Meeting in Madrid by Jean S. Macleod Read Free Book Online Page B

let him see how easily he could upset her.
    ‘Where do we fly to?’ she asked, wondering why they could not make the journey by road since he had a powerful limousine at his disposal.
    ‘To Tenerife,’ he said. ‘Surely Teresa has told you that is where we live?’
    ‘Tenerife?’ Catherine repeated incredulously. ‘No, I had no idea we would be going so far. You have all referred to Soria as “the hacienda ”, but I imagined it might be somewhere in Andalusia since your grandmother is preparing to go there for the summer. I never guessed that we would be leaving Spain.’
    ‘You are going to an island that is still part of my country,’ he pointed out. ‘I do not expect you to fall in love with Tenerife straight away—Teresa will colour your opinion too darkly for that—but it is a beautiful island, one of the loveliest in the world, in fact.’
    ‘The “Lost Atlantis”!’ Catherine murmured. ‘Or is that too fanciful a thought, senor? I’ve read about your island, but I’ve never been there. This will be something new for me, although it was unexpected.’
    ‘I hope that Soria will not disappoint you,’ he said to her further surprise. ‘My sister-in-law has lived there since my brother’s death and, of course, it is also Teresa’s home. I see no reason to alter these arrangements at the moment. We are a family of which I am now the head. When my brother was alive I also lived on the hacienda, but in a smaller house by myself, but that is changed. Teresa will tell you that Soria is a prison, but I try to make life as pleasant as possible for her. She has everything she needs, within reason, but unfortunately she has a chip on her shoulder—a stepmother chip!’
    He smiled, and she was amazed at the difference it made to his dark countenance, erasing the lines which she had believed to be permanently etched between his brows.
    ‘We might be able to help her over that particular hurdle,’ she suggested. ‘Teresa is very young for her age in some respects.’
    ‘I thought you young for your age when we first met.’ The disconcerting confession was so unlike him as to seem completely out of character. ‘But perhaps I am a bad judge of women.’
    ‘I’ve done nothing to convince you otherwise since I came,’ Catherine admitted, ‘but I really didn’t see anything wrong about going to Botin’s without permission the other night. It wasn’t exactly polite to leave the Vegas’ so early. I realise that now and I’m very sorry.’
    ‘You have already apologised,’ he told her in the autocratic tone which she found so disconcerting. ‘We will say no more about it. You must see that I have to keep Teresa on a fairly tight rein because she is so impetuous and often foolish, but I really do understand how she feels.’
    It was an admission which she had not expected him to make and it melted the ice a little. In some ways he was quite human.
    ‘Perhaps we can work something out once we get to Soria,’ she suggested.
    He looked doubtful.
    ‘Perhaps we can try,’ he said.
    The following morning they took their leave of the Marquesa, although she did not wish them goodbye. ‘ Hasta la vista !’ she said. ‘We will meet again.’
    They drove to the airport in plenty of time for their flight, their luggage piled in the capacious boot of the car while Catherine sat beside a pouting Teresa in the back seat.
    ‘We could have stayed for one week more,’ she complained. ‘This has been Lucia’s doing. She cannot bear Jaime to be away from Soria for too long.’
    Catherine thought that it had much more to do with their own disobedience, but refrained from saying so because Teresa was in no mood for a reasonable argument. If Lucia had indeed sent for Jaime the fact that he had come running seemed also out of character, although it was difficult to judge if love had a hand in it.
    She had become increasingly curious about Lucia, the woman who had married one Berceo Madroza for the power it would