Rebecca Stratton - Castles in Spain Read online

  She stretched lazily and decided that it was time she thought about getting up, although there was plenty of time before breakfast yet. Breakfast, so her aunt had told her, was never a very substantial meal, but if she wanted an English type breakfast she could have it. Holly had decided that when in Spain she would do as the Spaniards did, however, and not bother too much about it.

  Just about to swing her feet out of bed, she paused when someone rapped on her bedroom door, and called out a tentative 'come in'. It was not one of the maids, as Holly had half expected, but her aunt, and she smiled a welcome.

  'Hello, Aunt Nan.'

  'Did you sleep well, baby?' her aunt asked, still, it seemed, intent on calling her by her childish title.

  'Fine, thanks,' Holly told her. 'This is a marvellously comfortable mattress.'

  Her aunt smiled. 'Yes, it's a little more up-to-date than the bed itself, darling. Jose believes in his comfort, for all his pride in the past.'

  'The best of two worlds,' Holly surmised, and her aunt nodded, coming to sit on the edge of her bed.

  'I'm so glad you've got a nice long time for your holiday, my dear, there's such a lot for you to see, and it's very fortunate that Helena's away for most of the time you're here, because it means that Marcos can take you around.'

  'Helena?' Holly frowned curiously, and her aunt pulled a wry face as she answered.

  'Helena Mendez, the girl Marcos is supposed to be going to marry.'

  Holly considered that for a moment, then raised a brow at her aunt's tone of voice, and the way she had worded her answer. 'Supposed to be going to marry?' she asked.

  'It's one of those family arrangements,' Aunt Nan said by way of explanation.

  'You mean an arranged marriage?' Holly asked, not quite believing it. 'Surely that doesn't still go on, does it?'

  Aunt Nan nodded. 'In some instances it does, Holly. The Delgaros and the Mendez are both ancient families and it's considered an excellent match by both families.'

  'What about the main participants?' Holly asked with a wry smile. 'Do they think it's an excellent match too?'

  Her aunt laughed shortly 'Well, Helena is very definitely in favour, but I sometimes think Marcos is merely doing what's expected of him.'

  For a moment Holly said nothing. It was difficult for her to imagine Marcos Delgaro, as she had so far visualized him, being prepared to accept a wife he had not chosen for himself, but she supposed that fierce family pride would be enough to make him take a suitable wife, regardless of how he felt about her personally.

  'I don't think Senor Delgaro will take very kindly to acting as guide for me,' Holly said with a wry smile

  He doesn't approve of tourists, Aunt Nan."

  'I know,' her aunt admitted blandly, 'but he can't very well refuse to take his stepmother's niece around and show her the country, can he, darling? I suppose,' she added with a puzzling frown, 'he's your cousin in a somewhat complicated way, isn't he?'

  'Is he?' The idea was not displeasing, but she doubted that Marcos Delgaro would feel as pleased about it.

  'In a way,' Aunt Nan said. 'Now let me see, Helena leaves for Paris tomorrow, so Marcos will be free after that. She's coming to dinner tonight, darling, so you'll be able to meet her.'

  'Oh! Oh, will I?'

  Her aunt laughed, patting her hands reassuringly* T)on't let her over-awe you, my dear. Helena's rather an autocrat, but you have no need to worry about her.'

  'Then she should be a good match for Marcos,* Holly said without thinking, and smiled apologetically when her aunt shook her head reproachfully. 'I'm sorry, Aunt Nan, I shouldn't say things like that, and I promise I won't again.'

  'Oh, don't worry,' her aunt reassured her. 'I know what Marcos is like at first glance, but don't be fooled, my dear. I'm sure you'll get along fine, once you get used to one another.'

  Holly saw very little of Marcos Delgaro for most of the day, but she was walking along the approach road to die castle, later that afternoon, when he drove up alongside her and stopped the car.

  'May I give you a lift?' ho asked, and opened the door, obviously not anticipating her refusal, so she nodded and climbed in beside him.

  'Thank you, I'm rather hot from walking, and it's further than I thought.'

  'You should not take long walks until you are better used to the climate; he informed her, and the black eyes flicked briefly to her bare head. 'And you should also wear a hat, senorita.'

  There was something so discouragingly formal about that very precise senorita and she found herself resenting it without quite knowing why. There was a warmth and sense of intimacy sitting next to him in the much smaller car he drove today, and she wished she had refused to ride with him.

  Her hands were quite unsteady and her pulses were doing the most amazing things when her bare arm came into contact with his brown skin. He wore a shirt with short sleeves and the bare, brown muscular arms looked somehow sensuous as he guided the car round the tortuous bends in the approach road, making her imagine all sorts of crazy things.

  The black eyes were, for the moment fixed on the road, but in profile those long thick lashes stood out prominently and the proud, hawklike nose gave him a look of strength that was irresistible. The shirt, open at the neck, was white and made him look more dark than ever, betraying his Moorish ancestors undeniably.

  'I don't possess a hat,' she told him, trying to quell the wild and quite inexplicable feelings he aroused in her.

  'Then you will get one when we go down into San Adolfo.' It was an order, she realized, and felt the flush of colour in her cheeks as she prepared to argue the point.

  'I don't think I need a hat,' she told him. 'I'll get used to the sun soon enough, like Aunt Nan did.'

  For a brief moment the black eyes turned on her and one brow flicked swiftly upwards. 'You are expecting to stay ten years, senorita?' he asked softly, and Holly looked at him reproachfully.

  'I probably shan't even stay ten days,' she retorted. 'I have the feeling that you'd rather I hadn't come at all, Senor Delgaro!'

  'So?' Again one black brow expressed surprise. 'And why do you think that, Senorita Gilmour?'

  There was a definite hint of mockery in the question and Holly suspected he was enjoying the exchange because he was firmly convinced that he would get the best of it. For a moment she sat quite still and silent, refusing to be drawn, then she looked down at her hands in her lap and shook her head.

  'It's true,' she said, firmly convinced. 'In fact I'm sure that if it had been up to you and not your father I wouldn't have been able to come and see Aunt Nan at all.'

  The brown hands swung the steering wheel round again as they took the last corner before driving up to the castle and she could have sworn that a hint of smile touched the corners of his mouth. 'You are very wrong, nina,' he said softly. 'I do not mind having you here in I he least.' For a brief moment the black eyes turned in her direction, holding her own gaze irresistibly. 'It could prove very—' The broad shoulders shrugged expressively and a soft, deep laugh shivered along her spine like ice water. 'Si,' he said softly, 'mucho alegre!'

  He braked the car to a halt and came round to help her, his hand strong and warm as his fingers curled round her arm, a glint of amusement still in the black eyes as he looked down at her. 'Senor Delgaro—' She was not very sure just what she had been going to say, but his next words made her forget even what she had been thinking of.

  'Dona Ana thinks that we are in some way — cousins,' he said. 'It is therefore permitted, I think, that you call me Marcos, if you wish to.'

  She said nothing for a moment, the shading palms casting little shifting dark shadows across her face and darkening her deep blue eyes until they looked almost as black as his. 'I - I suppose we are sort of cousins by marriage,' she allowed at last.

  'So -1 must call you Holly!'

  He made her name sound completely foreign and she looked up at him for a moment in some surprise. 'There's no obligation,' she told him shortly when his
actual words sank in. 'You can go on calling me that rather distant and unfriendly "senorita", if you prefer it!'

  For a moment he simply stood there, looking down at her, such a glitter in his black eyes that she felt herself shiver involuntarily, then he raised his chin and looked at her sternly down the length of that hawklike nose. 'As you wish, senorita!' he said, and turned and left her standing there while he strode on up the steps to the doors.

  Helena Mendez arrived only a very short time before dinner so that there was very little time for Holly to take stock of the Spanish girl before they were all seated round the table in the huge, dark-raftered dining hall.

  The dining hall, once the banqueting hall, no doubt, was the room that most impressed Holly with its sheer size and grandeur. More portraits hung on the white walls, with great banners and standards between them, worn and faded but still redolent of past glories and bloody battles. Wrought iron baskets which had once held torches and candles now cradled the more innocuous light of electric lamps and shed a bright yellow light over the small company at the huge table.

  Despite his illness, Don Jose still sat at the head of his table, with his son on his right and Helena Mendez on his left. Holly sat further along, near to her aunt, and thankful to be in familiar company. She had decided on a short but pretty pink dress in soft nylon jersey, and it flattered her fair skin and dark hair, lending a soft flush of colour to her cheeks.

  She made, she realized, a distinct contrast to the dark sophistication of their guest, for one of the big Paris houses had surely dressed Helena Mendez. Her gown of deep blue slipper satin made the most of her rather voluptuous figure and she wore her black hair in the traditional chignon at the back of her head, a perfect style for her Latin looks and very effective as part of a stunning whole.

  Helena Mendez, Holly decided, on closer inspection, would be formidable competition, and immediately felt a flush of colour in her cheeks when she realized what had been in her mind.

  A surreptitious scrutiny of Marcos Delgardo from the concealment of her lashes revealed another facet to his undoubted attraction. Formal evening dress did as much for him as more casual clothes did, and she wondered if he had ever looked more darkly arrogant and proud than he did tonight.

  'Are you to stay very long in Spain, Senorita Gilmour?' Helena Mendez asked suddenly, and Holly looked first at Marcos Delgaro before she answered. The gesture was instinctive and she saw from the corner of her eye the way her aunt registered surprise.

  'I—I hope to stay in Spain for about two months, tefiorita,' she said, receiving no response to her hasty glance. 'But not,' she added hastily, 'here at the castle, of course.'

  'But why do you say that, Senorita Gilmour?' It was Don Jos£, his dark, almost blind eyes turned in her direction, and she instinctively smiled.

  'I couldn't impose on your hospitality for so long, Don Jose,' she told him. 'It's very good of you to have me at all.'

  'Then you will please not talk of leaving,' the old man told her, with a smile softening the sternness of his words. 'Unless, of course, you wish to see other parts of our country, in which case I must forgo the pleasure of your company.'

  'You're very kind, Don Jose, thank you.' She looked briefly and surreptitiously at his son. 'I'd love to stay for the whole two months, but I don't want to outstay my welcome.'

  'You are always welcome here,' the old man assured her - an opinion his son did not endorse, she noticed.

  'You do not have to - work?' Helena Mendez hesitated over the word as if it offended her sensibilities, and Holly hesitated before answering.

  'I do have to work for my living, Senorita Mendez,' she said quietly. 'But - well, for a long time now I've had a theory about holidays. I think it's good policy to work for several years and save money, and then have a long, really good holiday. That's what I'm doing now.'

  Fine dark brows expressed surprise and there was a hint of amusement in Helena Mendez's eyes as she raised a glass of wine to her lips, not quite quickly enough to hide their curl of derision. It was Don Jose who answered her, and he too smiled, although not derisively.

  That is an estimable aim for a young woman,

  Senorita Gilmour, and now that you have attained your goal, I hope you may enjoy your holiday with us.'

  'Oh, I'm sure I shall,' Holly assured him.

  Helena Mendez, however, was not to be so easily deprived of her amusement, and the glittering black eyes still regarded Holly down the length of the table. 'Perhaps you are thinking to follow the example of your aunt, senorita,' she suggested in a soft, meaningful voice, and Holly felt Aunt Nan's eyes on her, anxious, she thought, for her not to be too angered by the obvious intent of the Spanish girl.

  'I'm not sure I follow your meaning,' Holly said, knowing full well what she was implying, and trying to do something about the rising temper that threatened to make her forget her manners.

  Those fine brows rose again, and Helena Mendez glanced briefly at Nan Delgaro as she spoke. 'Senora Delgaro was fortunate enough to marry within a very short time of her arrival,' she said quietly, and with a faint hint of smile on her lips. 'I thought perhaps your own thoughts might—' An expressive Latin shrug conveyed the rest of her meaning unmistakably, and Holly's hands clenched tightly in front of her.

  Her resentment was as much for Aunt Nan as for herself, and she could see plainly enough what Don Jose thought of the allusion to his wife's good fortune. The dark, drawn features flushed, and a fine fire showed in the sunken eyes as he looked at Helena Mendez.

  'The good fortune of our early marriage was mine, Helena,' he said in a cold, hard voice that Holly would never have believed him capable of. 'That Ana consented to be my wife is still a source of delight to me, and I could wish one other of my compatriots may be as fortunate, enough to capture the heart of Senorita Gilmour.' The white head turned and bobbed briefly in her direction. 'Holly, if I may be permitted, senorita.'

  'Of course, Don Jose.' She smiled warily and hastily lowered her gaze because she knew Marcos Delgaro was watching her.

  Perhaps he resented his future wife being put so firmly in her place by his father, but whatever it was that prompted it, he sounded coldly quiet when he spoke. "You are honoured, Padre. I have been refused the privilege of using the senorita's first name.' The black eyes looked at her steadily and with such intensity that she was at last forced to raise her own eyes and look at him. 'Of course it is possibly my own fault.'

  Don Jose frowned at him, his fading sight making him narrow his eyes as he studied his son curiously. 'I do not understand you, Marcos.'

  Marcos still held her gaze and Holly could feel the flush of warm colour that betrayed how she felt. 'I warned Senorita Gilmour of the dangers of travelling alone,' he said in that deep, quiet voice. 'I warned her of the dangers of being too trusting with our male population.' A short laugh trickled along Holly's spine like a warning. 'I had not anticipated being included among them, however.'

  'Oh, Marcos!' It was Aunt Nan, and unbelievably, she sounded as if she was laughing as she scolded her stepson. 'You shouldn't have done that!'

  Marcos Delgaro shrugged ruefully. 'I can see that now, Dona Ana, but I had not expected to be - how is It? Taken seriously!'

  Aunt Nan turned to Holly, one hand reaching out to her, gently inquiring, perhaps suspecting something of how she felt at being the centre of such a discussion. 'You did take Marcos much too seriously, baby, if you really thought he was warning you - well, in the way you took it. You have no need to be any more afraid of walking around in Spain than at home.'

  'I would beg to differ on that point, Dona Ana,' Marcos said, and appeared quite serious about it. 'Your niece is a very beautiful young woman, it would not be wise for her to just wander about anywhere alone. Please believe me, I know what I am saying.'

  For a moment Nan Delgaro looked at him curiously, then she nodded, and Holly thought there was a small, secret smile about her mouth. 'Of course you would know best, Marcos,' she said. 'It's ve
ry fortunate, in the circumstances, that you will have enough free time to show Holly around while she's here.'

  That prospect, Holly thought, trying not to feel as if she was being too organized, did not suit Helena Mendez at all, and a quick glance from under her lashes revealed a straight black frown on the other girl's face.

  'It is expected that Marcos will be - a tourist guide for your niece?' she asked, with such obvious distaste that Holly felt the colour warm her face again, and wished to heaven they would not discuss her as if she was not there. Aunt Nan was as guilty as the rest of them and she was beginning to resent it.

  "Not exactly that, Helena,' Aunt Nan said, smiling with deceptive mildness. 'But you'll be away, won't you? And I'm sure Marcos wouldn't mind showing Holly some of our lovely countryside while she's here. Will you, Marcos?'

  Again the black eyes looked across at Holly and she felt a steady and insistent tap-tapping at her ribs, a disturbing flutter in her pulse when she glanced up at him hastily and down again. 'If the senorita will permit me, I will be delighted to show her our countryside,' he said softly. One black brow arched expressively, and for a brief second white teeth showed in the brown face. 'And I can assure you, senorita, that you will be in no danger from me!'

  After six days at the Castillo de la Valeroso Holly still felt a little unsure of herself, still felt uneasy whenever she was near Marcos Delgaro, although he was never other than strictly polite and formal. He still called her either by her full name, or that strictly formal 'senorita.'

  Helena Mendez had left for Paris the day following that eventful dinner as planned, but Holly felt convinced that they would see her back long before she was scheduled to return. The idea of Marcos Delgaro showing her around did not suit the other girl at all, no matter how unwilling a guide he was, and somehow her suspicion gave Holly a secret feeling of pleasure.