Valaquez Bride (2 page)

She turned to her friends again and an amused smile danced
in her amber eyes when she found Holly brushing a lingering kiss
against Benny's cheek. Obviously their quarrel was ending as abruptly
as it had begun, as did all their daily spats. Often Juliet suspected
they only engaged in these half-hearted arguments simply to have the
opportunity to make up again. In actuality they were wild about each
other and for that, Juliet was grateful. Though she had fled Granada
eleven months ago with Benny, she hadn't been able to return the
romantic feelings he had felt for her. So, it had been a relief when,
two weeks later, they had made Holly's acquaintance in Madrid and Benny
had truly fallen in love with the tiny raven-haired girl. They had
married a week later and were now less than two months away from
becoming parents, a fact that Benny proudly proclaimed to anyone
willing to listen.

Even now, he was smiling mystically as he pressed his hand
against Holly's burgeoning abdomen. "Wow, that kid's got some powerful
kick," he announced in awed tones as he snatched his hand away. He
smiled at his wife. "Did you feel that one, honey?"

"If I didn't feel it, I'd like to know who did," Holly
retorted, stroking Benny's cheek and laughing merrily as he realized
how foolish his question had been.

Juliet laughed with them but during the next fifteen
minutes her heartbeat became increasingly erratic until she began to
feel slightly nauseated with its irregular thudding. When the van
traveled through increasingly lush countryside, silver-threaded with
irrigation channels, she paid little attention to the fertile hillsides
beribboned by neat green vineyards. When the road led into the suburbs
of Granada, however, with their inevitable blocks of new apartments,
she sat up straight in her seat, her spine stiffening. Granada proper
rose on the edge of the fertile Vega plain, the snowy peaks of a Sierra
Nevada range providing a magnificent backdrop for the city's pristine
beauty. Narrow slate-gray streets were flanked by white stucco houses
with tiled roofs that gleamed like burnished copper in the golden
sunset. Flower bedecked balconies with intricately shaped wrought iron
railings set in heavy balustrades added a decorative touch to the
simplistic lines of gleaming white structures.

Benny knew the exact route to Will McKay's house. Before
Juliet could fully compose herself, he stopped the van before a narrow
white house with slated shutters on the windows. Three stories high, it
was located on a cypress lined street with some of the most prestigious
older homes of Granada.

Swallowing with difficulty, Juliet stared at the gleaming
mahogany front door. It fleetingly crossed her mind that she could tell
Benny to start up the van again and take her far away from here but she
dismissed that thought with a resolute tightening of her lips. She
refused to be such a coward. She could stand to spend a couple of
nights in this house and pay a few visits to Uncle Will in the
hospital. She would simply refuse to allow him to renew their argument
about Pablo.

"Well, here we are," Holly prompted unnecessarily, giving
Juliet a compassionate smile. "Are you sure you don't want us to go in
with you?"

Though Juliet shook her head, she chewed her lower lip and
continued staring at the house. "No. Thanks anyway but I know you two
want to reach Jaen as soon as possible tonight. And I think you should.
You especially, Holly, need a good night's rest before you open in the
coffee house tomorrow evening. We don't want you getting too tired."

The expectant mother grinned. "I'm going to miss having
you to fuss over me for the next couple of days," she said wryly.
"Between you and Benny, you make me feel like a precious pampered
princess. Besides, Benny and I will probably go broke without you to
manage our finances for us. So don't stay here too long or we might end
up begging on street corners."

"Yeah, don't you dare decide to stay here or we'll be
destitute within a week," Benny agreed gruffly. Then to mask his rather
over-protective affection for Juliet he winked at his wife and added
teasingly, "Of course it's a good thing she can handle money. She
certainly couldn't make it as a singer. Talk about awful! This girl
couldn't carry a tune in a bucket."

"That's not true, Benny," Holly protested earnestly. "I've
heard Juliet singing in the bathtub. She has a nice voice."

"Sounds like a scalded cat," he persisted mischievously.
"The first time I heard her sing, I was in another room. I went running
to her. Thought she must have hurt herself somehow and was in terrible
pain."

Juliet wrinkled her nose at him but her slight smile
didn't quite reach her luminous amber eyes. Though she knew Benny was
merely trying to take her mind off her problems, she was too
apprehensive to be cheered. Foremost in her mind was her uncle's
condition. The item she had read in the paper hadn't given the details
of his injuries; it had only said he had been admitted to the hospital
for treatment. All she could do was pray his injuries weren't
extensive, yet, even if he were well enough to talk to her when she saw
him, she had no idea what they could have to say to each other now.

That was something she would fret about when the time
came, she decided, and with a resolute squaring of her shoulders, she
gathered up her purse, then gave Holly's hand a quick squeeze. "Well,
this is it, I guess. You two drive carefully to Jaen and I'll see you
there day after tomorrow."

Holly frowned. "You're sure you don't want us to come back
and get you? I hate for you to have to ride the bus."

"It isn't far so I don't mind. Besides, you don't need to
be riding around any more than you have to, in your condition." After
brushing a kiss across Holly's cheek, Juliet gave Benny a slight nod.
"Would you open the back of the van for me so I can get my suitcase?"

"I still don't see why you think you have to stay here
long," he renewed his argument. "After trying to arrange a marriage for
you with someone you didn't love, he shouldn't expect you to come here
for a grand reunion." His expression was adamant but a warning glare
from his wife silenced him and with a resigned shrug, he got out of the
van.

Juliet joined him on the street, smiling her thanks when
he opened the van's back doors and removed her leather-trimmed canvas
suitcase. Suddenly, she felt as if she were preparing to walk into a
battleground. She didn't want to upset her uncle, especially now that
he was injured but if he started hassling her again about marrying
Pablo, she would have to protest vehemently. An arranged marriage would
never be acceptable to her. She wanted love and if she never found it,
then she would simply live her life single. Eyeing the house warily,
she sighed and as she did, Benny reached out and drew her clumsily into
his arms, patting her back. After stretching up on tiptoe to give him a
light kiss on the cheek, she pulled away, her expression resigned.
"Well, I might as well go in," she murmured softly. "Hadn't I?"

Benny nodded but lifted his eyes heavenward. "I guess so,
since you're hell-bent to do this. Just don't let your uncle browbeat
you or play on your emotions because he's been injured. And if you
happen to run into Pablo or Raul Valaquez, be sure and ask them what
century they think this is. I thought arranged marriages went out with
the Stone Age."

Juliet smiled wryly. "I would tell Pablo that but Raul's a
different matter. He'd probably throw me in his dungeon if I expressed
disrespect for such an aristocratic custom." When Benny frowned, she
patted his arm. "I was only kidding. He doesn't have a dungeon. I
guess. Besides, I probably won't even see him while I'm here anyway. So
just drive on to Jaen and don't worry about me. I'll be just fine here.
I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself." As Benny nodded
reluctantly, she picked up her suitcase, then turned toward the fine
old house. "See you day after tomorrow," she murmured, walking away
before he could say anything else.

Like most other prestigious older dwellings in the city,
Uncle Will's house had no front yard. An ornate statue rose from a
stone pedestal in the center of a small flagstone terrace and a
cultivated elm tree grew on one side, providing welcome shade. There
were ornamental evergreen shrubs along the front walls of the house and
trailing bougainvillaea vines festooned the wrought iron railings of
the second floor balcony. Juliet paused at the gleaming black door,
memories overwhelming her as she caught the sweet fragrance of orange
and the more citric scent of lemon. Those trees grew in the walled
courtyard behind the house, a courtyard where she had spent many
pleasant hours. Nostalgia overswept her and she felt a real regret that
she had been compelled to leave here the way she had, but it was
useless to think about that now. As the van's engine sputtered to life
behind her, she turned, waved good-bye to her friends, then reached out
toward the heavy brass knocker adorning the front door.

Before she could lift the hammer, however, the door was
flung open from inside and Rosita, Uncle Will's housekeeper and cook,
gestured excitedly for her to come in. Though she was a tiny woman, she
was wiry and strong and she embraced Juliet with enthusiasm, all the
while chattering away in rapid-fire Spanish. Juliet understood only a
little of what she was saying because she was speaking so quickly and
Juliet's Spanish had gotten very rusty during the eleven months she had
spent traveling through Europe with Benny and Holly. Finally, as Rosita
chattered on, Juliet laughed and caught the housekeeper's wildly
gesticulating hands.

"Whoa. Speak English, please. Remember, I don't speak
Spanish like a native."

As Rosita's brown eyes swept over Juliet, they lost some
of their excited sparkle. Her broad smile began to slowly fade,
accentuating the network of wrinkles that lined her brown face. She
abruptly extracted one of the hands the girl held and waggled a bony
finger disapprovingly. "You did a bad thing," she accused very
seriously. "You make everybody sad when you run away. And with a silly
little boy.
Niña
! Why you do such a crazy thing?
Señor McKay, he…"

"How is Uncle Will?" Juliet interrupted hastily. "I read
about his accident this morning. Is—is he badly injured?"

"You care?" Rosita countered mockingly. "You run away and
send him only some letters in the past year and now…"

"Just tell me how he is," Juliet pleaded. "You can lecture
me later. Okay?"

Rosita shrugged, ceasing her sermon with obvious
reluctance. "Señor McKay is not too bad. He break a leg
and…" She tapped her head, "He has a—what is it
you call it? A percussion?"

"A concussion?" Juliet exclaimed softly, amber eyes
mirroring her dismay. "How bad a concussion? Is he still unconscious?"

"No, he wake this morning. Asks for you," Rosita added
reproachfully, waggling her finger again. "Are you not ashamed,
niña
?
The señor wanted to see you but you were not here. He is a good man and
he has smiled little since you run away. Why you want to leave with
that—that
tuno
, that rock singer?"

As Rosita gave a disdainful sniff and gyrated her scrawny
hips in a comical parody of a rock musician, Juliet had to smile.
"Benny is not a rock singer. He sings ballads and folk songs."

"Is same thing," Rosita proclaimed with a disparaging toss
of her hand. Her sharp brown eyes bore into Juliet's. "Why you want a
boy like him when you could marry into the
grande
Valaquez family? Or is it perhaps it was the wrong brother who wanted
to marry you? Would you run away if Don Raul wanted you as his wife?
Hmm,
niña
?"

As embarrassing pink color tinged Juliet's cheeks, she
half turned to stare at the white plastered walls of the entrance hall.
"I don't want to discuss Señor Valaquez," she said stiffly. "I just
want to change out of these jeans into a dress and go visit Uncle Will
at the hospital."

"Too early," Rosita declared but her tone gentled and she
reached out to pat Juliet's arm. "You cannot visit the hospital until
eight o'clock. When you come back, you will have dinner with me. Si? It
is
cocido
. You always like that. At the market
today, I find beautiful fresh chick peas, big and yellow. And I put in
only the nicest bits of bacon, beef and chicken. Will be
muy
delicioso
. Si?"

Juliet nodded automatically but without much real
enthusiasm. Though she had always enjoyed sharing
cocido
with Rosita at the small wooden table in the vast airy kitchen, right
now the idea of any kind of food just didn't appeal to her. She smiled
apologetically at the housekeeper. "It does sound delicious but I may
not be very hungry, even after I get back from the hospital."

"Yes. You will be," Rosita announced, pinching Juliet's
forearm appraisingly. Then she shook her head. "Too skinny."

"You've always said I'm too skinny," Juliet protested,
though she smiled affectionately. "If you had your way, you'd feed me
until I popped out of all my clothes. But really, I'm no thinner now
than I was before I—than I ever have been. So don't fuss over
me." Bending down, she lifted her suitcase from the floor. "I think
I'll go have a long bath."

"Have strong coffee first," Rosita commanded, pointing
toward the closed double doors of the
sala
. "Go
sit in there; I bring it."

"But I don't want any coffee. Really. I just want
to…"

"Go sit," Rosita repeated sternly.

And because it was easier than arguing, Juliet went into
the
sala
and sat. It was a mistake. Her uncle's
favorite room evoked too many memories. Shifting restlessly on the sofa
upholstered in dark blue brocade, she gazed pensively at the brass lamp
on the round mahogany table beside her. It provided the only
illumination in the large white-walled room and the far corners were
shadowed. She smiled wistfully, remembering all the quiet summer
evenings she and Uncle Will had shared in here, sometimes playing
backgammon or games of poker that were supposedly lessons but which
usually disintegrated into hilarious defeats for her. Her logical
feminine mind had refused to accept the fact that four of a kind beat a
full house.