Exotic Affairs(120)

‘Abril…’ she murmured slowly, forming the request even as she spoke it out loud. ‘Would you do something very—special for me?’

‘Of course, señorita,’ the maid instantly replied.

‘If I can get a dress here in time—a pretty dress for you to wear—would you be my bridesmaid?’

For a terrible moment she thought she’d actually horrified the poor girl, she was so still and silent. Then, ‘Oh, señorita,’ she breathed. ‘Do you really mean it?’

The doe eyes were suddenly shining with pleasure. ‘Yes, I mean it.’ Caroline found herself smiling too. ‘You must have noticed that I am here on my own,’ she pointed out sagely. ‘My family and friends are all in England, and though my father is coming I will have no one else. It would be nice, don’t you think, to have someone from the valley to stand beside me?’

‘It would be an honour,’ the young girl answered gravely. ‘But, I will have to ask permission of Doña Consuela before I may say absolutely that I will do this,’ she added anxiously.

‘Of course,’ Caroline said instantly, not bothering to point out that it was really Luiz’s permission the maid should be seeking. And since she knew what his answer would be without having to ask him, Caroline didn’t think that was a problem.

‘I’ll ask her,’ she decided. Abril looked relieved. ‘In fact I’ll go and do it now, while you finish up here, okay?’

Nothing like striking while the iron is hot, she told herself bracingly as she went in search of Luiz’s aunt. But she was beginning to half wish she hadn’t started this, being a coward deep down inside.

She found Doña Consuela in the main drawing room. She was just standing there, staring out of the window, watching the construction taking place on the lawn outside. And there was a sad, lonely, isolated look to her stance that touched Caroline’s heart a little, even though she now knew exactly how effective this woman had been in ruining Luiz’s mamá’s life.

‘Consuela…’ she prompted.

She hadn’t even heard Caroline come in the room, she was so lost inside her own bleak thoughts. But she turned at the sound of her name, her expression as smoothly composed as it always was.

Sometimes her relationship to Luiz is all too clear, Caroline mused ruefully.

‘I wondered if you would mind if I asked your advice about something,’ she ventured carefully—though why she had changed from making it a polite request to the more gentle quest for advice she was not entirely sure—unless it was because Consuela had looked a little like Luiz then.

Luiz when he was hiding hurt, she extended sadly.

‘Of course,’ the older woman agreed. ‘If you think my advice will be of use.’

Taking a deep breath, Caroline explained what she wanted to do and why she wanted to do it. Consuela Listened to her without expression, and it was therefore a surprise when the other woman smiled a brief, rather bleak smile and said, ‘You are a nice person, señorita. It will be comforting to know that I will be leaving the valley in the charge of someone so sensitive.’

‘Luiz cares too, you know,’ Caroline declared, instantly on the defensive, because she hadn’t expected approval from this particular source and was therefore searching for hidden criticism.

The Condesa’s smile grew wry. ‘I know that,’ she said. ‘And, yes, it would be a perfect touch for you to have Abril as your maid of honour. The people of the valley will love you for doing it. Give the child my blessing and tell her she is relieved of all her normal duties so she can devote her time to her new exciting role.’

While you do what? Caroline wanted to ask. Keep fading ever more into the shadows of this place that has been your home for so many years?

‘What will you do?’ she asked impulsively. ‘When you leave here?’

The smile was wry again. ‘So, Luiz intends to have me banished,’ the other woman said. ‘I did wonder.’

Caroline felt absolutely horrified that she had inadvertently stepped into something she should not. ‘I don’t know,’ she answered awkwardly. ‘Luiz doesn’t discuss his family with me.’

‘No, I don’t suppose he does,’ the Condesa murmured, and turned back to the window. It was a dismissal in anyone’s books. Feeling like some kind of heel, Caroline took herself out of the room without daring to utter another word.

Next she went to search out Vito. She found him in the garden, overlooking the setting out of what looked as if it was going to be a wooden dance floor beneath a red and white striped awning.