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There seemed no answer to that, so she took another cautious sip of sangria.
‘Be careful,’ he warned lazily. ‘I don’t want you to pass out on me.’
And there was definitely no answer to that, Rhianna decided, staring resolutely down at the table. She needed a neutral topic of conversation, and quickly.
‘What happens in the morning?’ she said. ‘When we get to Puerto Caravejo?’
‘We may have to wait for a flight,’ he said, after a pause. ‘So I thought I’d show you my house.’
‘Goodness,’ she said. ‘You have a castle in Spain as well?’
‘Is that what you’re expecting?’ His tone was dry. ‘Then you’ll be disappointed. It’s little more than a farmhouse which, unlike the rest of our family estate in the Asturias, managed to survive the Civil War. It’s been extended since then, but it’s still more comfortable than luxurious.’
She digested that. ‘Do you spend a lot of time there?’
‘Not as much as I could wish,’ he said. ‘But all that will change when I finish disposing of our assets in South America.’
She put down her glass. ‘But I thought that was where your real home was? Where you spent most of the year?’
‘It has been,’ he said. ‘But I decided some time ago that my life needed to be simplified. Racing from one side of the globe to the other isn’t much fun any more. And nor is being saddled with an armed guard much of the time,’ he added with a touch of grimness. ‘Besides, the mineral workings are coming to the end of their natural span anyway, and the land can be used for other purposes.’
‘But you’ll miss the travelling, surely?’
He shrugged. ‘The consultancy is growing each year, and although I have a great team I’m still actively involved, so that should take care of any lingering wanderlust. For the rest of the time I plan to put something back into my land in Spain. Plant more apple orchards, maybe some vines. A friend of mine made the Rioja we drank the other night, and he offered a while back to teach me the wine business. So in many ways I’m going to be busier than ever.’ He paused. ‘Then there’s the reclamation project at Penvarnon.’
‘You’re going to rebuild it?’ she asked uncertainly.
‘Not with bricks and mortar,’ he said. ‘I intend to—take it back. Spend much more time there. Make it mine. I’ve only allowed the present situation to drag on like this because it’s suited my convenience. My uncle’s always understood that, and he’ll be relieved to go. He’s never been happy there.’
She said without thinking, ‘It’s never been a happy house.’
‘No,’ Diaz said, after a pause. ‘Which is something else I mean to change.’ He leaned back in his chair. ‘And, while we’re enjoying this full and frank exchange of information, my sweet, you can start telling me about your tearful little friend Donna Winston. In particular how long she and Simon Rawlins have been sleeping together and why you kept quiet about it. Because that’s something I really need to know.’
CHAPTER TEN
FOR a long moment Rhianna was silent, then she said quietly, ‘How did you know it was Donna?’
‘I realised a little while ago,’ he said. ‘When I was in the shower. Great places, showers, for clearing your head and getting you to think straight.’ His mouth twisted. ‘So, I used the time-honoured method of adding two and two, and arrived, for once, at the correct answer.’
He shook his head. ‘God in heaven, how could I have been so dumb? “Man trouble”. I said it myself, the night I met her.’ He looked at her unsmilingly. ‘And you said, “It seems so.” Only you knew, Rhianna. You knew exactly what was going on, yet you said nothing. You even condoned the affair by letting them meet at your flat.’
‘Never.’ She looked back at him, her eyes fierce. ‘And I didn’t know—not at first. We bumped into Simon in a pizza place one night, quite by accident, and he deliberately inveigled an invitation back for coffee—the last thing I wanted, as he very well knew. Relations between us had been cool for a long time, and I’d have crossed busy streets to avoid him. I was probably too damned annoyed at being manipulated like that to pick up any other nuances.’
She paused. ‘Then I just happened to walk in on them one night—and caught them in flagrante. After he left there was a confrontation between me and Donna. She claimed they were in love. I advised her to think again, and told her to go. But later I started feeling almost sorry for her—because I’d introduced them, after all, and she probably thought Simon was a friend of mine who could be trusted. Or maybe she’d turned him into some romantic golden-haired hero—the way you do when you’re young and silly.’ She bit her lip. ‘I can hardly blame her for that. There was a time when I thought he was wonderful too.’
