Page 38

He glanced at her, and the tension in his big, bull-like body lessened slightly. “I will not touch her,” he growled, and Luke lowered the sword.

Perlita flew across the room and pressed a handkerchief to the cut on his neck. He brushed her off and turned to Luke. “I do not like being threatened in my own home, Englishman.”

“I do not like my wife being insulted, Spaniard,” Luke returned coolly.

The two men glared narrow-eyed at each other for a long, tense moment, then Ramón shrugged. “We shall eat dinner,” he announced, as if nothing had happened. “Perlita?”

“It-it’s ready,” she said, her voice shaking. She rang a little silver bell.

Her mother’s bell, Bella noted distantly. Now she was really confused.

That blood was real. Luke would have killed her cousin if he’d made a move toward her. She’d thought it was all bluff until then, but he really had been prepared to fight for her. She should be deeply flattered. And part of her was.

But mostly she just wanted to throttle him. She’d never been so frightened in her life.

“Do you want to wash before we eat?” Perlita asked. She meant relieve her bladder. She’d been frightened, too.

“Why not?” Bella said. She was full of pent-up energy.

Perlita hesitated, her gaze drawn to the two men. Ramón stood, arms folded, feet planted wide apart, his back to the room, staring out of the window at his estate. Luke had replaced the sword and resumed his seat, one leg crossed casually over the other, and was inspecting his nails.

The sight made Bella want to hit him even more.

“Do you think they should be left alone?” Perlita asked in a low voice.

“Yes!” Bella snapped. “With any luck they will murder each other and save us the trouble.”

Perlita gasped in horror. “But—”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Bella told her. “They won’t fight. They have no reason to now. Ramón only wanted me for the money.”

Perlita considered that and nodded. “Yes, of course.”

Of course, Bella thought as she followed her out. With a beautiful mistress like Perlita, who would even see Bella? Not that she wanted Ramón.

Besides, furious as she was with Luke for risking himself, a tiny sliver of foolish feminine flattery kept edging in. He’d offered to fight for her. It made her melt inside, and that was confusing, too.

Never had she dreamed… Never would the other girls in the convent believe it: two men, fighting over Bella Ripton.

Over her fortune, she reminded herself as she washed her face. Her nonexistent fortune.

Luke was simply saving himself from being murdered for it. And if he’d explained that in the beginning, it would have saved them all a lot of trouble. And worry.

She scrubbed crossly at her already clean hands. Men! They just lived to fight.

His carelessly uttered words kept humming in her breast. Isabella is a treasure in herself. Even if he did not mean it, even if it was just to tease Ramón…

She tidied her hair and adjusted the neckline of her dress. She glanced at her sister in the looking glass. Perlita’s figure was superb, her breasts lush and abundant.

Bella was very glad she’d bought the corset, even if it was a little tight. At least she didn’t look like a boy.

She didn’t feel like a sister, either. She supposed that would come in time, though she wasn’t very hopeful.

All those years in the convent when she’d thought about Perlita and worried about her, she hadn’t imagined anyone like this cool, young beauty who treated her with suspicion and thinly veiled hostility.

All Perlita’s earlier fright had apparently vanished. Her face, as she examined herself in the looking glass, was perfect and serene.

“You’re amazingly calm,” Bella commented. “Does Ramón do this often? Challenge people to fight, I mean?” Threaten to make them widows. Oh, he was despicable, her cousin.

Perlita flickered a sidelong glance. “I will not discuss Ramón with you.”

“But—”

“He is good to me.”

“If he was good to you, he would marry you.” Not try to steal other people’s wives.

Perlita gave her a hard look. “You forget who you are speaking to.”

Bella touched her sister on the arm. “Just because my father— our father—kept your mother as a mistress does not mean it was right.”

“My mother had no complaints.” Perlita shook off her hand. “In any case, that was then, this is now, and Ramón and I, we are not your business.” She dampened her fingertip and smoothed the perfect arch of one eyebrow.

“You are my business,” Bella said quietly. “You are my sister. I have no other family, just you and my aunt who is in the convent.”

“And Ramón.” Perlita smoothed the other brow.

“Ramón is not my family,” Bella snapped.

Perlita raised her perfectly groomed brows. “So vehement.” She peered critically at her reflection in the glass. “Why did you come here? Really.”

“I told you. I came to help you, Perlita.”

In the looking glass, her half sister gave her a skeptical glance. “I do not believe you.” She gave her reflection one last scrutiny. “Besides, I do not need your help. Come, Ramón is hungry and he does not like to be kept waiting.” She held the door for Isabella.

Luke and Ramón waited in the hallway: Prince Charming and the Beast.

Perlita took Ramón’s arm and entered the dining room ahead of them.

Luke presented his arm to Isabella in a cautious manner, as if she were a wild beast who might bite him. His eyes were dancing.

She longed to box his ears. She gave him a severe look and took his arm. “Yes, I’m cross, and do not look at me like that. My cousin isn’t a man you trifle with! You could have been killed!”

His mouth curved slightly. “No need to fuss. Cousin Twice-Removed doesn’t bother me.”

“Fuss?” She hit his arm. “Are you blind? He’s huge!”

“I’m not exactly insubstantial, myself,” he pointed out, six feet of lean, hard-muscled man.

“Yes, but he’s built like a bull and you’re… you’re…” She frowned, trying to think of the right comparison.

“A lion?” he offered. “A stallion? A stag?”

She gave what she hoped was a withering look. “No, a rat.”

They entered the dining room, and Isabella almost bit back a cry. The room was so bare. Just a large, plain table and chairs, none of them matching. Where was the ornately carved dining furniture, handed down in her family for generations, and the matching sideboards?

There were dark patches on the walls. Missing paintings. Her father’s pride and joy, the Velázquez, gone. And the El Greco, and her mother’s favorite by Luis de Morales.

Luke held a chair for Bella to be seated. “Where are all the paintings?” she asked Ramón. “And the furniture?”

Ramón snorted. “Sold.” He eyed Luke sourly, then seated Perlita. Borrowed manners, thought Bella.

“Sold? But—”

“Where do you think I get the money for this?” He waved his hand as servants brought in the various dishes for the large midday meal. “How do you think I pay my workers? Do you think an estate can run on air?” He snorted again. “No, but it can run on art.”

“But those paintings have been in the family forgenerations.”

Ramón gave Isabella a hard look. “Your father, the fine gentleman, ran this estate into the ground with his politics and his private army. And the fine gentleman’s fine daughter ran off with an Englishman, taking her fortune with her.

So it is left to the ruffian, Ramón, to do what he can to repair the mess, to rebuild Valle Verde into the prosperous place it should be.

” He fell on his dinner, shoveling in his food rapidly and without finesse.

Isabella ate her meal in silence. There was much to digest here.

After dinner, Ramón pushed back his plate and said with satisfaction, “Time for siesta.” He gave Perlita a heated look.

Faint color rose to her cheeks, and she turned to Bella. “I presume you will stay for siesta.”

“Yes, of course, thank you, and would you mind if we stayed the night, as well?” Bella said quickly. She pretended not to notice Luke’s swift sidelong glance.

Perlita glanced at Ramón, who gave an indifferent shrug.

It wasn’t the most gracious of invitations, but Bella accepted it gratefully. “I don’t suppose we could use my mother’s old bedchamber?”

“Of course,” Perlita answered. “Ramón—” She corrected herself with a hint of defiance. “ We sleep in the conde ’s rooms, as is right.” Confirming to her sister, in case there was any doubt, that she was more than a housekeeper to Ramón. “Follow me.”

Bella knew the way by heart to her mother’s suite of rooms at the opposite end of the house, but Perlita insisted on escorting them. Politeness? Or underlining whose house it was now? Bella wasn’t sure.

As Perlita opened the bedchamber door, Bella’s gaze darted ahead of her. A rush of relief swiftly followed. The carved dressing table with the oval looking glass was there. All the furniture was still in place: the high four-poster bed; the heavy, tall wardrobes that she once hid in as a child.

“Your mother’s rooms are untouched since you left,” Perlita said, noticing the direction of her gaze. “Servants go in only to clean.”

“Thank you.” Bella was touched that they’d preserved her mother’s memory. And relieved that no one went in there.

Perlita corrected her assumption in a cool voice. “When Ramón marries, his wife will have these rooms. Until then, nobody will bother to use them. Except now, of course.” She left, gliding to where the bull-like master of the house waited for her.

“A levelheaded young lady,” Luke said when they were alone. “Must take quite a bit of courage to live openly with Ramón. She’ll have no other society: no respectable woman would have anything to do with her.”

Bella shuddered. “I don’t know how she can bear him. Still, she seems to be able to handle him, like leading a bull by the nose.”

Luke snorted. “It’s not his nose she’s leading him by.” He removed his coat. “But she seems to accept her position well enough.”