Passionate Protection

'I was speaking to my aunt this morning and she seems to think… that is, Sebastian has given her the impression… that… that you are lovers,' he added uncomfortably, 'and yet plainly this is not so. I shall speak to him about it on your behalf. Isabel talked of you to me, I know you are not… that you do not…'

'That I'm not promiscuous?' Jessica supplied dryly, privately suspecting that Isabel had been far more unflattering in her description of her, but Jorge seized on the expression gratefully.

'Si,' he agreed, 'this is so… Sebastian cannot appreciate what my aunt thinks, for he would never expose a young woman of unblemished reputation to such an insult.'

Heavens, he sounded like something out of a Victorian novel! Jessica thought to herself. Surely he couldn't be serious? But apparently he was.

'I shall speak to him about it,' he added again. 'It is not right.'

Right or wrong, she couldn't see Sebastian being easily influenced by his younger brother, Jessica reflected when Jorge had gone.

She had been on her own for about half an hour when she glanced up, hearing footsteps coming in her direction. To her surprise she saw Pilar coming towards her, the older woman's mouth grimly compressed, two bright coins of colour burning in her otherwise completely pale face.

'You are wasting your time!' she hissed to Jessica without preamble. 'Sebastian does not really want you. He has only ever loved one woman—my sister, and…'

Jessica tried to interrupt, to assure her companion that she had no romantic interest in Sebastian. Something about the way the older woman was watching her triggered alarm bells in her mind. It struck her that there was something driven, something almost bordering on hysteria, in Pilar's manner.

'He was obsessed by her,' Pilar continued almost as though Jessica wasn't there, 'but one day he will have to marry, if only in order to have sons, and who better than the sister of the woman he loved?'

'But surely…' Surely there is Jorge, Jessica had been about to say, but once again Pilar didn't give her the opportunity to finish.

'You are thinking of Lisa,' she said bitterly, 'but she is only a daughter. Sebastian needs sons.'

Lisa was Sebastian's daughter? Shock coursed through Jessica, stingingly, followed by a hot, molten anger. How dared he question her morals when he…

'You didn't know?' Pilar started to laugh wildly. 'Of course he wouldn't tell you. No one is supposed to know about it. My sister Manuela had been his novia for many months and the preparations for the wedding were all in hand when she suddenly become ill. It was the strain of preparing for the wedding, our doctor told my parents, and Manuela was sent to Argentina to stay with relatives there. When she returned it was obvious that there was to be a child— Sebastian's child. My parents were bitterly hurt and shocked. Sebastian whom they trusted and treated like a son had taken Manuela's innocence before they were married. Preparations for the ceremony were speeded up. My mother begged Manuela to tell her why she had not confided in her before her visit to Argentina. I myself was married then. I too was shocked by Sebastian's behaviour, but I knew how much he loved her.And then just two days before the ceremony Manuela asked me if she could borrow my car.' Pilar hesitated and for a moment there was a sly, almost gloating expression in her eyes.

'She was involved in an accident near Seville, and was taken immediately to the hospital. They were able to save the child, but by the time Sebastian reached the hospital Manuela was dead.'

Jessica couldn't conceal her shock and distaste. Poor Manuela! By all accounts she had been tragically innocent and young, and now she was dead and Sebastian was left only with memories of what might have been, and a child—his child! Why then had she been introduced as his 'ward'?

'Of course everything was hushed up,' Pilar continued. 'Only the closest members of the family know of the circumstances of Lisa's birth.' Her lips twisted, and Jessica was reminded of how much she seemed to dislike the little girl—a child who was after all her niece. 'Lisa is a constant reminder to Sebastian of my sister,' Pilar continued, and with a flash of insight Jessica realised that Pilar was jealous; jealous of her sister's child.

'It was a tragic year for our family,' she added. 'First Manuela and then my own husband and parents were killed when my husband was taking them to Minorca in his plane, but worst of all— Lisa.' She shuddered. 'It is just as well Manuela died. Had she lived she would have been shunned for her sin.'

Jessica could hardly believe her ears. What Pilar was saying was positively feudal—and what of Sebastian, surely he was equally to blame, if indeed 'blame' was the word. And poor Lisa! She obviously didn't realise that Sebastian was her father. Jessica felt an upsurge of anger against him. How could he deny his daughter her right to her relationship with him? Pilar said he had loved Manuela, but in Jessica's opinion it was a poor sort of love that denied the human evidence of that love.

She was still trying to come to terms with what Pilar had told her after lunch, when Sebastian announced that he wanted to talk to Jorge in his study.

Lisa was at a loose end, and asked Jessica if she could sit with her. 'I will be very good,' she promised, 'but it is Tia Sofia's day for having her friends round, and it is very dull.'

Jessica was touched that the little girl should want her company. Her work on the designs was well advanced, and in fact she could do little until she had spoken to Sebastian, so she suggested instead that Lisa show her round the environs of the hacienda.

The little girl was an entertaining companion. Jessica had always liked children, and concealed her pity carefully when Lisa commented on how lonely she sometimes felt.

'Pilar wants to send me away,' she confided fearfully, 'but Tio Seb

astian will not let her.'

How could Sebastian deny his relationship with his child?

It was late afternoon when they returned. Sebastian's aunt was in the sala with her friends, and Lisa politely listened to their questions,responding demurely, quite different from the exuberant child she had been when she had been with Jessica.

Jessica could tell that she herself was the subject of a good deal of discreet curiosity.

'Jessica is a particular friend of Sebastian's,' his aunt explained.

'But I understand from my niece that you were here primarily to work for him,' one formidable matron said icily.