Counterfeit Bride(13)

He shrugged. 'He was a friend, and the son of a friend. While he was at  university, he became imbued with political ideals about equality. He  saw it as his duty to work with the ejiditarios, and fight for their  rights. He even tried to become one of them-not with any great success,  as you see.'

'And you disagreed with him?'

'No. I respected his view, his ideals. But then the government's  measures on land reform were not sufficient for him. They did not move  fast enough. He began to say that landowners who were unwilling to  surrender their estates should be dispossessed-by force if necessary.  And he did not stop at talking. He led a group of peons to an estate  north of here. They had guns, shots were fired, and an overseer injured.  Miguel has placed himself outside the law.'

Nicola asked huskily, 'What happened? Did the landowner agree to their demands, and give up his land?'

'Si.' His mouth curled. 'The spineless fool.'

Her heart missed a beat. 'You wouldn't do so?'

'No,' he said softly. His eyes met hers across the table, as hard as  obsidian. 'What I give, I give, but I allow nothing to be taken from me  against my will.'

She went on looking at him, trying to tell herself she had imagined that note of menace in his voice.

He said, 'You appear nervous, chica. Are you?'

'No,' she denied too hastily.

'Don't lie to me. I can see fear in your eyes. I told you once how much  you can learn from a woman's eyes. I am glad that you have taken off  your glasses at last, Señorita Tarrant.'

Her throat seemed to close with fright. She said, 'How-how do you know my name?'

'You still wish to play games?' He shrugged. 'While you were asleep that  first day I looked in your bag and found your passport. I had to know,  you see, who was masquerading as Teresita Dominguez.'                       
       
           



       

'But how did you know?' Nicola said huskily. 'You haven't seen Teresita since she was a child.'

He shook his head. 'Wrong, señorita. You see, I have also been playing a  game with you. It is my cousin Ramon who is a stranger to Teresita. I  know her well.'

Nicola had a weird sensation that the cabin walls were closing in on  her. She pushed the stool back so violently that it fell with a clatter,  and stood up.

She said, 'Who are you?'

He rose too. He seemed to tower over her. 'I, señorita? As I am sure you have guessed already, I am Luis Alvarado de Montalba.'

She heard herself gasp, saw the barely controlled anger in the dark  face, the glitter in his eyes, and saw his hands curving like talons as  he reached for her. She remembered the hawk plunging on its prey out of  the clear sky, and cried out as she too plunged into swirling darkness.





CHAPTER FOUR

Consciousness returned slowly. Nicola was aware of a feeling of nausea  and oppression, and then a cup placed at her lips. She was told  succinctly, 'Drink,' and liquid like fire trickled into her mouth and  down her throat. She moaned faintly and moved her head from side to  side, trying to escape, but the arm which held her was implacable, and  she was incapable, anyway, of any real resistance.

Eventually she opened her eyes. She was lying on the bed in the alcove,  which explained the sense of oppression. She turned her head warily and  surveyed the rest of the cabin. The lamp on the table had been turned  low, and this, with the firelight, provided the only illumination.

He was there, her captor, her enemy, sitting beside the fireplace,  staring into the flames. Then, as if aware that she had stirred, he  turned and looked at her.

Nicola made as if to sit up and realised just in time that her blue  dress was lying across the foot of the bed, and that her only covering  was her lacy half-cup bra and tiny briefs. She snatched at the blanket  and wrapped it around herself quickly, then realised what a fool she was  being. There was only one person who could have removed her dress, so  what use was there in trying to conceal herself from him? He could  already have looked his fill while she was unconscious, she thought,  shamed to her bones.

Something else she noticed too. Her bag had been emptied and her money,  tickets and passport stood in forlorn heaps on the table.

Luis Alvarado de Montalba rose from his stool and walked across the  room. Nicola turned her head away and closed her eyes to block out the  sight of him. Unbidden, a tear squeezed out from beneath her lashes and  trickled down the curve of her cheek.

'Weeping, chica?' he mocked. 'What for? Your past sins, or their future retribution?'

She said in a low voice, 'I can explain.'

'I am sure you can,' he said drily. 'I am sure your fertile imagination  can probably conjure up at least a dozen explanations, but this time I  want the truth. Where is Teresita Dominguez?'

'Safe from you by this time, I hope,' she said wearily.

'You speak as if I pose some threat to Teresita,' he remarked.

'Don't you?' Her voice was bitter. 'I suppose an ego like yours can only  imagine that a proposal of marriage from you would flatter and  overwhelm any woman. It would never occur to you that Teresita would  find the prospect of marrying you utterly repulsive.'

'You speak as if I planned to drag her to the altar by her hair.' The  dark eyes glinted as he looked down at her. 'I promise that I had no  such intention. I believed that she was as-resigned to the idea of our  marriage as myself.' He paused. 'But I had not allowed for the  influences which would be brought to bear on her once she had left the  convent.'

Nicola gasped. 'Then-you knew about that?'

'Naturally I knew,' he returned impatiently. 'She was my ward, therefore  it was my business to know when she left the shelter of the  accommodation I had provided for her. However, I was assured by the  general manager of Trans-Chem that you and the other girl were  respectable, and that Teresita would only benefit from your company. How  wrong he was!'

'Then you also knew we'd met Teresita at Trans-Chem?' Nicola sank back on the mattress, utterly chagrined.

'Of course. I arranged for her to work there on a temporary basis at one  time, because she was insistent that she wished to have a job like  other girls.' A wintry smile touched the corners of his mouth. 'I  imagine you know how that worked out. She was given the job as a favour  to me because I was on the board of the company for which Trans-Chem  were acting as consultants. I imagine it was only out of respect for me  that she was not ignominiously sacked on the first day.'

'How well informed you are,' Nicola said bitterly. 'It was lucky for Teresita that your informant slipped up over Cliff.'

'If you refer to Clifford Arnold, I knew about his visits from the  beginning, but I did not take them seriously.' His mouth twisted  cynically. 'I did not grudge the child a flirtation. Knowing her, I was  sure it would go no further than that.'                       
       
           



       

'Then you're wrong.' Nicola lifted her chin defiantly. 'Cliff is Teresita's husband by now.'

'I would not be too sure of that,' he said coolly. 'There are lengthy  formalities before any marriage can take place between a Mexican  national and a foreigner.'

She heard him with dismay. The legal aspect of the situation had not  really occurred to her. She'd heard so much about the ease of divorce  and marriage in Mexico that she had not realised there could be any  snags where the bridal couple were of mixed nationalities.

So it had all been for nothing, she thought miserably, and a little sob escaped her.

'Don't think you will escape the penalties of your actions by such  abject behaviour,' he said crushingly. 'What happened to the spirit you  showed over the past two days?'

'I'm not crying for myself,' she choked, 'but for Teresita.'

'Then I would save your tears,' he said caustically. 'She seems in little need of them.'

'No?' She stared up at him accusingly. 'When you're going to go to  Mexico City, and drag her away from the man she loves? When you're going  to ruin her life?'

He shrugged. 'Teresita has taken her future into her own hands. Whether  or not her life is ruined would seem to depend on herself and this man  she has chosen. However, she is of age, so legally no concern of mine. I  shall not interfere.'

Nicola digested this in some bewilderment. 'But don't you even care?'

'Oh yes, chica,' he said silkily. 'I care that I have been made a fool  of. I care that Teresita allowed the arrangements for our marriage to go  ahead without informing me that she no longer wished to become my wife.  I care that a stranger has forced her way into my life, throwing my  plans into chaos.'

'But what does that matter? You never really wanted Teresita. You can't have done!'

'The match was made between our families,' he said bleakly. 'Perhaps  neither of us was overjoyed at the prospect, but we could have expected  to be reasonably happy-eventually. It is time I was married. I have a  number of houses, but no real home. I need a son to whom I can pass on  the inheritance I have built for him. I need some grace and serenity in  my life. I felt Teresita could give me these things.'