The Abducted Heart (Sweetly Contemporary Collection) by Jennifer Blake Read Free Book Online

silence.
    “Browbeating,” the old woman repeated with great firmness. “She was being unspeakably rude to her, hinting at a clandestine relationship carried on brazenly beneath this roof. I felt compelled to tell her such was not, could not be, the case. That I was certain, in fact, that your explanation for the presence of so attractive a young woman must be quite otherwise.”
    Ramón Castillo made no reply. A furrow of concentration between his brows, he stared at his grandmother.
    Irene broke the silence. “Is it true? Is she your fiancée?”
    “This is neither the time nor the place to discuss such things,” he said abruptly, flicking a quick glance in Anne’s direction. As they talked, Anne had moved back slightly to lean against the wall. Noticing her wan appearance, Señor Castillo’s frown deepened.
    “I see,” Irene breathed. “You do not deny it. How dare you? How dare you? We had an understanding.”
    It was the old woman who answered. “Dare, Irene? Why should he not? Don’t, please, carry on like a — like a Victorian novel. This is the twentieth century. Your father and my son, Ramón’s father, may have spoken of a marriage between you when you were both in your cradles, but the only understanding was in your own mind.”
    María, hovering anxiously, put her hand on the elderly woman’s arm. “Doña Isabel,” she pleaded.
    Irene threw up her head. “Ramón, will you let your grandmother speak for you?”
    The señor lifted a brow. “I doubt that I could better what she has said.”
    An angry spot of color appeared on the woman’s cheekbones as she turned to Doña Isabel. “I knew that you resented me. I did not know that you had poisoned Ramón’s mind against me as well. All right. I will not stay here and be insulted. I will go, now, at once! Perhaps then you will be happy. But when this weak American with her pale face and her headaches in the middle of the night has taken from both of you all you have to give and then gone on her way, I hope that you will think of me, and know what you threw away.”
    Spitting the last words at them, she whirled back into her bedroom and slammed the door.
    The old woman sighed, her shoulders sagging. “I might have known she would take it like that,” she said, half to herself.
    “Yes, you might,” her grandson replied. “Am I to take it that was not your object?”
    “No,” Doña Isabel answered, a reluctant smile twitching at her mouth. “You were always too perceptive, Ramón.”
    He ignored the last. “You look well,” he said. “It would seem quarreling is good for you.”
    “There is a certain truth in that. I was never so ill as to send for you, however. That was Irene’s doing. I grew so tired of her meddling with my routine, rearranging the household to suit herself, and telling me every day that I look more ill than the day before that I took to my bed and refused to see either her or the doctor she had called in place of my own family physician. She panicked, I think. Never have I been so angry as when I heard she had sent for you, taking you away from your business concerns for nothing. If you want her back, I will apologize, of course, but otherwise, no.”
    “I do not consider your well-being nothing. I had no idea that I was leaving you in such bad hands,” her grandson said seriously.
    “I have tried to tell you, though I must admit she has grown worse this last time you were away. But never mind that. You are sure you are not angry? You have no regrets?”
    Anne thought he hesitated a moment before he leaned forward to kiss the soft crepe skin of Doña Isabel’s cheek. “None, so long as you are happy.”
    “And this child here?” she said, indicating Anne. “I think something was said of a headache, and indeed, she doesn’t look at all well.”
    As they all three turned to face her, Anne tried to smile. She felt oddly embarrassed, as though she had been watching a play and the actors had suddenly asked her to