Master of El Corazon

‘Wait a minute,’ Arden said quickly. ‘What are you talking about? What old man?’

‘Never mind, señorita. Forgive me for having been so impertinent.’

Arden reached out and caught hold of the boy’s arm as he began to turn away.

‘Alejandro, please, tell me what this is all about. Is this—is your cousin—’

‘Pablo,’ he said helpfully.

She nodded. ‘Yes, Pablo. Is he offering me a job as his companion?’

‘Pablo?’ he said with a giggle. ‘No, certainly not. My cousin is the chauffeur to Señor Romero, señorita.’

‘He’s making the offer for Señor Romero, you mean?’

‘Sí. The old man has many servants but only Linda to keep him company, and—’

‘inda?’ Arden repeated. She was growing more baffled by the minute. Would she ever be able to sort this out?

‘The stepdaughter of Señor Romero.’ Alejandro made. a face. ‘You will not like her, I think. But El Corazon—’

‘El Corazon,’ Arden said numbly, as she sank down on to the edge of a chair.

‘The Romero finca. It is the place I told you of earlier. Pablo says to tell you that you would have your own room and bath.’ His voice fell to a whisper. ‘You could ask to be paid many colones, Pablo says, because no one else will deal with the old man. He is—how do you say—difficult.’

She sat staring at the boy. A job as a paid companion, she thought, and a lump rose into her throat. A job as a servant, that was what it was, a job she’d been destined for all her life, the same as her mother and half the female population in Greenfield...

‘Señorita?’

Arden swallowed hard. Alejandro was watching her with barely concealed eagerness. As far as he was concerned, he’d just offered her the opportunity of a lifetime.

Well, if it wasn’t that, it was, at least, a way to earn enough money to get her home. Did you need a work permit for a job like this? She didn’t know, and she wasn’t going to ask. That was Senor Romero’s problem, not hers.

Still, the thought of it made her flinch. How could she dance attendance on the rich, when the thought of it made her skin crawl?

How can you sit here and wait to be thrown out into the street? a voice inside her asked with cold precision.

‘Señorita? If you are not interested—’

‘But I am.’ Arden took a deep breath. ‘Tell your cousin I’d—I’d be happy if he could get me an interview.’

The boy grinned as he snatched up the tray. ‘I will tell him to make the arrangements.’

She closed the door after him, then sank back against it. Suddenly, she thought again of the man she’d met in the lift, of the things he’d accused her of. What would he say if he knew she was going to take a job as servant to this Señor Romero?

A bitter smile touched her lips. He’d never believe it.

But then again, neither did she.

CHAPTER FOUR

PABLO drove her to her interview with Felix Romero in an ancient, brilliantly polished Cadillac limousine. There would be, he warned, three separate interviews to endure, although only one would take place today.

‘Señorita Linda is away, but when she returns she will insist on questioning you, too,’ he said as they bounced over a dusty dirt road, ‘even though the decision of your employment is not actually hers to make. Whether or not you get the job is up to Senor Romero—and to Señor Conor, of course.’

‘Who?’

‘Señor Conor Martinez.’ Pablo looked into the rearview mirror. ‘He is—how would say?—he is the true master of El Corazon.’