Claiming His Wife

Thankfully, Teresa arrived, moving deftly around despite her bulk, laying dishes on the table. Dona Elvira said less mournfully, 'I am visiting the house in Jerez now that the decorators have finished. I want to make sure all is exactly as it should be. Tomas is driving me; Teresa is looking after him. I thought I would make this diversion to bring you the news before Tomas and I retrace ourselves to Jerez.'

She stood up, leading the way to the table, and Roman, an indulgent smile on his face for the diffi­culties his mother sometimes had with the English language, asked, 'And that is?'

Cassie followed, hoping her mother-in-law's news didn

't involve Roy and some further misdeed; she felt more miserable by the minute, because Roman had barely looked at her since he'd entered the room—and when he had his expression had been

cold.

'I hope it won't come as too much of a shock,' Dona Elvira said as she helped herself generously to swordfish with a luscious prawn and clam sauce, adding a portion of Teresa's roast red pepper and tomato salad. 'I know how close the two of you are—were—and I didn't want you to hear of it through the newspapers. Delfina is engaged to be married.'

'Now why should that shock me?' He spoke softly, as if he were humouring a child. But Cassie had seen the flicker of relief cross his face.

His ploy had paid off. Darling Delfina was off his back. But what had started off as a tactical manoeu­vre, with her playing the part of a returning loving wife in exchange for Roy's freedom from prosecu­tion, had turned into something wonderful. A mar­riage that could truly work. Surely to God it had?

Her hands were knotted together in her lap, her knuckles white. She barely heard Dona Elvira's, 'Delfina's such a lovely girl. Your aunts and I, we always hoped—'

'I know what you hoped,' Roman cut in sardoni­cally, helping himself to a chunk of crusty bread to I mop up the delicious sauce. 'And I think you know I won't tolerate any more meddling. Don't even think about dredging up some other suitable, shallow crea­ture to dangle in front of my nose now Delfina's out of the frame. I forbid it.'

Cassie's stomach twisted alarmingly. Her throat went tight. Why didn't he remind his mother that he already had a wife? Sitting right here! Why were they both ignoring her? Dona Elvira quite naturally, probably because she believed Cassie wasn't worth noticing, and Roman studiedly, as if he didn't want to be reminded that she existed.

Well, she did exist—she would be noticed! She unstuck her tongue from the roof of her mouth and asked firmly, 'So, who is the lucky man?'

A heartbeat of silence, then Dona Elvira said lightly, 'You wouldn't know him.' She turned to her son. 'Rodrigo Talavera. They are to be married in Brazil, where most of his family is. They leave in a

few days; her mother goes with her, naturally.'

'He's old enough to be her father.'

Roman looked faintly amused, the smile that played around the corner of his mouth deepening as his mother defended, 'But wealthy. He will dote on her and spoil her thoroughly. She will be happy. And you, Cassandra, you are not eating?'

Suddenly, the attention was on Cassie. She felt her face go hot.

'I'm not really hungry,' she said truthfully. How could she eat a thing when her stomach was tied in squirming knots? She wanted the meal over and done with, her mother-in-law out of the way so that she could talk to Roman, really talk to him, tell him what was in her heart and discover what was in his.

'Is it Spain that robs you of your appetite? It is obvious that you ate well when you were in your own country.' Dark eyes pointedly raked the fullness of the breasts emphasised by the clinging bodice, the smoothly rounded arms. 'You were happier back in your own country, I think?'

The implication being she should go right back there, Cassie thought on a flash of temper. She fin­gered the stem of her water glass, looking at Roman from beneath her lashes, and said with a trace of defiance, 'I've been wonderfully happy here and, yes, if the record needs straightening, I was happy back in England, too.'

She wasn't going to pull any punches. Roman, in particular, needed to know what had happened to her. He hadn't really asked, and she'd been too bound up in the enchantment of getting to know him physi­cally, in the strong rebirth of her love for him, to tell him.

Aware of his brooding attention, she said, 'At the risk of sounding fanciful, I discovered who I was during my year away. I'd never had to be responsible for myself; all decisions had been made for me—by my father, my husband, my in-laws.'

She heard Dona Elvira's intake of breath and ig­nored it. 'For the first time in my life I was respon­sible for myself. It was scary at first, but exhilarating. I headed for my home town because I knew it, had friends there.' She met Roman's thoughtful eyes head-on. 'I found a cheap bed-sit, walked into a waitressing job, enrolled in a couple of evening classes—upholstery and furniture restoration—and made a few new friends. I was in charge of my own life, my own well-being and making a reasonable fist of it.

'Then, six weeks or so later, Cindy offered me a job helping her run the boutique. One of the perks was the rent-free flat above it. I took it—of course I did. It was a far better proposition than what I was doing, where I was living.' She took a breath.

'But most important of all, it was my decision. Nobody was telling me what to do and how to do it. Nobody was making me feel inferior and pretty damn useless. And at last I had a home I could call my own. Could decorate it and furnish it just as I wanted to—mainly cheap second-hand stuff—and that's where the evening classes came in useful.'

No need to say that Guy had helped her trawl the auction rooms, had wielded a paintbrush pretty niftily. No need to put suspicions in Roman's mind that had no right to be there.

No need to mention how very much she'd missed her arrogant Spanish husband, or how hard she'd tried not to, how hard she'd tried to put the past behind her. Not now, not while she could feel Dona Elvira's eyes on her, absorbing every word she said. Later, when they were alone, she would tell him that missing him had been the hardest part of all.

'So.' She tugged in a breath. 'In a nutshell, I fi­nally grew up. Learned to stand on my own two feet, got some self-respect. Now—' she glanced around the table. '—we appear to have finished. Shall I ask Teresa for coffee?' She looked at her mother-in-law and caught the slightly astonished gleam of admira­tion in the older woman's eyes as she proffered, 'Or shall I ask her to tell Tomas to bring the car round? You must be eager to settle into the newly decorated house. If you're staying there for more than a day or two, maybe Roman and I will descend on you for a tour of inspection.'

Half an hour later, after seeing Dona Elvira off—very upright and dignified in the back of the ancient Daimler that was kept for ferrying his elderly rela­tives around—Roman said, 'Among other things, you've learned how to handle her.'

It was the 'other things' that had to be sorted out, Cassie thought, following him back inside into the relatively cool, echoing dimness of the massive hall.