The Spanish Consultant (Westerling)

‘The river marks the boundary of our property,’ Jago told her, stooping to pick up a stone and tossing it in the water.

She glanced around her, screwing up her eyes against the sun. It was still quite early and yet already she could feel the heat on her skin.

‘I love it here.’

‘Do you?’ He turned her to face him, his eyes suddenly intent. ‘I bought it with the money your father gave me when I left the company.’ Suddenly his eyes were hard and his fingers tightened on her arm in an almost painful grip. ‘When he suggested that I leave, he also made Maria homeless and jobless.’

Shocked by that sudden revelation, Katy felt her mouth dry. At the time she’d been so distraught about her own situation she hadn’t thought to question what had happened to her parents’ housekeeper. She’d known that her leaving had coincided with Jago’s but she’d just assumed that it had been coincidence. How could she have been so naïve?

Suddenly she felt horribly sick. ‘My father fired her?’

Jago’s eyes were as hard as flint and his mouth tightened. ‘Let’s just say he made it impossible for her to stay.’ He released her and turned to stare at the river. ‘Your father was in possession of some information which he knew would hurt my mother.’

Katy’s knees were trembling. ‘What information?’ It was a favourite trick of her father’s. He somehow managed to find something on everyone.

Jago didn’t respond immediately and the silence seemed to stretch into infinity.

Katy felt her heart plummet uncomfortably. Part of her didn’t even want to know what her father had done, but she knew that there had been too many secrets between them already.

‘Jago?’

‘Maria isn’t my mother.’ He made the statement in a matter-of-fact voice. ‘My real mother had me at nineteen, was married immediately and then proceeded to have affairs with anyone that crossed her path.’

Katy stared at him, mute. Maria wasn’t his real mother? His mother had had affairs?

‘The people of Andalucia are very traditional. In some ways quite backward,’ he said dryly. ‘Machismo still rules in this part of Spain.’

Katy found herself holding her breath, knowing that there was more to come.

‘My father eventually heard of one of her affairs and he shot her.’

Katy gasped and lifted a hand to her mouth. ‘Jago—no!’

‘No one thought he meant to do it,’ Jago said, his voice strangely flat. ‘He was just so crazed with grief that he wasn’t rational. When he realised that he’d killed her he turned the gun on himself.’

Shocked into silence, Katy sank down onto a rock and stared at him.

‘It created a huge scandal, of course,’ Jago said in a lifeless voice. ‘I was six years old so I wasn’t aware of much, but I realised that suddenly no one seemed to want to play with me.’

She licked her lips. ‘So what happened?’

‘Fortunately for me, my mother had two sisters who realised that I needed to be taken away if I was ever going to be able to lead a normal life. People in Andalucia have very long memories. Maria moved to England with me and took a job as a housekeeper. It was very brave of her. At the time she spoke hardly any English, but she thought her secret was safe in England.’

‘But my father knew about it?’

‘Of course.’ Jago’s mouth tightened and a muscle worked in his lean jaw. ‘As you’ve pointed out before, your father knows everything. He kept the information to himself in case he ever needed it. And, of course, once I showed interest in his daughter, he knew that that time had come. There was no way he wanted that sort of scandal attached to his family.’

‘Oh, my God.’ Katy stared at him, understanding more clearly why her father had been so determined to keep them apart. A high-profile figure, her father only ever wanted to read good things about himself in the press. At the time she’d thought that his objection had stemmed from the fact that Jago wasn’t English and didn’t have the right pedigree, but obviously there had been so much more to it than that.

Jago was still talking. ‘Once he successfully removed me from your life, he knew that he had to get rid of Maria too or he’d risk me running into you when I visited her.’

Katy shook her head and swallowed hard. ‘I never knew. I never knew that Dad made her leave. When I came out of hospital she was gone and I was just told that she’d decided to go back to Spain. I’m so sorry.’

He shrugged dismissively. ‘Not your fault and, to be honest, Maria was ready to leave. She wanted to go back home but didn’t really have the means.’ He gave a short laugh. ‘Fortunately, those years working for your father in the bank gave me the means. I bought her this place and she lives here with her other sister and brother-in-law.’

‘And the locals?’

‘They were apparently impressed with the way she sacrificed her homeland to care for a small, vulnerable child. She’s been accepted back into society and lives very happily here.’