Passionate Protection

Jessica wasn't surprised to discover that she was Pilar's aunt. 'And your family don't mind?' she asked, apparently unable to believe it when Jessica assured her that they didn't. 'In Spain no young woman of good family would be permitted to stay in the home of an unmarried man without a female relative with her.'

'I am here to work,' Jessica reminded her coolly, uneasily reminded of what Jorge had said. Did these women think she was Sebastian's mistress? What did it matter if they did? And yet it was an uncomfortable sensation to have them studying her, perhaps talking about her when she wasn't there.

After they left the sala, Jessica went upstairs to her tower, while Lisa was whisked away by her maid for a rest.

The household ran like clockwork, and yet apparently without any effort on the part of Sebastian's aunt, although Jessica had noticed that the staff consulted her every day just after breakfast. It must be an enormous responsibility caring for the valuable antiques and art treasures that filled the hacienda, and she reflected that it was impossible not to admire the selflessness of Spanish women when it came to devoting themselves to their homes.

She had wanted to see Sebastian about the designs she was working on and gathering up her work she went downstairs to his study. She could hear voices from inside, one of them recognisably Jorge's and bitterly defensive.

Now was obviously not the time to intrude, and she was just walking away when Rafael, the major-domo of the household, appeared.

'I was hoping to have a word with the Conde,' Jessica explained in response to his unspoken question, 'but…'

'I shall inform him when he is free,' Rafael assured her. 'Perhaps you would care for a tray of tea? In the past our English guests have often asked for tea at this time.'

It was six o'clock and as Jessica knew from experience, it would be several hours before they dined. Spaniards dined late, so she thanked Rafael and told him that tea would indeed be most welcome.

It arrived twenty minutes later—a bone china tea service and a plate of delicate almond cakes. Until she saw them Jessica hadn't realised how hungry she felt. She had just finished her second cup of tea when someone knocked briskly on the door. She knew without opening it, with some instinctive sixth sense, that it was Sebastian.

He looked preoccupied and bleakly angry, and her heart sank. Now was obviously not the time to discuss her ideas with him.

'Now,' he said, when he had closed the door with a precision that sent shivers of alarm feathering along her spine, 'perhaps you will be good enough to explain why you did not tell me the truth about your cousin?'

He was leaning against the door, arms folded across his chest, unconsciously straining the fabric, his eyes glinting metallic grey as they waited for her response.

'I've already told you,' Jessica said tightly. She had forgotten the implicit threat she had seen in his eyes when Jorge unwittingly revealed the truth, in the shock of listening to Pilar's disclosures.

'I wanted to protect Isabel…'

'Protect her, or her engagement?' he asked with devastating insight. 'Jorge has told me of this John—apparently she was contemplating becoming engaged to him when she met Jorge.'

'Jorge was simply a holiday romance,' Jessica told her firmly. 'Isabel is silly but not venal. I can assure you she had no mercenary interest in Jorge.'

'No? Then why did she threaten him with this child she says she conceived?'

'A mistake,' Jessica told him. 'Surely you can appreciate her position? She came back from holiday, and then discovered that she might be carrying Jorge's child, or so she thought, so she panicked…'

'And tried to force him into marrying her,' Sebastian concluded distastefully. 'And this is the innocent child you wished to protect? No, I cannot accept it.'

She wasn't going to tell him how Isabel had lied to her, Jessica decided angrily, her chin tilting defiantly as she stared up at him.

'It doesn't matter to me whether you do or not,' she told him unsteadily. 'All I want to do now is to put the entire incident behind me.'

It wasn't completely true—certain aspects of it would remain to haunt her always, and she was very much afraid that what she felt for Sebastian came dangerously close to love. Quite how or why it should have happened she didn't know, but these last few days had underlined, time and time again, that she was far from indifferent to him. She only had to register the way her pulses raced whenever he walked in a room to be aware of that! And yet he was the complete antithesis of all she admired in men. Arrogant, domineering and apparently incapable of facing up to his responsibilities.

'Easier said than done.' He frowned, unfolding his arms, and moved silently to the window. 'As Jorge has just been at considerable pains to point out to me, my aunt, and no doubt by this time, her cronies, all believe you to be my mistress.'

He seemed to be waiting for some response, and Jessica refused to acknowledge the hurting shaft of pain his indifference occasioned.

'We know differently,' she told him. 'And besides, the opinion of half a dozen or so people I've never set eyes on before and am not likely to see again doesn't trouble me.'

'I'm sure it doesn't,' Sebastian agreed grittily, 'but unfortunately, I do have to see them again and it does concern me, as everything touching upon the good name of our family must.'

It was on the tip of Jessica's tongue to tell him that this was something he should have thought of before, but instead she said unsteadily, 'Yes, I see that having a reputation such as yours must be a great burden to so proud a man.'

Instantly she realised she had gone too far Fingers like talons gripped her wrist.

'Just what do you mean by that?' he demanded softly.