The Housekeeper's Awakening

That had been the day when Carly had uninterestedly pushed her salade Niçoise around her plate, telling herself not to behave like a possessive child. Of course he would leave her behind! Or had she really pictured herself bursting in on some glamour lunch wearing one of her pastel-coloured T-shirts with her knee-length denim skirt?

At least she’d managed to get through two books she’d been meaning to read for ages, and the fresh air, good food and regular exercise meant that, physically, she felt better than she’d done in a long time, despite her lack of sleep.

One afternoon, her thoughts were travelling along the fascinating labyrinth of quantum physics when a dark shadow fell over the page and she glanced up to see Luis blocking out the light. Behind him the turquoise waters of the infinity pool danced in the sunlight and beyond that was the infinitely darker blue of the sea. But the only things she noticed were his powerful body and that battered straw hat he always wore in the sunshine, and her mouth dried.

‘What are you reading?’

She screwed up her eyes, wishing her heart would stop doing that noisy, drum-like thing. Wishing that by now she would have acquired some sort of immunity to him. ‘I didn’t know it was time for your massage,’ she replied.

‘That’s an odd title for a book.’

‘Very funny.’ She held up the cover so he could see it.

‘And why are you lying in the sunshine reading...’ he narrowed his eyes, and read ‘...“Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You”?’

‘Stop laughing at me. You know why. I told you before that I like science.’

‘I like cars, but I don’t spend my time lolling round the pool reading maintenance manuals. There are plenty of novels in the library—just help yourself.’

‘Thanks, but I don’t particularly want to read a novel. This is...’

‘What?’ He lifted his walking stick and used it to point at the dog-eared dust jacket. ‘Heavy? Indecipherable?’

‘Completely fascinating,’ she said quietly. ‘In my opinion.’

He rested his stick against one of the sunbeds and gave short laugh. ‘You know, you really are something of an enigma, Carly. What are you planning to do with all these qualifications you keep accumulating? Sooner or later, you’re surely going to run out of exams to take.’

She hesitated. ‘And is there something the matter with that?’

He gave a shrug. ‘You’ll just become one of those people with a stack of diplomas you never use.’

‘Who says I’ll never use them?’

He smiled. ‘Science may make you understand why cornstarch is vital when making alfajores, but it isn’t really necessary, is it?’

Carly felt a stir of resentment as she met the mocking question in his eyes, because wasn’t that just typical of him? There was no praise or even a glimmer of surprise that his housekeeper should have been working hard at exams as she went about her lowly job. It hadn’t even occurred to him that she might want more from life than this. The world revo

lved around Luis, didn’t it? Stung by his attitude, she turned on him.

‘Maybe I’m not just stockpiling certificates,’ she retorted. ‘Maybe I’m going to use the exams to make something of myself.’

‘Like what?’

‘Like, a doctor.’

‘You? A doctor?’

Any momentary doubt that it might not be a good idea to tell your employer you were planning on leaving immediately dissolved. Was he arrogant enough to think that she’d be fulfilled for the rest of her life keeping house for him and making sure his favourite cakes were on the table whenever he was in town? Watching and waiting in the background while he lived his life, without having any real life of her own.

‘Why not?’ she flared. ‘Do you think I’m incapable of being a medic?’

‘I hadn’t really given it a lot of thought.’

What he meant was that he hadn’t given her a lot of thought. Oh, he might have felt the odd flickering of desire—because she was a woman of child-bearing age who was closeted up with him, and that was how nature had programmed him to react. But he didn’t really think about her as a person.

Carly stared at him. ‘If you must know, I’ve already applied for medical school and I have a deferred place waiting for me. I’m planning on going just as soon as I’ve saved up enough money to support myself during the course. I’ve dreamt about being a doctor for a long time and I don’t intend to give up on my dreams any time soon.’

She sat up and pushed her sunglasses on top of her head, but the jiggling movement of her breasts seemed to have distracted him. Or maybe he’d just grown bored with hearing about her dreams. Whatever the reason, he was suddenly staring at her as if he couldn’t drag his gaze away. He was staring at her and glaring as if he liked what he saw and yet resented feeling that way—all at the same time.