Forbidden Flame Read online

  'I see.' Caroline gathered herself quickly. 'You are— you are here to meet me?'

  'Of course.' Long dark lashes narrowed the steel grey eyes. 'My brother is—indisposed. He asked me to bring you to San Luis.'

  Caroline drew a somewhat unsteady breath and nodded. 'I'll get my things.'

  'Permit me.'

  He was there before her, hefting her two cases effortlessly, indicating that she should preceded him from the room. The fat little hotel proprietor watched them with a mixture of relief and brooding resentment, and Caroline, meeting his cold gaze, shivered. In spite of the ingratiating smile he immediately adopted, she would not trust him an inch, and she hoped she never had to throw herself on his mercy.

  Downstairs, a group of men were gathered in the hall, and from their attitude Caroline suspected they had been hoping for a fight. She guessed they had known what Allende was about, and as they stepped back with evident respect to let them pass, she felt an increasing surge of gratitude towards Seňor Montejo. Without his intervention she could have expected no help from this quarter, and she pressed her arms tightly against her sides to avoid any kind of contact.

  Outside, the downpour had eased somewhat, but it was still raining. Water drained in douches from the eaves above their heads as they crossed the muddy street to where a scarcely-identifiable Range Rover was parked, and the shoulders of Caroline's shirt felt damp as she scrambled with more haste than elegance into the front seat. Her companion thrust her cases into the back, then came round the bonnet to get in beside her, removing his jacket as he did so, and tossing it into the back along with her luggage.

  He didn't say anything as he inserted the keys into the ignition and started the engine, and Caroline endeavoured to recover her composure. It wasn't easy, with the memory of what had almost happened still sharply etched in her mind, but as her breathing slowed she managed to get it into some kind of perspective. In retrospect, it seemed almost ludicrous to imagine herself tumbling across the bed, but at the time she had known definite fear.

  'A baptism of fire, would you say?' Seňor Montejo enquired, as the vehicle reached the end of the village street, and Caroline glanced sideways at him. Ahead was only jungle, vine-infested and menacing in the fading grey light, and although Las Estadas was scarcely civilised, compared to what was beyond, the lights of the village seemed infinitely comforting. What more did she know of this man, after all? she pondered. Only what he had told her. And Seňor Allende's behaviour, which had spoken of fear, as well as respect. But fear of what, and of whom, she had yet to find out.

  'How—how far is it to San Luis de Merced?' she ventured, not answering him, and his mouth drew down at the corners.

  'Not far,' he replied evenly. 'Between twenty and twenty-five miles. Why?' He was perceptive. 'Are you afraid you cannot trust me either?'

  Caroline moistened her lips. 'Can I?'

  He inclined his head. 'Of a surety, seňorita.' He paused. 'Believe me, you have nothing to fear from me.'

  It was dark long before they reached their destination. It came quickly, shrouding the surrounding trees in a cloak of shadows, hiding the primitive landscape, concealing the sparse settlements, much like Las Estadas, if not in size, then certainly in appearance. Caroline wondered how these people lived in such conditions, where they worked, how they supported themselves, what kind of education their children had. There seemed such a gulf between the man beside her and these poor peasants, but she was loath to voice it when he did not.

  The road did improve for some distance, when they joined an interstate highway, but after a while they left it again to bounce heavily along a rutted track, liberally spread with potholes. Caroline gripped her seat very tightly, to prevent herself from being thrown against the man beside her, and she felt, rather than saw, him look her way.

  'Are you regretting coming, seňorita?' he asked, again surprising her by his perception. 'Do not be discouraged by the weather. It is not always like this. Tomorrow, the sun will shine, and you will see beauty as well as ugliness.'

  Caroline turned her head. 'You admit—there is ugliness?'

  'There is ugliness everywhere, seňorita,' he replied flatly. 'All I am saying is, do not judge my country by its weaknesses. If you look for strength, you will find it.'

  Caroline hesitated. 'That's a very profound view.'

  'Profundity is as easy for a stupid man to mouth as a learned one,' he remarked, and she saw him smile in the illumination from the dials in front of him. 'Do not be misled by my enthusiasm. I love my country, that is all.'

  Caroline was intrigued, as much by the man as by what he had said. He was a very attractive man, but she had known that as soon as she saw him. What she had not known then was that he had a sense of humour, or that she should find his conversation so stimulating.

  'Your brother,' she said thoughtfully, 'he runs a ranch, doesn't he? Do you work with him?'

  There was a moment's silence before he answered her, and then he said: 'Here, we call it a hacienda. And yes, Esteban is the hacendado. But he does not run the ranch. He has a—how do you call it?—overseer to run the spread for him.'

  'And what do you grow? Corn? Maize?'

  'Cattle,' responded Luis Montejo dryly. 'My brother employs many gauchos. It is a very large holding.'

  Caroline nodded. She had known this. Seňora Garcia had told her. And about her granddaughter, Emilia…

  'Your niece,' she tendered now. 'She's an only child, I believe.'

  Again there was a pause before he replied. 'Yes,' he said at last. 'Emilia has no brothers or sisters. Her mother died when she was born.'

  'Oh!' Seňora Garcia had not told her this. 'How distressing for your brother! He must have been very upset.'

  'Yes.'

  It was an acknowledgement, no more, and Caroline found herself wondering whether she was mistaken in thinking his tone was clipped. Surely there was no suggestion that Don Esteban was uncaring of his wife's death. Surely Seňora Garcia would have warned her if this was so.

  Yet, she realised, she really knew nothing of these people, beyond what they chose to tell her. That was why her own parents had been so opposed to her travelling so far on such a slender recommendation. If they had not felt equally strongly about her relationship with Andrew Lovell, she knew they would have done their utmost to make her change her mind. As it was, they were torn in conflicting directions.

  'So, you are young to have come so far alone,' Luis Montejo remarked, unconsciously interpreting her silence. 'But then,' he continued, an ironic twist to his lips, 'English girls are more emancipated than Spanish women. They do not have the restrictions put upon them as our girls do.'

  Caroline struggled to recover her earlier enthusiasm. 'Do you disapprove, seňor?' she ventured, forcing a light tone, and waited with some misgivings for his answer.

  'It is not my concern,' he responded, moving his shoulders in a gesture of dismissal, and Caroline knew a moment's impatience.

  'You must have an opinion,' she insisted, curious to know his feelings, and with a rueful grimace he avoided a pothole before replying.

  'Let us say I have the usual chauvinist attitudes,' he remarked. 'A woman is not a man, and she should not try to emulate one.'

  'You think that's what I'm trying to do?' exclaimed Caroline indignantly, and his laughter was low and attractive.

  'No one could mistake your sex, seňorita,' he assured her dryly, and she felt a not unpleasant stirring of her senses. 'All I am saying is that a woman's role is not naturally that of the hunter, but that the inevitable conclusion to any continued adaptation is transformation.'

  Caroline gazed ahead of her, watching the headlights of the Range Rover as they searched out a marsh cactus, glimpsing, as if in a shadowy reflection, a four-legged creature moving out there in the darkness. His answer had been predictable, and yet more logical, than some she had heard. But it was not flattering to find oneself compared, however indirectly, to a member of the opposite sex, and she wished s
he had some clever response to flatten his biased argument.

  'I have offended you, I think,' he commented now, his tone lacking its earlier mockery. 'I am sorry, I did not mean to do so. But you asked for my opinion, and I gave it.'

  Caroline shrugged. 'You haven't offended me,' she declared, although, unknowingly, her whole demeanour suggested that he had. 'I was trying to think of a suitable answer, that's all.'

  'I think you mean a suitable set-down,' he observed, giving her a wry grin. 'I am sorry, truly. Believe me, you are a very feminine lady, and I salute your courage in pursuing your career.'

  'You don't really.' Caroline would not be deceived. 'You're probably one of those men who thinks a woman shouldn't have a brain in her head!'

  'No!' His humour was infectious, and against her will Caroline found herself responding to it.

  'You do,' she insisted, abandoning all formality between them. 'I just hope your brother is more tolerant in his attitudes to women.'

  There was another of those pregnant silences, when Caroline wondered exactly what she had said, and when he replied, there was little humour left in his voice. 'Oh, yes,' he said, and she heard the irony in his tones, 'Esteban is much more tolerant you will find. It was he who employed you, seňorita. How could he think otherwise?' It was not the answer she would have preferred, and she was left feeling decidedly deflated. For a few minutes she had lost the feeling of apprehension that had gripped her ever since Seňor Allende burst into her room. But once again a sense of unease enveloped her, making her overwhelmingly aware of her own vulnerability.

  'How—how much further is it?' she asked now, needing his voice to dispel her tension, and he frowned into the darkness.

  'Not far,' he told her. 'Five miles, at most. Are you tired? Or perhaps hungry? I am sure my brother's housekeeper will have a meal waiting for you.'

  'And—and your aunt?' Caroline probed. 'Seňora Garcia told me she also lives at the—the hacienda.'

  'That is correct. She came to San Luis when my father married her sister. She has never married, and she considers San Luis her home.'

  Caroline welcomed this information. An elderly aunt sounded infinitely less intimidating than a man whose wife had died in childbirth, and who might or might not have mourned her passing. She stared out blindly into the darkness. It seemed such a long way. The road was so bad, and so twisting. Was this the only link with civilisation?

  She was not thinking what she was doing, slumped in her seat, wrapped in the corkscrewing spiral of her thoughts. When the Range Rover swung round a bend in the road, and Seňor Montejo braked hard to avoid a pile of rocks and debris brought down by the rain, she was flung about like a doll, cracking her head on the windscreen before being thrown back against him. It happened so suddenly she was unable to save herself, and she clutched at him violently, to prevent further punishment.

  'Dios mio!' he muttered, as the vehicle shuddered to a standstill, and his arm automatically went around her. 'Are you all right? Did I hurt you? I am sorry. This road can be treacherous after a storm.'

  Caroline breathed shakily, her face pressed against the soft material of his shirt. Beneath the fine cloth, his heart was pounding heavily in her ears, and the clean male scent of his skin filled her nostrils. His body was hard, muscular, unyielding, and yet possessed of a supple strength, that accommodated the flexibility of hers. Even after the Range Rover had ground to a halt, and the uncanny silence had enveloped them in its blanketing shield, she clung to his strength, and knew it was not just the near-accident which had aroused such a desire for his protection.

  'Miss Leyton!' His voice was a key lower, husky, possessed of a certain restraint. 'Miss Leyton, what is it? Are you hurt? Tell me, what is the matter?'

  His words brought Caroline to her senses, and with a little gesture of negation she moved away from him. Immediately he withdrew his arm from the back of her seat, and after allowing her a swift appraisal, he thrust open his door.

  Sliding his arms into his jacket, he retrieved a spade from the back of the vehicle, and while she endeavoured to compose herself, he vigorously disposed of the pile of debris. He worked in the illumination from the headlights, bending and lifting, and throwing the contents of the spade across the ditch at the side of the road. Caroline watched him with uneasy awareness, troubled as much by her own reactions to him as by their brush with danger. It was disturbing to realise that during those moments in his arms she had known a wholly unexpected sense of anticipation, and she knew if he had chosen to bend his head and find her mouth with his she would not have objected.

  It was a shocking realisation, not only because of her feelings for Andrew, but because she had known Luis Montejo for such a short period of time. She had thought herself so self-confident, so emancipated—yet, when the warm scent of his breath had brushed her cheek, she had felt as weak and susceptible as any Victorian miss. She checked the shoulder-length curve of her hair with unsteady fingers. No doubt he had known how she felt, she thought, with some self-derision. He must be highly amused now, after her previous assertions of female rights. Perhaps she should be grateful he had not chosen to take the affair any further. It would have been doubly humiliating to arrive on Don Esteban's doorstep, with his brother's brand already upon her.

  The spade thudded into the back of the vehicle, and she stiffened as the door beside her opened, and Luis Montejo climbed back into his seat. This time, he kept his jacket on, and the damp smell of the material mingled with the faint odour of sweat from his exertions.

  'You are sure you are all right?' he enquired again, his voice perceptibly cooler now, yet still polite and concerned, and she nodded, fingering a slight swelling on her temple.

  'I should have been more careful,' she answered, endeavouring to keep her tone light. 'Your roads are certainly—unpredictable.'

  'And dangerous,' he agreed, with grim impatience, starting the engine abruptly and thrusting it into drive, and Caroline turned her head away from him, to gaze through the rain-smeared window.

  San Luis de Merced was a village, as well as the place where Don Esteban de Montejo had his estates. There were lights in the village, glowing through the shutters of adobe dwellings, mingling with the smoke from a dozen chimneys. There was the spicy smell of meat and peppers, and the stronger aroma of woodsmoke, and children in open doorways, to watch their progress. Someone shouted after them, and Luis Montejo answered, raising his hand in greeting as Caroline thought she heard the word 'padre'. But her attention was diverted as the Range Rover lurched on to an upward slope, and she clung desperately to her seat as they wound precipitously up through a belt of trees, to where high wooden gates were set in a grey stone wall. The wall itself was easily eight feet high, a solid barrier to what was beyond, and Caroline's nerves tightened. Beyond the wall was her destination, and her courage faltered at the sight of that prison-like edifice.

  Luis Montejo brought the vehicle to a halt and sprang down again to hammer on the gates. Reassuringly, they were soon opened, by an elderly retainer, dressed in the usual garb of loose-fitting pants, and waistcoat, the sleeves of his shirt rolled back to his elbows. He removed the wide-brimmed hat from his head as they drove through, then replaced it again to close the gates behind them.

  'Gomez,' remarked her companion shortly, as Caroline glanced back over her shoulder. 'He used to work for my brother, but now he is too old to ride herd, and spends his days keeping the gate.'

  'Like St Peter,' commented Caroline, wishing to ease the tension inside her, and Luis Montejo gave her a thoughtful look.

  'Perhaps,' he conceded at length, but Caroline had the distinct impression that he had been tempted to make another comparison.

  Beyond the gates, the tyres encountered the solid mass of a stone courtyard. Caroline decided it resembled an ancient fortress, with its outer walls and solid buttresses, a width of drive leading past stables and outhouses and under an inner archway to the stone-flagged entrance.

  Montejo drove under the ar
ch, and brought the Range Rover to a halt at the foot of a flight of steps, leading up to a wooden door. The rain had ceased, and the warmth of the night air dispelled the feeling of chill Caroline had developed when first she saw the house. There was the fragrant scent of oleander and hibiscus, and the soft smell of earth after rain, and as she climbed out of the vehicle Caroline determined not to allow what had happened in Las Estadas to influence her first impressions of her home for the next few weeks.

  The door above them opened as Luis Montejo was unloading her cases from the Range Rover. A plump, round-faced little woman descended the steps to greet them, and meeting her round, beady little eyes, Caroline wondered if this could conceivably be Doňa Isabel. She was quickly disillusioned.

  'Consuelo,' remarked the man beside her, straightening with a case in each hand. 'She speaks little English, but she will do her best.'

  'Buenas tardes, seňor.' Consuelo addressed herself to Luis Montejo, but her eyes were all for Caroline. 'Buenas tardes, seňorita. Bienvenido a San Luis.'

  'Thank you—gracias!' It was one of the few words she knew and Caroline glanced in some embarrassment towards Seňor Montejo, doubting the accuracy of her accent.

  But he merely inclined his head, and said 'Muy bien,' in a low voice behind her, as they followed the gesticulating Consuelo up the steps. 'No sabia que pedia hablar espaňol!' he added, confusing her further, and she glanced round at him, pursing her lips.

  'You must know I don't understand you,' she whispered, aware of Consuelo's inquisitive interest, and his smile was a disturbing reminder of the way he had made her feel in the car.

  'No importa,' he assured her, his meaning obvious this time, and she sighed. 'Esteban was educated at Oxford. I am sure you will have no difficulty in understanding him.'

  The undertones of his words were lost on her as she stepped into the baroque beauty of the exquisitely decorated hall of the house. In the light from a dozen electric lamps, concealed behind bronze shades, her eyes were dazzled by fluted columns supporting the high arched ceiling, by heavily carved mouldings and inlaid mosaics, and by miniaturised statues of the Virgin and Child. The vertiginous twists of a wrought-iron staircase were enhanced by leaves veined in marble, and the chequerboard pattern beneath their feet was coloured in black and gold. If the outer appearance of the house had been daunting, its inner beauty more than made up for it, and she turned to the man behind her with bewildered eyes, seeking some explanation.