The Stand-In Bride Read online

  But now it was there again, not dead but only sleeping, waiting to be awoken by a certain note in a man’s voice. Not this man! she swore furiously to herself. But even as she made the vow she became conscious of his body, how lean and hard it was, how long his legs with their heavy thigh muscles just perceptible beneath the conservative suit. The touch of his fingers was light, but force seemed to stream through them so that she could think of nothing else but that, and what a man’s strength might mean to a woman in bed. Power in his hands, in his arms, in his loins…

  She tried to blot out such thoughts but his will was stronger than hers. He seemed to have taken over her mind, giving her no choice but to see what he wanted her to see, and to reflect back that consciousness to him.

  ‘Yes,’ he said softly. ‘Yes.’

  As though in a trance, she murmured. ‘Never.’

  ‘Then he was not passionate?’

  ‘Who?’ she whispered.

  ‘Your husband.’

  Her husband. Yes, of course, they had been discussing her husband. The world, which had vanished for a heated moment, seemed to settle back into place.

  ‘I won’t discuss him with you,’ she said, echoing words she’d spoken before because her mind was too confused to think of new ones.

  ‘I wonder why. Because in bed he was a god, who showed you desire that no other man could ever match? Or because he was ignorant about women, knowing nothing of their secrets and too selfish to learn, a weakling who left you unsatisfied? I think he failed you. What a fool! Didn’t he know what he had in his possession?’

  ‘I was never his possession.’

  ‘Then he wasn’t a man or he would have known how to make you want to be his. Why don’t you answer my question?’

  ‘What question?’

  ‘Yes, it was so long ago that I asked, wasn’t it? And such a little question. Did you live in Spain?’

  ‘For a few years.’

  ‘And yet you know nothing about the Spanish mind.’

  ‘I know that I don’t like it, and that’s all I need to know.’

  ‘Just like that,’ he said, ‘you condemn a whole race in a few words.’

  ‘No,’ she said defiantly, ‘I condemn all the men of your race. Now let me go, this instant.’

  He laughed softly and released her. Something in that laugh sent shivers up her spine, and her sense that he was a man to avoid increased. It was unforgivable that he should have called up old memories that still tormented her. She backed away and turned from him, resisting the temptation to rub the place where his fingers had gripped. He hadn’t hurt her, but the warmth was still there, reminding her how he had felt.

  ‘All Spanish men!’ he said ironically. ‘But surely, some of us are “tolerable”?’

  ‘None of you,’ she said coldly.

  ‘How very tragic to have fallen under your displeasure!’

  ‘Don’t bother making fun of me. I don’t work for you any more.’

  ‘That’s for me to say.’

  ‘No. There are two sides to every bargain and I’ve just terminated my employment. And let me say that you made that very easy.’

  ‘Not so fast,’ he said at once. ‘I haven’t finished with you yet.’

  ‘But I have finished with you. Now you’re here, my job is finished-which is fortunate because, having met you, I have no desire to work for you. You can take that as final. Goodnight.’

  From the look on his face she guessed that he had been about to give her the sack, and was furious that she’d gotten her word in first.

  ‘And may I ask if you expect me to give you a reference, Señora?’

  ‘You may do as you please. I’m never short of work. In short, Señor, I’m as indifferent to your opinion of me as you are to mine of you.’

  That really annoyed him, she was glad to see.

  ‘I’ll just say goodbye to Catalina and Isabella,’ she said, heading for the bedroom door, ‘and then I won’t trouble you again.’

  But when she entered Isabella’s room an alarming sight met her. The duenna’s plump form was tossing and turning, and her flushed face was twisted with pain.

  Catalina was sitting on the bed. She turned quickly when Maggie entered. Her face was frantic.

  ‘She’s so ill,’ Catalina wailed. ‘I don’t know what to do. She won’t let me call a doctor.’

  ‘She needs more than a doctor,’ Maggie said swiftly. There was no telephone by the bed so she looked back to the sitting room and called, ‘Get an ambulance.’

  ‘What has happened?’ Sebastian asked, heading for her.

  ‘I’ll tell you later,’ she said impatiently. ‘Call the ambulance. Hurry!’

  ‘No,’ Isabella protested weakly. ‘I will be well soon.’

  ‘You’re in great pain, aren’t you?’ Maggie asked, dropping to her knees beside the bed and speaking gently.

  Isabella nodded miserably. ‘It’s nothing,’ she tried to say, but the words were cut off by a gasp. Isabella clutched her side and her head rolled from side to side in agony. Sweat stood out on her brow.

  Maggie hurried out. ‘I’ve called them,’ Sebastian said. ‘They’ll be here soon. You evidently think it’s serious.’

  ‘Earlier tonight she said it was a headache, but the pain seems to be in her side. It may be her appendix, and if it’s ruptured it’s serious.’

  Catalina came flying out. ‘I don’t know what to do,’ she wept. ‘She’s in such pain, I can’t bear it.’

  ‘Pull yourself together,’ Maggie said, kindly but firmly. ‘It’s poor Isabella who has to bear it, not you. You shouldn’t have left her alone. No, stay there; I’ll go to her.’

  She hurried back to the bedside. Isabella was moaning. ‘No hospital,’ she begged. ‘Please, no hospital.’

  ‘You must be properly looked after,’ Maggie said.

  She began to talk softly to Isabella, sounding as reassuring as possible, but she couldn’t reach the old woman, who seemed maddened by terror at the mere word ‘hospital’. At last, to her relief, Maggie heard a knock at the outer door. Through a crack she could just see Sebastian admit the paramedics. But Isabella was now in a state of hysteria.

  ‘No,’ she screamed. ‘No hospital, please, no hospital!’

  The next moment, Sebastian appeared. Maggie rose as he came to the side of the bed and took Isabella’s hands between his. ‘Now, stop this,’ he said in a gentle voice. ‘You must go to the hospital. I insist.’

  ‘They took Antonio there and he died,’ the old woman whispered.

  ‘That was many years ago. Doctors are better now. You’re not going to die. You’re going to be made well. Now, be sensible, my dear cousin. Do this to please me.’

  She had stopped writhing and lay quietly with her hands in his. ‘I’m afraid,’ she whispered.

  ‘What is there to be afraid of, if I am with you?’ he asked, smiling at her.

  ‘But you won’t be there.’

  ‘I shall be with you all the time. Come, now.’

  In one swift, strong movement he pulled back the bed-clothes and gathered her up in his arms, making nothing of her considerable weight. Isabella stopped fighting and put her hands trustingly around his neck as he lifted her from the bed and carried her out to where the paramedics had a stretcher. Maggie heaved a sigh of relief that somebody had been able to get through to her.

  At last Isabella was settled on the stretcher, and the paramedics hurried away with her. Sebastian prepared to follow the little party, but in the doorway he stopped and looked back. ‘Come!’ he commanded Catalina.

  The girl shuddered. ‘I hate those places.’

  ‘Never mind that. Do as I say. Isabella is our responsibility. She mustn’t be left alone without a woman’s comfort. These will be your duties in the future, and you may as well start now.’

  Catalina looked helplessly at Maggie.

  ‘All right,’ Maggie sighed, recognising the inevitable. ‘I’ll come with you.’ She met Sebastian’s eyes. ‘I
can always leave later.’

  ‘To be sure,’ he said ironically. ‘My bride will magically become strong-minded and responsible, won’t she?’

  In the flurry of departure she didn’t need to answer this. Downstairs the paramedics eased Isabella gently inside the waiting ambulance. Sebastian followed, nodding towards a car just behind.

  ‘Follow us to the Santa Maria Infirmary,’ he said curtly. Maggie’s eyes widened at the name of the most expensive private hospital in London.

  ‘Of course,’ Catalina said, when they were seated side by side in the back of the chauffeur driven car. ‘Isabella is one of his family. He feels responsible for her.’

  ‘He must do if he’s gone in the ambulance,’ Maggie mused. ‘Most men would die, rather. But you should have gone, my dear.’

  ‘I hate sickness,’ Catalina wailed. She saw Maggie looking at her in exasperation and added shrewdly, ‘Besides, Sebastian is the one she wants. He makes her feel safe.’

  ‘Yes, I noticed.’

  Maggie had been unwillingly impressed by the kindness and patience he had shown the old woman, and the way she had clung to him, as though to a rock. However overbearing Sebastian might be, he clearly took his patriarchal duties seriously.

  At the Santa Maria Infirmary, doctors were waiting for Isabella. As they prepared to wheel her away she cried out to Sebastian. ‘No, no! You promised not to leave me.’

  ‘And he won’t,’ Maggie said at once, taking the old woman’s outstretched hand. ‘But he must stay out here a moment to give them your details, and I shall come with you. You and I are friends, aren’t we?’

  Isabella gave a weak smile of assent, but her eyes rolled to Sebastian. At once he clasped her other hand.

  ‘Señora Cortez will be my deputy,’ he said. ‘Trust her as you do me, and it is as if I myself were by your side.’

  Isabella gave a sigh and allowed herself to be wheeled into the cubicle. Now her eyes never left Maggie and it was clear she regarded the transfer of trust very seriously.

  It took only a brief examination to confirm that Isabella had acute appendicitis, requiring an immediate operation. The word brought her terror rushing back.

  ‘Why are you so afraid?’ Maggie asked gently.

  ‘My husband, Antonio, had an operation in a hospital. And he died.’

  ‘When was that?’

  ‘Forty years ago.’

  ‘A lot of people died then who wouldn’t die now. You will recover, and be well again.’

  She continued talking in this way, glad to see that the old woman was gradually relaxing. There was a shadow in the doorway and Sebastian looked in. He was smiling in a way that transformed him, and his manner to Isabella was almost teasing.

  ‘Not long now,’ he said to her. ‘And then all will be well.’

  ‘And I won’t die? You promise.’

  ‘You won’t die. Word of a Santiago.’

  He leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on Isabella’s forehead. Her eyes remained on him as she was wheeled away, until she was out of sight.

  ‘I must stress the dangers of surgery on a lady of her age and weight,’ the surgeon explained. ‘But there is no choice.’

  ‘I take full responsibility,’ Sebastian said at once.

  The doctor left. Almost to himself, Sebastian murmured, ‘I have given a promise I had no right to give.’

  ‘But there was nothing else you could do,’ Maggie said. ‘It was her only chance.’

  ‘True. But if she dies-when she trusted me-?’

  ‘She would have died if she had not trusted you,’ Maggie insisted. ‘You did the right thing.’

  ‘Thank you for saying that. I needed to know that someone-’ He stopped and looked at her with surprise, as though he’d only just realised what he was saying, and to whom. His face became reserved again, but he said, ‘I mean-that I must thank you for what you did for her. It was kind. You have the gift.’

  He didn’t elaborate and she looked at him with a frown.

  ‘It is a gift that some have,’ he said quietly. ‘They calm fear and inspire trust.’

  ‘It seems that you have the gift yourself.’

  ‘It’s natural for her to trust the head of her family. She trusts you for yourself.’

  Then he seemed to become embarrassed, and looked around for Catalina. They found her sitting in a corner, playing with a small child who was waiting with his mother.

  ‘I think I’d better be going,’ Maggie said.

  ‘No,’ Sebastian said at once. ‘Isabella will look for you when she comes round. You must stay here with us.’

  Maggie was silent, confused. Despite their truce she still felt an instinctive need to get right away from him. While she hesitated he added gravely, ‘I would be grateful if you would oblige me.’

  ‘Very well. But only until I know Isabella is safe.’

  He gave her a curt nod. ‘I shan’t ask you to endure my company longer than that.’

  CHAPTER THREE

  D ESPITE the surgeon’s fears Isabella came through the operation well, and awoke in the early hours. The three who had waited for the news emerged into the dawn, tired and slightly disorientated. Sebastian hailed a cab and urged Maggie into it.

  ‘I should go home,’ she said, yawning.

  ‘Later. We have matters to discuss.’

  In the short distance back to the hotel she slipped into a half doze. Through it she could just hear Catalina prattling away in a non-stop monologue, punctuated by Sebastian’s bored ‘Really?’, ‘Indeed!’ and ‘Quite!’

  At the hotel he ordered breakfast to be sent up. While he made phone calls the two women went to Catalina’s room, where she stripped off and announced that she was going to have a bath. Maggie would have liked to do the same but she had to settle for borrowing one of Isabella’s ‘granny’ cardigans in a shade of deadly grey, which she slipped on over her bare shoulders.

  When she returned to the sitting room, breakfast had arrived. Sebastian grimaced at the sight of her dowdy attire. ‘It suits Isabella better,’ he said wryly. ‘She is past being attractive to men.’

  ‘And I,’ Maggie retorted with spirit, ‘am indifferent to men.’

  ‘That is a lie and we both know it,’ he asserted calmly. ‘But this is neither the time nor the place to discuss that.’

  ‘Never and nowhere! That’s the time and place to discuss it.’

  ‘Sit down and eat. We have to decide what to do.’

  ‘We?’ Maggie enquired ironically.

  He refused to rise to her bait. ‘Catalina and I will leave for Spain tomorrow. I need you to come with us and remain until the wedding.’

  ‘Certainly not!’ Maggie said without hesitation. ‘And leave Isabella alone here where she doesn’t know anyone? How can you be so inconsiderate?’

  ‘If you would allow me to finish,’ he said with some asperity, ‘I could tell you that while you were out of the room I arranged for her sister to fly to London. She will arrive this afternoon, and stay until Isabella can travel.’

  ‘I’m very happy for them both, but I gave you my notice yesterday, and nothing has changed.’

  ‘Nonsense, everything has changed,’ he said impatiently. ‘Even you must see that.’

  ‘Yesterday I was a disreputable woman who was dragging Catalina into dens of vice. Now you’re ready to forget that because I can be useful to you.’

  He had the grace to redden. ‘I may have spoken hastily. Catalina has given me a full account of your evening, including the fact that she pressured you into buying that erotic dress.’

  ‘It’s not erotic,’ she said quickly, drawing the edges of the grey woolly together.

  ‘If it wasn’t erotic, you wouldn’t be wearing that thing over it.’

  ‘I’m surprised you believed Catalina,’ Maggie said, hastily changing tack. ‘Surely you know that under my influence she tells lies?’

  ‘She’s told lies since she was a little girl,’ Sebastian admitted wryly. ‘You have n
othing to do with it. Besides, I always know when she’s lying, and this time she wasn’t.’

  ‘When did she tell you all this?’

  ‘In the cab, half an hour ago.’

  ‘Oh, that’s what she was saying. I was half asleep and just heard her voice distantly. And, of course, your replies. I could tell you were simply fascinated.’

  He gave her a black look. ‘It’s true I don’t take easily to the prattling of children,’ he said defensively.

  ‘Well, you’d better get used to it, if you’re going to marry her.’

  ‘Can we stick to the matter in hand?’

  ‘That’s easy. You say, “Come to Spain”; I say, “No way.” End of conversation. What do you want me for, anyway?’

  ‘I’m Catalina’s guardian as well as her fiancé. From tomorrow she will be living in my house. She must have a chaperone.’

  ‘In this day and age?’

  ‘Spain is not England. Our belief in propriety may seem a little old-fashioned to you, but it’s important to us. I hope that you’ll change your mind, for her sake. She’ll need a female companion in the last weeks before our marriage.’

  Something constrained in his manner caught Maggie’s attention and a suspicion crept into her mind. ‘I see what it is,’ she said. ‘Propriety, my foot! You want me to keep her occupied so that you won’t have to listen to her chattering.’

  A hint of ruefulness crept into his eyes, and for a moment he almost allowed himself to grin. ‘I feel sure she would be happier for your presence. Please oblige me in this.’

  ‘But this is December. Your wedding isn’t until next March.’

  ‘I forgot to mention that I’ve arranged for it to be moved up to the second week in January.’

  ‘Forgot to mention-? Did you forget to mention it to Catalina, too?’

  ‘I have every intention of telling her when she comes out to breakfast.’

  ‘And suppose she has other ideas?’ Maggie demanded, incensed almost past bearing by this high-handedness.

  ‘We’ll ask her, shall we?’

  Catalina appeared at that moment, dressed in slacks and sweater. ‘Oh, good!’ she exclaimed when she saw the breakfast table. ‘I’m so hungry.