The black invader (17 page)

There was little she felt she could say in her own defence to Enrique, but Miguel was another matter and

she felt her anger and resentment rise again when she saw him the following morning as she arrived for work. He was on his way round to the stable, and that somehow added insult to injury, so that she glowered at him reproachfully from beneath heavy lashes as she came up.

'I'm sorry about your riding,' he told her, 'but Tio Enrique was forced to take some kind of action and he couldn't bring himself to dismiss you from your job.'

'And you were in agreement, of course!' Her indignation swelled to fury at the matter-of-fact way he spoke about it, mostly because it seemed he was to get off scot-free. 'I'm the natural choice for culprit, of course, being the outsider!'

'In God's name,' Miguel exploded wrathfully, 'don't start feeling sorry for yourself again! You surely don't expect me to be banned from riding, do you, you foolish child, I have to get around, it's my job!'

'Don't call me childV Kirstie told him furiously, and for a moment she wondered if he was gomg to hit her, he looked so angry.

Running one hand through his hair, Kirstie realised he was keeping a very tight rein on his temper, and she wondered for the first time just how much blame he had had to take from his uncle, not to mention Luis. For Rosa, she thought, was unHkely to have kept it to herself. 'I understood from my uncle that you'd accepted the decision without fuss,' he said, and only a shghtly rough edge on his voice betrayed how he was feeling. 'He said you were very reasonable about it.' "^

'You uncle didn't kiss me,' Kirstie declared in a huskily unsteady voice, 'you did! The result is I'm not allowed to take out Scheherazade any more while you can carry on as usual! You said when I came for my interview,' she reminded him,' that I wouldn't have to see you very often, and you don't know how much I wish it was true! I suppose it was because we—we were in the

Stable your cousin thinks it's our customary meeting place and that's why she's had me banned from riding!'

'Kirstie!'

There was an odd roughness in his voice and his eyes gleamed at her darkly, but Kirstie had suddenly thought of an alternative and she couldn't resist letting him know it. 'Fortunately,' she went on, *you only own two of the horses; Suli belongs to Luis and I don't think he'll deny me the use of him if I ask him nicely.'

'God in heaven,' Miguel breathed harshly, 'you'll do no such thing, you little fool, that damned gelding would break your neck! And if Luis has no more sense than to let you talk him round I'll see he's sorry for it, and you can tell him that! I'm sorry about your riding, but you and Rosa are far more likely to meet around the stable or when you're riding. You've seen what Rosa is capable of, so take my advice and keep out of her way, Kirstie, or I can't answer for the consequences; I may not be around the next time and you could really get hurt. I know you're not very good at accepting the inevitable, but in this instance try and be sensible about it.'

So as far as he was concerned it was all cut and dried, but he hadn't once mentioned his own part in the incident leading to the ban, and that infuriated her. 'I shall ask Luis to let me have Suli,' she told him, her chin set stubbornly, 'and if you don't want me going round to the stable then Luis can meet me somewhere else. I presume there's no ban on Luis riding your horses, so he can take Scheherazade.'

'Damn you, Kirstie, will you see reason and do as I say? Rosa can manage the gelding because she has stronger hands, she's stronger altogether than you are, but for God's sake stay away from him.'

Instead of answering, Kirstie turned and walked towards the house feeling him watching her every inch of the way, her legs oddly unsteady when she considered her triumph. Luis wouldn't deny her the use of his horse; he'd never Hked Rosa much anyway and they didn't have to meet in the stable. She heard the hard tread of

booted feet walking away as she went into the house, but she didn't turn and look, only wondered why she felt so much Hke crying suddenly.

CHAPTER SEVEN

It was nearly a week since Kirstie had been able to ride and she missed it even more than she realised she would. She was very disappointed in Luis too, for his expected readiness to let her ride the gelding in defiance of the ban had not materialised, and although he would probably deny it indignantly, she suspected the reason was because he was fearful of deliberately crossing Miguel.

When he heard of the cause of the ban, initially he had behaved very much like a jealous novio, and for a man who had declared he had no intention of marrying her it wasn't the reaction she looked for. She hoped she had eventually convinced him that the kiss Rosa Mon-tafies had made so much fuss about was nothing like as important as her jealousy made it seem. But still there was a brooding dislike m Luis's dark eyes sometimes when they rested on her, that suggested a small doubt might still Hnger.

It was because there was less likelihood of their being interrupted that Luis had come down to the barraca during the long lunch break to see her, and although there was less space to lose themselves in, the little patio garden was lush enough to provide privacy. Her grandfather was unlikely to put in an appearance because he still nurtured the hope of a match between them, and there was no chance of Miguel coming upon them.

Their conversation was along the inevitable lines, and in the circumstances Kirstie supposed Luis was very patient. 'Apart from anything else,' he told her as they sat together on a wooden bench just inside the patio gate, 'there's the risk, Kirstie; Suli's a brute and he's no respecter of persons.'

Never one to let go easily, Kirstie persisted. 'But Rosa still rides him,' she pointed out, to which Luis's reply was dismayingly similar to Miguel's.

*Rosa is quite different from you. She's stronger and bigger altogether; Suli would toss away a little creature like you and never even notice it.*

Luis kissed her cheek lightly, then turned her towards him and sought her mouth, but Kirstie had other things in mind and her response was absent. 'You're sure you're not simply afraid of what Miguel will say?' she suggested, and knew she had hit the nail on the head when she saw the way he reacted.

His head jerked up swiftly and his eyes gleamed with resentment, for he had the Spanish male's traditional sensitivity when his courage was questioned. 'I'm afraid of no one!' he informed her, and Kirstie took him up on it at once.

'Then let me have Suli!'

He got to his feet, looking very much like Miguel as he stood there for a moment regarding her steadily and with a trace of exasperation in his eyes. But when she got to her feet as well, he sighed and took her face between his two hands, leaning towards her so that his mouth was tantalisingly close, and his voice was low and slightly husky. 'Why do you plague me so about that damned brute?' he asked. 'Is it just so that you can get the better of Miguel?'

'Partly.' Kirstie admitted it with a breathless little laugh. 'Although he'd more than likely heave a great sigh of relief if Suli did break my neck, because I'd be out of his hair once and for all.'

As if she had meant it seriously, Luis considered the suggestion gravely for a moment, then shook his head. 'Miguel doesn't kiss girls he doesn't like, and from the way Rosa described it, Miguel wasn't simply giving you a kindly kiss of consolation this time.' He was frowning again and there was a small flutter of reaction in Kirs-tie's heart that was infinitely disturbing. 'I'd like to know exactly what did happen, Kirstie; I don't like the situation any more than Rosa does, to be honest, and I can't

help thinking ' His dark dreamy eyes had a certain

glint of shrewdness so that Kirstie lowered her own gaze

rather than look at him. 'Had it happened before, Kirs-tie? I mean, have there been other times, apart from that time in the hall when your grandfather was missing?'

Because it was easier to think clearly if she wasn't in touch with him, Kirstie eased herself away and walked a Httle way along the narrow path. A pointless manoeuvre since Luis followed her closely. She was tempted to deny that there had been other occasions, but she had a feeling that he wouldn't believe her.

'A couple of times,' she admitted casually, as if it was easy to dismiss kisses that had seared her heart and soul with their fierceness, 'but I'm not silly enough to take them seriously, even if Senora Montanes does.'

'I see.' And he did, she thought, despite her attempt to make light of it, for he suddenly beat one fist into the palm of his hand and he was scowling in a way that quite spoiled hrs good looks. 'Damn Miguel,' he swore, 'why can't he leave you alone? What gives him the right to kiss you where and when he feels like it? I don't like it; you're my girl, not his, and he has no right!'

'I'm no one's,' Kirstie insisted firmly, but there was a slight flush in her cheeks and a gleam in her eyes that Luis took note of as he again took her face in his hands and gazed down at her.

'You're not in love with him?'

'In love with him?' Until that moment it hadn't even crossed her mind, but it occurred to her suddenly just how close she had come on one or two occasions to falling in love with Miguel. It was an alarming and a disturbing thought and she hastened to put it away from her, shifting her gaze to avoid Luis's dark, brooding eyes. 'I'm not in love with anyone,' she told him. 'No one at all.'

'Oh, surely a little with me, my pigeon, eh?'

'I could be, I suppose.' Pressing her face between his hands, Luis frowned over her reluctance to admit it, but Kirstie looked up at him again suddenly and she pursed her mouth reproachfully as she sought to bring the con-

versation back into safer channels. 'But obviously you're not wholehearted about being in love with me or you'd lend me Suli!'

Luis groaned as he ran both hands through his hair and shook his head slowly. 'I can't risk him throwing you as he did Rosa, please understand that, Kirstie! And I didn't come here to spend my time talking about my wretched horse!'

He attempted to draw her closer, but something he had said had caught her attention, and Kirstie held him off, looking up at him curiously. 'You said—^throw me Hke he did Rosa,' she reminded him. The last time we spoke about that you were prepared to believe I'd hit her and knocked her out; are you convinced now that Suli threw her?'

'I'm convinced!' Luis agreed impatiently, and attempted to pull her close again. 'I know now that's what happened. Kirstie!'

He pulled her close against him and kissed her much less gently than before, holding her so tightly that she could scarcely breathe, let alone move, and just briefly the significance of what he had said faded from her mind as she was carried along with his passion. From her mouth, his lips moved on to her half-closed eyelids, to her neck, and the soft pulsing spot at the base of her throat, until eventually the increasing ardour in his voice, muffled in the thickness of her hair, and his hands roused her to realisation, and she turned her head swiftly from side to side.

'No, Luis!'

In the soft confusion of her hair, his voice was ragged with emotion. 'I'll do anything for you, my love,' he vowed recklessly. 'If you want Suli I'll give him to you-^ he's yours!'

'Oh no, Luis!' Anxiously she pushed him away, looking up into his handsome and slightly flushed face with dark glowing eyes that were so disturbingly like Miguel's at the moment that she shivered. 'I don't want your horse; I couldn't,take him. Miguel would never forgive

either of us if you did anything as silly as that!'

*Miguel!' He pulled her breathtakingly tight into his arms again and spoke close to her ear in a thick hoarse voice. 'Miguel has too much to say about things, it seems to me! If you don't want to have Suh, you can at least ride him, my pigeon!' He eased her away for a moment and looked down into her slightly bemused eyes, smiling and defiant. *I shall be there to make sure nothing happens to you, so why not? Does that please you, hah?'

'Oh, Luis!'

On impulse she tiptoed and kissed him, and Luis pulled her close again to kiss her mouth with a hard urgency that took her breath away. *And you'll remember how I have indulged you, won't you?' he whispered.

Quite sure that he would remind her if she ever did forget, Kirstie nodded. 'Can we go this evening?' she ventured, and his immediate reaction was a frown that suggested he was already beginning to regret having been so impulsive.

'You won't waste any time, will you?' he asked, and was obviously considering it carefully. 'It won't be easy and I shall have to be careful about bringing out two horses together, in case Miguel sees me.' He thought about it for a moment, then nodded slowly. 'I'll bring Suli down here before Miguel gets back and then take Scheherazade afterwards, at the last minute. If he notices that Suli is gone he'll think either Rosa or I have taken him, and if I can get the mare out without him knowing, so much the better.'

'That sounds O.K.'

In fact Kirstie felt surprisingly badly about deceiving Miguel, but she wouldn't let Luis see it, and he looked down at her with bright speculative eyes for a moment, then kissed her mouth lightly and smiled. 'We can get the better of Miguel between us, my lovely, eh?' Kirstie nodded. 'I'll come for you about seven?'

'About seven,' she agreed, but there was a slightly reflective look in her eyes that he noticed and ques-

tioned. 'I was thinking about what you said earlier,' she told him. 'You said you knew now what had happened, about Rosa being thrown. What exactly did you mean, Luis?'

Luis shrugged, and it was clearly not the subject he had in mind to discuss, but Kirstie was looking at him in a way that suggested she was not interested in anything else at the moment. * Miguel got the truth out of her,' he said. 'He finally got her to admit that Suli bolted with her and she was knocked off her seat by a branch across the track. She admitted that you'd had nothing to do with it at all, that she hadn't even seen you.'

'Just as I said.'

It was odd how strangely humbled she felt suddenly. She had so readily accepted Luis's alternative suggestion that Miguel's only motive in persuading Rosa not to call in the guardia had been to prevent a family scandal. The fact that he had gone to the trouble of making her tell the full truth could only mean that he had done so with the specific purpose of clearing Kirstie of blame.