Estella left Zapallar with Ramon, leaving a note for her parents telling them that her lover had returned as she always knew he would. Ramon had had no desire to meet them and Estella hadn’t insisted; she worried that her father might carry out his threat. So they had returned to the summer house in Cachagua where the memories of their affair echoed off the walls to remind them of the way it was then, when they had made love in the dark hours, claiming the night for themselves, enjoying each other without a thought for the future. Now they had a future they had to wrench themselves out of the present and decide what they were going to do with it.
They walked up the beach. The sun had set leaving the coast cold and blustery. They held hands and reminisced about the summer before.
‘I watched you swim that night you couldn’t sleep,’ said Estella, smiling. ‘I couldn’t sleep either, so I watched you from the shadows.’
‘You did?’
‘Yes, I watched you walk naked up the beach. I wanted you so much, I didn’t know what to do with myself,’ she said huskily.
‘What are we going to do with you now?’ he asked and his voice betrayed his uncertainty.
Estella sighed. Tve spent the last six months preparing speeches for you. I planned what I would say when you came back, but I haven’t told you any of it yet,’ she said, looking down at her bare feet as they sunk into the fine sand.
‘I think I know what you want to say,’ Ramon said, squeezing her hand.
‘I don’t think you do.’
‘All women want the same things,’ he said, as if it were an accusation.
‘So what do all women want?’
‘They want security. They want marriage, children and security,’ he replied bleakly.
‘You’re not wrong. That’s what I always wanted for myself. But then I met you and you’re not like other men. So that’s not what I want.’
‘What do you want?’ he asked in surprise.
Estella stopped walking and stood opposite him, looking at him steadily through the dusk. She put her hands in the pockets of her wool cardigan and shuffled her feet in preparation of giving the speech she had practised. ‘I want your love and your protection,’ she began. ‘I want it for myself and for our child. I want him to know his father and to grow up with his love and guidance. But I don’t want to chain you to a home. Travel the world and write your stories, but promise to come home to us every now and then. I will store up your kisses in my heart but once they run low you must come back to fill it up again. I don’t want to find it empty.’ She smiled at him as if she understood him better than he understood himself.
Ramon didn’t know what to say. He had expected her to beg him to stay with her and not go away, as Helena had when Federica was born. But Estella blinked at him with confidence. He knew she meant it.
Pulling her into his arms, he kissed her temples and her cheekbone, breathing in her rose scent and feeling closer to her than ever before. He searched about the pit of his stomach for that familiar feeling of claustrophobia yet it was nowhere to be found. Estella was prepared to love him enough to give him his freedom. But neither had prepared themselves for the wrath of Pablo Rega.
Pablo and Maria had returned home at dusk to discover Estella’s neatly written note.
He’s come back for me like I promised you he would. Please don’t be angry.
I’ll come back soon.
Pablo would have thumped his fist carelessly against the wall had it not been for his wife who threw herself between him and the hole he had left the previous time, begging him to calm himself and think rationally.
‘It’s a blessing he came for her,’ she insisted, rubbing her hands together in anguish. ‘No one else would have her.’
‘How respectable can he be?’ he argued furiously. ‘He didn’t even bother to ask for her hand in marriage.’
‘Marriage?’ stammered Maria.
‘Of course. He can’t plant his seed in her womb and not marry her.’
‘Perhaps that’s why he didn’t want to meet us. Maybe he has no intention of marrying her.’
‘He’ll marry her. By God he’ll marry her or I’ll damn him to Hell!’
‘Where are you going?’ Maria cried, watching helplessly as her husband stalked out of the house.
‘To find them,’ he replied, climbing into his rusty truck and disappearing down the hill, leaving a thin cloud of dust behind him.
Pablo Rega didn’t know where to start searching, he knew he just had to look or he’d go out of his mind with madness. He drove down the coast towards Cachagua. The sun hung low in the sky like a glowing peach, causing the ripples on the sea to glimmer with a warm pink light. He thought of his daughter and the miracle of her birth. He wasn’t going to let some irresponsible ruffian ruin it all now. Not after they had sweated blood to raise her. As he neared the village of Cachagua he decided to ask at the house of her former employers, Don Ignacio and Señora Campione. He had no idea where to find her and their house was as good a place as any to start.