Counterfeit Bride(26)

       
           



       

Nicola stared at it, completely at a loss. 'How kind of him,' she remarked at last.

Maria gasped. 'Kind? Ah, no, señora. You do not understand. It is a local custom.'

'Another of them,' Nicola muttered, but Maria went chattering on.

'Here, when the wedding night is over, the husband sends his wife a  flower as a token of how she has pleased him. And the Señor Don Luis  sends you a red rose, señora, the flower of love itself.' She giggled  again. 'He must be a happy man this morning!'

The Señor Don Luis, Nicola thought savagely, was a cynical, sarcastic bastard. She pushed the tray away.

'I'm not hungry, Maria. I want to get dressed.'

'But, señora,' Maria's eyes nearly popped out of her head, 'should you not-remain where you are?'

Nicola felt a slight flush rise in her cheeks. She said, 'No, Maria. Run me a bath, please, and I'll wear the green dress.'

'Ay de mi!' Maria lamented. She did as she was told, but her expression  said plainly that any woman fortunate to be sent a red rose after a  night of passion with Don Luis should lie back and wait for further  goodies to come her way.

She looked reasonable, Nicola thought, as she gave herself a iast  critical look in the mirror. A little shadowy under the eyes, but that  would be expected, she thought ironically.

She was on her way to the door when Maria's shocked voice halted her. 'Señora- your flower!' She was holding out the rose.

Nicola stared at it. 'What am I supposed to do with it?' she asked flatly.

Maria gestured almost despairingly. 'Wear it in your hair, señora. Or carry it, or pin it to your dress against your heart.'

'I'll carry it,' Nicola decided with ill grace, but she was beginning to  wonder whether the rose had been presented to her with quite the irony  she had at first thought. She hadn't realised it was a token she would  be expected to exhibit publicly, but now she could see that in its way,  the flower was a chivalrous gesture on Luis' part. After last night's  fiasco, he could have sent nothing at all, or the Mexican equivalent of  bindweed, and given the whole household something to whisper about in  corners. Whereas now, everyone would think that the dueno was well  pleased with his bride.

She looked down at the rose with sudden tears in her eyes. And it couid  have been true, she thought fiercely, if only she hadn't been such a  fool.

As she walked slowly towards the stairs, nerving herself for the ordeal  by curiosity ahead, she wondered wistfully how differently the day might  have begun for her if Luis and she had been lovers. She might have been  kissed awake in his arms instead of finding herself alone, she thought,  and sighed.

As she reached the foot of the stairs, Pilar came into the hall from the salon and stood staring at her.

'Buenos dias.' Her lips curled unpleasantly. 'Pobrecita, I suppose you  are searching for your bridegroom. How sad for you that his ardour  cooled so quickly, and what a pity for him that he didn't come to his  senses sooner.'

'I can't think what you mean,' Nicola said coolly.

'No? When the whole world knows how early he left your room this morning, driven away by your English coldness, no doubt.'

Nicola suppressed a wince, then deliberately she lifted the rose which  had been hidden by the folds of her skirt and brushed it almost casually  across her lips.

Pilar's eyes widened incredulously, then, with a noise like a kitten  which has just received an unexpected boot in the midriff, she flounced  away.

Nicola was still standing rather hesitantly at the foot of the. stairs  when Carlos appeared carrying a tray of glasses. He gave her a  respectful bow and a smile, and was disappearing towards the comedor  when she called him back.

'Carlos, do you know where-my husband is?'

'I think Don Luis is at the stables, señora. Shall I have a message sent to him?'

'Oh no,' she said quickly. 'I'll go and find him myself.'

'As you wish, Dona Nicola.'

Luis was standing talking to Juan Hernandez as she approached, and they  both turned and looked at her. Luis smiled, but his eyes were hooded and  enigmatic, and she felt herself blush faintly.

He said, 'I was about to request you to join me, mi amada. I have something to show you.'

In some bewilderment she followed him to one of the stalls. Juan  Hernandez whisked inside and Nicola heard him murmuring caressingly in  his own language and clicking his tongue. When he reappeared he was  leading one of the prettiest mares Nicola had ever seen, chestnut with a  star on her forehead. She gasped in delight.

'Oh, she's beautiful!'

'I am glad she pleases you, querida,' Luis' voice was laconic. 'She only  arrived earlier this morning, so she will need a day or two to get used  to her new home- and for Juan to make sure she has no hidden vices.  Although it seems unlikely,' he added, running his hand down the satin  neck.                       
       
           



       

Nicola made herself meet his eyes. 'You mean-she's for me?'

'For no one else,' he drawled. 'Her name is Estrella.'

Juan Hernandez had tactfully vanished. Nicola said, 'I -I don't know how to thank you.'

'Don't you, amiga?' His smile slanted mockingly. 'Perhaps we had better postpone any discussion of that to another occasion.'

Her flush deepened hectically, but before she could think of a reply, he  had turned away and was putting Estrella back in her stall.

As Luis rejoined her, she said quickly, 'I also have to thank you for this.' She held out the rose.

He gave it a casual look and shrugged. 'De nada. I suppose Maria told you its significance.'

'Yes, she did.' Nicola bit her lip. 'It was-kind of you.' She gave a  little uneven laugh. 'It's already saved me from some unpleasant remarks  from your cousin Pilar.'

His mouth tightened. 'That girl needs a good hiding- or something to do  with her time. I blame myself. At one time she was keen to go to  university, but her mother set up such scenes, such weeping and  lamentations at the idea that I allowed myself to be persuaded against  it.'

'But why?'

He gave her a dry look. 'Tia Isabella belongs to a school of thought  which believes that women should be trained solely in the domestic  virtues. She sees education as the cause of all the ills in our world.  And she believed that if she kept Pilar at La Mariposa and thrust her at  me continually, I would eventually ask her to be my wife. She has fixed  but mistaken views on the value of proximity,' he added drily.

'But you could have overridden your aunt, surely.'

'Yes-but I had my own doubts about Pilar's wish to go to university. At  the time she was very much under an influence which I found  undesirable.'

Nicola stared at the ground. 'It might have solved a lot of problems if you'd married her. Why didn't you?'

'You have a poor memory, querida. Only yesterday I married you.'

'Yes-but when you decided to marry me, it was because you wanted a wife,  not me particularly. I mean, you were prepared to marry Teresita whom  you hardly knew, because your families wanted it-so why not Pilar?'

He said, 'The only time I have been tempted to lay a hand on my cousin  Pilar is when I have also been holding my riding whip. Teresita was at  least well-mannered and docile. After marriage she would probably have  wearied me with her devotion, but she would have created no problems.'

Wearied me with her devotion. The words were like a knife in Nicola's heart.

'You were really going to marry her,' she said slowly. 'And yet losing her hasn't cost you a single sleepless night.'

'Why waste a sleepless night on a woman who is absent?' he asked  mockingly. 'And I must correct you, chica. If I'd wanted any wife, I  could have married a dozen times over. I married you because I wanted  you, Nicola. I was angry at the trick you attempted to play on my  family, but at the same time I could not help admiring your audacity and  being amused by it. As our journey together proceeded, I began to  realise that some of the assumptions I had made about you were untrue.  Your reactions to me showed plainly that you were still a virgin, which I  had not expected. It was then that I decided to make you my wife  instead of my mistress.'

'So really the choice you offered was no choice at all.' She paused. 'What if I'd stuck to my guns and refused to marry you?'

He laughed. Then I would have spent a long and enjoyable night persuading you to change your mind.'

She said in a low voice, 'Then what makes-that night so different from last night?'

The amusement died sharply from his face. He said, 'Because at the  ejido, although you were apprehensive, you did not look at me as if I  were your executioner.'

Nicola flushed painfully. 'I'm sorry,' she said in a constricted tone.

'And so am I,' Luis said wryly. 'I am not accustomed to being regarded  by a woman as if I was a monster, nor having her cringe away from me in  sheer terror. But as for the sake of appearances, at least, we should  continue to share a room for a few weeks, it is something I must learn  to live with.'