Kept at the Argentine's Command

‘What about your maman?’

‘She was no better. She’d arrive here with us kids and lock herself in her rooms. She was always sick unless she had a party of friends with her. We hardly ever saw her.’

‘That’s why you’re so protective of your sisters.’

Alejandro looked uncomfortable. ‘My grandfather drummed it into me—Look after the girls…see to their interests. And I have. But that’s it. I don’t interfere in their lives.’

Lulu wondered at that and drew a little closer. ‘What do you mean?’

‘They have their lives and I have mine. We don’t live in each other’s pockets.’

Given that was exactly what they’d been doing for the last couple of weeks, Lulu felt something lodge uncomfortably at the base of her throat.

‘You like your own space?’ she said slowly, giving him exactly that, edging her bottom away against the table.

‘It’s suited me up until now.’

Lulu tried not to take that personally. ‘Would you like to have more to do with your sisters?’

He swigged at the beer, looking markedly uncomfortable. ‘With me in their lives things can only end in tears. I’m there if they get into trouble, but that’s about it.’

‘I would have loved to have had an older brother to lean on a little,’ Lulu confessed. ‘I always felt like a second mum to my brothers. I think your sisters are very lucky.’

Colour actually scored the high ridge of his cheekbones. ‘It’s my job.’

Lulu felt a little sliver of cold run down her spine. Was that what his I’ll marry you notion was about? All it was about? He felt responsible?

‘You don’t love them? Your sisters?’

‘What kind of a question is that?’

‘A simple one—it’s either yes or no.’

She held his gaze, knowing that this didn’t have much to do with his siblings. She wanted to hear him say it. To her. Or at least she wanted to know if there was a possibility he could love her.

Because that was the only reason she could see to get married. She believed in romantic love—even if she’d always imagined it wasn’t something that would ever happen for her.

‘Of course I love them,’ he said simply. ‘They’re my sisters.’

‘Then why would you being in their lives end in tears?’

‘It’s complicated, Lulu.’

‘Possibly…’ She looked up at him expectantly.

He made a timeless male gesture of exasperation. ‘I inherited the estancia…the girls received dowries. They both wanted a say in the ranch—I didn’t think that was a good idea. Satisfied?’

‘Oh, so it’s a will thing?’

Alejandro looked taken aback. ‘A will thing?’

‘Like in King Lear—your father hung the ranch over your heads and the child who flattered him the most got it all. Although in your case you just had to be a boy.’

‘My grandfather was King Lear. He disinherited my father in favour of me.’

Lulu realised she’d gone stomping unaware into a minefield. Alejandro looked grim.

‘How did your father feel about that?’ she asked, more circumspectly.