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Leonora’s insides cramped as she went into the castle’s office, the administrative centre where they took bookings for tours. Tours that were falling increasingly in numbers because people inevitably wanted to experience something more exciting than just walking around a dusty medieval castle full of antiques and scary-looking portraits of long-dead ancestors and a tired and wilted walled garden.
Her family’s dependence on her sat heavily on her shoulders today. She’d just had a painful conversation at Matías’s school about overdue fees.
She sat down at the desk and put the piece of paper in front of her. She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and keyed in his number. For an age she sat there, a little paralysed at the thought of hearing that deep rumble of a voice again.
Then, before she could lose her nerve, she pressed the key and after a second heard the long ring tone.
The call was picked up almost immediately with an impatient, brusque tone. ‘Si?’
She almost cut off the connection, he sounded so forbidding, and then his tone changed and he said sharply, ‘Leonora, is that you?’
She gulped. ‘Yes, it’s me.’
‘Thank you for calling me back.’
She thought she detected a dry tone in his voice. She didn’t imagine he had many women doing a disappearing act on him.
‘I’m sorry for...for leaving the way I did the other morning...but I felt it was for the best.’
‘For who? You? Or me...?’
Leonora squirmed in the chair. ‘Both of us... It was—’
She stopped. She’d been about to say just a moment out of time, but that sounded far too whimsical.
‘It was just one night.’
‘An incredible night.’
His voice was low and it seemed to rumble down the phone and across Leonora’s skin. Her mouth went dry and her palms got clammy just thinking about it.
Then he said, ‘I’d like to take you out for dinner.’
Leonora pushed aside the X-rated memories. ‘Dinner?’
‘Yes...’ He sounded amused.
‘When?’
‘Tonight. I’ll pick you up at seven.’
‘I...’
‘Do you have plans, Leonora?’
Was it her imagination or was there a mocking tone in his voice now? Of course she didn’t have plans—other than the endless worrying about what was to become of them.
She tried to sound as nonchalant as possible. ‘No, I don’t have plans this evening.’
He became brisk again. ‘Good. I’ll see you at seven.’
CHAPTER FOUR
BY ALMOST SEVEN that
evening Leonora was a bag of nerves at the thought of seeing Gabriel again after sharing such intimacies, and also wondering what he wanted. A repeat of that night? Or was he just intrigued because she wasn’t like his usual lovers?
The thought had slid into her mind over the past couple of days...wondering if he’d noticed her innocence. But he hadn’t said anything. And certainly any pain had been fleeting.
