Page 45 of Under a Spanish Sky

‘I wouldn’t regret a thing, Luke. Believe me, I would swap the whole of the last five years of my life for this moment with you right now.

I mean that. If you then dumped me here and disappeared, it wouldn’t matter.

It would break my heart, but it wouldn’t alter the joy of this and any other moment we can be together like this.

’ She let her lips rest against his neck for a few moments.

‘I’m grateful to you for your warning, but I’m ready to take my chances on this just being a quick holiday romance, or some kind of predictable physical occurrence.

I don’t happen to think that it is but, like I say, I’m prepared to take the risk.

’ To reinforce her words she reached up and kissed him lightly on the cheek then ran her fingers across his face once more.

When they got to his mouth she could feel the smile on his lips.

‘I’m glad you’re smiling. Take a look at me, Luke.

I’m smiling too.’ She sat back, happy and contented.

‘I phoned Tim earlier this evening.’

Amy wasn’t surprised. She listened carefully, keen to know what had transpired between the two men.

There was a pause while he searched for the right words.

‘I spoke to him for quite a long time. I told him more about our trip so far and I told him about you. In particular I told him about my feelings for you. He didn’t seem very surprised. ’

This came as no surprise to Amy. Their cunning friend had known what he was doing all along. ‘So just what, exactly, did you tell him about your feelings for me?’

Luke answered immediately. ‘I told him I was hopelessly in love with you, and I hoped you felt the same way about me.’

The joy she had been feeling suddenly overflowed.

Tears flooded her eyes once more and rolled down her cheeks.

She snuggled even more tightly against him.

‘Luke, I need you to hold me tight, please.’ She heard the leather upholstery creak and his arms envelop her even more tightly, pulling her halfway out of her seat and across the centre armrest. She sank her face into his shoulder and sobbed her heart out.

‘Are you all right? Is something wrong?’ She could hear the concern in his voice. ‘Is it something I’ve said?’

She pulled her head from his chest and reached for his face with her hands again. She drew him so close to her, she could feel the warmth of his breath on her cheek.

‘Yes, Luke, it’s something you’ve said.’ She was smiling now, even though the tears still ran.

‘You’ve said the words I’ve so longed to hear from you.

’ She kissed him hard on the lips and felt him respond.

She hugged him tightly to her for several minutes before she finally, reluctantly, pulled back and set about mopping up her tears.

It took her a while before she could talk properly once more.

‘It’s all right, Luke, I’m all right. In answer to your question, yes, I love you dearly. Be in no doubt about that.’

Unable to resist, he leant across and caught hold of her again, pulling her gently towards him.

She raised her head as she stretched her arms around his neck and kissed him, loving the feel of his hands on her.

She abandoned herself against him as the rain beat down and the wind whistled round the car.

It was a long while later before they both paused for breath.

Her heart sang. The impossible had finally happened.

The gloom that had settled upon her in the wake of her plunge into blindness suddenly lifted.

She felt happy, no, she told herself, that was too weak a word.

She felt totally, overwhelmingly, earth-shatteringly imbued with a new sense of purpose, of satisfaction and of hope, all brought about by a few words from this wonderful man.

She savoured the moment before straightening up and returning to her side of the car.

She ran her hands across her hair once more and down over her body, tidying her rumpled jumper, sensing his eyes upon her.

Now it was her turn to swallow hard as she knew that another watershed had been crossed and another was surely approaching.

They sat in silence for a few minutes until a particularly hard gust of wind reminded her of events outside the warm interior of the car.

She turned towards him, deeming it time to return to more mundane matters.

‘Here we are in the month of May and it’s like winter out there. Brr, I bet our couple found it hard going if the weather was like this.’ She reached over and took his hand again. ‘I suppose pilgrims died in conditions like this way back then.’

He gave her fingers a squeeze in return.

He had to clear his throat before he could respond, and she was delighted to hear the emotion still there as he tried to sound normal after their moments of passion.

‘Not just way back then. Every year there are a number of fatalities on the Pilgrims’ Way.

There’s even a special mass to remember them.

No, you need to be pretty hardy to do the whole thing on foot.

The couple of pilgrims we saw out there on the road have disappeared into the mist.’

‘But our two managed it all right.’ She had no doubts. ‘I’m sure of that. Maybe we’ll meet up with them again at Ponferrada.’

The journey down the other side of the pass was like driving through a river in full spate.

Streams and drains overflowed, and spouts of brown water gushed out onto the road.

Mud and loose stones were washed into their path.

It wasn’t an easy drive and Luke was very glad to be in a big, solid vehicle with four-wheel drive.

Their accommodation for the night was outside the town in an old farmhouse, set on the side of the hill, with a view down over the town to the magnificent old Templar castle.

Fortunately, by the time they got there, the rain had eased and the cloud had lifted.

There was no doubt, however, that the view beyond the town, over the jumbled mass of hills ahead of them towards Compostela, would certainly be daunting for people on foot.

‘We have a sunset.’ Luke’s voice sounded cheerful. ‘After all the rain and cloud up on the pass, we appear to be getting some better weather down here.’

‘What’s the farmhouse like?’ She stretched and reached for the door handle.

It was magnificent. The Casa Rural had recently been converted into very comfortable accommodation.

They were shown to their rooms by a charming Romanian woman whose English was as fluent as her Spanish.

The rooms were side by side and they were the only guests.

The Romanian woman accompanied Amy to her room and showed her how everything worked.

Luke left them to it and went into his room, closing the door behind him and throwing his bag onto the large bed.

He heard Amy’s door shut as their hostess departed and he was about to go out into the corridor to her door to see if she needed anything when he heard a gentle tap on the wall.

He glanced round and discovered a cunningly concealed communicating door that he unbolted and opened.

Behind the door was another door on her side that she had opened.

‘Clever, eh?’ She ran one hand up the shiny surface of the door and reached out for him with her other.

‘Our own private entrance.’ Stepping aside, she beckoned to him to come into her room.

Being here with him like this heightened the intimacy of their relationship and she felt a knot in her stomach.

When they were standing in the middle of the room, directly in front of the huge double bed, face to face, she wondered if similar thoughts were going through his mind.

She felt nervous, shy even, but also excited.

For the first time, she felt a real sensual wave come over her in his presence and she actually felt her knees go weak.

She swallowed hard, unsure what was going through his head.

‘Do you want me to go?’ He coughed, cleared his throat and had two or three tries before he managed to get the words out.

Amy realised with a rush of affection that he was similarly affected by the situation.

She pulled him towards her until they were touching, her head level with his shoulders.

She reached up and put her arms around his neck, bending his face down towards her.

His lips touched hers, his arms encircled her waist and he straightened up again, lifting her feet from the floor and pressing her whole body against his.

They kissed with a passion that confirmed, if confirmation were required, that their relationship had progressed to another level.

She abandoned herself against him and let the warmth of the embrace reach down inside her, sweeping away the pain and sadness and replacing it with a glow of joy.

Eventually he set her back down on her feet again and sat on the edge of the bed, pulling her gently towards him until she, too, reached the bed.

She climbed onto his lap, straddling him with her legs, and pushed him gently back until he was sprawled on the bed.

She felt his arms reach round behind her and crush her to his body.

She hoped he could see her face. She knew she was smiling from ear to ear.