The Stand-In Bride

CHAPTER TWO

‘YOU are right, Señora,’ Don Sebastian said. ‘My bride is innocent in this matter. The blame lies with the woman charged with her welfare, who has so notably failed in her responsibilities. For the last time, I demand that you tell me where you have been.’

‘To the theatre.’

‘To see what?’

‘A light-hearted musical. Not as worthy and improving as Julius Caesar, but it’s Christmas and neither of us was in the mood for war and murder.’

‘And does this light-hearted musical have a title?’ he growled. He knew she was prevaricating.

Maggie sighed. ‘Yes. It’s called Your Place Or Mine?’ she said reluctantly, realising how it sounded.

‘Your Place Or Mine?’ he echoed. ‘I suppose that tells me all I need to know about the kind of sleazy entertainment you think suitable for a sheltered young girl.’

‘Rubbish,’ Maggie said firmly. ‘The title is misleading. It isn’t sleazy at all-just a little bit naughty, but basically innocent.’

‘Indeed?’ Don Sebastian snatched up a newspaper he had been reading to pass the time, and pointed to an advertisement for the show they had just seen. ‘Outrageous,’ he quoted. ‘Titillating! Don’t take your grandmother!’

Maggie struggled to stop her lips twitching, and failed.

‘I am amusing you?’ Don Sebastian asked in a warning voice.

‘Yes, frankly, you are. If you knew anything about theatre advertising-which you clearly don’t-you’d realise that this kind of publicity is deliberately angled to make the public think a show more shocking than it is. “Don’t take your grandmother,” really means that even your grandmother wouldn’t be shocked. My own grandmother would have loved it.’

‘I can well believe that.’

‘Meaning? Meaning?’

‘Do you wish me to spell it out?’

‘Not unless you enjoy making yourself unpleasant, which I’m beginning to think you do. What a fuss about nothing! Catalina is young, pretty. She ought to be out dancing with friends of her own age, and what do you offer her? Julius Caesar, for pity’s sake! Men in nighties and little skirts, with knobbles on their knees.’

‘Since you didn’t see the performance you are hardly equipped to comment on their knees,’ he snapped.

‘I’ll bet they were knobbly, though. A sheltered girl like Catalina would probably have been shocked at the sight.’

But humour was wasted on this man. His eyes had narrowed in a way that some people might have found intimidating, but Maggie was past caring. She had never met anyone who made her so angry so quickly.

At last he said, ‘You have your values and I have mine. They seem to be entirely different. I blame myself for hiring your services without checking you out first.’

‘Don’t you have your finger in enough pies?’ she demanded in exasperation. ‘Must each tiny detail come under your control?’

‘With every word you betray how little you understand. When a man is in authority, control is essential. If he does not control all the details, his authority is incomplete.’

‘Details!’ Maggie said explosively. ‘You’re talking about this poor girl’s life. And if you regard that as a detail I can only say I pity her.’

‘How fortunate that I’m not obliged to consider your opinion,’ he snapped.

‘I don’t suppose you’ve ever considered anyone’s opinion in your life,’ she snapped back.

‘I don’t tolerate interference with my private affairs. It’s not your place to criticise me or my forthcoming marriage.’

‘If you had any decency, there wouldn’t be a marriage.’

‘On the contrary, it’s only my sense of duty that makes me take a feather-headed ninny as my wife. On his death-bed her father made me promise to protect her, and I gave my word.’

‘So be her guardian, but you don’t have to be her husband!’

‘A guardian’s power ends on the day his ward marries. I protect her best by remaining her guardian for life.

‘Well, of all the-‘

‘You know Catalina by now. Is she intelligent? Come, be honest.’

‘No, she isn’t. She has a butterfly mind. All the more reason to marry a man who won’t care about that.’

‘And how will she choose her husband? She’s an heiress, and the fortune-hunters will flock to her. Can you imagine the choice she’ll make? I don’t need her money. I’ll make a marriage settlement that ties it up in favour of her children, and then I’ll give her everything she wants.’

‘Except love.’

‘Love,’ he echoed scornfully. ‘What sentimentalists you English are. You think marriage has anything to do with romantic love? My wife will be protected and cared for. I will give her children to love.’

‘And she’ll have to be content with the small corner of your life that you spare her.’

He regarded her cynically. ‘I see how it is. You think a man only makes a good husband if he prostrates himself and worships the woman, like a weakling. But I tell you that a man who truly worships is without pride, and the man who only pretends is not to be trusted.’

‘You think a strong man patronises the woman?’ Maggie demanded sharply.

‘I think men and women each have their roles, and their duty is to fill them well. And since you ask, no, I don’t think that my role is to look up to any woman. I suppose you’ve been filling Catalina’s head with your pretty nonsense.’

‘Catalina is young. She knows what she wants out of life, and it isn’t you.’

‘I’m sure you’re right. She’d like some fast-talking boy who’ll sweep her off her feet, spend her money and turn on her when it’s gone. Is that the fate you want for her?’

‘No, of course not, I-’ Something was making it difficult for her to speak. His words had touched a nerve. She turned away and went to the window, so that she didn’t have to look at him. But the darkness outside reflected the room within, and she could still see him, watching her, frowning.

‘What is it?’ he asked at last.

‘Nothing,’ she said quickly. ‘You’re right, this is none of my business. Soon you’ll take Catalina away, and I won’t see her any more.’

‘What was your own husband like?’ he asked, with a flash of insight that alarmed her.

‘I’d rather not talk about him.’

‘I see,’ he said harshly. ‘You discuss my marriage, which-as you so rightly say-is not your concern, but if I wish to discuss yours, you feel entitled to snub me.’ He pulled her around to face him. ‘Tell me about your husband.’

‘No.’ She tried to get free but he held her firmly.

‘I said, tell me about him. What was he like to put that withdrawn look on your face when he’s mentioned?’

‘Very well, he was Spanish,’ she flashed. ‘Everything else I prefer to forget.’

‘Did you live in Spain?’

‘That’s enough. Let me go at once.’ But his long fingers clasped on her arm did not release her.

‘I’d rather stay like this. I don’t want to have to follow you about the room. I asked if you lived in Spain, and so far you haven’t answered me.’

‘No, and I’m not going to.’

‘But I intend that you shall. I’ve been very patient while you interrogated me and favoured me with your insulting opinions, but my patience has run out. Now we talk about you. Tell me about your husband. Was he a passionate man?’

‘How dare-? That’s none of your-’ His glintingly ironic eyes stopped her, reminding her of how frankly she had spoken about his private affairs. But that was different, she told herself wildly. It didn’t entitle him to invade the secrets of her bed, or to look at her with eyes that seemed to see the things she kept so carefully hidden.

‘So tell me,’ Sebastian persisted. ‘Was he passionate?’ Maggie pulled herself together. ‘I’m surprised you ask. You just told me that love has nothing to do with marriage.’

‘And so it hasn’t. But I’m talking about passion, which has nothing to do with love. What a man and a woman experience together in bed is a life apart. It matters little whether they love each other or not. In fact, a touch of antagonism can heighten their pleasure.’

She drew an uneven breath. ‘That is nonsense!’

He didn’t answer in words, but his fingers twitched, catching the silk chiffon scarf and slowly drawing it away, leaving her shoulders bare. A tremor went through her at the sudden rush of cool air on her skin.

‘I think not,’ he said softly.

His eyes held hers. His meaning was shockingly clear. The hostility that had flared between them in the first instant was, to him, an attraction. He was inviting her to imagine herself in bed with him, naked, turning their anger into physical pleasure. And he was doing it so forcefully that she couldn’t help responding. Against her will the pictures were there, shocking in their power and abandon: a man and a woman who’d thrown aside restraint and were driving each other on to ever greater ecstasy.

She was intensely aware of the sheer physical force of his presence. Once, before passion had played her false, she had responded to it fiercely: so fiercely that in disillusion she’d turned away from desire, fearing it as a traitor. She’d fought it, killed it. Or so she’d thought.

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.’