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She’d dismissed him as an autocratic, unsympathetic, exceptionally rigid and judgemental man. Ana had said he was still angry. But how could she judge him now, for struggling to face whatever trauma he’d suffered then, for dealing with it the best way he knew how—by refusing to spend time with his sister, by closing down discussions about that long-ago scandal—when she herself didn’t have the courage to face her past either?
‘It felt like the memories locked in my head were trying to come out, but I really didn’t want them to, because they weren’t happy ones…’ she managed because Ana was still searching her face, the avid curiosity in her gaze making the gold flecks in her irises shine.
‘Perhaps you should not let them out,’ Ana offered. ‘If they are so sad they will make you ill.’
Cerys let a weak smile lift her lips. Trust Ana to get right to the heart of the problem.
‘It feels a bit cowardly not to, though,’ she said. ‘And I may have to, if I’m going to figure out who I am. I can’t expect your brother to keep me on a salary indefinitely.’ Especially as she was already so sure he didn’t really want her here.
In fact, she already had a deadline. Ana was due to start a new school at the end of the summer—even if she had rejected all her brother’s choices so far. Either that or the rumour among the staff was that Santiago was planning to get married, so his wife could ‘handle’ Ana, something Ana was even less on board with from her running commentary on all the awful women her brother had chosen to date in the past.
Cerys had made a point of not engaging with Ana’s opinions of Santiago’s dating history, because it would only fuel Ana’s obsession with pretending that Santiago and her could be an item. But she had secretly agreed with Ana that theDuque’s marriage plans seemed remarkably unromantic and pragmatic to the point of being deeply cynical—assuming they were true.
But whatever happened with theDuque’s search for aDuquesa, or a suitable boarding school for his sister, Cerys knew she would be surplus to requirements in six weeks’ time. She certainly couldn’t stay in thecastillo,taking a salary from Santiago, once he didn’t need her here anymore.
‘I have a brilliant idea,’ Ana said, an excited smile spreading over her face. It was an expression Cerys knew she needed to be wary of, because it usually meant she was going to have to dissuade Ana from some wild scheme.
‘Hmm, let’s hear it then,’ she said, humouring her friend as she sipped the sangria and tried not to contemplate how hard it would be to leave Ana, and María and all the friends she had made on the staff, at the end of the summer. If her memory didn’t return in time, she would have to throw herself on the mercy of the British consulate, because she was sure she had to be English. But she would miss everyone so much. And thecastillo,which had become a home—despite its owner wanting her gone.
‘If my brother is in search of a bride, why doesn’t he marry you?’
Cerys sprayed the sangria she had been drinking across the picnic blanket. ‘Ana, are you mad?’ she finally managed through the coughing and spluttering.
‘Why is thisloco?’ Ana asked, looking genuinely puzzled by Cerys’s reaction. ‘He wants someone to look after me, so he does not have to do it himself. This is what María told me. Why should it not be you, when you are so good at it?’
Cerys wiped her mouth, aware of the hot blood charging into her cheeks. ‘You’re seventeen, Ana, you know why,’ she said, even as the visceral hum from three days ago, when Santiago had grasped her arms, began to thunder in her ears and ripple through her abdomen.
‘No, I do not.’ Ana pouted. ‘If his reason for finding a wife is to give me a mother, then why should I not have a say?’
‘Because that can’t possibly be his only reason, Ana. And anyway, I hardly know him…’ she murmured, trying to keep her exasperation front and centre so she could avoid thinking about the hum, which was starting to take on a life of its own.
Instead of being deterred from her mad scheme by logic though, Ana let out a triumphant laugh. ‘But if you marry him you will get to know him very quickly. Do you not think he is handsome? And he is a very good lover. It is what hischicassay when they think I am not listening.’
‘Ana!’ she shrieked. ‘Oh. My. God. Don’tsaystuff like that, he’s your brother.’ Cerys slapped her hands over her ears, horrified now by the girl’s shocking candour, and the throbbing sensation which had dropped like a brick into her abdomen. A very hot brick.
Shedefinitelydid not need to be thinking about her boss’s prowess in bed, because being the focus of his attention for precisely ten seconds three days ago—not to mention a whole ten minutes three weeks ago—still had the ability to make her wake up at night hot and sweaty and on edge… Not that she would ever mention that to Ana. It was bad enough that she already knew she was less worldly-wise than her charge who was three years younger, but she had spent weeks now trying very hard not to acknowledge what felt like a small crush on Ana’s brother. She’d been keeping a lid on it so well up to now, despite Ana’s provocation, and now her friend had blown her cover to hell. Something Ana was far too astute not to notice.
‘Sí, but he is notyourbrother? No?’ Ana grasped Cerys’s wrists to pull her hands down from her ears, which were doing precisely nothing to halt the conversation.
‘Ana, please, I told you already, I don’t think he likes me much. At best, he sees me as staff, at worst an inconvenience,’ she murmured, humiliation adding to the vivid blush. They could probably see her cheeks on Mars right now they were so hot.
‘Then we must make him see you,’ Ana said, still completely undeterred. ‘Tomorrow is the Fiesta,’ she added. ‘It is the perfect opportunity.’
‘The perfect opportunity for what?’ Cerys asked warily, the determined set of Ana’s jaw starting to concern her. Surely she couldn’tactuallybe serious about this.
‘For Santiago to see you as a woman—and a bride. No?’
‘Absolutely not, Ana.’ It was official, Santiago’s sister had lost her mind. ‘And anyway, I can’t go. I’m not invited.’
Thank God.
Preparations for the exclusive Cantada Summer Fiesta to mark the beginning of the harvesting season—and Catalan’s national feast day celebrating St John the Baptist’s birth—had been consuming the staff for weeks at thecastillo. It was pretty much all anyone talked about. One of the main reasons she and Ana had been roaming the woodlands and forests each day had been to keep out of everyone’s way. Of course, Ana had dropped several hints already about Cerys attending the lavish party. And Cerys had to admit she’d been tempted—because the event sounded so enchanting and super exclusive and something she knew she had never attended before. She had also been touched by how keen Ana was to have her there, but now she was beginning to realise her friend might have had an ulterior motive.
‘This is not a problem,’ Ana replied. ‘Alejandro is arriving tomorrow, and he will not have a date, as he never commits to one woman,’ Ana continued. ‘I will ask him to escort you.’
‘No way! I’ve never even met your other brother,’ she replied. In fact, all she knew about the famous, or rather infamous, Alejandro was that María had referred to him as achico muy malo, and that whenever his name was mentioned all the housemaids blushed.
‘And I don’t have anything to wear either,’ she added, hoping to put an end to the discussion once and for all, because she could feel it slipping away from her in the face of Ana’s enthusiasm.