Bride in a Gilded Cage

Three days later, Isobel nearly choked on her glass of water when Rafael strode into his study at the house, looking gorgeously dishevelled and unshaven. He’d rung last night to say he’d been delayed, and Isobel hadn’t been expecting him till later that evening.

He was looking at her with such intensity she wanted to ask if she had something on her face. She had to uncurl her fingers from the desk, where they’d gone in a reflexive move to hang on to something concrete.

She half gestured. ‘I was just checking something on the Internet.’

Rafael inclined his head. ‘I’m going to take a shower, and then I’d like you to come somewhere with me to talk—okay?’

Isobel just nodded. So there would be no reprieve. Straight down to business. Sorting things out. Perhaps he’d take her to his solicitor’s office?

On tenterhooks, Isobel fought the desire to change out of her

jeans and plain white shirt. When Rafael came back downstairs in black trousers and a black top, hair still wet from the shower and clean shaven, her heart threatened to burst out of her chest.

She stood up from behind the desk and went to join him, following as he led her out to the car. Nerves kept Isobel silent, and Rafael seemed similarly preoccupied, an intense expression on his face as he negotiated the early-evening traffic.

To her surprise she realised that Rafael was driving into a small airfield, where a plane sat waiting. Completely nonplussed, Isobel let Rafael lead her over to the small aircraft. He introduced her to the pilot, and after an exchange between the two men that left Isobel none the wiser as to their destination she followed Rafael into the tiny four-seater craft.

She was too bemused even to ask where they were going as the plane took off into the evening sky, as if talking might bring the end that much quicker. She had a moment of déjà vu, remembering watching Paris grow smaller and smaller beneath her on a flight that felt like hundreds of years ago.

She sent Rafael a quick, surreptitious look, but his gaze was fixed firmly out of the other window.

Isobel only realised she’d nodded off, her recent sleepless nights having finally caught up with her, when she felt someone shaking her gently and saying, ‘Isobel, wake up. We’re about to land.’

Rafael. She opened her eyes.

He was so close that all she’d have to do to kiss him would be to move forward and press her lips to his. In a panic that she might do just that and betray herself, she jerked back, noticing his cheeks flush and his eyes flash.

He sat back down, face stony, and they both did up their seat belts. It was only when the plane straightened to land that Isobel recognised where they were.

She gasped. ‘It’s the estancia.’ She looked at Rafael accusingly, her heart tripping at being back here. ‘Why have you brought us here?’

Rafael was grim. ‘You’ll soon see.’

Isobel folded her arms and looked out of the window as the plane touched down. When they’d landed, and the pilot had helped them out, Isobel watched aghast as he proceeded to take off again into the rapidly sinking sun.

She looked around to find Rafael waiting patiently by the open passenger door of a Jeep. With nothing else in sight, she had little choice but to climb in.

Her belly churning, Isobel saw that they weren’t actually that far from the house, which she could see in the distance. But when they came out at the long drive, instead of turning left to go to the house, Rafael turned right.

Isobel’s nerves were in shreds. ‘Where are we going?’

‘Not far now.’ Rafael took a sharp left turn into what was seemingly a solid bank of bushes, but Isobel could see after a moment that it was actually a hidden dirt track. He drove into the blackness until they came out into a clearing that Isobel could see was near the lake which stood at the back of the house.

He brought the Jeep to a stop and turned the ignition off. The silence was suddenly deafening. He got out and came around to Isobel’s side, taking her hand silently, helping her out and onto the soft ground. He looked at her for an intense moment, and then led her farther into the clearing.

Isobel saw lights ahead, and as they came closer she made out a beautifully ornate gazebo almost entirely covered in ivy and flowers. At once her chest tightened and she put a hand up to it. This had to be the gazebo that had been mentioned in some of her grandparents’ love letters. This was where they’d first met. Isobel had vowed to look for it when they came back, but had forgotten about it till now.

As they came closer she could see that it glowed with the lights of a thousand small and large lanterns. Isobel turned and looked up at Rafael, taking her hand out of his. For the first time since she’d known him, he looked nervous. ‘Rafael…why are we here?’

Finally, he spoke. ‘I saw what was in the box that belonged to your grandmother, and I hope you don’t mind but I read the letters, too…’ His mouth quirked, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. ‘They seemed to move you.’

‘They did,’ Isobel said faintly, remembering that moment when she’d had to face what was in her own heart.

His voice was husky. ‘I didn’t know what to do…how to do this. I thought maybe a letter…but how could I compete with their letters? And it didn’t feel right. It’s not me.’

Isobel felt as if he was talking another language. ‘Rafael…?’

He put a finger up to her mouth. ‘Just let me speak, okay? I need to speak.’