AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Papa! This is business between me and Roman,” she snapped.
“Mr. Forrester deserves the highest respect. And his brother was my boon companion during those hellish months after the mutiny. I won’t have this, daughter.”
Roman clapped Hightower on the shoulder. “There is no problem, Commodore. I can stay nearby. Shelene and I can settle our issues in the light of day, when we are not angry or tired. When we are reminded that our love is impossible to discard.” He appealed to Shelene again. “Will tomorrow be suitable to discuss my inconvenient return?”
“Since I won’t be getting married, I will have some available time.”
He stepped toward her, intending to press a kiss to her lips. He knew he was putting his hand in the mouth of a tigress. Of course, that was why he did it. As he neared her lips, he could see the spark of rage in her green eyes. And smell the fresh gardenias and soap that wafted about her. She turned her face away at the last minute so that he kissed her cheek.
“Good night, Roman,” she said.
“Good night, Shelene. Commodore.” Roman bowed to them both and departed. “I will send Martina to you,” he said at the door.
He knew his way around the large estate. He’d been part of the culture at Las Colinas for years, coming and going when he was in Spain. Always finding the time to visit the Hightowers, feeling much like a son of the family. Until Hightower had moved them to England and Roman’s duties had kept him on the continent.
He avoided anyone dressed in silk and sought out Brahim and Sakina, whom he’d known just as long as he’d known the Hightowers. They were as much as part of Las Colinas as Shelene and the commodore. Instead, he found Martina and Joaquin sitting in the small garden near the kitchen where an assortment of herbs were grown in the crevasses of a rock wall. They spoke for a few minutes before Martina trotted off to assist Shelene.
“Well, mi’lord, where are we off to?” Joaquin asked. Roman had given up correcting Joaquin’s use oflordwhenever he was addressed. They were in Spain where his title didn’t matter to anyone.
“I’m going to my home. You are staying here with your mother. She has missed you.”
“No! I will not. Wherever you are going, I am going.”
“Are you prepared to walk the two miles to my estate?”
Joaquin clucked his tongue. “You forget, I am a worker at Las Colinas since my birth. We’ll get a carriage. We will go anywhere you want to go, but I don’t understand why you are not staying here. This way. But you, too, know where the carriage house is.”
“Lead on,” Roman said.
Once the horse was hitched to the cabriolet, they loaded up their few belongings. “I do not understand it, mi’lord. This is your home. You are married to the mistress of the house, and we creep away in the middle of the night.”
“We aren’t creeping, and you don’t need to go with me. And I explained it to you that I have a house in the hills.”
“Yes, yes. You sent Mr. Oliver and Mrs. Spencer to this secret house you have that Señora Forrester knows nothing about.”
“It’s not a secret. It was just land until a few years ago. I haven’t seen the house yet, and I don’t know why I’m telling you this again since I’ve explained it all several times.”
“You are angry that Señora Forrester was going to marry Señor Navarro.”
“Navarro? Is that his name?” Roman clucked his tongue and tapped the horse with a flick of the whip, encouraging the horse to move just a little faster.
“I understand. I would be angry too if my woman wanted to marry another man.”
The cabriolet creaked along. The horse’s hooves were muffled by the dirt path they traveled. And Joaquin had not stopped talking.
“She doesn’t want to marry another man,” Roman said.
“Mama said she did. I think it had something to do with the estate and Señor Navarro’s vast landholdings. And her uncle said it was the best match in the country. Mama said he is a good man.”
“I don’t need to hear all the gossip from the kitchen, Joaquin.”
“Gossip? My mother is Señora Forrester’s duenna and has been for years. She knows everything that happens and doesn’t need to gossip.”
“Doesn’t your mother need you? You’ve been gone for months.”
“I told her all the happened.”
“All?”
