‘She is grandmother here,’ Pedro explained, his weather-beaten face creasing in a smile.
‘Oh, good.’ Perhaps Nancy and she would get along after all. She had always had an affinity with older people.
‘And Nancy knows the way to the cabin.’
‘The cabin?’ Emma adopted an innocent expression. She had intended to go it alone, but any information she could garner from Pedro was all to the good.
‘Sim.’ Pedro was busily checking all the straps and buckles required before she could mount up. She didn’t want to get Pedro into trouble. ‘Wouldn’t Senhor Marcelos be angry if I interrupted his solitude?’ she asked carefully.
‘Senhor Marcelos is never angry with Pedro. I will accompany you.’
‘Oh, no—that’s not necessary.’ She quickly turned away as her cheeks burned red. She had no idea what everyone thought of her sudden arrival at the ranch house, and could only presume that Karina had called them and made some excuse or other—saying that she worked for their boss, perhaps. ‘I’ve got a phone for security.’ She brandished it to make the point that she was really together and ready for this.
‘That won’t work here,’ Pedro said flatly, reaching beneath his hat to scratch his head.
‘And I’ve got supplies from the kitchen.’ The saddlebags she was carrying were bulging with food and water. Pedro couldn’t argue with that. And then there was her trump card. ‘And I’ve got a map.’ She produced it triumphantly.
Pedro shook his head. He didn’t seem happy at all, but as he said nothing more about it she felt confident that he was going to let her ride out on her own now that she had proved to be so organised.
‘You like it here?’ Pedro asked, smiling up at her as he tightened the strap beneath the mule’s stomach.
‘It’s fabulous,’ Emma said honestly. So fabulous it was hard to take in everything Pedro had shown her.
He’d had driven her for miles from the landing strip, across Luc’s land, he told her, until they came to a towering archway that marked the boundary of the main house. It had taken them another twenty minutes before the sprawling ranch house had come into view. Things were on such a vast scale she could easily see why Luc belonged here. He was a big man from a land whose scale she was still getting used to. The stark beauty of the pampas had struck her in the heart as she’d flown over it. Perhaps because it was wild and seemingly unknowable, like him.
The kindness shown to her by Luc’s staff had told her a lot about him. They couldn’t do enough for her—even when she said she was going out on a ride just a few short hours after arriving. Excitement at the thought of seeing Luc again didn’t allow for delay. Not even her glorious guest room, with its billowing white canopy over the huge four-poster bed, could tempt her to stay.
Now, if she could just get her leg over the saddle...
She was supposed to be an experienced rider, remember that?
Thankfully, Pedro cupped his hands and gave her a leg up, but even on the back of a mule it felt a long way down to the ground. No handrails?
No handrails.
* * *
He was splitting logs when Pedro called him.
‘What?’ He ran to his horse while Pedro was still explaining that he was trailing Emma at a distance.
‘I won’t let any harm come to her,’ his old friend assured him.
Not good enough. Luc had to see Emma for himself. He had to know she was safe. Out here on the pampas there were miles of apparent nothingness, and if a stranger wasn’t wary they could easily get lost. Emma might panic. The mule could trip. There were countless risks for the unwary traveller. He wasn’t about to take any chances where Emma’s safety was concerned. Stowing the phone, he sprang onto his stallion’s back without wasting time saddling up. His first aim was to make her safe. The second was to come clean. Karina was right in that it had done him good, coming out here away from every distraction. It had shown him what counted and what didn’t. His pride was nowhere on that list. Emma’s peace of mind was the headline event.
As he urged his mount across land he knew intimately, he felt strong and certain. When he told Emma the truth he would be anything but. He wasn’t used to making himself vulnerable. As a youth he’d been so sure-footed and confident—until he’d got the biggest slap in the face of his life. At the time he’d been stunned. Then he’d been driven by bitterness and revenge. It had turned him cold until Emma had shown him a different way. Talking it through with her would either end things between them for good, or prove that people could change, and that he was trying.