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‘If you say “nice”,’ Hebe remarked, ‘I will scream.’
‘I was going to say, you look enchanting, but different.’ He put his head on one side, studying her. Hebe shifted a little under the scrutiny.
‘What? I know I have a tan. Mama is going to be livid.’
‘No, it isn’t that. You are Circe still, but a…grown-up Circe all of a sudden.’
‘Circe?’ Anna interrupted. ‘Who is this Circe? The child has lost weight, no doubt.’
‘Yes…’ Alex sounded dubious. He stood up and before she could stop him he had cupped Hebe’s face in both hands as he had done on the boat in the harbour. And as they had then, his thumbs gently traced the line of her cheekbones. ‘Yes, that must be it. Your eyes look enormous.’
Anna coughed sharply and the moment was over. Alex crossed his arms and became expressionless, Hebe threw the shawl over her head and pretended to concentrate on tying it. ‘When do we start, Major?’ Anna said briskly. ‘Everything is ready.’
‘Start?’ Hebe asked, clashing with Alex who said,
‘We? Who is we?’
‘Me, and you and Hebe,’ Anna said simply. ‘I go with you and we are careful about what we tell Hebe’s madre and she thinks I have been with you all the time. And then you don’t have to marry her, because it is all respectable. No?’
Alex glanced sharply at Hebe. ‘Indeed? Hebe and I have not yet discussed this. I suppose you think we can convince Lady Latham that you were conveniently standing on the beach in France, Anna?’
She gave him a withering look. ‘Of course not, stupido, but even the fiercest mother would not believe you are able to…what is the word? Disgrace? Ah, compromise, a young lady in the sea, or on the beach when you are just washed up. I see it, exactly as it happened. You are on a Spanish beach—unconscious, that is most proper I think—and a peasant, known to me, of course—rides by and he rescues you both and he recognises the Major and tells the guerillas and I come and all is quite as respectable as if the nuns from the convent of Santa Maria had found you.’
Alex looked from her to Hebe and back from under hooded lids. ‘It might do, I suppose, if we work on it a little. Anna, do you not mind coming? It might still be dangerous.’
She made a contemptuous gesture. ‘No, I enjoy the change, and I look after Hebe. And when we get to Gibraltar, perhaps I find a handsome English sergeant. Poor ’arry has been gone a long time and I miss him, but I think I would like to be married again.’
‘Hebe, what do you think? Will Lady Sara believe that story? Do you really want to tell something that is less than the truth?’
‘What is the alternative?’ Hebe asked, trying not to sound waspish.
‘We tell the truth.’
‘And then Sir Richard demands that you marry me, but you are betrothed to Clarissa, and it all becomes very awkward and embarrassing.’ He opened his mouth to speak and Hebe added tartly, ‘When—if—I marry, I want a love match.’
‘Well, that is very clear,’ Alex snapped back. ‘Just so long as we all know what tale we are telling.’ He clapped a slouch hat on his head and turned to walk off across the square. ‘I will be ready in half an hour.’
‘Tch!’ Anna watched him go. ‘Men! Now you have hurt his…’ She waved a hand in the air. ‘Do not tell me, I must practise my English. His proud, no, pride. You hurt his pride, now he will be cross with us all the way to Gibraltar and that is very good because then he does not think about how lovely you are and how much he wants you.’
‘He is in love with Lady Clarissa Duncan, not with me.’
Anna snorted. ‘You are here, she is not and he is a man. Come, Hebe, we will pack some things and you will tell me who this Circe is.’
Anna was still puzzling over the Greek enchantress when they returned to the square with two battered valises, which she threw into the back of an old donkey cart. ‘But why does he think you are like a witch? That is not very flattering, I think.’
‘Not a witch, an enchantress. Someone who makes spells to make men fall in…I mean, admire her.’
‘That is a good word, enchantress.’ Anna rolled it round her tongue. ‘You tell me how you become an enchantress, Hebe, and I will try it on a handsome sergeant.’
‘You do not need any lessons,’ Hebe laughed, looking at Anna’s flashing black eyes and sensual, swaying walk.
‘What are you laughing about?’ Alex asked, joining them and loading some wicker baskets of food into the cart.
‘Men,’ the women said in unison.
‘Are you ready, Major?’ Anna added, managing to make it sound as though he had been keeping them waiting for an hour.
Alex narrowed his eyes at her, but did not rise to the bait. ‘Quite ready, thank you, Anna, let’s go.’
