Innocent abroard

by Jessica Steele

slow Spanish, and the idea sprang into her head that it might give Doña Eva a lift to see her wedding dress, though she wondered at the feeling inside herself that said she just had to show her purchases to somebody, 'I think I'll go and talk to Doña Eva.'

  `Good, you're back,' Doña Eva greeted her warmly when Ana had shown Reggie, complete with parcels, into her quarters, and having already taken her own tea she instructed Ana to make some fresh. 'I expect you could do with a cup. Severo told me you'd gone shopping with Lola.'

  `I'm gasping,' Reggie smiled. 'But what I really came for was to show you my wedding dress.'

  Doña Eva's face was expressive as Reggie shook out the fine white matt material of her dress, her approval evident as she exclaimed at the tiny white silk roses that decorated neck, 'hem, waist and cuffs. But when Reggie showed her her veil there were tears in the old lady's eyes, happy tears as she related that her own veil had been very similar.

  Ana too came to admire, and talk about the wedding went on for some minutes, with Reggie for the first time feeling able to enter into the spirit of the thing since now she had agreed to go through with it she had no cause to think all this talk was for nothing.

  Her dress carefully folded in its carrier and Ana once more about her duties, Reggie, sitting in her usual seat beside Abuela, was suddenly alarmed to hear her state that she would be leaving for her own home on the day of the wedding.

  `But you can't!' Apart from the fact that she was growing dear to her, she felt horrified that there would only be her and Severo once Doña Eva left.

  Doña Eva patted her hand gently. 'It's nice to know you want me in your home, Reggie, but it wouldn't be

  right. It's not right that you start your married life with a member of your husband's family in residence.'

  `But ...' Reggie began to protest.

  `Yes, I know I have my own apartment and you need never see me if you don't wish to. But with Severo saying you're not going away on honeymoon—your own business, I'm sure, for all I find it most peculiar—I don't wish to be here so that on your honeymoon at home, when you'll be wanting to spend all your time together, you'll feel you have to come along to see me.'

  Reggie took her parcels back to her room, not liking at all this turn of events. But as the days wore on and, the day of the wedding came nearer, she began to adjust to the fact there would not be many more afternoon visits to Abuela. And thinking about it deeply, she came to the conclusion that miss seeing her as she would, perhaps it was just as well. She had seen Maria in conversation with Ana a time or two, and who knew, with Maria's garrulous tongue, unquestionably loyal to the household as she was, she might well pass on to Ana, who was also a limb of the household that for a honeymoon it was most peculiar that the new mistress slept alone in her room.

  That part of the whole proceedings worried her from time to time. Severo had his pride in full measure and she wasn't lacking either in that department, but to have the staff discussing their night-time activities—or lack of them—was something that was abhorrent to her. Still, she sighed, remembering personal pride had been out in force on both sides when Severo had refused to take back the change from her wedding dress, expensive as it had been, abhorrent or not, it was something she just couldn't bring herself to discuss with him. Three times this week she had eaten dinner alone, and she didn't care if she was getting crabby in her old age that she took such great pleasure from hoping that Manuela Gomez's cook was not a patch on Maria.

  The day before her wedding she gave serious thought to whether she should write and tell Bella, for James' benefit, that she had met the most divine Uruguayan, Severo Cardenosa, and was marrying him. She decided against it. She could tell her sister she had gone through with the marriage she had 'forgotten' to tell her about when she was back in England, the marriage annulled.

  Her wedding day dawned as beautiful as any young bride could wish. But as far as Reggie was concerned it might just as well have been raining cats and dogs. Severo had chosen the same time yesterday as her to visit Abuela. He listened as she had done while Doña Eva said they mustn't see each other before the ceremony tomorrow, and heard his grandmother remark that she thought she looked a little pale.

  `Excitement, I expect.' His eyes had given her a thorough going over, his voice, purely for his grandmother's ears, she knew, was surprisingly gentle as he asked, 'Are you feeling quite well, querida?'

  Nerves about the whole of the next day were the cause of her paleness, she knew. For from what she could make out the world and his wife would be in attendance. Severo would take being the centre of attraction in his stride, but the idea of her being the centre of attraction too, and to so many people, literally terrified her. But an unexpected imp of devilment had taken hold of her.

  `Oh, wouldn't it be just too awful if after all these preparations I was ill and it had to be cancelled?'

  `We'll get you to the church, my darling,' said Severo, `if we have to take you there on a stretcher.'

  With Abuela looking quite blissful that Severo would stand no obstacle in his impatience to make her his bride, Reggie had done her best to look as if it was the loveliest thing she had ever heard—a tough assignment, when she could have thumped him for the threat she alone knew was behind his words.

  Because there were so many visitors to the estancia, it being decreed she would be worn out with entertaining before she got to the church, Reggie had a luncheon tray brought to her room. She was not hungry, but because she knew she was going to need all her strength for the reception afterwards, she forced as much of the meal down as she could manage.

  The morning had ticked by with dreadful slowness, jitters setting in so that she had to force herself to remember that Bella's debt had to be paid, hope in her heart that there wasn't anything else Bella had 'forgotten' to tell her.

  If the morning had dragged, then once her tray had been removed the time simply flew. Juana's big moment too had arrived. She was all shyness and smiles as she helped the girl who would soon be mistress of the Estancia de Cardenosa into her bridal finery.

  Then Reggie was leaving her room, Francisco Mendoza escorting her to the charming village church. The church was full to overflowing. She gripped on to Franco's arm as if seeking a lifeline, last-minute panicky thoughts of, this is wrong, all wrong, taking her.

  And then she saw Severo, his attire formal; a friend from his university days standing with him. And she knew then, pride in every line of the back to her, as much for his sake as for his grandmother's, that in front of all these people who respected him, she couldn't let him down. She couldn't take to her heels and run, and keep on running.

  Francisco took her to the man with whom she was to be joined in a loveless marriage, and as Severo turned, all thought ceased, nothing remembered until she came out of church as his wife. For those brilliantly blue eyes held a proud admiration she had never expected to see, and as she looked back through her misty veil, she could only wonder that his eyes took on a brief warmth especially for her.

  She was able to reason, as she stood with him hoping her smile would hold up as professional and amateur photographers alike clicked away, that any special warmth she had seen in him must be because everything was going as planned.

  The reception, expertly catered for, was not the ordeal she had had nightmares about. Severo kept by her side for most of the time and she was grateful for his support. There was no way she was going to remember the names that went with every hand she shook, though the face of Jorge Gomez, Manuela's husband, a man about twenty years older than his wife, did register. Never had Reggie seen a more worried-looking man. He was of stocky build, but with a pride in his bearing she found endearing, that pride making him momentarily drop his anxious expression for a smile as he congratulated Severo on his beautiful bride.

  "I thank you for your congratulations, Jorge,' Severo replied, turning his blue eyes on her, her veil now away from her face, 'and I agree—my bride is beautiful.'

  For an age afterwards,
even when people had eaten their fill, old and young alike getting up to dance their own interpretation of the music coming from an immaculate-looking sextet, Reggie could not get the worried face of Jorge Gomez from her mind. She just had to wonder if he knew about the affair Severo was having with Manuela, her feelings most unbridle like towards her new husband if that was what had put that defeated look there.

  The celebrations were almost at an end when she had the answer. No, he did not know. Severo had seldom left her, but standing with Lola and Franco, she saw him talking to Manuela's husband, nothing hostile showing. If anything Jorge Gomez appeared to have a lot of time for Severo, and listened hard to anything he had to say.

  Since it couldn't be what was going on between him

  and Mandela that they were discussing, Reggie decided since Uruguayans were so proud of their democracy then most likely they must be talking politics, though the main political parties, Blancos and Colorados, were still much of a mystery to her.

  Perhaps because Jorge Gomez had looked happier leaving than when he had come, Reggie was feeling better disposed towards Severo when the last guest had gone. So it wasn't so much of an act when he said, `Abuela went to her rooms a few hours ago, as you know, but now I think she will want to start her journey home. Will you come with me to say goodbye to her?' to genuinely agree that it was unthinkable that Doña Eva should leave without her first seeing her.

  `Your grandfather would have been so proud this day, Severo,' Abuela said as they walked with her and Ana to the waiting car, one of the men from her own household having come to drive them home.

  Doña Eva then turned, her thin arms embracing her granddaughter-in-law, and having learned that her grandparents had completed her upbringing:

  `And your grandparents would have been proud of you too, my dear,' she said softly, and while Reggie was fighting against tears, she added, 'But this too for me has been one of the happiest days of my life. I thank God that I'm alive to see it.'

  She then kissed Reggie before turning to kiss her grandson, who handed her into the car, tucking her skirts around her before he leaned to kiss her cheek.

  Reggie's eyes were brimming over as she stood on the drive with Severo waving at the car. Then, knowing he wouldn't understand, she turned, intending to hurry into the house.

  Only she didn't make it. Severo's hand, fast on her arm, was turning her, so she just had to face him. Re-

  lentless fingers beneath her chin forced her head up, making her look at him.

  Tears glinted on her lashes and she wanted to pull away. `Ah, querida, do not look so sad,' he said gently, and while still holding on to her he bent and kissed first one cheek and then the other. 'Today Abuela is happy, is she not? Do not waste your tears on sad thoughts.' And then, as though determined to cheer her up, 'Come with me, I have something to show you.'

  `I'd better go and change out of my dress, hadn't I?'

  she asked, mesmerised for the moment by his charm. `No,' he said decisively. 'What better way to see your

  wedding present than dressed the way you are?' `Wedding present . ..?'

  But already Severo was taking her over the drive and to where the outbuildings and garages were.

  CHAPTER NINE

  OPEN-MOUTHED, unable to find words, Reggie gazed at the little red Mini that was Severo's wedding gift to her.

  `I never expected ...' she found her voice, surprise evident. 'What made you ... I haven't got anything for you.' And as she recalled that she had told him at that first meeting she had had to sell her old car to pay her air fare, embarrassment rose. 'You shouldn't have done it, Severo—I never asked you for anything.'

  Instantly she knew she had said the wrong thing. He looked annoyed to be reminded of his opinion of her, his opinion that she was out for anything she could get. Then as though determined that today at least would end without them firing broadsides at each other, he suddenly

  grinned, putting his arm across her shoulders when he noticed as she had that Pancho too had come to look at the car.

  `It is expected of me to give you a wedding present, querida,' he told her, his glance flicking to Pancho.

  Oh, so that was it! The staff would no doubt wonder what gift the master had given his bride. Why she should feel let down that the Mini, no inexpensive item, had been given purely to satisfy his inquisitive work force, she couldn't have said, but it reminded her that she still had a part to play.

  `It's a lovely gift, thank you, Severo,' she said politely, and keeping brightness to the fore as he turned her towards the house, 'Have I time to change and try her out before dinner?'

  `I'll come with you,' was her answer as they crossed the verandah and into the hall.

  Was he coming with her in order that the staff should see he couldn't bear to let her out of his sight? Or was it just so that he could check on what sort of a driver she was before he let her loose on her own?

  Any delving into the answer didn't get under way. For his arm had remained about her shoulders, and making to leave him where the hall branched to her room, she found him guiding her in another direction.

  `What ...' she began.

  Smoothly, not faltering in his step, forcing her to go with him, calmly he told her, 'The room you were using is no longer fitting for the bride of CardInosa.'

  Don't panic, don't panic. Try and be as calm as he's sounding, she told her fluttering nerves, recalling that Maria had told her that first evening that Severo had instructed that the best room at the estancia be prepared for her. Yet here he was announcing that the room was no longer fitting for her!

  When he stopped outside a door, then pushed the door open, she couldn't have said what her thoughts were. He stood back to allow her to go forward, following her into a room that seemed everywhere to be draped in white.

  White bedcover, white curtains, even a tremendous arrangement of white flowers stood in a vase on the dressing table. Without saying a word, trying with everything in her not to be aware of him standing watching her, Reggie went to the whitewood wardrobe, opening doors, to see, as she had been beginning to suspect, that her clothes had at some time during the day been transferred from her old room.

  Still unspeaking, she closed the wardrobe door, her nerves taut as she saw from the corner of her eye the casual way Severo had propped himself up against the wall to let her get on with her inspection. There were two other doors in the room. It was as she spotted them that the tension that had been mounting in her started to ease.

  The first door revealed a bathroom, white also. Trying not to hurry and thereby betray the anxiety Severo probably knew was threatening to have her in a state of collapse, Reggie opened the other door.

  Relief roared in so that she very nearly collapsed anyway. It was another bedroom. The thoughts she had had about the staff speculating on the distance between their two bedrooms must have visited Severo too, she realised. And she saw, too, that this way, giving her a room that adjoined his, though perhaps slightly thought-provoking to have separate rooms, could be taken by the staff to be some modern idea they both shared.

  Looking on both sides of the door, she hoped for some signs of a key, a lock, but there was none. Then, recalling how Severo had avoided them having a fight by cooling the situation out by the car when he had looked annoyed with her, she determined she wasn't going to start a fight

  either, and spoke for what must be the first time in all of five minutes.

  `I'm not too happy,' she began, her voice breaking off when he straightened from the wall looking ready to top any comment she made, 'about the—er—habit you have of coming into my room without knocking.'

  Her anger flared briefly when he burst out laughing, then died. And she had to turn away because ridiculously she felt she wanted to laugh too, that she had come out with what she had when he must have been expecting her to blow her top.

  `You are wonderful, Regina Cardenosa,' he told her, amusement still in his voice. Because she hadn't screamed and yelled at him? O
r because he could see she didn't like it, but knew exactly why he had moved her to this room? `Are you afraid I shall come in one time and find you in the—altogether?' Amusement was still there, but Reggie no longer felt like laughing and it showed. 'Will you feel better if I give you my word that I will always knock when I find it—imperative—to see you?'

  Was he being sarcastic? She gave him a solemn stare just in case. Then as though that was the end of the discussion, and she wasn't sure then whether or not she had his word he would first knock before coming in, he said:

  `Change as quickly as you can. You ate very little at the reception and must be hungry. We will drive for only a very short distance.'

  She did feel hungry when they returned from putting the Mini through its paces. It was a delight to her to be behind the wheel of a car again—a car this time that didn't have the temperamental bent of the one she had sold.

  Back in her room, changing from the jeans she had hastily donned, she felt she had needed that short spin in the car. The pricked balloon feeling that had her sagging

  when Severo had left her room was now a thing of the

  past. She had that day been married, but apart from

  changing her name, her room, very little else had altered.

  At dinner Severo was at his most charming, not once saying anything guaranteed to have her firing up. And with Maria twittering in and out from time to time, her look softening each time it fell on her, Reggie knew that especially tonight she had to be on her best behaviour.

  When the meal ended and with Severo being so charming, she found she was able to say without embarrassment, 'It's been a long day. I think I'll go to bed.'

  `It has been a long day, as you say. I don't think I shall be so very far behind you,' he agreed pleasantly. 'Would you like me to send Juana to you?'

  She remembered Juana's dreamy romantic expression of that morning. `No—no, thanks.' Severo rose to escort her to the door, and suddenly she was nervous, though she knew she had no cause. 'G-goodnight,' she stammered before he barely had the door open, and without waiting for his reply, she bolted.