Like One of the Family (47 page)

Claire read on for a minute, but when it was clear that Elena was not just dozing, but deeply asleep, she relaxed back in her chair and fell to thinking about her mother. Lately, she was troubled by vague feelings of guilt that if only she had been a different, better kind of daughter or made more of an effort, they might have succeeded in closing the widening gulf between them. But the rift, which had started with the death of her little sister, had deepened with her parents' separation, and now Claire was convinced that, even with good intentions on both sides, it was beyond their power to heal it. She sighed and turned her thoughts instead to Jane.

Since coming to Spain Claire had been missing her adopted mother to an astonishing degree. Perhaps this was pearly because Sheena, with whom she normally felt so much in accord, was spending all her time with the attractive young Alejandro. Some nights Sheena did not return to the apartment at all. She worried about her friend and only hoped that Alejandro was as decent as he seemed. Thankfully, Miguel Delgado seemed to have completely faded from the scene.

The door opened and Fernando entered. He gazed sorrowfully down at his mother and Claire was deeply touched by his expression.

'What, sleeping again?' he said, gently laying Elena's scarf back in her lap.

Claire closed the book and stooped to pick up her bag, knowing that there would be no more reading today. As she straightened up she felt suddenly sick. She thought it might be migraine from sitting so long in the darkened room with just one lamp directed in a blob of light on the page.

The attacks were occurring with disturbing regularity, which was puzzling now that the strain of the exams was over. Claire put a trembling hand to her hot forehead and swallowed dryly.

‘What is the matter?' Fernando moved forward in concern, and gently helped her up. Claire stood dizzily for a second while he supported her without a word, patiently waiting until she had regained her balance.

‘I was feeling a bit light-headed,' Claire confessed, conscious of his arm about her as he helped her out into the air. She pulled away from him and sank into a chair, a hand to her eyes, and concentrated on not bringing up her breakfast. As she gratefully sipped the glass of mineral water he brought her, Stella came bounding up and covered her bare ankles with affectionate licks. Claire stroked the Labrador's smooth head, feeling ashamed of all the fuss.

‘I'd better go,' she told Fernando. ‘but I'll come again tomorrow if your mother wants me.'

Fernando nodded, his sombre expression softening in gratitude. As he walked with Claire to the car, unspoken between them hung the fear that there might not be many more such visits, and they drove the short journey to the apartment in silence.

While Claire spent her afternoons in a shaded room reading to Elena, Sheena spent hers in bed with Alejandro. Two days after the
flamenco
show, when Sheena had returned from sketching on the beach and found Alejandro waiting for her outside the apartment, she had gone with him on a round of the local bars where the young Spaniard seemed to be known and regarded well everywhere. They had finished up the evening dancing in a night-club and afterwards he had brought her back to what she believed was his apartment, but later discovered belonged to his friend Miguel, who had lent it to him in his absence. Miguel had helped him out in various other ways too, it seemed. Once when he was drunk Alejandro had laughingly admitted to Sheena that he owed a lot to the man, too much maybe, grinning sheepishly when she questioned him and murmuring vaguely about gambling debts and other matters.

Alejandro gave her a spare latch-key and they met there each afternoon. They had a pre-arranged signal - two short rings followed by one long one - and Sheena, who was usually there first, felt very daring as she slipped out from the shower to open the door wearing only the briefest of towels, and pulled him giggling inside.

Sheena had thought she was in love before, but had never felt quite so helplessly besotted as she felt about this vital young Spaniard. Since she had lost her virginity to Killian three summers previously Sheena had experimented with a succession of schoolboys, but never any mature men. Sean, her sculptor, was the most sexually experienced of anyone she had known, but he did not even come close to Alejandro.

In the slumbering heat of the Spanish siesta they made love on rumpled sheets, behind shuttered windows, and Sheena was willingly initiated into the art of the orgasm. Each time she would think that nothing could surpass her sensation of excitement and satisfaction, and then Alejandro would surprise her again.
‘Bebé, princesa, bebé,'
Alejandro moaned contentedly. He leaned over the side of the bed and reached for his wine glass, feeding Sheena little sips as if she were the infant he called her. Supporting himself on his elbow, he looked down in approval at her smooth tanned body. He slopped a little wine into her navel and chuckled at her squeals as he bent his head and neatly lapped it up.

‘You are just like a cat,' Sheena praised, loving his firmness, his flat belly and swelling manhood. She held him to her and sighed, ready for love again.

With a perceptive chuckle Alejandro disengaged her arms and rolled off the bed in one smooth movement. Pouting, Sheena turned over on to her front and rested her chin on her arms to watch him.

‘
Ah, what perfection.' Fondly, he smacked her plump brown bottom. ‘
Espléndido...incréible!'

He lifted a lock of her hair and looked deep into her eyes. ‘And, of course, you do not sunbathe nude, Señorita,' he chuckled.

Sheena threw a pillow at him and snuggled deeper into the bed, reluctant to get dressed, her senses satiated by wine and lovemaking. She did not give any thought to the future. Alejandro seemed to have cast a spell over her mind, as well as her body, and when she was with him she was incapable of thought or action. There was only him. She grew heavy with sleep and barely registered his murmured goodbye and the slam of the outer door, before she had drifted off. She was not conscious that someone had entered the apartment until she gradually became aware of hands stroking her buttocks and thighs. There was a dreamlike quality about it and she lay there unresisting until she felt herself being pulled gently, but firmly, to the bottom of the bed. Behind her, the skilful fingers continued to stroke and caress and, as her pleasure increased, she seemed to have no will or shame. The seductive touch moved to her breasts. With difficulty she opened her eyes and she glimpsed slim brown fingers with unusually long nails, before she began to gasp and shake out of control. She felt her hips lifted and she moaned and instinctively arched her back. Her body heaved and shuddered in response to the thrusting from behind. When Sheena opened her eyes again she was on her own in the room and the sun had gone down outside the window.

In Spain in the last week in July the temperatures were in the high nineties. Claire could hardly draw a breath. It was warm and close in the apartment during the day and if she forgot to close the heavy curtains before midday, the rooms became unbearably hot.

One morning early there was a phone call for Teresa. ‘I don't believe it,' the girls heard her whoop. ‘You're having me on,' and then, ‘Go on, she never did. I don't believe you.' When she put the phone down Teresa reached for her cigarettes and tottered into the kitchen to make tea and recover from the shock.

‘Twins! Would you believe it! Babs has gone and had twins and they nearly three weeks early,' she told the girls, still amazed. ‘Two little boys. One five pounds and the other seven and a half. Now where in the world did they come from?' she wondered, bemused. ‘There's never been twins in the family, not that I heard tell of.'

Claire and Sheena exchanged sleepy, amused glances before hastening to congratulate her.

‘I'll have to go at once,' Teresa said, ‘I gave her my word. She has three little ones waiting on her at home, God help her.' And in the next breath in a doomed voice, ‘Oh dear, what am I going to do about you and your Mammy counting on me to stay with you till she comes.'

‘We'll be all right,' Sheena said. ‘Why wouldn't we be?' And Claire murmured in agreement.

‘What about little Ruthie,' Teresa nodded towards where the little girl was still asleep. ‘I could take her back with me. Maybe that's what I should do.'

But Ruthie refused to leave Sheena and Claire. ‘Don't send me away,' she begged. ‘Let me go and stay with Adela.'

‘But you'll be back again with Mum in a few weeks,' Sheena reminded her.

‘I don't care. I want to be here now. Oh, it's not fair,' Ruthie began to weep noisy pitiful tears.

‘Ah, the poor lamb. Don't take on like that.' Teresa stroked Ruthie's hair soothingly and looked helplessly at the girls for guidance.

‘Maybe she could stay with Adela,' Claire said hesitantly. ‘Why don't we ask Ignacio and his wife. We can ring Jane and find out what she wants us to do.'

Teresa looked relieved. ‘If you think it will be all right.' Ruthie, sensing that the battle was nearly won, sobbed more quietly.

Suddenly, Teresa became conscious of time passing. ‘Oh my! I'd best get myself packed and be on my way.'

The girls rushed to help her. Claire got her case out of the cupboard and Sheena made her a pile of toast, which Teresa gratefully nibbled while hurriedly piling clothing on the bed. Thirty minutes later she was ready to go. The girls helped her with her case to the taxi rank some yards up the street.

‘We'll ring Mum,' Sheena promised her, as with a last fond hug all round Teresa heaved her plump bulk into the back of the taxi and leaned out of the window.

‘Are you girls sure you'll be all right?' Teresa asked, yet again.

‘Yes, of course,' Claire reassured her. ‘You mustn't worry about a thing.'

They all waved and Ruthie, hopping on one leg, happily blew a kiss after the departing taxi. They had just time to see Teresa, misty eyed, return the kiss and then she was gone from their sight.

Claire brought Ruthie to the hotel later in the morning. Sheena saidthat Claire would do better on her own. Otherwise, Ignacio might get the idea that they were all pushing to be taken into the hotel. At any rate, she needed to buy a new sketchpad and it would save time if she got it while Claire was away. What she was saving time for wasn't clear but Claire accepted her excuses with her usual forbearance and set off with Ruthie.

Clare thought how much she would have appreciated Sheena's support. For all she knew Ignacio might not be that keen to take responsibility for the little girl. But she need not have worried. Ignacio gave them his usual warm welcome and seemed more than delighted to have
la hermanita
to stay with them. He called his wife out from the dining-room where she was setting tables for lunch, and as soon as she heard they both insisted that since the chaperone had left all the girls must come and stay at the hotel. Claire was touched by this generous gesture, but assured them, however, that for the time being they would be fine in the apartment. Ignacio and his wife threw up their hands in protest but then, seeing that she was adamant, they did not press her any further. Claire left saying she would be in touch with them as soon as she had spoken to Jane.

When she returned to the apartment Claire found a note from Sheena saying that she had gone to the beach to sketch and would be back later. Why couldn't she have waited while she rang Jane? Claire thought. ‘It wouldn't have killed her to wait. She felt daunted at the prospect of having even more explaining and apologising to do. Oh well, she would just have to manage as usual without her.

Feeling thirsty again, Claire went to the fridge. These days she made a point of boiling water first thing in the morning to cool in the fridge.
Limonada
left her feeling bloated and faintly sick. But that morning in the rush she had forgotten. She would have to make do after all with the fizzy drink.

Claire grimaced as she sipped the sweetish liquid. How nice, she thought rather wistfully, to have been able to take Ignacio up on his offer and stay at the hotel, already she was finding it quiet at the apartment with Ruthie gone and Teresa no longer bustling about. Right now, she told herself, Ruthie was probably splashing about in the pool, having a great time and undoubtedly cooler than she was. Nevertheless, Claire was conscious that she had neglected her on this holiday, but once Elena had become dependent on her visits, she had felt obliged not to disappoint the sick woman. At any minute now Claire expected Fernando to collect her so that she might make her daily visit to his mother.

She went out to sit on the balcony and work out what she would say to Jane when she rang her. Now was a good time to get her while she was still at the clinic. Claire only hoped that Jane would approve their decision to keep Ruthie with them. When she heard how terribly upset Ruthie had become at the thought of leaving Spain, she would surely understand.

As Claire sat there, putting off the moment she suddenly realised that Fernando was late. She was just beginning to wonder if he was coming at all when there was a prolonged ring at the door. She jumped to her feet and ran back through the apartment. As she released the door catch she felt suddenly dizzy and leaned against the wall until her head cleared. Fernando stood outside, looking hot and dishevelled himself, and he stepped quickly inside with none of his usual polite greetings.

‘Ah Claire...
mi madre
... my mother... is very ill,' he stammered. ‘She has been taken to the hospital.'

Claire felt the shock of his news. Although Elena's condition was clearly worsening, there had been no indication that she was so dangerously ill. Listening to Fernando she realised that there was no hope of recovery and that her death was only a matter of days, if not hours, away.

‘Oh Fernan! I'm so sorry,' Claire cried, unconsciously using his mother's name for him. Fernando winced, then reached wordlessly for her. He held her close to him, his cheek pressed against her hair. Claire stood startled and unmoving in his embrace. After a moment she felt the tension go out of him and he said tiredly, ‘Will you come with me to the hospital, please?'