Counterfeit Bride(31)

I'll be all right, she thought. Sooner or later someone will come  looking for me, and if I'm careful with the food there should be enough  for several days.

But surely even Pilar would not be that vindictive, she hoped without  too much conviction. What did she hope to gain anyway, when she knew  Nicola would be found eventually, and that there'd be hell to pay when  she was? Yes, Luis would be angry when he found Nicola had disobeyed him  by riding alone, even with the best of motives, but was that enough for  Pilar? She couldn't believe it. The malice in Pilar's face that time  had indicated a wish for revenge altogether deeper and darker than this  rather childish trick.

The time dragged past She was really hungry now, so she ate a little of  the stew from the pot, and drank some more wine, thinking enviously of  the cool dim comedor at the hacienda. Pilar would be at home by now,  sitting with an innocent face, while the others wondered where she was,  no doubt.

The room became hotter, and hotter. It was getting late now, she saw by  her watch, and time for siesta, although she was too angry to be tired.  But she had nothing else to do, so she took off her boots and lay down  on the bed on top of the blankets, remembering the last time she had  lain there with Luis' arm around her, holding her close to the curve of  his body. She sighed, twisting restlessly on the pillow. So much for  honour, she thought bitterly. If he had taken her that night, she would  now be his slave, and she would have been saved an incredible amount of  heartache, even if it was at the expense of her pride.

But pride didn't seem important when you were jealous and lonely, and  when you woke each night with your body crying out for fulfilment.

At last she managed to doze again for a while, and woke to find it was  sunset. If she wasn't careful, it would be dark soon, and she needed to  light the lamp and light the fire again. She sat up wearily, swinging  her legs to the floor, then tensed as she thought she heard the sound of  a horse's hooves. Imagination, she decided, as it had been all those  other times she had heard the same thing during that interminable  afternoon. And yet...

She bent her head, listening intently, her heart leaping with sudden  hope. It was a horse. Someone was coming. Perhaps it was even Pilar who  had relented and was bringing back Estrella. Maybe she wanted to do a  deal for Nicola's silence about the Jurado man. She jumped up and took  two quick steps towards the door.

It swung open with a crash, and Luis strode in.

Nicola halted, staring at him dazedly. He was the last person she had  expected to see. He hadn't been expected before tomorrow at the  earliest.

She said falteringly, noting how grim he looked, 'Luis? Did she tell you  where I was? Please don't be angry. It-it was only a prank...'

'Yes,' he said softly, 'she told me. As to my anger, and whether or not  this is a-prank, as you call it-well, I make no guarantees. Naturally  you are surprised to see me.'

Nicola began, 'Well, yes...' but before she could say anything else, he had cut across her.

'No doubt you are also disappointed. You have had a long and tedious  wait-and all for nothing. You must be asking yourself even now why I am  here, and not Ramon, and I must tell you, chica, that my cousin has had  the good fortune to sustain a broken collarbone, so he will not be able  to join you. A fall from his horse this morning,' he added sardonically.

'Join me?' All her initial joy at seeing him was subsiding under the  growing conviction that something was terribly wrong. 'I don't  understand.'

'Neither did I-at first. I concluded my business in Sonora sooner than I  had anticipated, so I came back to the hacienda--to see you, amiga, to  try and put things right between us-isn't that amusing? I found the  place in confusion. Ramon had had this accident, and the doctor had been  sent for. Then one of the servants asked to speak to me. Earlier,  before Ramon was brought home, she had cleaned his room, and found  this--'

He extended his hand. The butterfly clip he had given her lay in his palm.

'But--but that's impossible!' Her brain was reeling. She hadn't worn the  clip since their wedding night. She had put it away in the case with  the rest of the jewellery he had given her.

'Is it, querida?' That dreadful quietness in his voice, and the setting  sun filling the room with the colour of blood. 'I asked her where she  had found it, and eventually, reluctantly she told me. In the bed of  Señor Don Ramon.' He spoke these last words with a cold terrible  precision.

Nicola said, 'She's lying.'

'She is a good, honest woman, who has served our family for many years.  As she gave me this-thing-he tossed it to the floor at Nicola's feet  '-there were 'tears in her eyes.'                       
       
           



       

She said desperately, 'Luis, I swear to you that if this woman found my  clip where she says she did, I don't know how it got there.'

'Don't you, my beautiful wife? Then you lack imagination, because a very  obvious explanation occurs to me. But then you have so many other  virtues, don't you-the domestic ones, for example. You have taken a  miserable hovel and turned it into a love nest. I congratulate you.'

She exclaimed with a gasp, 'You can't think that I did all this! This  was how it was when I arrived -the food, the wine everything. I was  looking for Pilar.'

'An amazing coincidence, chica, because she was also looking for you,  but a long way from here. She found your horse wandering loose near the  hacienda and took charge of her, afraid that something might have  happened to you. Juan Hernandez and some of the men searched the  immediate vicinity in case you had suffered the same fate as Ramon, but  when there was no sign of you, Pilar confessed she might know where you  had gone.'

The red sun was slipping away now below the horizon, and a web of darkness was slowly spinning round her.

'She told me she had kept silent before only because of her love for her  brother, but that she had known for some time that you were meeting  secretly here at the cabin. That she had heard him mention the place to  you one morning-outside his bedroom,' he added silkily. 'Do you deny  it?'

'Not the last bit, no, but we were talking about your friend Miguel  Jurada -about the possibility that he might be seeing Pilar. Ask Ramon  if you don't believe me.'

'I do not believe you,' he said. 'As for asking Ramon, the doctor has  given him something to make him sleep. I said, did I not, that he was  fortunate to break his collarbone, because if he had not, querida, I  would most assuredly have broken his neck.'

There was a savagery in his voice which terrified her. She said, almost  weeping, 'Luis -please-you can't believe all those lies! Pilar hates me,  you know that. She would say anything...'

'That I considered.' His voice was meditative. 'Yet Juan Hernandez has  no reason to hate you, and he told me in all innocence that several  times this week you had left the hacienda alone, saying you were to meet  Ramon.'

'Oh God--yes, I've said that, but it was just an excuse I invented, so that I could be alone.'

'Alone with your lover. So eager to be alone with him, chica, that you  could not even tie up a valuable horse properly.' Luis began to take off  his gloves, very slowly. 'Ramon must have succeeded most admirably with  you. The next hour should prove-instructive.'

'What do you mean?' Nicola asked hoarsely.

He shrugged. 'Because an accident has robbed you of your lover, you need  not be totally deprived of entertainment, amada. I've never followed in  Ramon's footsteps before, so it will be interesting to learn what  you've discovered in his arms about pleasing a man.'

She began to back away, but he followed her until the table blocked off any further retreat.

Her voice was desperate. 'Luis! I swear to you that Ramon isn't my  lover. The only time I've been in his arms was at the wedding...' Her  voice trailed away as she realised that it had probably been a mistake  to remind him.

He said, 'I remember that only too well. Do you think I haven't seen you  together-seen the way you look at him-smile at him, you bitch, as  you've never smiled at me.' He took a handful of her hair, and jerked  her head back, forcing her to meet his gaze. 'Smile at me now, mi  corazon, and I may take the trouble to please you as well as myself when  the time comes.'

His grip on her hair hurt, and she moaned in pain as well as fear as she begged, 'Luis-no-please...'

His fingers insolently probed her unfastened shirt, seeking the swell of  her breast, then slid down to the waistband of her jeans, tugging at  the zip. She began to struggle, and he bent his head and kissed her on  the mouth. It was a hard bruising kiss, which held neither tenderness  nor very much desire. It was merely an effective means of silencing  further protest while he achieved his objective.

He picked her up, and dropped her on to the bed, joining her there  immediately, almost casually unfastening his own clothes as he did so.

'Oh God---no!' Her voice broke. 'Not like this please! Not like this.'