That suited her fine, she told herself firmly. Settling back in her seat, she turned her mind to the project. Everything she saw and experienced from this moment on might be crucial to the polo cup. Nothing must escape her notice. She had to be like a sponge and soak it all up. She had no idea what to expect. She had only visited the Baracca ranch a couple of times as a child, and had never been invited into the main house. She remembered it as being dark and forbidding. Money had been tight for the Baraccas, her mother had explained, because of the high life Dante’s father made sure he enjoyed.
Gabe drove cross-country for around ten minutes before they reached some imposing gates. These marked the formal entrance to the main ranch house complex, he explained. The entrance had been pulled back considerably since the last time she had visited. Opening the window, she leaned out to stare around with interest. The barns and buildings had been developed and improved to the point where the run up to the ranch house was more like a drive through a well-ordered village set in a beautiful emerald-green frame than a potholed track flanked by the rotting buildings she remembered.
Mellow stone and burnished wood combined beneath a sultry sun to turn Dante’s large ranch house a soft, shimmering bronze, while a frame of trees added shade and coolness to the entrance. She was impressed. More importantly, for the purposes of the polo cup, visitors would be impressed.
Her excitement for the project was building. There wasn’t a thing out of place. The vivid floral displays in the formal grounds around the house were breathtaking. The image visitors would carry away would be that of a perfect ranch, with perfect grounds and perfect animals happily grazing. She could see the flyers and the brochures she’d have printed now, showing warm wood, sun-kissed stone and white paintwork, flanked by brilliantly coloured flowers and emerald-green paddocks stretching away into the distance, with choice groupings of well cared-for animals. This year’s polo cup was shaping up to be the easiest event she’d ever been asked to promote.
She had to organise it first, Karina reminded herself as the familiar excitement rose inside her. It was tinged with a slight attack of nerves as she considered the enormity of the task ahead of her, but she put those aside for now to smile at Gabe as he drew up outside the open front door, where a beaming housekeeper was waiting to welcome them.
‘I can’t believe the changes here since the last time I visited.’
‘That must have been some time ago,’ he commented. ‘Dante has renovated everything, and the main house has been added to substantially since he’s been in charge.’
‘Have you worked here long?’
‘For the past few years—since Dante’s other interests started taking up more of his time.’
His other interests?
‘I’ve got my own spread,’ Gabe explained. ‘This is a temporary placement—a favour for Dante. He’s done a lot to help me build up my own breeding programme and so I said I’d help him out. He assures me that he’s going to settle down here one day,’ Gabe added with a wry look. ‘But so far no sign of that.’
So he hadn’t settled down. Her heart thundered and her brain was clicking. What other interests could Dante possibly have? Surely the ranch and his polo took up all his time? A glance at Gabe’s face suggested he would be no more forthcoming than Dante.
‘Did you know his father?’
Gabe stared at her for a few long seconds before volunteering in a lazy drawl, ‘I’ve heard about him.’
It wouldn’t be anything complimentary, she guessed. Apart from instinctively not liking Dante’s father, she remembered her mother saying Dante had saved his mother from his bullying father. She’d been too young to remember the detail. It still sent a shiver down her spine. His mother’s suffering had been bad enough, and the thought of the things Dante must have seen and endured as a child made her feel sad for him.
‘I didn’t really know Senhor Baracca senior that well myself. Strange really when you consider that Dante, my brother and I spent endless days on this ranch as kids. It was an amazing setting for any child. Though I don’t suppose there are any children on the ranch now?’ she queried curiously.
Gabe exploded with laughter. ‘No children?’ he echoed. ‘I hope you’re not allergic to the little brutes, because you’re going to find hordes of them here.’
‘Hordes?’ she questioned, but Gabe wasn’t giving anything away.
‘What about you, Karina?’ he pressed. ‘Family?’