Mills & Boon is proud to present a fabulous

collection of fantastic novels by

bestselling, much loved author

ANNE MATHER

Anne has a stellar record of achievement within the

publishing industry, having written over one hundred

and sixty books, with worldwide sales of more than

forty-eight MILLION copies in multiple languages.

This amazing collection of classic stories offers a chance

for readers to recapture the pleasure Anne’s powerful,

passionate writing has given.

We are sure you will love them all!

I’ve always wanted to write—which is not to say I’ve always wanted to be a professional writer. On the contrary, for years I only wrote for my own pleasure and it wasn’t until my husband suggested sending one of my stories to a publisher that we put several publishers’ names into a hat and pulled one out. The rest, as they say, is history. And now, one hundred and sixty-two books later, I’m literally—excuse the pun— staggered by what’s happened.

I had written all through my infant and junior years and on into my teens, the stories changing from children’s adventures to torrid gypsy passions. My mother used to gather these manuscripts up from time to time, when my bedroom became too untidy, and dispose of them! In those days, I used not to finish any of the stories and Caroline, my first published novel, was the first I’d ever completed. I was newly married then and my daughter was just a baby, and it was quite a job juggling my household chores and scribbling away in exercise books every chance I got. Not very professional, as you can imagine, but that’s the way it was.

These days, I have a bit more time to devote to my work, but that first love of writing has never changed. I can’t imagine not having a current book on the typewriter—yes, it’s my husband who transcribes everything on to the computer. He’s my partner in both life and work and I depend on his good sense more than I care to admit.

We have two grown-up children, a son and a daughter, and two almost grown-up grandchildren, Abi and Ben. My e-mail address is mystic-am@msn.com and I’d be happy to hear from any of my wonderful readers.

Forbidden Flame
Anne Mather

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Table of Contents

Cover

About the Author

Title Page

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

PEERING through the fly-spotted window of the hotel in Las Estadas, Caroline thought she must have been slightly mad to agree to come here. Whatever had possessed her to apply for this job? Why on earth had she imagined it would be exciting, a challenge, something to divert her from the sudden emptiness of her life in England? What did she, a university graduate, with honours in English and history, know of teaching an eight-year-old child, and why had she been chosen when there had obviously been others more suitable?

Of course, the advertisement she had read would have interested anyone with a spark of adventure in their blood. The chance to work in Mexico—the land of the Aztecs, steeped in history, and peopled by the ancestors of Montezuma and Cortez—but Caroline wondered now how many of those other applicants had baulked when they were expected to travel to a remote village north of Yucatan. She had spoken with several of the other girls, waiting in the drawing room of the hotel suite in London, and almost all of them had gained the opinion that they were to work in Mexico City.

But even when Caroline had learned where the job was she had not been discouraged. She knew a little about Mexico, or so she had imagined, and the idea of living within driving distance of the Mayan city of Chichen Itza had been a glowing inducement. Only now, waiting in the seedy surroundings of the Hotel Hermosa, a misnomer surely, did the full realisation of what she was committed to occur to her, and if there had been some way she could return to Merida without anyone’s knowledge, she would have surely done so.

Outside, a drenching downpour had turned the street into a muddy river, and given a grey aspect to buildings already dirt-daubed and ramshackle. This was not the Mexico she had imagined, the colourful blending of past and present in a kaleidoscope of rich mosaics and even richer architecture. This was poverty and squalor, and the simple struggle for survival against enormous odds. Las Estadas had not yet felt the impact of the oil boom that was supposedly going to transform Mexico’s economy. Here life was still held cheaply and governed by the whims of weather, and a seemingly unkind fate. To Caroline, used to the social and cultural advantages of a Western civilisation, the sight of so much deprivation was doubly shocking, and she was uncomfortably aware that she would have much preferred not to have seen what she had.

Turning away from the window, she viewed the sordid little room behind her without liking. A rag mat beside the narrow iron-railed bedspread was all the covering the floor possessed, and the water in the chipped jug on the washstand was the graveyard for the assortment of insects who had drowned there during the night. The bed itself had been lumpy and not particularly clean, but the night before Caroline had been so tired she felt she could have slept on the floor. This morning, however, she had experienced a shudder of revulsion when she saw the grubby sheets in daylight, and the breakfast of hot tortillas and strong-smelling coffee still stood on the rickety table where the obsequious hotel proprietor had left it.

A knock at her door brought an automatic stiffening of her spine, and she straightened away from the window to stand rather apprehensively in the middle of the floor. ‘Who is it?’ she called, clasping her slim fingers tightly together, and then mentally sagged again when Señor Allende put his head round the door.

‘El desayuno, señorita—it was okay?’

The hotel proprietor was enormously fat, and as he eased his way into the room, Caroline couldn’t help wondering how many of those people she had seen could have lived on what he ate. His girth was disgusting, and he brought with him an odour of sweat and sour tequila that caused her empty stomach to heave.

‘Ah—but you have not eaten!’ he exclaimed now, observing the untouched tray. ‘It is not to your liking, señorita? You want I should have Maria make you something else?’

‘Thank you, no.’ Caroline shook her head firmly. ‘I—er—I’m not hungry. Could you tell me again, what time did Señor Montejo say he would be here?’

‘Don Esteban say he will come before noon,’ responded the fat little Mexican thoughtfully, stroking his black moustaches, and viewing Caroline’s slim figure with an irritatingly speculative eye. ‘Mas, por cierto, el tiempo—the weather, you understand? It may cause—how you say—the delay, no?’

Caroline’s spirits sank even further. ‘You mean the roads may be impassable?’ she suggested, and Señor Allende nodded.

‘Is possible,’ he agreed. Then he smiled, revealing tobacco-stained teeth. ‘Mas, no worry, señorita. Jose,’ he pointed to himself, ‘Jose take good care of you, till Don Esteban come.’

‘Yes.’

Caroline forced a faint smile of acknowledgement, but she was not enthusiastic. She would not welcome having to spend another night between those dubious sheets, and Señor Allende’s attitude grew increasingly proprietorial. He was looking at her now, as if he had some prior claim to her loyalties, while she felt she would have preferred any other hotel to this. But Señor Montejo had made the arrangements, and she could only assume that this was the best Las Estadas had to offer.

‘So—–’ Señor Allende drew a fat cigar out of his waistcoat pocket, bit off the end and spat it repulsively on to the floor. ‘Why do you not come downstairs and wait in my office, no? I have a little bottle of something there to—how do you say it?—make the day sunny, hm?’

He pronounced little as ‘leetle’, and it was all Caroline could do not to grimace outright. Did he really imagine she might find his company appealing? If she had not felt so absurdly vulnerable, she could have laughed at the predictability of it all. As it was, she took a backward step and shook her head politely but firmly.

‘I don’t think so, thank you,’ she replied crisply. ‘I’ll stay here. I can watch the street from my window, and I wouldn’t want to put you to any trouble.’

‘Is no trouble,’ exclaimed Señor Allende, spreading his hands in typically Latin fashion. ‘Come—–’ He stretched out one podgy hand. ‘Is much nicer downstairs.’

‘No!’ Caroline was very definite this time. ‘Please—I prefer to be alone. If you’ll excuse me—–’

Señor Allende shrugged, and then his small eyes narrowed between the folds of flesh. ‘Okay, okay, is no big deal,’ he retorted. ‘Como quiere usted!’ And with another shrug of his shoulders, he left her, closing the door behind him with heavy definition.

Caroline ran a relieved hand over the crown of her head and down to her nape, resting her head back against the support, expelling the tension that had briefly gripped her. The last thing she needed was complications of that sort, and she let her shoulders droop as she walked wearily back to the window. Where was Señor Montejo? Surely a night’s rain was not sufficient to cut all communications!

Pressing her palms together, she put her thumbs against her lips and gazed thoughtfully down at the verandah opposite. For the first time she questioned her own expectations of her destination. What would the Montejo house be like? What would Señor Montejo be like? And how could she have been foolish enough to commit herself to a whole month’s probation, when she might conceivably want to leave after only one day?

Somehow things had seemed so different in London. No one meeting Señora Garcia, who had conducted the interviews, could have had any doubts that anyone associated with her—and she was the child’s grandmother—could live in anything other than exemplary surroundings. She had exuded an aura of wealth and sophistication, in keeping with the Dior suit and Cartier pearls she was wearing, and Caroline had naturally assumed her son-in-law and his daughter would be the same. Perhaps she was wrong. Perhaps Señora Garcia’s daughter had married beneath her. Perhaps Señor Montejo would turn out to be more like Señor Allende …

At noon, the buxom cook, Maria, brought her a bowl of greasy stew and some corn bread. Caroline suffered herself to eat a little of the stew and all of the bread, realising it would be foolish to starve herself in this climate, and then returned to her seat by the window, wondering idly if the road to Merida was still open.

The afternoon dragged on, and Caroline grew increasingly anxious. What if, as seemed likely, Señor Montejo did not come? How many days might she be expected to stay in this awful place?

Her eyes wandered restlessly up and down the street, watching the struggle an ancient truck was having trying to gain purchase on the slippery road, silently sympathising as its churning wheels threw a shower of mud over an elderly woman passing by. An ox-cart made better progress, though the rain was no less heavy, and she turned away, sighing, just as the door to her room burst open.

It was late afternoon, and the low-hanging clouds had left the room in partial shadow, but the hotel proprietor’s bulk was unmistakable. He stood swaying on the threshold, an opened bottle of tequila clutched in his hand, and Caroline had no need to wonder how he had spent the day.

‘Holà, señorita!’ he greeted her unsteadily, raising the bottle to his mouth and taking a greedy draught. ‘Perhaps you like Jose’s com-company now, hm? You share a little drink with Jose, si?’

Caroline knew she mustn’t panic. She was not exactly afraid, but she was alarmed, and although she felt reasonably capable of defending herself, should the need arise, she dreaded to think where she might go if he threw her out.

‘I don’t drink, Señor Allende,’ she said now, facing him bravely. At five feet six inches, she was almost half a head taller than he was, and infinitely fitter, if his size was anything to go by.

‘Do-don’t drink!’ he echoed, stumbling a little over his words. ‘Por cierto, you take a little tequila. Tequila is good, very good. You try some—here—here—–’

He came towards her heavily, holding out the bottle, urging her to take a mouthful. Caroline’s stomach lurched as she stepped aside. The idea of putting her lips where his greasy mouth had been caused the lumpy stew to rise into the back of her throat like bile, and she swallowed it back nauseously, shifting to avoid his reaching fingers.

‘Señor Allende, please! I don’t want to try any,’ she protested, moving round the bed, but he only came after her, like some lumbering buffalo, panting as his thoughts accelerated beyond the pursuit.

‘You try, you try,’ he said, over and over again, licking his lips in anticipation, and Caroline realised it was going to be impossible to get out of this without a struggle.

She was backed into a corner of the room, with the bed on one side, and the wall of the room, with its tiny crucifix, on the other, and her eyes turned despairingly from the religious image. No immortal being could help her now, and with sudden inspiration she sprang on to the bed, blessing her corded jeans that provided no swirling skirts for the man to grasp. But the proprietor was more agile than she thought, or perhaps desperation lent him speed. Whatever the truth of the matter, his plump fingers reached surely for her ankle, and his brutal jerk brought her down on the bed, the unyielding mattress almost knocking the breath from her body. In those first stunned moments, she felt him clambering on to the bed beside her, and now she really did panic. With a strength she hardly knew she possessed, she twisted on to her back, drawing up her knee in one swift motion, bringing it to the fleshy underside of his body with purposeful effect. His agonised groan was audible, and she scrambled out from beneath him, reaching the door just as another man was about to enter. She collided helplessly with his hard body, and he had to grasp her shoulders to save himself. In the grip of panic, Caroline had no thought to his identity, imagining this might be some colleague of Señor Allende come to join the fun, but as she lifted her foot to deliver a similar blow, he swung her about, imprisoning her arms by her side.

‘Basta, basta!’ he exclaimed, half angrily, then lifted his eyes to the figure just endeavouring to climb off the bed. With Caroline still struggling in his arms, he stared grimly at the obese hotel proprietor, and then, speaking in English for her benefit, he said: ‘What has been going on here, Allende? Did you get a little more than you had expected?’

The cultured voice, accented though it was, brought Caroline to her senses. His words, and the contemptuous way he said them, made her instantly aware that this was no coarse drinking partner of the sweating little proprietor. Even without Señor Allende’s air of subdued discomfort, she would have known that this was someone to be reckoned with, and her struggles stilled as he politely released her.

‘I—I’m sorry if I hurt you—–’ she began, turning with some gratitude to her rescuer, then her speech died away beneath the hooded grey eyes of the man confronting her.

Señor Montejo, if it was indeed he, was like nothing she had imagined. He was younger, for one thing, certainly no more than thirty, and taller than most of the men she had seen since she arrived in Mexico. He was very dark, dark-haired and olive-skinned, but his features possessed all the unconscious hauteur of his Spanish forebears. He was not handsome in the accepted sense of the word. His brows were too strongly marked, his cheek-bones too hard, his mouth too thin—but he was devastatingly attractive, and the dark linen jacket and pants he was wearing, over a darker brown fine wool shirt, hugged his wide shoulders and muscular thighs like a second skin. Caroline had never met anyone who exuded such an aura of raw masculinity, and for a moment she faltered, at once confused and embarrassed.

‘Señor, señor—–’ Taking advantage of Caroline’s discomfort, the hotel proprietor was attempting to defend himself. ‘You misunderstand, señor—–’

‘I think not.’ Señor Montejo’s voice was deep and attractive. ‘I find you, Allende, in a position of some—shall we say, discomfort, on Señorita Leyton’s bed, and the señorita herself evidently in some distress—–’

‘Unnecessarily, I assure you, señor!’ protested Señor Allende dramatically. ‘I have—I admit it—had a little too much to drink.’ He shrugged expressively. ‘So I rest for un momento on the señorita’s bed. Que he hecho?’

‘What were you doing in the señorita’s room?’ enquired Montejo pleasantly, but Caroline could hear the underlying core of steel in his voice.

‘Perhaps—it was a misunderstanding,’ she murmured unhappily, unwilling to make enemies within twenty-four hours of her arrival. ‘I—I don’t think Señor Allende meant any harm—–’

Montejo’s dark face assumed an ironic expression. ‘Do you not?’ He tilted his head in Allende’s direction. ‘You are fortunate that Miss Leyton is not vindictive, my friend. I do not think my brother would be so generous.’

Señor Allende spread his hands. ‘You will not tell Don Esteban, señor. This posada is all I have—–’

The man made an indifferent gesture and said something else in their own language, but Caroline was not paying any attention. Something else, something Señor Allende had said, caused her to revise her first opinion, and she realised with sudden perception that this man was not her employer. Yet he knew her name, and he had mentioned his brother. But who was he? Señora Garcia had mentioned no brother. Only that her son-in-law was a widower, living alone with his daughter and an elderly aunt, on the family’s estates at San Luis de Merced.

As if becoming aware of her doubts and confusion, the man turned back to her now, performing a slight bow, and saying politely: ‘Forgive me, Miss Leyton. I have not introduced myself. My name is Montejo, Luis Vincente de Montejo, brother to Don Esteban, and uncle to your charge, Doña Emilia.’

‘I see.’ Caroline gathered herself quickly. ‘You are—you are here to meet me?’

‘Of course.’ Long dark lashes narrowed the steel grey eyes. ‘My brother is—indisposed. He asked me to bring you to San Luis.’

Caroline drew a somewhat unsteady breath and nodded. ‘I’ll get my things.’

‘Permit me.’

He was there before her, hefting her two cases effortlessly, indicating that she should preceded him from the room. The fat little hotel proprietor watched them with a mixture of relief and brooding resentment, and Caroline, meeting his cold gaze, shivered. In spite of the ingratiating smile he immediately adopted, she would not trust him an inch, and she hoped she never had to throw herself on his mercy.

Downstairs, a group of men were gathered in the hall, and from their attitude Caroline suspected they had been hoping for a fight. She guessed they had known what Allende was about, and as they stepped back with evident respect to let them pass, she felt an increasing surge of gratitude towards Señor Montejo. Without his intervention she could have expected no help from this quarter, and she pressed her arms tightly against her sides to avoid any kind of contact.

Outside, the downpour had eased somewhat, but it was still raining. Water drained in douches from the eaves above their heads as they crossed the muddy street to where a scarcely-identifiable Range Rover was parked, and the shoulders of Caroline’s shirt felt damp as she scrambled with more haste than elegance into the front seat. Her companion thrust her cases into the back, then came round the bonnet to get in beside her, removing his jacket as he did so, and tossing it into the back along with her luggage.

He didn’t say anything as he inserted the keys into the ignition and started the engine, and Caroline endeavoured to recover her composure. It wasn’t easy, with the memory of what had almost happened still sharply etched in her mind, but as her breathing slowed she managed to get it into some kind of perspective. In retrospect, it seemed almost ludicrous to imagine herself tumbling across the bed, but at the time she had known definite fear.

‘A baptism of fire, would you say?’ Señor Montejo enquired, as the vehicle reached the end of the village street, and Caroline glanced sideways at him. Ahead was only jungle, vine-infested and menacing in the fading grey light, and although Las Estadas was scarcely civilised, compared to what was beyond, the lights of the village seemed infinitely comforting. What more did she know of this man, after all? she pondered. Only what he had told her. And Señor Allende’s behaviour, which had spoken of fear, as well as respect. But fear of what, and of whom, she had yet to find out.

‘How—how far is it to San Luis de Merced?’ she ventured, not answering him, and his mouth drew down at the corners.

‘Not far,’ he replied evenly. ‘Between twenty and twenty-five miles. Why?’ He was perceptive. ‘Are you afraid you cannot trust me either?’

Caroline moistened her lips. ‘Can I?’

He inclined his head. ‘Of a surety, señorita.’ He paused. ‘Believe me, you have nothing to fear from me.’

It was dark long before they reached their destination. It came quickly, shrouding the surrounding trees in a cloak of shadows, hiding the primitive landscape, concealing the sparse settlements, much like Las Estadas, if not in size, then certainly in appearance. Caroline wondered how these people lived in such conditions, where they worked, how they supported themselves, what kind of education their children had. There seemed such a gulf between the man beside her and these poor peasants, but she was loath to voice it when he did not.

The road did improve for some distance, when they joined an interstate highway, but after a while they left it again to bounce heavily along a rutted track, liberally spread with potholes. Caroline gripped her seat very tightly, to prevent herself from being thrown against the man beside her, and she felt, rather than saw, him look her way.

‘Are you regretting coming, señorita?’ he asked, again surprising her by his perception. ‘Do not be discouraged by the weather. It is not always like this. Tomorrow, the sun will shine, and you will see beauty as well as ugliness.’

Caroline turned her head. ‘You admit—there is ugliness?’

‘There is ugliness everywhere, señorita,’ he replied flatly. ‘All I am saying is, do not judge my country by its weaknesses. If you look for strength, you will find it.’

Caroline hesitated. ‘That’s a very profound view.’

‘Profundity is as easy for a stupid man to mouth as a learned one,’ he remarked, and she saw him smile in the illumination from the dials in front of him. ‘Do not be misled by my enthusiasm. I love my country, that is all.’

Caroline was intrigued, as much by the man as by what he had said. He was a very attractive man, but she had known that as soon as she saw him. What she had not known then was that he had a sense of humour, or that she should find his conversation so stimulating.

‘Your brother,’ she said thoughtfully, ‘he runs a ranch, doesn’t he? Do you work with him?’

There was a moment’s silence before he answered her, and then he said: ‘Here, we call it a hacienda. And yes, Esteban is the hacendado. But he does not run the ranch. He has a—how do you call it?—overseer to run the spread for him.’

‘And what do you grow? Corn? Maize?’

‘Cattle,’ responded Luis Montejo dryly. ‘My brother employs many gauchos. It is a very large holding.’

Caroline nodded. She had known this. Señora Garcia had told her. And about her granddaughter, Emilia …

‘Your niece,’ she tendered now. ‘She’s an only child, I believe.’

Again there was a pause before he replied. ‘Yes,’ he said at last. ‘Emilia has no brothers or sisters. Her mother died when she was born.’

‘Oh!’ Señora Garcia had not told her this. ‘How distressing for your brother! He must have been very upset.’

‘Yes.’

It was an acknowledgement, no more, and Caroline found herself wondering whether she was mistaken in thinking his tone was clipped. Surely there was no suggestion that Don Esteban was uncaring of his wife’s death. Surely Señora Garcia would have warned her if this was so.

Yet, she realised, she really knew nothing of these people, beyond what they chose to tell her. That was why her own parents had been so opposed to her travelling so far on such a slender recommendation. If they had not felt equally strongly about her relationship with Andrew Lovell, she knew they would have done their utmost to make her change her mind. As it was, they were torn in conflicting directions.

‘So, you are young to have come so far alone,’ Luis Montejo remarked, unconsciously interpreting her silence. ‘But then,’ he continued, an ironic twist to his lips, ‘English girls are more emancipated than Spanish women. They do not have the restrictions put upon them as our girls do.’

Caroline struggled to recover her earlier enthusiasm. ‘Do you disapprove, señor?’ she ventured, forcing a light tone, and waited with some misgivings for his answer.

‘It is not my concern,’ he responded, moving his shoulders in a gesture of dismissal, and Caroline knew a moment’s impatience.

‘You must have an opinion,’ she insisted, curious to know his feelings, and with a rueful grimace he avoided a pothole before replying.

‘Let us say I have the usual chauvinist attitudes,’ he remarked. ‘A woman is not a man, and she should not try to emulate one.’

‘You think that’s what I’m trying to do?’ exclaimed Caroline indignantly, and his laughter was low and attractive.

‘No one could mistake your sex, señorita,’ he assured her dryly, and she felt a not unpleasant stirring of her senses. ‘All I am saying is that a woman’s role is not naturally that of the hunter, but that the inevitable conclusion to any continued adaptation is transformation.’

Caroline gazed ahead of her, watching the headlights of the Range Rover as they searched out a marsh cactus, glimpsing, as if in a shadowy reflection, a four-legged creature moving out there in the darkness. His answer had been predictable, and yet more logical, than some she had heard. But it was not flattering to find oneself compared, however indirectly, to a member of the opposite sex, and she wished she had some clever response to flatten his biased argument.

‘I have offended you, I think,’ he commented now, his tone lacking its earlier mockery. ‘I am sorry, I did not mean to do so. But you asked for my opinion, and I gave it.’

Caroline shrugged. ‘You haven’t offended me,’ she declared, although, unknowingly, her whole demeanour suggested that he had. ‘I was trying to think of a suitable answer, that’s all.’

‘I think you mean a suitable set-down,’ he observed, giving her a wry grin. ‘I am sorry, truly. Believe me, you are a very feminine lady, and I salute your courage in pursuing your career.’

‘You don’t really.’ Caroline would not be deceived. ‘You’re probably one of those men who thinks a woman shouldn’t have a brain in her head!’

‘No!’ His humour was infectious, and against her will Caroline found herself responding to it.

‘You do,’ she insisted, abandoning all formality between them. ‘I just hope your brother is more tolerant in his attitudes to women.’

There was another of those pregnant silences, when Caroline wondered exactly what she had said, and when he replied, there was little humour left in his voice. ‘Oh, yes,’ he said, and she heard the irony in his tones, ‘Esteban is much more tolerant you will find. It was he who employed you, señorita. How could he think otherwise?’

It was not the answer she would have preferred, and she was left feeling decidedly deflated. For a few minutes she had lost the feeling of apprehension that had gripped her ever since Señor Allende burst into her room. But once again a sense of unease enveloped her, making her overwhelmingly aware of her own vulnerability.

‘How—how much further is it?’ she asked now, needing his voice to dispel her tension, and he frowned into the darkness.

‘Not far,’ he told her. ‘Five miles, at most. Are you tired? Or perhaps hungry? I am sure my brother’s housekeeper will have a meal waiting for you.’

‘And—and your aunt?’ Caroline probed. ‘Señora Garcia told me she also lives at the—the hacienda.’

‘That is correct. She came to San Luis when my father married her sister. She has never married, and she considers San Luis her home.’

Caroline welcomed this information. An elderly aunt sounded infinitely less intimidating than a man whose wife had died in childbirth, and who might or might not have mourned her passing. She stared out blindly into the darkness. It seemed such a long way. The road was so bad, and so twisting. Was this the only link with civilisation?

She was not thinking what she was doing, slumped in her seat, wrapped in the corkscrewing spiral of her thoughts. When the Range Rover swung round a bend in the road, and Señor Montejo braked hard to avoid a pile of rocks and debris brought down by the rain, she was flung about like a doll, cracking her head on the windscreen before being thrown back against him. It happened so suddenly she was unable to save herself, and she clutched at him violently, to prevent further punishment.

‘Dios mío!’ he muttered, as the vehicle shuddered to a standstill, and his arm automatically went around her. ‘Are you all right? Did I hurt you? I am sorry. This road can be treacherous after a storm.’

Caroline breathed shakily, her face pressed against the soft material of his shirt. Beneath the fine cloth, his heart was pounding heavily in her ears, and the clean male scent of his skin filled her nostrils. His body was hard, muscular, unyielding, and yet possessed of a supple strength, that accommodated the flexibility of hers. Even after the Range Rover had ground to a halt, and the uncanny silence had enveloped them in its blanketing shield, she clung to his strength, and knew it was not just the near-accident which had aroused such a desire for his protection.

‘Miss Leyton!’ His voice was a key lower, husky, possessed of a certain restraint. ‘Miss Leyton, what is it? Are you hurt? Tell me, what is the matter?’

His words brought Caroline to her senses, and with a little gesture of negation she moved away from him. Immediately he withdrew his arm from the back of her seat, and after allowing her a swift appraisal, he thrust open his door.

Sliding his arms into his jacket, he retrieved a spade from the back of the vehicle, and while she endeavoured to compose herself, he vigorously disposed of the pile of debris. He worked in the illumination from the headlights, bending and lifting, and throwing the contents of the spade across the ditch at the side of the road. Caroline watched him with uneasy awareness, troubled as much by her own reactions to him as by their brush with danger. It was disturbing to realise that during those moments in his arms she had known a wholly unexpected sense of anticipation, and she knew if he had chosen to bend his head and find her mouth with his she would not have objected.

It was a shocking realisation, not only because of her feelings for Andrew, but because she had known Luis Montejo for such a short period of time. She had thought herself so self-confident, so emancipated—yet, when the warm scent of his breath had brushed her cheek, she had felt as weak and susceptible as any Victorian miss. She checked the shoulder-length curve of her hair with unsteady fingers. No doubt he had known how she felt, she thought, with some self-derision. He must be highly amused now, after her previous assertions of female rights. Perhaps she should be grateful he had not chosen to take the affair any further. It would have been doubly humiliating to arrive on Don Esteban’s doorstep, with his brother’s brand already upon her.

The spade thudded into the back of the vehicle, and she stiffened as the door beside her opened, and Luis Montejo climbed back into his seat. This time, he kept his jacket on, and the damp smell of the material mingled with the faint odour of sweat from his exertions.

‘You are sure you are all right?’ he enquired again, his voice perceptibly cooler now, yet still polite and concerned, and she nodded, fingering a slight swelling on her temple.

‘I should have been more careful,’ she answered, endeavouring to keep her tone light. ‘Your roads are certainly—unpredictable.’

‘And dangerous,’ he agreed, with grim impatience, starting the engine abruptly and thrusting it into drive, and Caroline turned her head away from him, to gaze through the rain-smeared window.

San Luis de Merced was a village, as well as the place where Don Esteban de Montejo had his estates. There were lights in the village, glowing through the shutters of adobe dwellings, mingling with the smoke from a dozen chimneys. There was the spicy smell of meat and peppers, and the stronger aroma of woodsmoke, and children in open doorways, to watch their progress. Someone shouted after them, and Luis Montejo answered, raising his hand in greeting as Caroline thought she heard the word ‘padre’. But her attention was diverted as the Range Rover lurched on to an upward slope, and she clung desperately to her seat as they wound precipitously up through a belt of trees, to where high wooden gates were set in a grey stone wall. The wall itself was easily eight feet high, a solid barrier to what was beyond, and Caroline’s nerves tightened. Beyond the wall was her destination, and her courage faltered at the sight of that prison-like edifice.

Luis Montejo brought the vehicle to a halt and sprang down again to hammer on the gates. Reassuringly, they were soon opened, by an elderly retainer, dressed in the usual garb of loose-fitting pants, and waistcoat, the sleeves of his shirt rolled back to his elbows. He removed the wide-brimmed hat from his head as they drove through, then replaced it again to close the gates behind them.

‘Gomez,’ remarked her companion shortly, as Caroline glanced back over her shoulder. ‘He used to work for my brother, but now he is too old to ride herd, and spends his days keeping the gate.’

‘Like St Peter,’ commented Caroline, wishing to ease the tension inside her, and Luis Montejo gave her a thoughtful look.

‘Perhaps,’ he conceded at length, but Caroline had the distinct impression that he had been tempted to make another comparison.

Beyond the gates, the tyres encountered the solid mass of a stone courtyard. Caroline decided it resembled an ancient fortress, with its outer walls and solid buttresses, a width of drive leading past stables and outhouses and under an inner archway to the stone-flagged entrance.

Montejo drove under the arch, and brought the Range Rover to a halt at the foot of a flight of steps, leading up to a wooden door. The rain had ceased, and the warmth of the night air dispelled the feeling of chill Caroline had developed when first she saw the house. There was the fragrant scent of oleander and hibiscus, and the soft smell of earth after rain, and as she climbed out of the vehicle Caroline determined not to allow what had happened in Las Estadas to influence her first impressions of her home for the next few weeks.

The door above them opened as Luis Montejo was unloading her cases from the Range Rover. A plump, round-faced little woman descended the steps to greet them, and meeting her round, beady little eyes, Caroline wondered if this could conceivably be Doña Isabel. She was quickly disillusioned.

‘Consuelo,’ remarked the man beside her, straightening with a case in each hand. ‘She speaks little English, but she will do her best.’

‘Buenas tardes, señor.’ Consuelo addressed herself to Luis Montejo, but her eyes were all for Caroline. ‘Buenas tardes, señorita. Bienvenido a San Luis.’

‘Thank you—gracias!’ It was one of the few words she knew and Caroline glanced in some embarrassment towards Señor Montejo, doubting the accuracy of her accent.

But he merely inclined his head and said ‘Muy bien,’ in a low voice behind her, as they followed the gesticulating Consuelo up the steps. ‘No sabia que pedia hablar español!’ he added, confusing her further, and she glanced round at him, pursing her lips.

‘You must know I don’t understand you,’ she whispered, aware of Consuelo’s inquisitive interest, and his smile was a disturbing reminder of the way he had made her feel in the car.

‘No importa,’ he assured her, his meaning obvious this time, and she sighed. ‘Esteban was educated at Oxford. I am sure you will have no difficulty in understanding him.’

The undertones of his words were lost on her as she stepped into the baroque beauty of the exquisitely decorated hall of the house. In the light from a dozen electric lamps, concealed behind bronze shades, her eyes were dazzled by fluted columns supporting the high arched ceiling, by heavily carved mouldings and inlaid mosaics, and by miniaturised statues of the Virgin and Child. The vertiginous twists of a wrought-iron staircase were enhanced by leaves veined in marble, and the chequerboard pattern beneath their feet was coloured in black and gold. If the outer appearance of the house had been daunting, its inner beauty more than made up for it, and she turned to the man behind her with bewildered eyes, seeking some explanation.

‘As you can see, my brother lives in style, señorita,’ Luis Montejo remarked mockingly, and before she could make any protest at his own apparent acceptance of the situation, another voice broke in on them.

‘Señorita Leyton!’ it enquired, in vaguely slurred tones. ‘It is Señorita Leyton, is it not? Ola, welcome to the Hacienda Montejo, señorita. I hope you are going to be very happy here.’

Caroline turned half guiltily, aware of the disloyalty of her thoughts only moments before, to find a man approaching them across the expanse of black and gold marble. If this was Esteban Montejo, and she had every reason to suppose it was, he, too, was tall, though not so tall as his brother, and of much heavier build. Like his surroundings, he looked immaculate, in a formal evening suit of seamed black pants and white jacket, his only apparent concession to the heat, the printed silk cravat about his throat, instead of the usual white tie. But what disturbed Caroline most was the unevenness of his approach; the way he placed each foot with evident precision, and the faintly smug expression he adopted as he neared her.

‘My brother, Don Esteban,’ observed Luis Montejo, with studied politeness, and Caroline felt her hand captured and raised almost to Don Esteban’s lips.

‘I am most happy to meet you, señorita,’ Don Esteban assured her ardently, and the odour on his breath was unmistakable. Was this the indisposition his brother had hinted at? Caroline wondered faintly, smothering her revulsion, and knew a moment’s incredulity that features that had so much in common should be so amazingly different.

Realising she had to say something to retrieve her hand, she forced a smile. ‘You—you have a beautiful home, señor,’ she said, determinedly withdrawing her fingers from his. ‘It—well, it’s not at all what I expected.’

Don Esteban rocked back on his heels, casting a satisfied glance towards the intricately-carved ceiling, the white walls and pilasters, the iron balustrade that formed a gallery above them. ‘You like it?’ he drawled. ‘It is a modest dwelling compared to the palaces my family left behind them in Cadiz, señorita.’ He shrugged. ‘But—–’ and here his dark eyes, much darker than those of his brother, returned to her face, ‘it serves the purpose. And there is room enough for the three members of my family who live here.’

‘Oh, but—–’ Caroline’s brows ascended, and she glanced in some confusion towards the man who had brought her here. How could there only be three members?

And as if understanding that silent enquiry, Don Esteban spoke again. ‘My brother?’ he suggested. ‘Luis?’ His tongue slurred over the man’s name. ‘Did he not tell you, señorita? Did he not explain?’ His lips curled. ‘My brother does not live with us here at San Luis, Miss Leyton. Like his namesake, Luis is in search of immortality also. He lives in Mariposa, señorita. At the seminary of San Pedro de Alcantara.’

CHAPTER TWO

CAROLINE awakened with the instinctive awareness that all was not well. For a few minutes she lay still in the middle of the huge baroque bed, with its carved headboard and gilded hangings, once used, Don Esteban had assured her, by the Emperor Maximilian himself, and let the events of the previous evening sweep over her in intimate detail. And then, loath to spoil the new day with such reminiscences, she thrust back the silken coverings and put her feet to the floor.

There was a rug beside her bed, a soft silky alpaca rug, into which her toes curled, and she allowed its sensuous touch to soothe her unquiet thoughts. No matter what she had let herself into here, she was committed to stay for at least four weeks, she told herself severely, but it was not an easy fact to accept.

The night before had been like something out of a dream, or perhaps a nightmare described it more aptly. Remembering the dinner she had shared with the two brothers, she shuddered in revulsion, and her palms found her cheeks as she recalled that grotesque meal in its entirety.

It had been obvious from the start that Don Esteban was by no means sober, and the amount of wine served with the meal had only exaggerated his condition. They had eaten in the ornate dining room, at a table large enough to seat a score of guests, and from silver and crystal worth a small fortune. They were served by an army of waiters, and offered a fantastic number of courses, each cooked and presented with a different sauce. There were several courses of fish, from a spicy stuffed variety to the lightest of shellfish mousses, chilled soups, steaming consommés, wine-flavoured and aromatic, chicken served in wine and cream, stuffed tamales, enchiladas, deliciously filled with cheese, pork served with apples and tomatoes and onions, and every kind of fruit imaginable.

Caroline had eaten little, aware of the dangers of too much rich food on a stomach already churning with nerves, and she had noticed Don Esteban followed her example. But he had continually filled his glass, watching her intently across the expanse of polished mahogany, probing and assessing, and making her overwhelmingly aware that he found her presence at his table pleasing to him.

Luis Montejo had eaten more enthusiastically, drinking only a little wine, keeping his thoughts to himself. It had been left to Caroline to answer Don Esteban’s questions, and to listen in shocked fascination as he deliberately proceeded to provoke his brother.

Remembering it all now, Caroline rose from the bed and padded barefoot across to the window. Without the benefit of the rug, the tiled floor was cool to her feet, but she scarcely noticed. Drawing the heavy curtains aside, she opened the window, and gasped with sudden wonder at the beauty of the view.

Last night there had been nothing to be seen, only darkness, and the troubling obscurity of her own thoughts. But this morning the sun was shining, and even the enclosing wall that surrounded the property had taken on a rose-coloured hue.

But it was beyond the wall that Caroline’s eyes were drawn, to the flower-strewn banks of a river flowing through rugged but open land to where a church tower stood silhouetted against the sky. Her eyes followed the river as it rushed through a narrow gorge to disappear from sight, only to appear again in the shimmering distance, a spreading, shifting expanse of water. Caroline blinked. That was no river, she realised in sudden excitement. It was the sea. Only the sea could give that blue-green tinge to the horizon, and her spirits soared. She had known Yucatan was a peninsula but somehow she had never imagined San Luis de Merced might be near the sea. She gazed at it eagerly, savouring its familiarity, and breathing deeply, as if she could already taste its salty flavour.

With an effort she allowed her attention to be caught by a movement near at hand. There was a herd of cattle grazing some distance from the house, and her eyes widened at their number. There must be hundreds, she thought incredulously, then wondered with some misgivings if one had to negotiate the herds to reach the estuary.

She sighed. No doubt she would find out. But once again the more immediate present gripped her, reminding her that she had yet to meet her charge, the young Emilia, or the elderly retainer, Doña Isabel.

There was a bathroom adjoining the bedroom, and checking that it was still quite early, barely eight o’clock in fact, she went to take a shower. She had been too exhausted the night before to do anything more than wash her face and hands and clean her teeth, but now she surveyed the bathroom’s luxurious appointments with more enthusiasm.

Like everything else, the bathroom was ornate. The walls were lined with gilded mirrors, the taps on the bath and handbasin were gold-plated, and even the shower had a gold-plated spray. Still, the water was hot, and refusing to allow the memory of how the majority of the population lived to deter her, Caroline pulled on a shower cap and stepped beneath the invigorating cascade.

Towelling herself dry, she returned to the bedroom again, viewing her still-packed cases with some distaste. They would have to wait until she discovered what her duties were going to be, she decided, and determinedly dismissed the fleeting urge to beg Luis to take her with him when he left for Mariposa.

Dropping the towel, she rummaged for clean underwear, but when she turned back, the shred of cream cotton clutched in her hand, she encountered her reflection in the long gilded cheval mirrors. They were very narcissistic mirrors, she realised, folding one upon the other, throwing back her image from every angle. But they were candid, too, in their search for perfection, and there was no way one could disguise any possible flaw.

Reluctantly, Caroline allowed herself a moment’s assessment. Her body was slim, without being angular, her hips shaped, her legs long and attractive. She sometimes thought her legs were her best feature, although Andrew had insisted she had equally desirable attributes elsewhere. Her tongue circled lips that were unknowingly sensuous, troubled a little by her thoughts at that moment. It was not of Andrew that she was thinking but of Luis de Montejo, and her own disturbing awareness of him as a man. She had never met a man quite like him before, but then she had never had a conversation with a Roman Catholic priest before. Mr Thomas, the Church of England vicar at St David’s back home, bore no resemblance to the man who had rescued her from Señor Allende’s unwanted attentions, and even now she found it difficult to associate Luis with the Church.

Luis! The way his name came so easily to her tongue was disturbing, too, and she drew her lower lip between her teeth, nibbling on it uneasily. Unwillingly she recalled Don Esteban’s behaviour over dinner. His attitude towards his brother had been deliberately offensive, and, as the evening progressed, increasingly crude. He had spoken of things in Caroline’s presence, things which even she, in her self-asserted role of emancipist, would have preferred not to hear, and she had badly wanted to escape. When he baited Luis, when he made a mockery of his tolerance towards the people, when he spoke of his celibacy, Caroline had wanted to die of embarrassment, but Don Esteban had seemed to enjoy her discomfort far more than his brother’s indifference.

And Luis had maintained a façade of detachment, whether it was real or otherwise. He had refused to answer his brother’s coarser comments, and adopted an air of resigned fortitude, that succeeded inasmuch as it seemed to drive Don Esteban almost to distraction. His speech got more slurred, he filled his glass more frequently, and finally slumped in his chair, the victim of his own frustration. Several of the servants came at once to carry him to bed, almost as if this was a regular occurrence, and Caroline had been left to face Luis’s intent appraisal, with the distinct perception of her own inadequacy.

She had wanted to rant at him then, to accuse him of knowing to what he was bringing her, to question his integrity in allowing her to believe that his brother was an ordinary man—but she hadn’t. How could she blame him for her own foolhardiness? How could she despise him, when she had chosen this job? If anyone was to blame, it was Señora Garcia, in deceiving her so completely; although even that imposition didn’t hold water, when she considered how ambiguously the advertisement had been worded. It was her own fault, and hers alone. She had accepted the post, she had come here with such a high opinion of her own capabilities, and if it proved to be a disaster then she would have to extricate herself.

She gave a grim little smile now, as she recalled their conversation on the way to San Luis de Merced. What must he have been thinking when she made her stand for women’s liberation? How subtly he had avoided discussing his brother’s position. He must have known how soon her eyes would be opened, and yet not then, or last evening, had he voiced the obvious cliché.

With an exclamation of impatience she put on her scanty underwear and reached for the simple pleated skirt, folded on top of her suitcase. The matching silk shirt that went with it was the colour of African violets, and the outfit was in sharp contrast to the pale fall of ash-blonde hair. Her hair was straight and silky, smooth from a centre parting, and ideal in this climate, where more elaborate styles would droop with the humidity. She could wash it and dry it in an hour, without requiring any artificial assistance.

She was smoothing a shiny lip-gloss on to her mouth when there was a knock at her door. Half turning, she called: ‘Come in!’ and after a few moments’ pause the door was tentatively opened. A young Indian girl stood just outside, holding a tray. She was attired in the black dress and white apron, which seemed to be uniform for all the female staff, and she ducked her head politely, and said: ‘Desayuno, por favor, señorita. Puedo entrar?’

Caroline put down her lip brush and smiled. ‘You can put the tray over there,’ she said, indicating the marble-topped table near the windows, and then, summoning what little of the language she could remember, she added: ‘Su nombre—que es?’

The girl put down the tray and straightened nervously, folding her hands together. ‘Carmencita, señorita,’ she answered, the wide dark eyes darting about the room. ‘Puedo salir ahora?’

Caroline sighed. She wasn’t absolutely sure, but she guessed Carmencita had orders not to gossip with the new governess, and spreading her hands, she gave her permission to leave.

With the door closed again she approached the tray with some misgivings. She would have preferred to go downstairs, to accustom herself to her new surroundings before she was summoned to meet her charge, but obviously she was obliged to follow orders. So she lifted the silver cloches that protected hot rolls and scrambled eggs, tasted the peach preserve, and poured herself some rich black coffee into a cup of such fine china it was virtually transparent.

Then, summoning all her composure, she opened her door and let herself into the corridor outside. The night before, Consuelo had escorted her to her room, bidden by Luis de Montejo, after his brother’s undignified departure. Whatever his position in the house, his word appeared to carry as much weight as that of Don Esteban, and Caroline suspected that they respected him more. Two brothers could hardly have been more different, yet the result was the same. And did it really matter to these people?

The long hall stretched ahead of her, its stonework inlaid with panels of carving, and interspersed with portraits of long-dead Montejos. Overhead, the ceiling was an arch of heavily embossed moulding, and because it was without windows, it was constantly lit by a series of gothic sconces, each accommodating an electric bulb. It was curious, but the night before Caroline had scarcely been aware of its eerie isolation, those painted eyes in their canvas sockets troubling her not at all. But this morning, the remoteness of her rooms from the rest of the hacienda seemed infinitely significant, and she could not dispel the realisation that she was completely without support here.

She hurried along the corridor, her heels silent on the softly piled carpet that unrolled its length in shades of black and gold, and emerged at the head of the staircase with a feeling of having navigated a particularly treacherous expanse of ocean.

Thinking of the nearness of the ocean, she endeavoured to dismiss her foolish fears. She was allowing the house, and its lavish appointments, to influence her impressions of her employer, and the sooner she found a true perspective the better.

Downstairs she encountered some of the servants, already at work, polishing the massive width of the hall on bended knees. They looked up curiously as she hesitated, uncertain as to her destination, and then the sound of a child’s laughter erased the last traces of her irresolution. Nothing was more delightful than the spontaneous laughter of a child, she thought, crossing the hall in the direction of the voices she could now hear. Don Esteban must hold some affection in his daughter’s eyes at least, and she was relieved to have the burden of indecision lifted from her.

But when she reached the arched doorway that led into a huge, sunlit salón, she faltered once again. Sure enough, her charge was there, a small, plump little girl, extravagantly arrayed in a white dress with layer upon layer of frills, overset by strings of pink ribbon, but the man who was on all fours, and on whose back she was energetically riding, was not her father.

‘Ah, Miss Leyton! Good morning!’

With a lithe effort Luis de Montejo swung the child down from his back and got easily to his feet, quelling the little girl’s protests with a soothing hand on her long black hair. In the same linen trousers he had worn the night before, but this time a cream silk shirt to complement them, he was relaxed and magnetic, a vibrant masculine being, with the unmistakable glow of good health. His shirt had become partially unbuttoned during his antics on the floor, and now his long fingers probed to fasten it, but not before Caroline had observed the dark arrowing of fine body hair that disappeared below his belt.

‘Tio Vincente, Tio Vincente!’ Emilia, for this was evidently Don Estaban’s daughter, tugged impotently at his sleeve. ‘Quien es?’ she exclaimed, subjecting Caroline to a malevolent scrutiny from beneath dark brows. ‘Que desea? Ella no me gusta!’

‘Hush, little one. Speak in English, remember?’ Luis exhorted her softly, restraining her sulky tirade. ‘Miss Leyton is here to teach you your numbers, as you know very well. And I do not wish to hear that you have been rude to her.’

Emilia’s lips pursed. ‘I know my numbers,’ she declared, in perfect English, surprising Caroline by her lack of accent. ‘Miss Thackeray taught me my numbers, and my letters, and I do not need any more teachers.’

Miss Thackeray? Caroline’s brow furrowed. Had Miss Thackeray been her predecessor, and if so, why was she no longer here?

‘Miss Thackeray used to be my governess,’ Luis inserted, dryly, correctly interpreting Caroline’s little frown. ‘She lived at San Luis from the time I was six years old, but unfortunately she died last year, and since then Emilia has had no formal education.’

‘I see.’ Caroline endeavoured to hide her relief. For an awful moment she wondered if she was the last in a succession of governesses, all of whom had objected to living at the hacienda.

‘You won’t like it here at San Luis,’ Emilia stated now, abandoning her pleas to her uncle and turning instead to the offensive. ‘There are snakes, and spiders, and bats that suck your blood!’ She twisted her face into a horrifying grimace. ‘Do you believe in vampires, Miss Leyton? Because if you do not, you must be as stupid as you look!’ And brushing past Caroline, she ran out of the room, before either her governess or her uncle could prevent her.

‘Well—–’ Left alone once again with Luis, Caroline felt hopelessly embarrassed, as much by her own sense of inadequacy as by what the child had said. ‘What do I do now?’

Luis’s mouth compressed. ‘You are asking me?’

‘Who else?’ Caroline made an encompassing gesture around the otherwise empty room. ‘There is no one else.’ She expelled her breath unevenly. ‘Is she always like that?’

Luis shrugged, tucking his thumbs into the back of his belt. ‘You must make allowances for Emilia. She has had a rather—unusual upbringing.’

‘That I can believe!’ Caroline was vehement.

‘Do not misunderstand me, Miss Leyton. I am not saying that Emilia is without—gentleness, compassion. Only that she has never known a mother’s care.’

Caroline shook her head. ‘But your aunt—–’

‘Tia Isabel is—how shall I say it?—a little unworldly.’ He paused. ‘Miss Thackeray provided the fulcrum of Emilia’s existence. When she died …’

‘But what about her father?’ Caroline had to say it. ‘Surely he—–’ She broke off, and then said inconsequently: ‘For two brothers, you are totally different.’

‘Forgive me,’ Luis’s grey eyes narrowed, ‘but is that one of your famous English non sequiturs? I do not see what relevance it has to the purpose.’

‘It hasn’t,’ Caroline sighed forlornly, bending her head. ‘I mean, it has no relevance, of course. I just wish—–’ She broke off again. ‘Are there really vampire bats here?’

Luis’s mouth softened a little. ‘And if I say yes, will you go running back to Merida?’

He was teasing her, but she could not respond to it. ‘Perhaps, if I could,’ she answered now, and his sudden humour disappeared behind a mask of gravity.

‘I think I must be going,’ he said, moving purposefully towards the door. ‘I promised Tomas I would ride with him this morning, and it grows late.’

‘Wait—–’ Caroline went after him urgently, her green eyes wide and anxious. ‘Please, you have to tell me—what am I do do about Emilia? Where is she? When do her lessons begin? And—and are we allowed to go outside the grounds of the hacienda?’

Luis halted in the doorway and looked down at her with studied consideration. His stillness disturbed her. The penetration of those light eyes was disruptive. Her lungs began to feel constricted, and her throat felt tight, and she wondered if this was how a penitent felt in the presence of a confessor.

‘I suggest you ask my brother these things,’ he advised her at last, his voice curiously constrained. ‘He is your employer, señorita, not I. Now, if you will permit me—–’

‘You’re not—leaving!’

It seemed imperative that she should know this for a fact, and without really thinking what she was doing, she emulated Emilia’s example and gripped his sleeve. Only somehow her fingers encountered the hair-roughened skin of his forearm, and the feeling of the taut muscle beneath his skin caused an involuntary tremor of awareness to ripple over her. She looked down at her fingers, spreading them almost experimentally, then her chin jerked upward as he wrenched his arm out of her grasp.

‘I return to Mariposa in three days, señorita,’ he told her harshly, and without another word, he strode away.

Caroline turned back into the salón, aware that she was trembling. She realised she had done an unforgivable thing by making him aware of her like that, but it had happened completely without her volition. Yet perhaps it was inevitable. He was the only person she could turn to, and she dreaded the thought of his eventual departure. But somehow she had to face that reality, and live with it.

‘Señorita!’

For a moment, the whispered use of her name confused her. She had thought herself alone in the room. But now she saw that the door to an inner salón had opened, and a tiny figure, voluminous in folds of black silk, was hovering on the threshold. A headdress, of the kind Caroline had previously only seen on those ancient portraits upstairs, formed a kind of jewelled halo above the woman’s coiled hair, and her ears and the gnarled knuckles of her fingers glittered with a veritable fortune in diamonds, rubies and emeralds.

‘Doña Isabel?’ ventured Caroline nervously, at a loss to know how else to address her, and the tiny figure bobbed her head in assent. ‘How—how do you do? I’m Caroline Leyton—er—Emilia’s new governess.’

‘Governess, pah!’ Doña Isabel released her hold on the door and advanced a few paces into the room, staring at Caroline with unconcealed contempt. ‘I know who you are, señorita,’ she admonished her, in a low guttural undertone. ‘You are Esteban’s latest puta, that is who you are! Do you think you can deceive me? I have lived here too long!’

Caroline was astounded. Her knowledge of Spanish might not be comprehensive, but she knew exactly what puta meant, and its connotations were not only shocking but insulting.

‘I assure you, Doña Isabel—–’ she began, only to have the old lady interrupt her.

‘Be silent! I do not hold conversations with putas!’ she hissed arrogantly. ‘How dare you enter my sister’s sitting room? How dare you show your legs, like any common—–’

‘That will do, Tia Isabel.’ The cultivated masculine tones came as such a relief that Caroline turned to face her employer with real gratitude in her face. She was fast coming to the conclusion that no one could remain sane in this madhouse, and to see Don Esteban entering the room, apparently composed, and sober, in his elegant grey lounge suit, seemed almost a miracle.

‘Puta! Puta!’ cried Doña Isabel shrilly, her voice rising in her agitation. ‘How dare Esteban permit his women to use my sister’s—–’

‘Tia Isabel, my father is dead,’ declared Don Esteban flatly, spreading his hands apologetically in Caroline’s direction. ‘Senorita, please forgive my aunt. She is sometimes—forgetful.’

Caroline shook her head in bewilderment as the old lady frowned, and tried to absorb what her nephew was saying. ‘Esteban is dead?’ she echoed, thin brows meeting above a long aquiline nose. ‘Then—then who is this girl? What is she doing at San Luis de Merced?’

‘Miss Leyton is Emilia’s new governess,’ explained her nephew calmly. ‘You remember? I told you. She has come from England to teach Emilia geography and history, no?’

Doña Isabel viewed Caroline with suspicion. ‘But she was here, talking with Luis. I saw the way she looked at him!’

‘You are imagining things, mi tia,’ Esteban retorted, evidently losing patience. ‘Go back to your embroidery, tia, I wish to discuss business matters with Miss Leyton.’

Doña Isabel hesitated, but clearly Esteban had the upper hand, and with a gesture that was curiously pathetic she disappeared out the door through which she had entered. Her departure was a definite relief, and Caroline linked her fingers together in an effort to hide their obvious trembling, wishing she had more experience in these matters.

‘Please sit down.’ Esteban was all sympathetic affability now. ‘I do not know how I can satisfactorily atone for my aunt’s behaviour, except to beg your indulgence for her temporary lapses of memory.’ He sighed. ‘She is—was—my mother’s sister, an unmarried lady of uncertain years, and prone, I regret to say, to periods of fantasy concerning my father’s behaviour.’

Caroline, who had subsided gratefully on to a satin-striped sofa, looked up at him. ‘You mean your father is the Esteban she talks about?’

‘That is correct. I was named for him.’

‘I see,’ Caroline nodded.

‘And of course, Isabel was a little jealous of her sister’s good fortune.’ He smiled, showing even white teeth, brilliant in his dark face. ‘Is it not always the way with unmarried ladies?’

Caroline made an awkward gesture, not quite knowing how to answer him, and taking advantage of her momentary confusion, he came down on to the sofa beside her, his bulk causing the cushions to slope a little in his direction.

‘Señorita!’ He looked diffident, and for a moment she thought he was going to apologise for his own behaviour the night before, but he didn’t. ‘Señorita, I am so glad you have come here. Emilia—my daughter, you understand—is sorely in need of young companionship. I do not know how much Doña Elena—Señora Garcia, that is—told you, but since my wife’s death, Emilia has been brought up by an elderly countrywoman of yours, a Miss Thackerary.’

‘Yes.’ Caroline acknowledged this, without explaining how she was so informed, and he went on eagerly:

‘She was not a good influence on the child, señorita. Many times, she went against my judgment in matters concerning Emilia, and unfortunately my brother Luis took her part.’

‘I see.’ This was deeper water. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘So am I.’ Esteban was grave. ‘Luis and I are brothers, and it is always sad when blood turns against blood.’

‘Oh, I’m sure—–’ began Caroline awkwardly, only to break off abruptly when Esteban raised his hand.

‘You do not yet understand, Miss Leyton. Just as Tia Isabel was jealous of her sister, so Luis is jealous of me.’

‘No—–’

‘But yes. I regret so.’ And indeed, Esteban did look melancholy. ‘I am the elder brother, entiende? I have inherited our father’s estate. Luis has nothing, except what I give him. His mother, you see, was the puta of whom Tia Isabel speaks.’

Caroline’s face felt frozen in an attitude of disbelief, and as if realising he had gone too far, Esteban hastened to retract.

‘Forgive me,’ he said, as she shrank back against the cushions. ‘I should not have told you so brutally. I do not mean to be—callous, but I cannot forget that it was Luis’s mother who caused my mother’s death. She killed herself, you know, mi madre. She flung herself from a second floor window down to the courtyard beneath.’ He massaged his temples with the middle finger and the thumb of one hand. ‘Believe me, that is not something one can easily forget.’

‘But—–’ Caroline swallowed convulsively, ‘your—your brother’s name is Montejo.’

‘Oh, yes.’ Esteban heaved a heavy sigh. ‘My father married Luis’s mother—afterwards. My brother is no bastard, señorita. At least,’ he paused, ‘he is not illegitimate.’

CHAPTER THREE

CAROLINE and her charge were to work in the library.

After unburdening himself of the reasons for the antipathy between himself and Luis, Esteban became calm and businesslike. With a sense of pride, in complete contrast to his inconsequence of the night before, he showed Caroline around the main rooms of the hacienda, pointing out particular pieces of interest, and relating a little of their history. He was knowledgeable about the myths and legends of the area, making her blood tingle with stories of mindless clay men created by the gods, of soulless wooden men whose tools rose up in rebellion against them, and who were turned into monkeys. He showed her an Aztec funerary mask, and described how the evil goddess Tezcatlipoca had dressed the god Quetzalcoatl in such a mask before forcing him to take part in a drunken orgy of lust and incest. The culimination had been that Quetzalcoatl had flung himself on a funeral pyre, and after several days of purification, his heart had risen to the heavens to become the planet Venus.

There were many such legends, each attached to some remnant of history. As well as the overwhelming influence of Catholicism, there were also tiny effigies of Totec, the Mayan god of mankind; Yum Caax, the maize god; Kinich Ahau and Tlacolteutl; Xolotl, Quetzalcoatl’s brother, and Hanhau, the Mayan god of death. The hacienda was a treasure house of gold and antiquity, and although there was something slightly vulgar about it, it was undeniably impressive.

It was while they were examining the azulejos in the music room that Caroline became aware of someone watching them, and turning quickly, she saw Emilia hovering reluctantly in the doorway. Esteban turned and saw her, too, and with a gesture of welcome bade her join them.

‘Come, pequeña,’ he beckoned her affably. ‘Come and meet Miss Leyton. She is your new governess, and I want you to be friends.’

Emilia made no move towards them. Clearly, Esteban had not been lying when he said she disobeyed him, but whether that was through Luis’s influence or not, there was no way of knowing—yet. Certainly Luis’s affection for the little girl had seemed genuine enough, and hers for him, but until Caroline had had a chance to talk with her she could make no real assessment.

‘Emilia! Venga! Inmediatamente!’ Esteban’s voice had lost a lot of its benevolence. ‘Come—see what I have here for you.’ He fumbled in his pocket, as if searching for a gift. ‘If you do not come and look, you will never know what it is I have here, will you? Now, are you going to do as you are told?’

Emilia sighed, and then, evidently curious to know what he was holding, she left her position by the door and approached them with measured steps. She scarcely looked at Caroline. Her attention was all concentrated on her father, and as she neared him she tilted her head slightly, trying to see what he had in his hand.

Caroline was curious, too, but she stepped aside politely, unwilling to intrude on this exchange between father and daughter. It was the first time she had seen them together, but although there was a faint family resemblance, Emilia’s features must more closely resemble those of her mother.

What happened next happened so suddenly, it was over before she could protest, even had she dared to do so. As Emilia stretched out her neck to glimpse what her father was holding, his hand shot out and caught her, biting into her arm with cruel intent, as his other hand delivered a blow to her cheek. Emilia staggered, and would have fallen had he not been holding her. Her face went white, as white as the muslin of her dress, except for the livid marks of her father’s fingers that were rapidly reddening, but she did not cry. Caroline could see her steeling herself, forcing back the tears, and realised, as the blood drained from her own face, that she was holding her own breath.

She expelled it as Don Esteban caught his daughter’s chin between his fingers, forcing her face up to his. ‘Let that be a lesson to you, pequeña,’ he declared, with cold emphasis. ‘You will not make a fool of me in front of Miss Leyton, as you tried to do with Miss Thackeray!’

‘No, señor.’

Emilia spoke respectfully, but her voice was sullen. It was obvious from her behaviour that this was not the first time her father had struck her, but she had learned from experience not to answer back.

‘Now, greet Miss Leyton as the daughter of the house of Montejo should do, with politeness and courtesy, and a smile on that sulky little face of yours,’ he advised, and Caroline had to face yet another mortifying moment.

‘Welcome to San Luis de Merced, Miss Leyton,’ Emilia recited, her eyes downcast. And then, at her father’s insistence, she lifted her head and spread her lips in an unholy rictus. ‘I hope you will be very happy here.’

Caroline gathered herself with difficulty. ‘Thank you, Emilia,’ she replied stiffly. ‘I—hope I will be, too.’

‘So, now the formalities are over, we will show Miss Leyton where you are to work,’ announced Don Esteban, releasing his daughter’s arm. ‘I think you will find my choice of venue appealing, Miss Leyton. The library is a soundproof room, and I have many interesting first editions.’

The library was as impressive as the rest of the house. Books lined the walls from floor to ceiling, leather-bound and highly polished, their gold lettering as distinctive now as it had ever been.

‘As you can see, I insist that this collection must be kept in perfect condition,’ Esteban said proudly. ‘From time to time, I have an expert come here from the university in Mexico City. He examines the books, and arranges any restorative work that is necessary.’

Caroline looked round her in admiration. A tiny, iron-railed balcony was situated near the moulded ceiling, enabling any enthusiastic bibliophile access to the upper shelves, and a delicately carved spiral staircase complemented the mobile ladder that provided a means of reaching the volumes out of reach.

‘You will work here,’ Esteban indicated a leather-topped desk, set beneath the long windows. ‘See—I have arranged for Emilia’s books to be placed here for your perusal, and if you require anything further, it can be obtained from the supplier in Merida.’

‘Thank you.’ Caroline touched the pile of worn textbooks with a grateful finger. This, at least, was something she knew and understood, and she glanced anxiously at Emilia, expecting to meet resentment or antagonism. But Emilia returned her gaze with only faintly hostile eyes, and Caroline’s spirits lifted slightly at the prospect of making some headway.

‘I will leave you,’ Esteban said now, much to her relief. ‘I have matters of the estate to discuss, with my overseer. I will see you both at lunchtime, señorita, when we can discuss Emilia’s progress. Until then, hasta luego, Miss Leyton. Hasta luego, Emilia.’

The door closed, and Caroline sank down rather weakly on to the leather chair beside the desk. The silence that followed Esteban’s departure was pregnant with emotion, but anything was better than the tension that had gripped her since Emilia joined them in the music room.

Emilia moved round the desk now, to lean with her elbows on its surface. She regarded Caroline’s troubled face with concentration for a few moments, and then, with an inconsequence mature for her years, she said: ‘I told you you wouldn’t like it here.’

Caroline looked at her blankly, then briskly reached for one of the dog-eared textbooks. ‘You know, you could be right,’ she remarked calmly, and opened the book.

‘You didn’t tell him,’ Emilia went on insistently. ‘You didn’t tell Don Esteban what I said. Why not?’

‘What you said?’ Caroline frowned, as if she couldn’t remember the child’s words in intimate detail. ‘What did you say?’

Emilia sighed. ‘You know! About your not liking it here. About the spiders and the vampires!’

‘Oh, I see.’ Caroline shrugged her slim shoulders. ‘I’d forgotten. Besides, of what interest would that be to your father?’

‘Don’t call him that!’ exclaimed Emilia fiercely. ‘He’s not my father! I hate him!’

‘Emilia!’ Caroline had to protest now. ‘He is your father, and you shouldn’t say such things about him. It—well, it’s rude, and ignorant.’

Emilia straightened. ‘Tio Vincente is my father,’ she declared, causing Caroline’s lips to part in stunned disbelief. Was there no end to the revelations she was to be subjected to? ‘Tio Vincente loved my mother. That’s why Don Esteban hates me.’

‘Oh, don’t be so silly, Emilia.’ Caroline had had enough for one day. ‘Look, I’m not here to discuss who might or might not have loved your mother. I’m sure your father cared for her very deeply, and just because you’re disobedient, and your father punishes you, there’s no reason for you to go spreading malicious tales that have no basis in fact. You’re your father’s daughter—it’s obvious! Now, sit down, and stop behaving like a melodramatic two-year-old.’

Emilia pursed her lips. ‘You don’t know anything.’

‘Nor do I want to,’ retorted Caroline shortly, uncomfortably aware that her motives for feeling that way were not entirely disinterested. She couldn’t help remembering Luis’s reticence when she had asked about Emilia’s mother’s death, and his reluctance to discuss his brother’s reaction. But, as she had continually to keep telling herself, the personal affairs of the Montejos were nothing to do with her, and she determinedly began to ask Emilia questions, in an attempt to assess the child’s capabilities.

In fact, the morning passed quite quickly. Once she became interested in proving what a bright and intelligent pupil she was, Emilia lost that air of antagonistic aggression, and showed an entirely more sympathetic side to her nature. She was sharp and intelligent, and although Luis had told her that Miss Thackeray had died last year, her education was far in advance of most children of that age. She read well, and with expression, and her mental arithmetic was good. If she had a failing, it was that she was sometimes too quick with her answers, and in consequence made careless mistakes that given a little more time, she would have avoided. She had obviously enjoyed her lessons with Miss Thackeray, and whatever the old lady’s failings, so far as Emilia’s education was concerned, she had done a good job.

Emilia told her that lunch was usually served at one o’clock, so at half past twelve Caroline dismissed her pupil. She had decided to return to her room and do some of her unpacking, as well as attending to her appearance. But when she opened the door to her apartments, she found that someone had forestalled her, and her clothes had all been hung away and her cases stowed in the closet. Unused to such assiduous attention, Caroline felt somewhat disconcerted, but a swift examination of the drawers and wardrobe assured her that her belongings had been handled with the utmost care and consideration.

Examining her reflection in the dressing table mirror, she noted the faint flush that still lingered in her cheeks, a reminder of the disturbing morning she had spent, she brushed a pale powder compound across the revealing colour in an attempt to disguise her agitation, then reapplied the lip-gloss to her mouth. In truth, she did feel a little hungry now, having refused a cup of chocolate mid-morning, but the prospect of seeing Luis again, after his brother’s revelations, tightened the muscles of her throat.

She traversed the length of the corridor again, and descended the stairs at ten minutes to one, only to encounter the subject of her nervous speculations in the hall. Luis had evidently just come in from riding, for he was wearing black leather gaucho pants and an open-necked black shirt, and the scent of horseflesh was unmistakable as he moved to pass her and climb the stairs.

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