The Spaniard's Inconvenient Wife (15 page)

‘You really didn’t know he was married?’

‘He swore he wasn’t!’

‘But how could you not know?’

‘Carlos had lived in the area before but he’d moved away. I was away too—at school—and then at college. I didn’t know what had happened to him in the meantime. All I knew was that he was back. His wife and children were still in their old home, in another town—her mother was ill and she was staying to look after her. I suppose no one ever said anything because they all knew—and they just assumed I did.’

She needed to draw a steadying breath before she could go on and it was that, and the way that her hands were clenched tight at her sides, that added conviction to the hurt in her voice, twisting mercilessly at his already painful conscience.

‘He made me promise to keep our meetings secret—said my father would never approve. Which, of course, he wouldn’t have done. I know now that he only wanted to sleep with me—but he said—he knew I was too scared— and so he said he wanted to marry me.’

‘And that’s why you went away with him?’ Ramón’s voice was raw with the shock of what she was telling him. The realisation that he had been so terribly wrong about her—that everyone had. ‘When did you find out the truth?’

Estrella’s dark eyes clouded with a recollection of the misery she had endured on that dreadful day.

‘When his wife rang the hotel to tell him that—that their little girl was ill and she needed him.’

Ramón’s response was short, succinct and extremely violent.

‘And you answered the phone?’

‘Yes…’

‘Oh, Estrella.’

He could only shake his dark head in disbelief at the other man’s monstrous behaviour.

‘But—you—why didn’t you tell anyone?’

Her eyes dropped to stare at the floor and her bare foot moved restlessly, tracing the pattern on the carpet.

‘What good would it have done? Carlos was killed in a road accident a week after I found out the truth. His family—his wife and children—were already suffering enough. I couldn’t add to it by—by telling them.’

‘So you took all the blame.’

Estrella managed a careless shrug.

‘I could cope—I never thought it would go on for so long. And I was used to being a disappointment to my father. I always had been, from the moment I was born. I was the wrong sex, you see. My father only has time for sons, and unfortunately he had none of those. I was my parents’ last chance. My father was over fifty when I was born and my mother couldn’t have any more children. What he wanted was a male heir to take over the estate. To marry a suitably quiet, well-behaved, well-connected young woman who would give him more boys—grandsons to carry on the Medrano line. What he got…’

She paused, looked down at herself briefly, cynically, then swept her hands in a revealing gesture along the length of her slender body.

‘Me,’ she stated flatly. ‘He got me and he’s never really forgiven me or my mother ever since.’

‘I don’t see how anyone could possibly be disappointed in you,’ Ramón said, knowing that he meant it. ‘I knew your father was a mean-minded fool—but this proves it. And I’m another one for ever believing a thing he said.’

That brought her head up, a faint, weak smile on her pale face.

‘I—I did tell him that the only one of his suitors I would ever consider would be you.’

‘And the rest of it? Were you ever going to tell me that?’

‘Why do you think that envelope was in my bag? Because I just happen to carry with me the certificate from my first, illegal and totally unreal marriage? I was going to show it to you! To tell you the truth—tell you everything. I was going to do it last night—but you—but we…’

She choked off the words, but the way her eyes went to the open door, looking at the stairs beyond, told their own story.

‘I’m sorry.’

It was all he could say. He couldn’t think of anything else, anything to show that he sympathised—that he understood—that he detested the way the other man had deceived her.

‘And your father blamed you for this?’

Her mouth twisted into a bitter line.

‘You know my father—men are always saints, until they’re led astray by wicked, wanton women. So I had to have been the sinner—and Carlos was the sinned against.’

‘I’d like to kill the bastard.’

Her second smile was tiny, faint and wan but it was there. A spark of the old Estrella he had known, and it tore at his heart because of that.

‘I don’t think that would do much good now. But—but thank you all the…’

Her voice broke on a little hiccupping sob, and before Ramón knew that he had moved he was there, beside her, coming down on his knees to put his arms around her, hold her tight.

‘I am sorry,’ he said hoarsely. ‘I’m so sorry. I should have known…’

Estrella buried her head in his shoulder for a moment and he felt the dampness of tears on his shirt. All he could do was stroke her back, her hair…

She wished she could stay here like this, Estrella told herself. Wished she could just stay here in his arms, and never, ever have to lift her head again. Being here felt so right, so safe, so secure—but it couldn’t last for ever. And it wouldn’t solve whatever it was that had angered Ramón so much that he had wanted to leave her.

At last the sobs subsided and she sniffed inelegantly, swiping at her eyes with the back of her hand as she lifted her head. Dark, tear-filled eyes looked deep into watchful
silvery grey, and she knew the truth of what she had suspected. That this wasn’t the real root of the problem.

‘But—but that wasn’t it, was it?’ she managed. ‘That wasn’t what made you so angry. There’s something else.’

He actually looked awkward and a touch embarrassed, getting up from his knees to sit on the arm of the chair beside her.

‘It can wait.’

‘No, it can’t! I won’t let you! If you’re going to accuse me of lies and of—of stitching you up, then you can at least have the decency to say on what evidence. Who told you?’

Ramón sighed and pushed both hands through his hair.

‘Your father.’

‘My father? What did he say? What has he told you? And why do you believe him when you know that he’ll do anything—say anything…?’

‘So it isn’t true that he said he’d disown you if you didn’t marry.’

‘Oh.’

It was all that she could say, her mind too numb with shock to let her manage anything else. And what else could she say? There was no way she could deny it; her silence made that plain. Ramón pounced on that like a tiger springing on its prey. ‘It is true, isn’t it? He told you you’d have no money— nothing—unless you married.’

‘Yes.’

‘What?’

Ramón leaned forward, his stunning face darkly intent.

‘What was that? I didn’t hear you.’

‘I said yes—yes—yes—yes! My father said he’d cut me off without a penny—that he’d throw me out on the streets. Do you believe that? Is that what you wanted to know? Are you happy now?’

‘No,’ Ramón said, getting up from his seat and prowling round the chair. ‘No.’

‘No what? No, you don’t believe or—’

‘No, it doesn’t make me damn well happy! It’s the last thing I wanted to hear.’

Strangely, she believed him. But at the back of her mind there was a nasty, sneaking suspicion. One that threatened her composure even more strongly than anything else that had happened.

‘You think that’s why I married you, don’t you? That’s it! You think I only did it for the money.’

He didn’t need to answer; she could read it in his face. The anger, the defiance, a trace of guilt—it was all there. She could tell the truth—prove him wrong, but right now she was just too angry for that.

‘You think— How dare you? How the bloody hell dare you?’

‘You’ve admitted—’

‘I’ve admitted nothing. I simply told you that, yes, my father threatened to disinherit me. And you have the nerve to come all moral and holier than thou over that! You— who only married me for the damn TV company!’

‘No!’

‘Yes! Oh, come on, Ramón!’ she mocked. ‘Don’t try and wriggle out of it now! You haven’t got a leg to stand on. Remember, you were the one who told me that my father offered you the deal—that he said you could have it for half what it was worth. And you signed the deal with him today—yesterday,’ she amended hastily. ‘You couldn’t even wait! He signed over the company to you on—on our wedding day. Didn’t he?’

‘Yes.’ It was harsh, rough, husky.

‘Then—’

‘But not for half the price. He wanted to give it to me as a wedding present.’

‘Oh, bully for you,’ Estrella scorned, the pain eating at her like acid. ‘Then you got an even better deal than you thought. Not even half price.’

‘No—because I didn’t pay—’

‘You didn’t pay anything. You got it for free.’

‘Estrella!’

It was a lion’s roar, loud and savage and demanding of respect and it shut her up at once, made her unable to go on.

‘I not only didn’t get it for free—I paid the whole damn price. The original full asking price. Every peseta he wanted. And I would have paid more if I’d had to.’

That had her mouth opening and closing, trying to say something, but no sound would come out.

‘But—’ she croaked. ‘But—but why?’

‘Isn’t it obvious?’

‘Not to me. Not at all. Why would anyone—especially you—want to pay the full price for something they’d been offered at fifty per cent off—and then been promised as a gift?’

His smile was wry, self-mocking and slightly crooked and the self-deprecation was mirrored in his eyes as he looked into hers and took a deep, deep breath.

‘Because I love you.’

And then, when she couldn’t find anything to say, but could only stare at him in blank, unbelieving confusion, he shrugged his shoulders and this time he laughed, but in exactly the same self-mocking way.

‘Because I love you.’

It was about time he said it, Ramón acknowledged. It was the only answer, the only explanation for the way he’d been
feeling. It was just that he had been trying not to admit it, not even to himself.

But even as he’d been walking away from her, he’d known the truth. Why else could the thought that he’d been used, that she’d lied to him, hurt so much, enrage so much? And then, when he’d known he’d had no alternative but to turn round and come back here, he’d also faced the fact that he had no alternative but to admit to what he felt. It was either that or lose her, and he couldn’t live with losing her.

‘You…’

Estrella was still struggling with his declaration.

‘But—but you said that our marriage didn’t have a future.’

Once more Ramón pushed both hands through his hair, turning its smooth sleekness into impossible disorder.

‘I didn’t think it had. Didn’t think it would work with just one of us loving the other.’

‘But you’d already refused my father’s offer.’

‘Yeah…’

Once more he was prowling round the room, restless as a trapped tiger.

‘It was the only thing I could do—I didn’t want you to think I’d only married you to get my hands on the company.’

‘But I was the one who suggested it as a basis for our marriage.’

Ramón swung round to face her, knowing there was nothing he could say but the truth.

‘And I was the one who couldn’t go through with it. Even though then I still hadn’t admitted to myself that what I was feeling was love, I just knew I couldn’t have our marriage start out in that way. I’d wanted the company, yes, but I wanted you so much more—and I wanted you without any ties and conditions or financial rewards.’

Suddenly, unexpectedly, Estrella moved forward to catch hold of his arm, keep him still, so that he had to look at her, looking down into the burning darkness of her eyes.

‘And that was when my father told you that he’d threatened to disinherit me, wasn’t it?’

‘Yes. Yes, it was.’

‘But he didn’t make that threat until after I’d asked you to marry me. That day at the castle—when you came to— to propose—when the Toad was there—that was when he gave me the ultimatum. To marry or lose my inheritance.’

Her eyes pleaded with him to believe her. He wanted to believe her. And then suddenly he remembered a story his brother Alex had told him about his new wife Louise and how, at one point, Alex too had been sure that she only wanted him for his money.

‘So how did she convince you you’d got it wrong?’ he’d asked and Alex had blushed—Alex had actually blushed and said that that was between him and Louise.

‘But it wasn’t what she did, it was that I knew,’ he’d added. ‘Suddenly, I just knew that she wouldn’t have done it. And no matter what she’d said or done after that, I knew that she just wasn’t capable of using me that way.’

‘Ramón, please believe me…’ Estrella said now, and in that moment Ramón knew that his brother was right. He didn’t need any further evidence. He didn’t need proof. He just knew.

‘I do,’ he said, knowing that he meant it. ‘I do believe you.’

Estrella drew in a deep breath and let it out again slowly, her heart dancing for joy at what she had just heard. He believed her and he loved her. What more could she ask for?

So now of course it was her turn. And she had to be
quick. She had kept him waiting quite long enough. She had to put him out of his misery fast!

‘Ramón—you know how you said that you don’t think our marriage would work with just one of us loving the other…?’

The look in his eyes tore at her heart and tears blurred her vision.

‘I don’t think I could bear it.’

‘Don’t think you could bear it! Oh, Ramón…’

Moving her hands from his arms, she folded them around his fingers, holding tight.

‘Neither do I. So what if it was both of us?’

With her eyes fixed on his, she saw Ramón’s momentary confusion, then the sudden look of hope that came with his realisation of what she meant.

‘Are you…?’

‘Yes,’ she told him. ‘Yes, I am—I’m telling you that I love you too. I love you with everything that’s in my heart and my mind and my soul. That the real reason why I asked you to marry me was because I was falling in love with you and I couldn’t stop myself. I’m telling you that you were never number ten on my list—you were always and only my number one. And I’m telling you that I want this to be a proper marriage—a marriage of love and sharing for the rest of our lives. Like you, I couldn’t bear anything else.’