‘Put it down to jet lag,’ Raul added almost jerkily, pushing long brown fingers restively through hi
s glossy blue-black hair. ‘You are not that kind of woman. If you had been, I would never have agreed to marry you.’
What kind of woman? The unfaithful type? What a peculiar thought for a male like Raul to harbour! For, on the face of it, Raul Zaforteza was a real heartbreaker, possessed of every quality most likely to hold a woman’s attention. Personality, looks, sex-appeal, wealth, power. How many women would risk losing Raul by betraying him in another man’s bed?
‘I will join you at the ranch in a couple of days,’ Raul murmured flatly as he moved past her—suddenly, she registered, keen to abandon the dialogue...and her? The suspicion hurt.
‘Join me?’ Polly echoed uncertainly. ‘What are you talking about? Where are you going?’
‘Tonight I’m afraid I’ll have to stay in Caracas. Tomorrow I’ll be in Maracaibo, and possibly the next day as well. I have several urgent business matters to deal with. I’ve been abroad for many weeks,’ he reminded her drily.
Alone again, Polly freshened up and slid with a distinct lack of enthusiasm into the simple white cotton dress. When she returned to the main cabin she could not avoid noticing Irena’s frequent starstruck glances in Raul’s direction, and her pronounced need to hover at his elbow as eager as a harem slave to satisfy his every wish. No longer did she marvel at her own suspicions earlier. The brunette had a real giant-sized crush on Raul. And possibly Raul was so accustomed to inviting female flattery and exaggerated attention that he genuinely hadn’t noticed.
‘OK, so there is a problem,’ Raul breathed, disconcerting Polly with a dark satiric glance of acknowledgement in lrena’s direction while she was gathering up Luis’s scattered possessions at the far end of the cabin. ‘We were both fifty per cent wrong, but, believe me, I have never given her the slightest encouragement.’
Polly nodded in embarrassed silence, feeling like an idiot over the fuss she had made but fearful of re-opening the subject lest she make things even worse.
Raul parted from her at the airport as coolly and politely as a distant acquaintance, a shuttered look in his brilliant dark eyes. Irena escorted Polly onto the light plane which would whisk her and her son out to the Zaforteza ranch. Polly’s heart was already sinking.
Would it always be like this with Raul? Would she never know Raul? Would she never understand what went on inside that complex and clever head of his? And was it possible that that ‘urgent business’ he had mentioned had merely been a convenient excuse to leave her? How humiliating it was to suspect that Raul had actually intended to accompany her to his home until she’d treated him to that foolish scene! After all, hadn’t he told her up front that jealousy disgusted him, and that nothing would drive him away quicker?
It was lashing with rain when Polly clambered off the plane, protected by a giant umbrella extended over her and Luis by the pilot. He helped her into the waiting four-wheel drive. Neither he nor the driver appeared to have a word of English. Polly was now feeling less guilty and more angry with Raul. How did he think it felt for her to arrive at the estancia alone, where nobody knew her and where very possibly nobody would even be able to speak to her?
Through the streaming windows she caught glimpses of a large spreading collection of buildings. Palm trees were being battered in the torrential downpour. And yet the heat was intense, the humidity high. A hellhole, Polly decided, in the right mood to make that snap judgement. Raul had posted them out to the boonies to live in a hellhole and just gone on his own sweet way, just as he was used to doing, just as he no doubt expected to continue doing...
A huge colonial-style house adorned by fancy verandahs and an upper balcony wreathed with climbers loomed out of the ram. Clutching Luis like a parcel, Polly made a dive through the torrent when the car door opened, fled up the steps and surged indoors into the mercifully air-conditioned cool without a single sidewise glance or pause.
She had a split second to catch her breath on the magnificence of the vast reception hall she stood in before she focused on the huddle of female servants sheltering behind the front door, all staring at her and the baby she held wideeyed. Silence hung for the space of twenty seconds.
A tall and stunningly beautiful blonde strolled into view. Frowning regally at Polly, she shot something at her in Spanish.
‘I’m sorry, I don’t speak—’
‘I am the Condesa Melina D’Agnolo. Where is Raul?’ the woman demanded in accented but perfect English.
‘Still m Caracas.’ Conscious of the staff now sidling out of a door to the left as fast as mice escaping a cat, Polly gazed enquiringly at the other woman. Sheathed in a superb cerise suit, glittering jewellery adding to her imperious air of well-bred exclusivity, the lady exuded angry impatience.
‘Caracas?’ It was an infuriated shriek of disappointment.
As the shrill sound echoed off the high ceiling, Luis jerked in fright and let out a loud, fretful wail.
Melina D’Agnolo stalked forward and surveyed him with unconcealed distaste. ‘So this is the child I have heard rumours about. It does exist. Well, what are you waiting for? Stop it making that horrible noise!’
‘He’s just hungry—’
‘When will Raul arrive?’
‘In a couple of days.’
‘Then I shall wait for him,’ Melina announced, eyes hardening as Luis continued to cry noisily in spite of Polly’s efforts to console him. ‘But you will keep that child upstairs, out of my sight and hearing.’
‘I’m afraid I have no intention—’ Polly began angrily.
‘I will not tolerate impertinence. You will do as you are told or you will very soon find yourself out of a job!’ Melina informed her. ‘In Raul’s absence, I am in charge here.’
Realising that she had been mistaken for an employee, Polly raised her head high, intending to explain that she was Raul’s wife. But the other woman had already walked away to utter a sharp command in Spanish. A middle-aged woman in a black dress appeared so quickly she must have been waiting somewhere nearby. Melina issued what sounded like a staccato stream of instructions.
The older woman glanced in open dismay at Polly.