Her mind refused to go on. Swiftly she turned ready to plead with him not to harm her sister, only to find to her utmost relief that she had no need to sink her pride, no need to beg him not to harm Bella.
`I don't recall saying I didn't find you a suitable substitute,' he drawled, his shuttered expression giving nothing away.
Reggie was careless what his thoughts were anyway, his words alone sent hope surging in her breast. 'You mean—you mean it will be all right? That you'll take me ...'
`What do your parents think of your coming to Uruguay?' he interrupted, changing course so quickly she couldn't fathom what he was getting at.
`My parents?'
`Do they know exactly what you and your sister have been up to?'
Anger that he thought her parents wouldn't have cared less what she got up to, for that was what his tone implied, was again trying to take hold. She conquired it —just.
`My parents died when I was a child,' she said tonelessly. 'I was brought up by my grandparents.'
His eyes showed a flicker of interest. 'Your grandparents—they are living still?'
`No.' The woodenness of her expression softened as her thoughts dwelt briefly on those two kindly souls who without hesitation had taken her and Bella over. 'Grandfather died four years ago. My grandmother, though in the best of health when he died, loved him so dearly that neither Bella nor I were sufficient to make up for losing him, and she died six months later.'
She stopped there. Whether he had perceived how much she had loved them, she neither knew nor cared. But a short silence followed, then with another of those quick-changing moods she was getting to know he said suddenly, decisively:
`Right. You can pack after we've had lunch downstairs, then we'll get on our way.'
`You're taking me?' Oh, how she wished she hadn't asked! It was obvious from what he said, without the need of her impulsive question.
His right eyebrow ascended, a mocking look crossing his face. 'Yes, Reggie Barrington,' he answered. 'Oh yes, I'm taking you.'
Severo Cardenosa spoke very little on the short flight from the airport at Carrasco to Durazno, and Reggie was glad about that. Things had moved fast after his pronouncement that he was taking her. She had lost a load of her anxiety by the time they entered the restaurant for one thing, and as a consequence discovered she was hungry. But anxiety rushed in to take the pleasure with
which she had been anticipating the gateau at the end of the meal, all pleasure disappearing as she suddenly realised she would have to say something about her hotel bill.
`Something the matter?'
She hadn't realised her face was as expressive as all that—or was it just that Severo Cardenosa was more observant than most? He was acid-sharp, she had found out that much, but .
`I—er—it occurred to me I shall—er—have to see Reception before we leave,' she got out, hoping she didn't look as hot and bothered as she felt. He wasn't helping one bit, she fumed silently, sure with the intelligence in the very look of him that he knew what she was getting at. 'I had to sell my car to afford my air fare,' she added tightly, ready to hit him right there in the dining room if he made just one single solitary crack about her being on the make—this being the first overture. 'It's left me with very little over,' she ended flatly, aware that her cheeks were scarlet at having to ask this man for money.
An age seemed to pass before he put her out of her misery. Casually he leaned back in his chair, his eyes going over her flushed cheeks, his survey thorough.
`Since it was I who made the booking, mi querida,' he said at last, 'naturally I shall attend to the bill.'
While she accepted that he would perhaps have to drop a few endearments her way when they were with his grandfather, it did nothing for her heightened colour to have him practising now with that seductive-sounding Spanish equivalent of the word 'darling'.
That mocking glint was in his eyes once more as he instructed, 'Relax, Reggie. From here on you are my responsibility.'
Not wanting to be his responsibility, not wanting the gateau either, that not many minutes earlier had looked
too delicious to resist, she promptly excused herself and went to her room to pack.
That Severo could well afford the outlay he had so far spent in the pursuance of making his grandfather happy was further borne out when on leaving the plane at Durazno airport he led her to an expensive-looking Maserati. The heat of the day was getting to her, that or since she had some relief from her tensions, though she was fully aware that there would be further tensions ahead when it came to acting the loving fiancee to the full, but she had to own to feeling worn out, drained, as the car sped nearer to Cerros de Cielo.'
On the plane, belatedly, admitted, she had asked after his grandfather's health—there had been too much else going on for her to have had the chance before—but she could have done without that tightly controlled look coming about his mouth as he had asked nastily;
`Are you worried?'
She had determined then not to say another word until she was spoken to. But since then her stubbornness had been sawn at by the thought that if his grandfather had not maintained the progress he had made in hospital, then Severo's reply could well have been on account that he himself was very worried about the old man.
The thought loosened her tongue and had her breaking the car's constraining silence she felt oppressive even if he didn't. 'Er—had I better know who else I shall be meeting—besides your grandfather, I mean?'
Briefly he turned, his glance flicking her, and she was struck again by the brilliance of his blue eyes. Strangely, for no reason, her heart pumped a hurried beat or two before settling, making her ask before he could answer, if indeed he intended to, and she could see no reason why he shouldn't:
`Do you have parents—I mean a father, a ...'
`I'll take the implication that you think I'm a bastard as read,' he told her sardonically, causing her to wonder if this engagement was going to be got through without her once boxing his ears. Then all ideas of thumping him went out of her head, because he was telling her, `My parents drowned. Like you I was reared by grandparents.'
After that a severe look about him told her he had decided to clam up, and it was beneath her dignity to enquire again about the members of his household. Though glancing at him, noting the way his thick black hair met the collar of the pale grey shirt he wore beneath his lightweight suit, she thought it incredible that she was engaged to the handsome brute.
Tiredness blurred her impressions as the Maserati travelled on, though she was aware the car had been climbing before it finally turned up a long drive. A house appeared as Severo slowed, a large white-painted establishment, tubs of flowers interspersed with sound-looking pillars which supported a sturdy-roofed open verandah.
Gathering her wits, she had time only to realise that this was where her actress of the year bit had to begin, then Severo was at her door.
`Welcome to the Estancia de Cardenosa,' he said, assisting her to her feet.
Then he was escorting her inside and her impressions were all hectic for awhile. For with a babble of Spanish much to fast for her to comprehend, a woman of about fifty, drying her hands on her apron, followed by a much younger girl Reggie guessed tO be about eighteen, was coming towards them.
Severo silenced the elder woman doing all the talking by a raise of his hand, though his white even teeth were in evidence as he told her—and here Reggie did understand, or thought she did—that he would apologise for
putting her in such a flap with his telephone call another time, but meantime would she finish drying her hands and welcome his fiancée.
There wasn't time for her to check her translation, for Sergio had turned to her, his right arm coming about her shoulders. `Querida, I would like you to meet Maria, who has looked after the house for as long as I can remember.'
Reggie extended her hand. 'Mucho gusto, Maria,' she said, knowing her schoolgirl Spanish was showing.
`You
speak Spanish?'
Severo's surprised question came at the end of Maria's voluble and only half understood reply, though since he had spoken in English, Reggie was hoping Maria hadn't understood and thought it an odd question for him to ask someone he knew well enough to be engaged to.
`A little,' she replied, and was then having the girl Juana introduced, and being told that Juana had been -assigned to look after her.
Reggie repeated her Spanish 'How do you do' to the dark-haired girl whose shyly smiling brown eyes seemed to fill her face. Then Maria was informing Severo, as far as she could understand, that he had a visitor, that the Senora Gomez was here.
Who Senora Gomez was, Reggie didn't discover, though for a moment it looked as if Severo would take her with him to see the Señora. She felt his arm tighten on her shoulders as though to turn her in the direction of where Señora Gomez was waiting. Then he looked down into her face and must have judged, she thought, that she wasn't looking her best to meet his visitor, for his arm fell away and he was firing instructions at Juana, while Reggie was privately admitting that the scant sleep she had had since her arrival in Uruguay, not to mention the long flight from England, had finally caught up with her.
`Go with Juana,' Severo said, a gentle note there be-
cause they had an audience. 'It is our custom to dine late—perhaps a siesta would be welcome to you before then?'
Then before she knew what was happening, Juana was showing her -to a room that had been prepared for her. And unbelievably, since she had never had such a service done for her before, she was accepting that Juana was helping her out of her clothes and a cool sheet was covering her.
Vaguely, sleep rapidly claiming her, she heard Juana tiptoeing from the room, and a smile of whimsy tugged her lips. Her last thought was that she had slotted into her new life style as to the manner born.
CHAPTER FOUR
REGGIE stirred, stretched, memory speeding in as she opened her eyes. London was six thousand miles away. She wasn't in bed in her flat, but here in Cerros de Cielo, the fiancée of one Senor Severo Cardenosa, a man she didn't think she cared very much for, yet a man she was going to have to pretend she thought wakened the sun each day.
Thoughts of Clive threatened at this juncture, probably because thoughts of being in love were synonymous with him. She mustn't think about Clive. Unless Irene divorced him she had no future with him, she knew that now—had known it when she had left London Airport. Though since he was due to arrive home that same day it hadn't stopped her from looking out for him, half hoping, she realised guiltily, that even at that late stage she might
bump into him, that he might find out what she was doing and try to stop her going. Could she have denied him face to face?
She checked an anguished cry before it surfaced, forcing herself to eject Clive from her thoughts by contemplating her surroundings.
Her room was charming. Plain white walls relieved solid highly polished furniture, heavy lace curtains matched the lace of the bedcover, a couple of rose-coloured velvet-covered chairs in no way crowded the large airy room.
Reggie saw her suitcases had been brought in, but had no recollection of hearing a sound. Severo had said something about dinner being eaten late, so she had better get up and start with her loving fiancée act.
Opening one of her cases, she extracted a long cotton skirt and top together with fresh underwear. She assumed the other door in her room to be a bathroom, and her assumption proving correct, she showered and prepared to meet the man who was rapidly making her wish she had taken acting lessons. Trying to pretend she was in love with him was going to be no easy task.
She was ready when, silently as though not to disturb her if she was asleep, Juana appeared, to show her the way to the dining room. She took her along a wide hall that branched to the right into a wide corridor leading into the living area.
When at the door of the dining room, another large room with a long, long dining table, Reggie saw at once that only one place setting had been laid. Apparently she was to dine alone.
Well, she hadn't expected to see Grandfather Cardenosa at dinner; quite probably he had all his meals in his room. That meant she wouldn't meet him until tomorrow—which was strange, since she would have thought
Severo would want him to see her straight away. She had been tired, admittedly, Severo had seen that—though since she was not feeling very friendly towards him at that moment he earned no points from her for consideration. If it would have pleased Grandfather Cardenosa she wouldn't have minded one bit going along to see him.
Maria, bustling in with a tureen of soup accompanied by a burst of her fast flowing Spanish, broke into her musings. She thought Maria asked her if she had slept well as she ladled the delicious-smelling soup into her bowl.
`Yes, very well, thank you,' she answered in Spanish, and seeing Maria's beaming smile at her answer, congratulated herself that she had interpreted her question correctly.
Uruguayan servants, she discovered, knew no class distinction such as still existed in her own country. At least, Maria knew no such barrier, for as though seeing Reggie looked to be in need of company she stayed chatting while Reggie drank her soup, repeating words here and there that she didn't understand. It was in this way that Reggie got to know why she was dining alone. It seemed that after she had gone for her siesta, Severo had ridden over with Señora Gomez to the Gomez ranch.
Maria didn't appear to think it odd that he had stayed there or that Severo should leave his fiancée to her own devices on her first night in his home. But Reggie felt a distinct embarrassment, and was angered too. Here she was all set to carry out her part of Bella's bargain and with no fiancée to play, Juliet to!
It further annoyed her when she found she was actually wondering just how old this Señora Gomez was. She wasn't interested, for goodness' sake—even if Senora Gomez didn't turn out to be old enough to be his mother. She certainly wasn't going to question Maria either, she
determined. If he was having an affair—and since he obviously preferred to have his dinner at the Gomez table he could well be—then she wasn't going to have Maria thinking she was at all bothered by asking questions about the woman.
Instead she enquired after the health of Senor Cardenosa. and at Maria's puzzled expression realised she must have got her Spanish mixed up somewhere.
`The grandfather—how is he?' she tried again.
`Grandfather!' Maria exclaimed, and caused Reggie to be upset on Maria's behalf when tears appeared in her eyes. It was plain Maria was fond of Severo's grandfather, so naturally she would be upset that he would shortly be gone from them.
`You must mean Grandmother,' Maria confused her by saying, dabbing at her eyes with the corner of her apron. `She is not good, but with the funeral only yesterday it is
to be expected, I think.'
Reggie endeavoured to look sympathetic, knowing that
between them the Spanish language had become hopelessly muddled. She had been patting herself on the back too that more and more of the tongue had been coming back to her. Somehow or other she must have mixed up her sexes, but to enquire into whose funeral—probably it had been a friend of the old man's—was just asking for more confusion.
Not thinking Maria would take it kindly if another mix-up of Spanish had her smiling while they were discussing a funeral, when the housekeeper went away to bring her her next course she decided a change of subject was called for when Maria showed every sign of staying while she ate her steak.
`My room is very lovely,' she said, cutting into the most mouthwatering steak she had ever tasted. 'Thank you, Maria, for getting it ready for me.'.
Maria shrugged her thanks away, though she was smiling as she said, 'First you are coming and I am to prepare a room, then Doña Eva tells me fog in London has delayed you. Then Don Severo is telling me you are not coming at all, but I am not to tell Doña Eva.' Reggie's mind was boggling trying to translate this, much too busy then to query who Doña Eva wa
s. 'Then today lunch time I am telephoned to say to drop everything and prepare the best room we have, for Don Severo is bringing with him his fiancée.'
Not at all sure she had translated everything correctly, Reggie was left to finish her meal alone when Juana appeared at the dining room door. Maria heard what Juana had to say—some minor crisis in the kitchen, Reggie gathered—then Maria was excusing herself to go with Juana. She was still going back over what had been said when Maria returned bearing a most mouth watering-looking gateau.
`Don Severo said this is your favourite,' Maria said softly, her eyes warm at the love she thought her master and his fiancée shared, and causing Reggie to think he must have asked Maria to make the gateau specially for her.
It was a strawberry gateau like the one she had left at lunch when her appetite had disappeared so abruptly. More likely it was Severo's sardonic sense of humour showing through, she thought, than any desire he had that she shouldn't be done out of her strawberry gateau—he had known she hadn't cared to be claimed as his responsibility; was this one of his charming ways of endorsing that she was? She bit down the feeling of irritation with him, managing a smile for Maria as she thanked her for the trouble she had been to.
In bed that night, having been wide awake enough to tell Juana she could manage on her own, though thank-
ing her for having unpacked her cases while she had been at dinner, Reggie allowed her mind to wander freely everywhere but on Clive.
She still couldn't get over Bella lying to her. She had never done so before, she was sure. Yet not telling Severo she was coming in her place had only served to underline how desperate she was. She must have been terrified he wouldn't agree to a substitute!
Really she should write and tell her everything was all right; she had sent a postcard from Montevideo ... Reggie was brought up short as she recalled how Bella had been going to tell James, having heard from her how lovely Uruguay was, that her younger sister, inheriting some money too—no doubt from the same ficticious relative who had left Bella ten thousand—had decided to spend some of it on seeing Uruguay for herself.
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