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When they left the table the afternoon was half gone, the whirr of cicadas deepening around the hotel and a heavy pall of summer heat smothering the air. They walked under the trees in the sleepy shade. Joe talked to his father, leaving Quincy to stroll along beside Mrs Aldonez, who asked her about her own family, her job, her village.
'I've never been to England—I must go one day, your countryside sounds very beautiful.'
'It is, just as lovely as Spain in its way, but far less dramatic. Does Spain seem much changed to you after your years in America?'
She got a wry look. 'That's an understatement, believe me! Changed for the better, too—I haven't seen any of the grinding poverty you once saw here and people aren't in despair, the way they were in the years just before the war.'
'Joe told me how hard your life was,' Quincy told her and Mrs Aldonez smiled.
'He talked to us about you, too.'
Quincy's skin flushed slowly. 'Did he?' What had he said? she wondered.
They were walking so slowly that the two men had drawn far ahead, out of earshot. Mrs Aldonez watched Quincy thoughtfully.
'Does that worry you?'
'That depends what he said, I suppose.' Quincy tried to smile, but didn't do a very good job of it.
'You'd have to ask him,' Mrs Aldonez said with amusement in her face. 'You're not as pretty as I'd expected,' she added, smiling.
'Oh,' said Quincy, not sure how to take that. 'Sorry to disappoint you.' The slight sting in her tone was involuntary and made the other woman laugh.
'I'm not disappointed; on the contrary, I'm delighted.'
Quincy gave her a puzzled look. 'Are you?' What on earth was she talking about? Why should she be delighted to find that Quincy wasn't a raving beauty?
'From what Joe said about you I was expecting more of a glamour girl and he meets so many of those, they throw themselves at him all the time.'
'I'm sure they do,' Quincy agreed, jealousy prickling inside her, and was given another smile.
'Groupies, he calls them—they hang around everywhere he goes, hoping he'll notice them. It worries me at times—Joe's got his head screwed on, he wouldn't be stupid enough to get seriously involved with a girl of that sort, but he's just a man, after all, and men are fools about a pretty woman.'
'You thought I might turn out to be like that? A groupie?' Quincy said, understanding.
'It seemed likely—Joe said you weren't, of course, but then…'
'He's a man and could be wrong?' prompted Quincy in a dry little voice.
His mother gave her an amused look. 'Exactly. That's why I was so delighted when you arrived and I could see you were a nice girl, not especially pretty or glamorous—just ordinary.'
Quincy smiled very brightly with her teeth together. 'Thank you,' she said in a thin little voice, and Mrs Aldonez watched her with increasing amusement.
'Don't look so insulted, I meant it as a compliment. If you'd been beautiful, I'd have been worried, the way Joe has been talking about you. But after seeing you, I know I don't have to worry at all.'
'Well, that's nice to know,' said Quincy, wondering how soon she could safely ask Joe to take her back to her hotel.
Joe and his father had turned back and joined them a moment later. Joe looked at his watch and said: 'I'd better drive Quincy back now, she doesn't want to leave her friend alone for too long.'
Quincy shook hands with his parents, thanked them for the lovely lunch and was surprised to get a kiss from his mother. After what Mrs Aldonez had just said to her, she decided it was some sort of consolation prize for being so dull and ordinary, or possibly a reward for not turning out to be a threat to Mrs Aldonez's peace of mind. A girl as unexciting as Quincy was unlikely to steal Joe, perhaps, and Mrs Aldonez could relax and enjoy her holiday again.
Driving back along the coast, Joe asked: 'Did you really enjoy yourself?'
'Very much,' she said—apart from having her ego battered to teeny fragments by his mother's remarks, that was.
'Did you like them?' His tone was eager and Quincy smiled with involuntary sadness. Joe loved his parents, he wanted everyone to appreciate them.
'They're both charming, I had a wonderful time, the lunch was an occasion to remember.' Afterwards hadn't been so terrific, but Mrs Aldonez had not sounded nasty or unkind, she had merely been speaking her mind frankly and Quincy could understand why she was worried about the women Joe met on tour—Quincy worried about that, too.
