Emerald Ecstasy (30 page)

“I know what you'll do to her, Pepe. She'll be dead by then.” The boy withdrew a long dagger from the side of his pants. “Show me what a man you are.”

In the gathering dusk Lianne watched while the boy called Felix circled the man, Pepe, and with a long leg tripped him. Then with a sudden motion while Pepe lay helpless on the ground, he slit the man's throat.

Bile rushed to Lianne's throat and she would have given into the urge to be sick, except Felix grabbed her arm and rushed her from the scene. She didn't know if she could trust him; perhaps he meant to harm her, but she didn't have time to think. She stumbled blindly after Felix until they were on the other side of the square and down a side street.

“You killed that man,” she whispered.

Felix shrugged his shoulders. “He would have killed me, then had his way with you. If I hadn't come along, señorita, you'd be lying dead somewhere this very minute. Anyway, no one will mourn Pepe or care that he's dead. That's just the way it is when you're a
lepero
.”

Lianne's carriage came into view and after tongue-lashing the driver, who apologized that he had rushed away out of fear for his safety, she turned to Felix. “Please return home with me. Don Raoul will be most generous to you for helping me, saving my life.”

For a moment she noticed his eyes harden and thought he'd refuse her offer, but he nodded and climbed into the carriage beside her.

“He does owe me something,” he said aloud and was careful to sit across from her as not to dirty her with his person.

Raoul was in fact very grateful to Felix for rescuing Lianne. He insisted the boy be washed and given some decent clothes which one of the servants provided, and fed in the kitchen. When he learned about the carriage incident, he immediately dismissed the driver and gave Felix the job. But he also had sharp words for Lianne.

“You shouldn't have gone to church there. Too many beggars. I've warned you about them.”

“I know.” She hung her head. “I wanted to pray, Raoul. This was the day my daughter was conceived.”

A vein throbbed in Raoul's temple. “You mean this is the day you laid with Daniel Flanders like a bitch in heat.”

She put her hands over her ears. “Stop it!”

He pulled her hands away. “Will you never cease thinking about him? I want you to forget him.”

Tears spilled from her eyes and down her cheeks. How could she forget Daniel? She loved him more now if that was possible, and Raoul knew this. Yanking her to him, his anger seemed to die.

He looked levelly at her. “Since today is such an important day to you, then let it remain so. You conceived your daughter on this date. Now, tonight,
querida
, you will conceive my son. I shall make it so.”

Sweeping her into his arms, he carried her to the bedroom, and when he finished with her, Lianne had no doubt that if she didn't conceive, it wasn't from lack of trying.

What was wrong with Elena? Raoul pondered this question as he and Lianne arrived at the house he once called home. It had been almost five years since he had entered the luxurious structure which housed his wife and daughter. He hadn't missed the two-story dwelling which rivaled its neighbors with its light pink facade where lacelike parapets and balconies surrounded the entire home. However, he smiled, he had done well by Elena over the years. No one, not even she, could fault him.

Still he felt uneasy, and Raoul was never a man to be uncertain of anything. But the invitation from Elena, arriving in her perfect penmanship the week before, gave him cause to think that she was up to something. Something he wouldn't like. Why else would she invite her husband and his mistress, plus the elite of Mexico City, he later learned, to her home? Women just didn't invite their husbands' mistresses to their homes.

Lianne, however, wasn't the least upset by the summons to the house of Dona Elena de Lovis. She didn't fear Elena. In some ways she even liked the prim, plain woman. She'd never mentioned Elena's visit to Raoul, but wondered what Elena would think if she knew that Raoul hoped she would conceive a child soon. A child Lianne prayed would never be conceived.

Not only wasn't she concerned about Elena, but she no longer feared the disapproving glances from the Mexican citizenry. Since performing at the opera, she found she was a person of note. Wherever she went, people clamored for a glance of “La Flamenca” as the populace had dubbed her because her hair reminded them of the bright beauty of a flamingo. Even now as she entered Elena's home on the arm of Raoul, she lived up to her name.

A thin gown of shiny pink silk barely covered her voluptuous curves and wantonly molded to her body with her every movement. Tiny diamonds glittered at her ears, and just that evening Raoul had presented her with an exquisite diamond pendant which now dangled between her breasts. Her red-gold hair had been piled high upon her head by Josephine with wispy tendrils curling in disarray about her face and neck while tiny rosebuds were woven through the one thick curl falling across her shoulder. Lianne had never looked lovelier as she carelessly allowed her pink lace shawl to fall away from the small puffy sleeves of her gown, to reveal long, graceful arms.

Inside the house Lianne found that the furnishings, however beautiful, were austere and more practical than comfortable. The
sala
overlooked a garden and the many people there spilled outside. However, when a servant beckoned them inside from the night illumined by torches attached to the house, all came willingly.

Elena had been bustling among her guests, making certain everyone had enough wine, but no one could get a word from her as to why they had been invited. Not even Raoul. Lianne saw the hard set of his jaw and knew he was much put out with her. Yet Elena seemed not to notice, or if she did, didn't care.

“What is the foolish woman up to?” he whispered to Lianne. She nearly laughed at him and was rather pleased that someone could cause him uneasiness, but she felt much discomfort to notice Isabelle Hidalgo nearby. The woman was indeed beautiful with her dark hair sleeked into a chignon and rubies encircling her neck to match the deep wine red of her gown. Jealousy consumed Lianne as she imagined the woman with Daniel. She had to control herself or risk Raoul's temper if he realized how much Isabelle Hidalgo's presence unnerved her.

“My friends,” Elena began as everyone formed a circle around her, and she pushed a reluctant Carmen to the forefront. “This is a happy time for me. Our daughter Carmen,” she included Raoul with her look, “reaches the age of fifteen in but a few weeks. Soon she shall enter young womanhood and leave her childish ways behind her. Very soon, if God is good to her, she will marry and make a happy marriage.”

Everyone politely clapped and lifted their glasses to the girl who looked as if she wished to disappear.

Elena smiled but continued, “To mark this passing into young womanhood, I've commissioned one of the world's renowned artists to capture my daughter's likeness. Many of you know him already.” This time her gaze rested on Lianne, then Raoul on whom she bestowed a Cheshire-cat grin.
Señores
y
Señoras
, welcome into your hearts Señor Daniel Flanders.”

From behind a curtain inside the
sala
he seemed to appear from the mists of time. The applause and excited comments of Elena's guests were lost on Lianne. She saw nothing, no one but him. His large manly frame seemed to swallow up everyone, everything. The powerful set of his shoulders expressed his self-confident air, and he stood barely ten feet from her, devilishly handsome in a brown coat and ruffled white shirt, opened at the neck with matching trousers and boots. He watched and drowned her in a sea of churning gray water.

The intense pleasure of seeing him faded as she realized no welcoming smile touched his lips, or his eyes; nothing but a stormy ocean blue.

What was wrong? Was he not pleased to see her, to know she was alive? Then she thought perhaps the shock of seeing her was too much for him. She must go to him, tell him how much she loved him, yearned for him. But as she made an imperceptible move forward, Raoul's hand crushed her arm.

“Move in Daniel's direction and I will shoot him dead before your eyes.”

In surprise her gaze flew to Raoul. She had forgotten his ominous presence looming near her. God, she had forgotten everything in her desire for Daniel! What a fool she was! How was she going to explain to Daniel that the woman he loved and thought dead was very much alive and living as the mistress of Raoul de Lovis?

Her face paled. She knew if she moved a fraction of an inch in Daniel's direction that Raoul would carry out his threat. Even if it meant murdering a man in front of a hundred witnesses.

“Let me go. I won't do anything,” she whispered and prayed he'd believe her. Daniel's life was more important at that moment than her love for him.

He seemed satisfied. Removing his hand, he smiled blandly. “Elena shall pay for this. Somehow she learned the truth.”

Fear shot through Lianne for Elena. Her loose tongue might cause the woman great pain and all because she had confided in her about her love for Daniel. But she didn't think about Elena for long because Daniel strode toward them, his hands carelessly thrust into the depths of his pockets.

Lianne had nearly forgotten how his dark hair shone with blue-black highlights in the torchlight or how his firm, sensual lips quirked into a half smile when amused or angered. And clearly Daniel was angry now though pretending not to show it. The hurricane-like eyes descended upon her, ignoring Raoul.

He stopped in front of her and took her trembling hand and brought it to his mouth. The contact of his warm but unyielding lips against her flesh sparked something long dormant within her. Lianne felt slightly faint. Was it from desire or from the unnerving hatred in his eyes for her?

“How lovely you look, Lianne. Quite unlike the corpse I thought was laid to rest.”

“Daniel…” Her tone was low, and she went mute when Raoul placed a hand on her wrist.

“Lianne owes you no explanations. She had nothing to do with the deception, but alas, she didn't know how to get out of the situation and didn't wish to hurt you. She wanted only to be with me,” Raoul said levelly and looked Daniel in the eye.

“Am I supposed to believe that?”

Daniel's gaze slid to Lianne and a part of him expected denial. Lianne felt Raoul's arm tighten around her.

“You must believe what Raoul has said.” Lianne's voice was low but steady.

Daniel dropped her hand. “I hope Lianne makes you happy, Raoul. Take it from someone who knows; she's a hot wench in bed.”

“Daniel!” She gasped at his crudeness, but Raoul only smiled.

At that moment Isabelle Hidalgo slithered up to Daniel and kissed him soundly on the mouth. “Daniel,
mi amor
. How glad I am to see you again! Come with me now,
querida
. Many people wish to meet you, and you mustn't let Raoul and his woman,” she said with derision, “keep you from me much longer.”

Without a parting word, Daniel moved into the crowd of people with Isabelle. Lianne felt ill, truly and unspeakably sick. She had to get away from everyone or disgrace herself. She flew from the house and into the night. The carriage waited on the street outside and Raoul was right behind her. Before they reached home, she ordered Felix to stop. Barely making it from the coach to the ditch, she threw up until nothing was left inside her.

She felt faint surprise to realize that Raoul had been steadying her all the time she was ill. When she glanced up at him, she expected to see distaste on his face, or anger at her for her reaction to Daniel. Instead he was smiling, a huge white smile which wreathed his face in a way she'd never seen before.

“Well, Lianne, it seems you do belong to me now.”

“What do you mean?” she said, too weak to do anything but lean against him.

“For a woman who has given birth, you seem not to be aware of the signs. But I've noticed the past weeks how your breasts are fuller, the slight roundness of your belly.” A long finger snaked across her abdomen. “Now this sickness confirms the fact you carry my child. My son.”

“No.” She stared in mute horror. It couldn't be so. She couldn't be pregnant with Raoul's child, but of course, he was right. She knew the signs and hadn't wanted to admit to them.

Almost in a state of shock, she allowed Raoul to help her into the carriage. Felix drove them the rest of the way home, but the trip, the remainder of the night while Raoul extinguished his lust on her, were a blur. She thought of Daniel and the hatred shining in his eyes.

And she thought of the child she carried. A child which wasn't Daniel's.

No one guessed Lianne's dismay when Raoul's personal physician Doctor Morales examined her upon Raoul's request and confirmed the fact that she carried Raoul's child. She wished to cry as the doctor beamed and Raoul smiled knowingly, but she managed a weak smile. When Doctor Morales left the bedroom, Raoul stayed.

He sat next to her on the brightly colored counterpane. “I'm pleased you shall present me with a son, Lianne. Though Elena easily conceived, she could never carry for long, and gave me only a daughter.”