At the Brazilian's Command

They tacked up together. She tried not to notice how deftly Tiago’s lean fingers worked, or how soothing and gentle he was with his horse.

‘Are you ready?’ he said, turning around.

Her heart-rate soared, and all she could think about was being held in those arms, how it had felt to be pressed up close against his body.

‘Ready,’ she confirmed, lifting her chin.

She had barely led Lizzie’s horse out of the stable when her phone rang. She looked down at the screen and shook her head. ‘Sorry, but I’ve got to take this.’

‘Go right ahead.’

She walked quickly away from Tiago, concerned that her mother’s torrent of words would alert him to her problem. It was always the same problem. Her mother was short of money again. It was the only time she ever called.

Taking a deep breath, she launched in. ‘Did you get my messages? I was worried about you. It seems so long since I’ve heard from you. Are you sure you’re okay? You’re not okay?’ Danny frowned with concern. ‘Why? What’s happened?’

She dreaded what her mother would say. It was never good news. The type of men Danny’s mother liked to go out with generally needed a loan. She held the phone tight to her ear as her mother repeated the familiar plea.

‘It’s just to tide him over, Danny. I told him you’d understand...’

Told whom? Oh, never mind. She wouldn’t know the man, anyway.

‘I knew I could rely on you. Thank you...thank you,’ her mother was exclaiming.

‘But I don’t have that kind of money,’ Danny said, horrified when her mother mentioned a figure.

Her mother ignored this comment entirely. ‘Just do what you can,’ she said. ‘You’re so generous, Danny. I knew we could rely on you.’

I’m such a mug, don’t you mean? Danny thought.

‘It’s only a short-term loan. He’s got money coming in soon.’

How often had she heard that? Danny wondered. ‘I’ll send you what I can,’ she promised.

‘I hear there’s going to be a lot of money sloshing around Rottingdean now Chico Fernandez has taken control?’

She recognised her mother’s wheedling voice and immediately sprang to her friend’s defence. ‘Chico hasn’t taken control,’ she argued, feeling affronted on Lizzie’s behalf. ‘Lizzie and Chico work in partnership, and their money has got nothing whatsoever to do with me. I’ll send you what money I can when I’ve earned it.’

‘Make sure you get your hands on some of their money,’ her mother insisted, as if she hadn’t spoken, and as if Danny were entitled to a share. ‘You’ve got it good now, Danny. It’s only fair to share your good fortune with others—with me—when things can only get better for you.’

Her mother’s voice had grown petulant and childlike. An all too familiar feeling swept over Danny as she was tugged this way and that by a sense of duty to her mother and a longing to get on with her own life.

‘Just one more thing before I go,’ her mother said. ‘I heard in the village that the repair work at Rottingdean is going to mean evacuating the house soon?’

‘That’s right,’ Danny confirmed. ‘It’s great news that the old house is going to be given new life, isn’t it?’

‘I suppose so,’ her mother agreed. ‘But—and it’s really hard for me to say this, Danny—I’m afraid you can’t come back here to the cottage while the renovation work is being carried out.’

‘Oh?’

‘My new fella wouldn’t like it, you see. You do understand, don’t you?’

‘Of course,’ she said faintly, taking this in.

‘I really think he’s the one, Danny.’

Another one who was ‘the one’, Danny mused wearily. ‘Just take care of yourself, Mum,’ she said softly. She would pick up the pieces of her mother’s life when it all fell apart again, somehow. And as for her own—

‘You won’t forget to send that money, will you?’ her mother pressed.

‘I promise,’ Danny said.

‘You’re such a good girl.’

Danny shook her head at the irony of her penniless self, bailing out some unknown man, and then the sound of horses’ hooves clattering across the cobblestones distracted her. ‘Mum—I’ve got to go. I promised to exercise Lizzie’s horse.’

‘Just don’t forget to send that money, will you, Danny?’