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‘You didn’t bring many suitcases either. No importa,’ he dismissed. ‘You can buy more clothes.’
There was a distance about him, an aloof quality that hadn’t been there earlier, but it was absent when he stared down at Ben as if he still couldn’t quite get over the fact that he was a father. She had misjudged him. He was not about to duck the commitment he had promised and it must have been wishful thinking when she had thought he might. Rafael was as unashamedly enthralled with the twins as they were with him and he was sufficiently masculine to see no reason to hide how he felt.
At the head of the curving marble staircase, he abruptly grasped her hand. ‘Where’s your wedding-ring?’ he demanded.
‘I don’t have it any more.’
Rafael gazed down at her incredulously. ‘What did you do with it?’
‘I gave it to Oxfam. A good cause, you’ll agree.’
‘You gave it away?’ he repeated thunderously. ‘What sort of a woman gives away her wedding-ring?’
‘The sort who doesn’t attach very much importance to it,’ Sarah supplied with spirit and continued on down the stairs.
His strong jawline clenched. ‘I will buy another ring and you will wear it at all times.’
Sarah threw back her head. ‘If it’s so important I’ll wear one, but please don’t embarrass me with anything flashy. It may have escaped your notice, Rafael, but I have been divorcing you for the past four and three quarter years. It’s been a very long time since I thought of myself as a married woman.’
Anger had sparked flames of gold in his eyes. ‘That, too, I can do something about.’
A slightly built young man was standing with a drink in the sala. With a distinct sneer on his handsome features, he raised his glass high as they entered the room. ‘Allow me to toast the blushing bride.’ He spoke with a noticeable American accent.
‘Sarah has been my wife for nearly seven years.’ Icy, unvarnished reproof steeled Rafael’s retort. ‘Sarah, this is my cousin, Hernando Santovena y Alvarez.’
‘Bienvenido, Sarah,’ Hernando drawled mockingly. ‘Rafael misunderstood me. I only meant that to my family you are still a bride. We learnt of your existence only last week. Rafael has such a very short memory where your sex are concerned. Why, only a month ago—’
‘Bastante!’ Rafael silenced him with raw contempt. ‘You are drunk. You offend.’
Hernando held up a wavering hand of reproach and drained his glass. ‘Say no more. I’m not staying.’ His air of forced mockery had been quenched. He looked at Rafael with unconcealed loathing. ‘I have no stomach for Consuelo’s celebration dinner. What do I have to celebrate?’
Rafael shocked her by smiling with hard amusement as Hernando stalked out of the room. ‘One down, two to go,’ he quipped. ‘What would you like to drink, gatita?’
‘Gin and bitter lemon.’ She frowned at him. ‘What was that all about?’
His mouth twisted sardonically. ‘It is not very complex. But for my cruel advent into this world, Hernando’s father would have inherited on Felipe’s death. Hernando grew up looking on me as a usurper and an intruder. The news that I have already fathered a male heir has come as a final, devastating blow,’ he delivered with cruel irony. ‘There is now no hope of either Hernando or his father ever reclaiming what they still like to believe should have been theirs.’
‘But how can they believe that?’ Sarah probed. ‘You came here as a child.’
He dealt her a grim smile. ‘I am the son of a gypsy. For Felipe, my very existence was an insult to the family name. He never accepted me. He spent more than ten years struggling to disprove the legitimacy of my birth. His crusade to disinherit and disown me gave Hernando and his parents false hope.’
Sarah was appalled. ‘You were only a child.’
Rafael passed her a crystal glass. ‘But you must remember that the stakes were very high. Had Felipe succeeded, he would have made a very generous settlement on me. In victory, he would not have been uncharitable. The Santovenas are a very rich and very conservative family with immense pride in their pure blood lines and a strong belief in the hereditary factor.’ He smiled. ‘How do you think Felipe felt when he was presented with me?’
‘You were still his grandson!’
‘But he had washed his hands of my father before I was even born,’ Rafael said drily. ‘My father was the bad apple in the family barrel. He was a drunk and a womaniser and a gambler, and that is to mention his most presentable flaws of character.’
‘That shouldn’t have made any difference. Your father was dead!’ Dear God, what a horrific childhood he must have had! After his mother’s desertion, he had been rejected all over again by his father’s family. A family who had had neither poverty nor ignorance to excuse their behaviour. Involuntarily her eyes were stinging with tears. Her surroundings ebbed in their seductive attraction. In this beautiful house, Rafael had suffered.
A taut forefinger feathered over the glistening moisture on her lashes. ‘So much heart, amada. You fascinate me. Where was your heart when I gave you mine?’
Snatching in a shuddering breath, she did not trust herself to speak.
He dropped his hand. ‘I was very much a romantic. I loved you the same moment I saw you. It took more than a moment to forget you again.’ His half-smile was derisory, whipping with the cutting sting of a lash over her pain-filled amethyst eyes. ‘But it is in the past and I do not pine for it. My soul was no longer my own and in my heart I need to be free. As long as you keep that in mind, ours should be a very civilised marriage. Properly bloodless. I no longer cherish a burning desire to share your every waking thought. That should make you more comfortable.’
Sarah had gone very pale. ‘It makes me feel anything but comfortable. It’s a recipe for disaster. I came here for the children—’
‘Don’t be a martyr, gatita. I have no time for martyrs,’ Rafael warned. ‘Here you are at last in the heartland of your most ambitious expectations. The jewel set to a fitting frame. I am certain that even Mama and Papa could be prevailed upon to set aside their prejudice and visit. So don’t talk of disaster. All this and family approval too?’
Rafael could be cruel, very cruel when he wanted to be. And she had not been wrong in noting his change of mood from her arrival. Before she could consider that knowledge more deeply, the sound of voices infiltrated her self-preoccupation, sending her attention to the door.
‘Sarah—allow me to introduce you to Hernando’s parents, my uncle and aunt,’ Rafael drawled. ‘Ramon and Lucia.’
Lucia was tall, blonde and very thin. Her blue eyes were cold as gemstones and hard as the diamonds that glittered at her throat. Ramon was broad-built and stocky with a heavily lined face and an over-hearty manner. Sarah’s arrival was acknowledged by Lucia with the barest minimum of either interest or politeness. Ramon made sporadic attempts to ease the tension with inconsequential remarks. Rafael made no effort to chat at all. The chill of bitter antipathy that kept the conversation stilted was daunting. It was a relief when Consuelo announced dinner.
They took their seats in a splendidly proportioned room, enriched by a dramatic colour scheme of scarlet and gold. The long table might have been set for a banquet. Heavy silver candelbra and old crystal vied with a superb dinner service for prominence.
‘I’m surprised that Caterina is not here,’ Lucia said sharply.
‘She is working round the clock on her next collection,’ Rafael murmured evenly. ‘The career of a fashion designer is a precarious one. Abuela understands this.’
‘I am her mother and I do not understand.’ The look Lucia dealt Rafael was venomous. ‘Caterina has become a stranger to us and you are to blame.’
‘I do not think—’ Ramon interceded with a weak smile, but what he did not think was to remain a mystery, for Lucia simply talked over him.
‘You’re the one who destroyed her marriage. You encouraged her to leave Gerry,’ Lucia accused brittly. ‘Now you finance her so called career. Whatever Caterina wants, Caterina receives, es verdad?’
‘It is indeed a new sensation for her to enjoy.’ Rafael’s smile was sardonic.
‘My poor Hernando does not meet with this generosity.’ Lucia was becomingly increasingly strident.
‘I will not preach nepotism to the board for Hernando’s benefit.’ Rafael turned to address Ramon, indicating that the subject was closed.
Lucia was not to be silenced. ‘We are returning to New York tomorrow.’
‘Abuela will be disappointed,’ Rafael responded expressionlessly.
‘It is excitement, not disappointment that is dangerous for her.’ Lucia smiled coldly at Sarah. ‘Your arrival almost killed her. I wonder why.’
‘Lucia,’ Rafael breathed. ‘You may insult me but not my wife.’
