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‘I could scarcely have abandoned you in the tree house,’ Ruy pointed out. ‘That would have been manslaughter at the very least.’
And there it was: that other side of his nature, Suzy labelled straight away, that very controlled, pretty arrogant and almost chilling attitude of detachment that had set her on edge at their first meeting. ‘Never mind. I owe you a few sketches,’ she told him dismissively.
‘What I would really like is some clarification on the score of the wedding that misfired,’ Ruy admitted as he slid fluidly upright. ‘We’ll talk over dinner, which should be ready in a few minutes...’
‘Oh...’ Suzy said uncertainly, his sheer confidence that she would choose to confide in him leaving her bemused. ‘Can I help?’
‘I have a housekeeper. She does the catering.’ Ruy thrust open a door into a dining room with a contemporary glass table that was already set with cloth napkins, crystal glasses and gleaming cutlery.
Intimidated by that very formal setting, Suzy quickly dropped down into the chair he had tugged out for her. ‘Did you build this house? I didn’t even know it existed and yet it can’t be much more than a mile from the village.’
‘No, I bought it as is. The original owner of the property was something in showbusiness and this was to be his retirement home, but he passed away before he could move in,’ Ruy explained.
‘It’s a beautiful house,’ Suzy remarked, a little more relaxed by the assumption that Ruy was not personally responsible for the profound luxury of their surroundings. The property wasn’t in a fashionable area and although the rooms were very spacious there didn’t seem to be that many of them. The house was a quirky one-off, so possibly he had got it cheap, she reasoned. On the other hand, equally possibly, he was a very successful artist. How would she know? That she had not recognised his name meant nothing because she had no knowledge of the art world.
‘The woods sold it for me more than anything else,’ Ruy told her. ‘Now, some things you said earlier today have worried me and I can’t pretend you didn’t say them. You said Brenton had too much power and that he would pile on the pressure and threaten you. Aside from the assault, why are you so frightened of the man?’
Suzy flushed from cheek to temple, the heat of mortification engulfing her in a tide, for she hadn’t realised just how much she had revealed while she was in the grip of hypothermia. ‘I’m sorry, I can’t discuss that.’
Undaunted, Ruy stretched his big powerful body back into his seat and lifted his dark head high, narrowed dark eyes of astonishing intensity locked to her. ‘Does it relate to your father’s ownership of the village pub?’ he enquired smoothly. ‘I’ve already learned that Brenton has a reputation for unscrupulous behaviour and that his financial dealings may be questionable.’
Hugely disconcerted by that statement, Suzy was grateful when the door opened and an older woman bustled in with plates. The interruption was welcome but at the same time Suzy was desperate to know how Ruy had acquired such information, bearing in mind that she had lived in the area all her life and had not heard so much as a whisper of such rumours.
‘Who told you that about Percy?’ she pressed as soon as they were alone again.
‘When I make financial enquiries, I have good sources.’ Ruy shook out his napkin with infuriating cool. ‘Let us enjoy our meal.’
Fizzing with frustration, Suzy settled her attention on her tomato and mozzarella first course and ate with an appetite that surprised her. Only when she thought about it did she recall that she had skipped her evening meal the night before and breakfast that morning and had only had the sandwich that Ruy had given her. Yet it felt to her as though weeks had passed since the previous day, because the future she had expected had suddenly vanished and she had no idea what would take the place of her acting as Percy’s wife. She supposed that after they had lost the pub she and her father would move to the nearest town in search of employment.
The main course, another sophisticated dish, arrived and Ruy offered her wine with the quip that Cecile wasn’t present to police her.
‘I’ve still got a bit of a headache and I took painkillers, so no, thanks, for the moment.’
‘Now,’ Ruy breathed with blistering assurance. ‘Enlighten me about your father’s financial dealings with your ex.’
‘How on earth do you even know that he has dealings?’ Suzy exclaimed, dropping her knife and fork with a clatter to emphasise her annoyance.
‘I refuse to believe that love had anything to do with your planned marriage to Brenton,’ Ruy intoned drily. ‘By nature, he’s a thug and a bully.’
‘You only met him for about ten seconds!’ Suzy snatched at her glass of water to occupy her restless hands, unnerved by Ruy’s steady stubborn persistence. ‘How could you even know that?’
A grim light shadowed Ruy’s gaze at that question. Being raised by a bully had made it very easy for him to recognise the warning signs. He had not had a pleasant childhood but, in many ways, his more sensitive twin brother, unable to handle their father’s lacerating tongue, had suffered much more in failing to meet the standards that Armando Valiente demanded.
‘Just tell me the truth, because you have to confide in someone.’
‘No, I don’t.’ Suzy sucked in a ragged breath and picked up her cutlery again with determination.
‘And you have to stop being scared for long enough to go to the police,’ Ruy contended.
Colour flooded the pallor that had spread across her small stiff face. ‘I want to go to the police...but I daren’t do it,’ she muttered shakily.
‘Tell me why not,’ Ruy prodded afresh.
And a tempestuous mixture of desperation and resentment assailed Suzy. Green eyes flashed with defensiveness and she lifted her chin as though daring him to judge her. ‘Dad borrowed from the bank to update the bar but we didn’t do enough business to keep up the loan. When Dad was threatened with repossession, Percy stepped in. The old loan was repaid and Percy extended a new one with lower payments.’
‘How did you become involved in that arrangement?’ Ruy enquired, resting back in his chair with his wine glass elegantly cradled in one lean brown hand, so stunningly handsome in that moment that she momentarily lost the thread of the dialogue. As she gazed almost blankly back at him, her mouth dry, her pelvis thrumming with the strangest pulse that made her thighs twitch and tense, he had to repeat the question.
‘I wasn’t involved until six months ago,’ Suzy admitted in a rueful rush. ‘Then Percy said he’d write the loan off if I married him and that if I didn’t marry him he would take the pub off Dad. After a couple of discussions, I agreed but I... I told him I wouldn’t have sex with him. I would be his wife in all other ways though and nobody else would know the truth of our relationship,’ she completed with scarlet cheeks.
