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She had to see a photograph of her father. Call it pointless… Call it morbid curiosity… Or maybe she just hoped to see something in his eyes that would explain how he could abandon her mother to a lifetime of loneliness.
Just as she was trying to work out where to get such a picture, the telephone shrilled. Her hand hovered over the receiver. It had to be Don Alfonso confirming the date of the next meeting.
‘Annalisa?’
‘Ramon!’
‘Are you all right?’
Her heart had begun to race at the sound of his voice. Hearing his concern only trebled the pace. She hesitated, her mind a maelstrom of conflicting emotions. ‘Why shouldn’t I be?’
‘I was worried about you.’
Her mind might have blanked, but her body responded instantly…eagerly.
‘Are you still there?’
‘I’m here.’
‘Would you like me to come over?’
The pause was even longer now. ‘Here?’ she queried finally. The effect of his short deep laugh made her realise just how much she would like that…and how very dangerous it would be.
‘Don’t sound so shocked,’ he warned. ‘I just wanted to make sure that you were feeling all right after—’
‘There’s no need, Ramon,’ she said quickly, before she could change her mind. ‘I’m absolutely fine.’
‘Well, if you’re sure?’
Annalisa took a few deep breaths. She pictured him waiting for an answer…probably leaning back in some comfortable leather chair with his long legs crossed loosely one over the other as he toyed with the phone… It would be so easy to weaken. But no child of hers was going to be put through the torment of trying to put a face to its own father.
‘I’m sure,’ she said firmly. She felt her hearing had never been so acute as she strained to listen out for his response. But there was only silence at the other end of the line. ‘I have to go,’ she said into the vacuum. ‘The animals need feeding.’ This late at night? She grimaced. He would never fall for a pathetic excuse like that.
‘Of course,’ he said. ‘So, we meet again in one week’s time.’
As long as that—
‘If you have any questions for me before then I would be delighted to answer them for you.’
But Ramon wasn’t at the next weekly meeting at Don Alfonso’s office, or the week after that. Of course it shouldn’t have mattered, but it did. On the first occasion his lawyers gave no explanation for his absence and Annalisa felt she could not ask. When the second meeting came around she threw caution to the wind. And, having studied all the Spanish deeds to her property, she had just the excuse she needed.
She stood to address the room. ‘I’m afraid I shall have to insist that Señor Perez attends the next meeting.’
At the word ‘insist’ his lawyers tensed.
Don Alfonso hurried to his feet. ‘You can see my client’s point of view,’ he said, glancing at Annalisa. ‘She is keen to bring this matter to closure.’
‘Señor Perez is a very busy man,’ one of Ramon’s team pointed out.
The young lawyer’s tone of voice got right up Annalisa’s nose. ‘And I am a very busy woman,’ she said coldly. But it was her heart that needed answers and her heart that forced the pace. ‘If Señor Perez fails to attend next week’s meeting I shall assume he is no longer interested in acquiring any part of the shore.’
‘But he is in England, Señorita Wilson,’ the same lawyer informed her, lifting his shoulders in a shrug of indifference.
With Margarita, she thought, closing her eyes briefly.
‘For the start of the race?’ Don Alfonso both asked and confirmed, trading smiles around the table.
What race? Something else he had failed to inform her about? Annalisa wondered irritably.
Gathering her papers together, she pushed her chair back and stood up. ‘Frankly, gentlemen, I don’t care what he’s doing. I see Señor Perez next week, or these negotiations are at an end.’
Annalisa felt pretty good about the stand she had made as she walked to the small run-around she had purchased. She felt even better as she drove speedily along the uncrowded highway and finally turned onto her own potholed lane. The sale of her house in England had finally gone through without a hitch, and she would use the money to improve the road. But that would almost clean her out. There might just be enough for one last splurge for herself, for when the going got tough—a reward for sticking by her principles and resisting the charms of Ramon.
‘What the—?’ Annalisa slammed to a halt in front of the finca and almost catapulted out of her seat. ‘Stop! Stop that now!’ she insisted frantically.
