Dancing in the Shadows (23 page)

‘No, doña Maria came alone. We had quite a long and illuminating chat. I knew she hadn't come solely to enquire after your brother. All the same, I was more than a little surprised at what she had to tell me.' Her mouth curved. She looked girlishly smug in her appreciation of what had transpired.

Impulsively she said: ‘It's too delicious not to share, and it will be common knowledge soon enough anyway. Even so, I wouldn't discuss something so private if I didn't consider you one of the family. And in this I speak for both Enrique and myself. Well—!'

And before Dorcas could blink her gratification away, she plunged into her story.
‘As
you know, Paco took Isabel home. According to doña Maria, instead of leaving her at the door, he went in for the confrontation. He didn't ask for Isabel's hand in marriage, doña Maria said he demanded it. Don Alfonso looked angry enough to strike him. Isabel began to cry. Doña Maria said she didn't know what to do. Bearing in mind that she is very Spanish, and has spent her entire life first echoing the thoughts and wishes of her father and then her husband, it must have taken a great deal of courage for her to speak up for the young lovers. I must admit she did this in an intriguing and subtle way. You won't understand all this, Dorcas. Until you know the full story it can't possibly make sense. All I ask is that you hear me out and I promise to fill in the blanks later. Anyway, doña Maria drew in a deep breath and said, “Alfonso, are we in a position to condemn them? It has come full circle, only this time the shame is ours.” And then she said, “Can you look into your heart and honestly say that you would change what happened all those years ago?” And he replied with tears in his eyes, “No, my dear. You quickly allayed any doubts I might have had by letting me know exactly where I stood with you. I might not have been first choice but it wasn't long before I occupied first place in your heart”.' Rose Ruiz sighed. ‘Don't you find that just too touching, Dorcas?'

Dorcas, who was having difficulty in
swallowing,
merely nodded.

‘What could don Alfonso add to that moving little speech except his blessing to the young couple. Then he got to worrying that it might stop the merger between our two family concerns. So doña Maria came to ask me to help square things with Enrique and Carlos. As I told doña Maria, Enrique could hardly put up a protest in the circumstances. Have patience, Dorcas, you'll soon appreciate the irony of it, but I'm afraid all this talk has made me thirsty.'

And so curiosity had to be held in check while tea was brought.

Dorcas wondered if Rose Ruiz's need to occupy her hands with the tea things wasn't greater than her desire for liquid refreshment. The telling wasn't easy and circumnavigated the main issue until it didn't seem part of the same story.

‘It was silly of us to be wary of you, wasn't it, Dorcas? We should have settled back and let time take its own course.'

Was it apparent even to his mother that Carlos had lost interest in her? And wasn't it just a little cruel of Rose Ruiz to highlight this fact? Yet, search as she might Dorcas saw no intent to hurt in the older woman's eyes, and she heard only the voice of candour.

‘Now that the worry aspect has been removed, I don't mind admitting that your arrival stirred the memories, and the guilt.
Enrique
and I never should have married. Don't misunderstand me. It's been a wonderful marriage, a perfect partnership. It needed to be to survive. Like Carlos, Enrique was pledged to marry the daughter of a family friend and business colleague. He shocked everyone by not marrying her, and marrying me instead. The girl didn't love Enrique, and I suspect she was even glad to be released from a “suitable” marriage. Those immediately concerned retained a sense of proportion. It was the outsiders who created the fuss. So, perhaps now you see why we were wary of you. It looked as though it was going to happen all over again. Having lived through it once, we knew the difficulties you would face.'

All this coincided with the things don Enrique had told her that time in his study. Dorcas knew that Rose Ruiz was taking the confidence a step further. Something about to be revealed to her would tie everything up.

‘Perhaps I'm being imaginative, but it's almost as if you were looking to a marriage between Carlos and Isabel to put things right. This I don't understand.'

‘It's not imaginative of you at all, Dorcas. It's very perceptive. And you will understand when you know the name of the girl Enrique should have married.'

In the pause that followed, Dorcas gathered her wits and was stirred to make a second observation. ‘You speak as though it's
someone
I know.'

‘It is. Haven't you guessed? It's Isabel's mama. That's what makes it so ironic. Enrique broke his engagement to Maria to marry me, severely straining, almost severing it seemed at one point, a family friendship that had been handed down from generation to generation. And now the boot is on the other foot. Seemingly, Isabel is jilting Carlos to marry Paco. As Carlos never intended to marry Isabel in the first place, this time we have come out of it remarkably well.'

‘I see it all now, but I would never have guessed. I didn't suspect anything like this. You never let it make any difference. You were always so kind to me. It makes me feel unworthy. No, please—' When Rose Ruiz would have stopped her. ‘You must let me finish. I didn't realize, until it was pointed out to me recently, that I might have appeared ungrateful. I am grateful to you for having me and showing me so much kindness.'

‘My dear, I find your confession both sweet and touching, and totally unnecessary. I understand you far better than you think. You can't help being as you are any more than Michael can help being as he is. I have no doubt your grandmother was a wise woman in many ways, but she had her blind spots. She didn't do either of you any good by always putting Michael first. No, nobody told me this.'—Answering Dorcas's look of surprise.
‘Who
is there to tell? It's just obvious, that's all. I can't see much hope for Michael. Like every other besotted female he's come across, and that doesn't exclude me, Samantha will want to spoil him. He could charm a smile out of stone, that one. He'll always be liked, in spite of his shortcomings. And I'm not all that worried about you. You haven't had a fair crack at life. The man you marry is going to have a lot of fun making it up to you.'

She paused to sip her tea. Rattling her cup back in her saucer with none of her usual care, she seemed to bend to an overwhelming compulsion. ‘I hope it's Carlos. I shouldn't be saying this. I know I'm speaking out of turn, but I can't keep it back. When I said just now that I considered you family, it wasn't just because I find you a kindred spirit. I hope you will be family. I do so dearly hope that Carlos has the good sense to marry you. I know I couldn't wish for a sweeter daughter-in-law.' She leaned forward to kiss Dorcas's—by this time—damp cheek.

Dorcas brushed the tears away with the back of her hand, as a child might have done. She was a child again, remembering a moment long ago when her own mother had pulled her close in just such a spontaneous gesture. Her mother had never made any difference between her and Michael. The past was too painful. She pushed it back where it belonged.

Concentrating hard she said: ‘I don't think
that
is very likely.'

‘Oh dear! Have you had a lovers' tiff?'

For answer Dorcas bit hard on her lip. ‘Lovers' tiff' sounded like a small dissent that could easily be resolved. Their difference went much deeper than that. Try as she might, she couldn't see a happy making-up.

A hand came comfortingly down on hers. ‘I shouldn't worry too much. Things have a knack of coming right.'

Some things were too wrong ever to come right. It seemed ironical that now it was right with Carlos's parents, it was wrong between them.

* * *

When several days elapsed and Carlos still hadn't said anything about getting her plane reservation, Dorcas decided he wasn't going to send her home while Michael was so ill. It was the sort of considerate gesture she had come to expect of Carlos. What struck her as being out of character was the new and not totally acceptable soberness about him these days. Yet she could have sworn that somewhere at the back of that unduly grave expression was a locked-in smile. Yes. Very strange.

Michael had youth on his side, and a tip-top constitution to start with. He soon got better. He complained of getting headaches, but was assured these would clear in the time it took
his
hair to grow to its original length. They'd cut away the hair round the gash in his head in order to stitch it. This had given him a rather lop-sided appearance which only severe, all round cutting had resolved. He looked even sweeter and more angelic than ever with very short hair.

Each day found Carlos more deeply involved with a heavier work load. It wasn't just the merger; he was shouldering a larger slice of responsibility than he had previously borne. It was a result of the merger that an opening occurred for a liaison man. Carlos offered the position to Michael. A move that did not altogether surprise Dorcas, because Alfonso Roca had spotted Michael out as a bright prospect some time earlier. Michael's appointment would be with don Alfonso's approval now that Isabel was officially engaged to Paco, and Michael was no longer a threat. Urged by Samantha, he accepted. And now Samantha and Michael were making wedding plans, and searching the district for a modestly priced villa. There was nothing to keep Dorcas now, and she lived in daily dread of being handed her air ticket home.

She called at the garage to tell Tom Bennett that she expected to be going home quite soon. She was sorry to learn that things hadn't worked out for him and Jane. He revealed the contents of the letter his eyes had strayed to on her previous visit. Instead of informing him
of
the date of her arrival as Tom had led Dorcas to believe, Jane had written to say it would be like coming out to marry a stranger. She said the separation had been needlessly long, that if they'd really wanted each other they would have found a way. She wrote that the only thing left to say was—and this was the message of Jane's letter—goodbye.

‘And she's right,' Tom said sagely. ‘We couldn't have wanted it enough, or we would have made it happen.'

It made Dorcas think again about Tom's lightly worded proposal of marriage to her. Had it entirely been the joke she had taken it for? Was it, just possibly, the tentative thoughts of a recently jilted man, motivated by loneliness? She would never know. Neither did she want to. She liked Tom, she would always remember him as a friend, but the vital spark was missing. When she left, promising to convey his thanks to Enrique Ruiz who had kept his word about putting some business Tom's way, she was careful not to kiss him goodbye.

She arrived back at the villa to be told by Rose Ruiz: ‘You've just missed Isabel and her mama.'

‘I wish I'd known. I would have hurried back. Are they well? Is doña Maria bearing up?'

‘Only just. Isabel is a dear girl. At the moment she's bubbling over with joy. She's
like
champagne. Can you imagine a regular diet of champagne? Come talk to me, Dorcas. On any subject but weddings. Unless—?'

There was blatant appeal in Rose Ruiz's eyes. Dorcas had nothing to tell her. At least, not the thing that Rose Ruiz seemed to want to know.

‘Did you know that Carlos was arranging to get my plane ticket home?'

Rose Ruiz thought about it for a moment. Comprehension touched her features like a golden glow. ‘Yes dear,' she said, to Dorcas's intense surprise.

It was contradictory, surely? If the señora knew that Carlos was sending her home, how could she cling to the belief that their differences were as good as settled? It didn't make sense. It was even odder than the strange, even smug expression Carlos wore these days.

‘Carlos is up to something,' she said speculatively. ‘I don't know what, but he's planning something.'

‘I shouldn't worry about it. Whatever it is, it's sure to include you.'

There it was again, that firm belief that they had a future together, when all the facts pointed against it.

‘Carlos is said to favour me in looks, but he is like his father in many ways. They both adore springing surprises. Without breaking faith, I can tell you that at the moment they
are
acting like a pair of grown-up children. At such times it's best to humour them. Now, my husband was looking for you earlier. If you go at once, I think you will find he is still in his study.'

‘Do you know what he wants me for?'

‘That comes under the heading of Awkward Questions. I'm pretending like mad that I don't know anything is going on. I honestly don't
know.
'

Her mouth was a curve of blissful satisfaction.

‘But you've guessed.'

‘It comes with practise. Over the years I've become adept at picking up the clues. For example, you wouldn't believe what you have told me just now. It's what I suspected; you confirmed it. No, don't ask me. I've said too much as it is.' Knocking tentatively on the study door, pushing it open, Dorcas said: ‘Did you want to see me, señor?'

‘Ah, yes, Dorcas! Come in and shut the door behind you. I want to show you something.' When he added: ‘It's a surprise,' she had to suppress a smile. ‘I want the feminine viewpoint on a present I have bought for my wife's birthday.'

It was a necklace of sapphires and turquoises.

‘You do not think it is perhaps too ornate for my English Rose?' the señor asked anxiously.

‘No,
no señor. It's in impeccable taste. The señora will love it.' Her approval shone through her enchanted eyes. ‘When is the señora's birthday?'