislike that was so great that even the threat of a
setback to his grandfather's health wouldn't have him taking her on as a substitute for Bella. Anger left her, defeat nullifying it. Never more had she wanted to be safely home in England, safe with Clive. Tears sprang to her eyes, choking her throat, making her voice husky as she clung to what pride she could find and said with quiet dignity:
`I apologise for what Bella has done. My only purpose in coming was to settle my sister's debt.' He was so still, it unnerved her; she couldn't look at him any longer, so she moved past him to stare unseeingly at the Bay. 'I'm sorry too, that you don't find me a suitable substitute ...'
Suddenly panicky thoughts of what on earth was she going to do now were pushed to the background as alarm at the weapon she had handed him to ruin Bella's happiness seized her. Oh, why had she lost her temper, told him Bella was married, how appalled James would be! Should Severo Cardenosa decide to go to England to square accounts with Bella .. .
Innocent abroard Page 4