Emerald Ecstasy (32 page)

“Indeed I'm grateful to you and your father. Now, I am the richest man in Mexico and you understand what that means. Power, Elena. Vast power. I can make or break anyone I wish. I shall bestow a handsome settlement upon you. Never fear. You'll still be incredibly wealthy; Carmen will be taken care of until she marries.”

“Ha! What decent family would accept her? Not the Valenciana family. And you know how I have my heart set on a match between Carmen and Fernando.” Elena clasped her hands to her ample bosom. “How am I to be respectable if you divorce me? I will fight you, Raoul.”

Raoul stood up. “
Bueno
. Then do so, but you'll not win. The Mendozas may have been powerful at one time, but no longer. I have the power now, Elena. Men bow to my wishes.”

“The church shall not allow this.”

A laugh crinkled his eyes. “Do you think I really care what holy mother church thinks? I want to be free of you.”

Elena clutched the edge of the table. “She's pregnant, isn't she? Your mistress is going to have your child.”

“
Sí
.”

“But you've had other bastards. Why legitimize this one? Carmen is your true child, conceived in wedlock.”

He briefly wondered how Elena could be so dense. Didn't she realize there was no reason to divorce her before Lianne entered his life? Didn't she realize that she had served her purpose when she inherited her father's fortune? He didn't need her any longer and certainly he didn't want Carmen, a girl with no spirit, to inherit his wealth. He needed a son, and he'd have one and see to it that the boy was born within the confines of matrimony.

“Carmen shall be well provided for.”

“What a cold, cruel man you are Raoul. Yet I don't fear you the way Lianne does. I shall fight you. I will!”

His eyes narrowed in speculation, and he advanced toward her. “What do you know of Lianne's fears?”

Elena's face visibly paled. Raoul did frighten her, but a surge of courage flowed through her. “She told me how you faked her death, how you've forced her into submission.”

“So, it was you who sent for Daniel, eh.”

She nodded. “
Si
. He needed to know the truth. Lianne doesn't love you, Raoul. She loves him!”

The look of triumph on her face caused him to double his fists, but he took a deep breath and controlled himself. He mustn't hit her, but how he wanted to make her suffer. The meddlesome woman!

“She thinks she loves him, but soon she'll desire only me. Now I leave you to think over what I've said.”

“No divorce.”

He shrugged his shoulders in a dismissive gesture and left the house. Have it your way, Elena, he thought to himself. No divorce.

Walking the distance to the alchemist's shop, he was ushered into the back room by the owner, a man known only by the name of Ricardo. After he explained what he wanted, Ricardo offered him a blue vial. “This shall put the sick cat you mentioned, Don Raoul, out of its misery.” Ricardo grinned knowingly.

“
Gracias
. Also have you anything to spur a lady's ardor?”

“
Sí
. I have just the thing.” The grizzled man left the room and then was back with a red vial which he presented to Raoul. “Just two drops of this potion and the lady in question will be so amorous, she shall wear the señor out.”

Raoul thanked the chemist and pocketed both vials. He hoped he wouldn't have to use the red one, but he was certain he'd use the contents in the blue one.

Lianne waited on the patio for Raoul's return. The setting sun bathed the flagstones in an orange hue which she watched until the stones at her feet turned grayish-purple with night. She hoped her eyes were no longer puffy. When she returned home from the Academy of San Carlos she cried as she hadn't cried since the day the drugs wore off and she realized she was at the hacienda, under Raoul's thumb.

The future appeared bleak, even blacker than before Daniel's unexpected arrival. She wished he'd never come to Mexico City. Before seeing him again, she had begun not to miss him so much. Now to be parted from him once more was unbearable, but she had no other choice. She was carrying Raoul's child and she must protect Daniel.

In the darkness she heard a noise. She looked up, expecting to see Raoul but saw Felix instead.

“I hope I don't disturb you, Señorita Lianne.”

“No. What is the matter, Felix?”

He shyly bent his head. “I wished to know if you are well.”

Lianne realized he was concerned because of her hysterical outburst inside the carriage which he must have heard. She smiled kindly. “I'll be all right.”

“You love the señor very much.”

She knew he wasn't referring to Raoul. “Yes, I do.”

“Then you must tell him this, go to him.”

“There are many things you can't understand, Felix, many reasons to keep me apart from Señor Flanders.”

“You mean Don Raoul.” Felix sneered as he spoke Raoul's name, and Lianne noted this. “He is less than human, señorita, less than the lowest
lepero
.”

“Felix, please be quiet.” Lianne rose from the wrought iron chair in which she sat. “Don Raoul will return shortly, and I don't want you punished.”

Felix stood bravely, his chest thrust out, and Lianne saw that regular meals had put flesh on his bones. One day Felix would be a handsome man, but for now he was still very young. “Could Don Raoul punish me more than fate? Not unless he beats me to death, but I've experienced worse than death. The life of a
lepero
is cruel, much harsher than you could imagine. I watched my mother starve to death because she fed me the crumbs which should have been hers. I saw my father throw himself in front of a speeding carriage to end his torment. And all this could have been avoided but for Don Raoul.”

She motioned for Felix to come closer and sit beside her. Lianne was perplexed by his narrative, but she realized that Raoul had done something to destroy his family. She urged him to continue but held his hand because the boy shook with emotion.

“When I was small my father was a shoemaker. We always had plenty to eat, clothes to wear, and were much loved. My sister was older and very beautiful, very kind. She taught me to read.” Felix smiled, remembering her dark, kind eyes and gentleness. “Don Raoul was a customer of my father's. I remember being much in awe of him when he entered the shop. He was so tall and handsome, always in the finest clothes and bought the finest leather for his boots. Papa was very proud of such distinguished patronage. Señor de Lovis paid him handsomely and this enabled me to attend school. My parents were very proud of me and of my sister.”

Felix took a deep breath and tremors shook him. “One day Don Raoul entered our shop. He hadn't seen my sister, Inez, for some time since she had been visiting relatives in Vera Cruz. On this day she helped my father with the customers, and before Don Raoul left, he said to my father, “Your daughter, Señor Martinez, has grown quite beautiful.” Of course my father agreed, but I was there and saw the look of worry on my father's face. But Inez was young and unused to such a compliment from a man like Señor de Lovis. She smiled in shyness. Shortly after that he came back to the shop when my parents were away. My sister and I were alone. It was late at night, and I was in bed. I heard Inez greet him at the door. Then all was quiet until my sister screamed. I ran from my room. A man, who looked like a monkey, also waited in the hallway and blocked my way into my sister's room.

“I'll never forget his strength, the evil in his face, but I was small and quick. I dashed forward and pushed open the door.” Shivers rocked through Felix at this point, and Lianne asked him if he wished to continue. Without answering he said, “He held her down on the bed. She was naked and crying, but she saw me. ‘Go away, Felix,' she sobbed. ‘Go away.' Don Raoul looked at me with such pleasure on his face that I wished to kill him. I would have run and pulled him from her, but the monkey man grabbed me by the collar of my nightshirt as if I were a puppy and threw me into my room. He locked the door, and though I tried to wrench it open, I couldn't. In the morning Inez let me out. Her beautiful skin was bruised and she held me in her arms and cried. She made me promise not to tell our parents. They would never have known about the attack. By the time they returned home weeks later, no bruises marred Inez. Except she became pregnant with de Lovis's child.”

Felix said this with such bitterness that Lianne winced. “My sister was only fifteen, señorita. She didn't want to bear his child and have my parents live in shame. So, she visited a woman who promised to get rid of the baby. To pay the old crone, she stole the money from my father's drawer. I took her to the woman and waited while … while it happened. Then Inez told me to drive the cart home. Before we got there she started to bleed. I've never seen so much blood! When my mother saw her, she was hysterical and I ran for the doctor. But it was too late. Inez died that night.” Felix gulped back tears but staunchly continued.

“I told my father about de Lovis. Papa was so quiet. I had expected him to rant with rage, to cry, but he didn't. I went to bed and listened to the sobs of my mother. After Inez's burial, my father left us at the cemetery. I discovered later that he had gone to Don Raoul's house and confronted him. He pulled a knife on him, but the servant grabbed my papa who wasn't a big man and beat him and threw him from the house. A passerby took pity on him and helped him home. We thought that would be the end of it, but the next day a fire broke out in the shop, a mysterious fire. We lost everything, and the bank wouldn't loan my father the money to start a new shoe shop. We knew de Lovis was behind it all. My father was too proud to ask our relations in Vera Cruz for help, so we lived among the
leperos
. They had nothing; we had only the clothes on our backs. I grew tough among them, señorita. I had to be strong, otherwise, I'd be dead now like my mama and papa. And all of this because Raoul de Lovis couldn't control his lust for my sister.”

Lianne sat so still she barely breathed. Her heart went out to Felix and his grief.

“I'm sorry, so sorry for you,” she said and put her arm around his shoulders.

Felix gazed at her, his dark eyes glittering with suppressed violence. “I will kill him, señorita. His blood must cleanse my sister's shame and my parents' deaths. I will see that he dies slowly and painfully.”

Fear for him surfaced. Felix wouldn't be a match for Raoul and any henchman he might hire. “You mustn't do anything. Promise me you won't.”

“I cannot.” He shook his head. “But I will watch over you, señorita. Raoul de Lovis will not harm you while I am near.”

Warmth and love for Felix rose inside her, and without thinking, she planted a kiss on his cheek. “You're very kind.”

Suddenly a hard cold hand was clasped on her arm. She looked up to see Raoul standing ominously above her like a dark crow.

“Are you in the habit of kissing your servants?” he inquired. His moustache looked dark against the angry white line of his mouth.

Lianne instantly got up as did Felix. “I was thanking Felix for helping me to my chair,” she said and hoped she lied convincingly. “I felt rather faint, and Felix was nearby. Nothing was meant in the kiss but thankfulness.”

“Go to the servants' quarters,” he said harshly to Felix. “There's no need for you here. Señorita Lianne shall not sing at the opera tonight.”

Felix bowed and left them alone. A servant came out then and lit the torches on the patio. In the flickering light she noticed tiny age lines around Raoul's eye, and he looked older than forty. “I hope you don't make a practice out of this,” he admonished her. “Felix is almost a man and may misinterpret your friendliness. Plus he is a
lepero
, little better than sheep dung. I hired him as your driver because he protected you when you disobeyed my orders not to travel alone. As easily as I took him in, I can throw him back with his own slimy kind.”

Indignation filled her, but she forced it down with a smile and a nod of her head. “Anything you say, Raoul.”

He seemed not to notice the loathing in her eyes as they dined later that evening. His concentration was clearly on other matters and she was grateful that he didn't immediately come to bed. Later when he did, he didn't touch her.

The news of the death of Dona Elena de Lovis reached Lianne on a sunny morning when Daniel arrived at the door with a weeping Carmen, whom he supported by the arm.

The girl was ushered into a bedroom, nearly in hysterics, by a servant. Lianne couldn't believe how stoically Raoul took the news of Elena's death and how he didn't make an attempt to comfort his daughter. All he asked Daniel was, “How did it happen?”

Daniel told him that he had just finished a sitting with Carmen and had been invited by Elena for chocolate in the
sala
with her and Carmen. He refused the chocolate, preferring tequila. He and Elena, had conversed for a few minutes, and she praised the work he had done on Carmen's portrait so far.