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

come on stage. There was a nimbus of light around the old lady’s white hair and also around Señor Castillo’s dark, arrogant head. The housekeeper seemed to be peering at her with less animosity than she had previously shown. “I’m sorry,” Anne whispered. “I didn’t mean to be so much trouble. I only wanted something for my headache.”
    “Don Ramón...”
    Anne heard the housekeeper’s warning accents; then, though she had not been aware that she was falling, she felt herself caught up and swung high against a man’s chest. She was carried a short way, then placed on the yielding softness of a mattress. When she opened her eyes, she saw through the blur of tears of pain, the rose-colored hangings of her bed. Señor Castillo was a wavering shape beside the bed. Before she could gather her thoughts to speak, he was gone.
    He returned almost immediately. With an arm behind her back, he helped her to sit up. He shook out a capsule from a small bottle and put it into her hand, then gave her a glass of water. When she had taken the capsule, she sank back down on the pillows and closed her eyes. After a moment, she felt the light touch of a sheet and blanket being tucked around her.
    “Thank you,” she murmured. In the recesses of her mind, she realized the señor still stood beside the bed staring down at her. She moved restlessly, disturbed by something she did not understand in his silence. A long moment later she heard his footsteps receding. The door dosed behind him.
     

Three
     
    Sleep. She wanted the drifting unconsciousness to go on forever, and yet she wanted also to awaken. She could not quite achieve either state. Vaguely, she knew when a short, dapper Mexican with a Vandyke beard came to examine her. His probing fingers at her temple made her head start to pound once more. The capsule he gave her was much like the one Señor Castillo had brought to her, and had much the same effect. She drank some beef bonbon through a straw at the insistence of the Spanish nurse, but went back to sleep before she could manage to eat the crackers that came with it. Once, she opened her eyes to see the señor silhouetted against the moonlight beyond her window, staring out in a brooding absorption. When she looked again, he was gone. A young girl she thought of as a maid flitted in and out of the room at odd hours, always trying to be quiet, never quite succeeding. It was she who found Anne awake at last.
    “Buenas dias,” she said, a smile spreading over her round face. “Good morning. Is that not right?”
    With a slow nod, Anne returned the greeting. The movement brought no pain. Her headache was gone.
    Seeing her sudden smile, the maid said. “You are better this morning, no? The doctor, he say you can get up if you feel like it.”
    “What time is it?” Anne asked, nudged by a vague feeling that it was important.
    “It is after eight o’clock in the morning, señorita. You have had a good sleep?”
    The girl’s laugh was infectious. Anne found herself smiling before she realized that the joke was on her.
    “How — how long have I been here?” she asked, a shade of anxiety in her voice.
    “It is not to worry, señorita,” the maid replied soothingly. “It is only two days.”
    Two days! Anne sat up straight in bed. “And today is—”
    “Monday, señorita.”
    “It can’t be,” she cried in horror; still, even as she said it, she knew there was no mistake. What in the world would Judy and Iva and Joe be thinking? They would have a missing-person bulletin out for her at the very least, especially if they found Judy’s car deserted at the airport. Throwing back the sheet, she swung her legs off the bed.
    “Wait, señorita, let me help you,” the maid exclaimed, hurrying around the bed. “There is no need for such haste. I will bring your coffee, and perhaps you will take breakfast in bed, no?”
    “No,” Anne answered “I have to get up and get dressed, right now. I have to speak to Señor