The Spaniard's Love-Child (2 page)

‘Well, what about sending Antonio to some posh boarding-school? Do you think that's reasonable?' Katerina gave a tiny crow of triumph as she saw the expression of disapproval chase across the older girl's fair-skinned and expressive features. Her soft mouth firmed. ‘Antonio needs me!' Abruptly her pretty face crumpled. ‘When you call, tell them we're not coming back!' On this throbbing note she ran into the bathroom and locked the door behind her.

Feeling totally helpless as she listened to the noisy sound of sobbing, Nell sadly dialled the number Katerina had given her. If there was anything in her power she could do to make this easier for Javier's children, she would, she resolved, squaring her slender shoulders.

‘Hello, I'm sorry to disturb you at this hour, but would it be possible for me to speak to Mrs Carreras?' Nell decided at the last second that Katerina's case might find a more sympathetic ear with her grandmother than her uncle—
and it's got nothing whatever to do with the fact just thinking about the man spooks you?

Katerina, who had emerged from the bathroom, took up a cross-legged posture on the sofa. ‘It's no good, she'll do whatever
he
says. Everyone does!'

At this resentful observation an image of a dark fallen angel face rose up before Nell's eyes and she recalled the last and only time she had seen Raul Carreras.

He had made quite an impression! But then Raul Carreras wasn't the sort of man you forgot in a hurry. A shiver traced a shaky pathway down her spine as she recalled the extent to which the clinical touch of those hooded midnight eyes had disturbed her.

The family had been swept away from the funeral in a fleet of shiny black limos and the last of Javier's own colourful art-world friends had drifted away, but one figure had remained. The image of the tall, broad-shouldered, black-clad figure, head bowed slightly against the first flurries of snow, standing alone beside the grave had indelibly imprinted in Nell's brain, as were the words they had exchanged afterwards.

She had thought her own presence amongst the trees at the edge of the cemetery had gone unnoticed until he had lifted his head and looked directly at her.

Nell had immediately been able to see the resemblance between the Carreras brothers, both golden-skinned, and black-haired; facially too there were similarities, though these were not strong. Javier's warm smile and natural exuberance for life had made people overlook the fact his features were neither symmetrical nor in proportion, but his brother possessed bone structure that was
achingly
perfect.

Though it had been the combination of a broad, intelligent forehead, strong, chiselled cheekbones, wide, mobile mouth and incredible thickly lashed dark eyes that had made her stare at Raul Carreras, it had been something else that had made her incapable of stopping!

Raul Carreras was quite simply the sexiest man she had ever seen. Furthermore what he projected didn't come across as in any way cultivated or contrived, it was simply an intrinsic part of the man and, unlike the clothes he wore, it was unrefined and raw.

After a few seconds one dark, strongly defined brow had lifted.

Aware that her mouth was unattractively open, Nell had closed it hastily and stepped forward, feeling irrationally like an intruder. ‘I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you.' Beneath her feet the frosted grass crunched.

He looked at her with cold eyes that held a deeply ingrained cynicism. ‘I am not startled,' the unsmiling figure retorted sardonically.

‘I'm—'

‘I know who you are.'

The inexplicable hostility shining in those impenetrable, lustrously lashed eyes had brought a look of uncertainty to her face. ‘How are the children?'

All Nell's attempts to see or at least speak to them in the days following Javier's death had been obstructed by staff at the Carreras household. They had politely listened to her explain that she was a friend of the family and then repeated that no member of the family was at that time available, but her condolences would be passed on.

She had briefly considered presenting herself at the house and explaining things in person, but on reflection had dropped the idea. The family had enough to deal with; she would see the children at the funeral and sort things out then.

‘As you would expect them to be considering they've just lost their father.'

Nell's soft mouth twisted in an apologetic grimace. ‘It was a stupid question.'

‘Yes.'

Nell blinked. There was blunt and then again there was damned right deliberately rude. She had no doubt whatever into which category his response fell. Once more his antagonism puzzled her.

‘Would it be an intrusion if I came to the house?'

‘Yes.'

Thinking he had misunderstood what she had said, Nell repeated herself.

Raul Carreras took a step towards her and Nell's mouth went dry. He was a great deal taller than most Spaniards she had met—several inches over six feet, she judged. And whereas Javier had been a compact, slightly built man, his brother, though lean, possessed broad shoulders and the long legs of a natural athlete.

‘Friends and family only are invited back to the house.'
And you are neither.
Though the words were not said it was obvious that was what he meant. As put-downs went this was masterful.

A shocked and hurt Nell was left staring after his retreating back.

W
ITH
difficulty Nell dragged her thoughts back from the cold place they had taken her to. She covered the receiver with her hand and sent Katerina a pained look of appeal.

‘Hush,' she pleaded. ‘It's a terrible line. I won't be able to hear what they're saying, Kate.'

‘I'm afraid Mrs Carreras is not available. Would you like to speak to Mr Carreras?'

Since when were Spanish billionaires so damned conveniently accessible? Just my luck! Nell sighed and applied herself to the unenviable task in hand.

‘I suppose I'll have to.' A frown furrowed her smooth brow as it occurred to her that they hadn't even asked her to identify herself.

‘This is Raul Carreras.'

The voice, deep and slightly accented, was just as she recalled. She rubbed her bare forearms where a rash of goose-bumps had unaccountably broken out.

‘Mr Carreras, you probably don't remember who I am…The thing is, you might not have noticed yet, but the children, Antonio and Katerina…' She closed her eyes—
as if he doesn't know their names!
She took a deep breath. ‘They're not there, but,' she added hastily, ‘I have them and they're perfectly safe.'

‘Perhaps I should speak to them to confirm that for myself…?'

Nell, who had been expecting a lot of hows and whys, was actually quite relieved by what seemed like a pretty moderate response under the circumstances. She held the
phone out to Katerina and pointed at the receiver mouthing, Speak to him. The girl, with a mulish expression, shook her pretty head negatively in response and folded her arms across her chest.

‘I'm sorry, Mr Carreras, but now might not be a good time.'

‘And when might be a good time?'

Even the other side of the city the voice had enough chill in it to freeze flesh. Perhaps Katerina hadn't exaggerated about her uncle's callous temperament? Perhaps his behaviour was prompted not by ignorance of how to respond to the needs of the orphaned children, but a genuine cold and unfeeling nature.

‘Well, that depends…'

‘I'm never going to see him—
never
!' Katerina declared dramatically.

‘Katerina, I thought we decided you were going to be sensible. I'm sorry about that,' she added down the phone where for several seconds she could only hear the sound of heavy breathing. ‘Are you still there?'

‘I'm still here. What do you want me to do?'

The abrupt question surprised Nell. Raul Carreras was the last man in the world she could imagine asking for advice. Perhaps she had done the man an injustice? she mused.

Perhaps he was finding the adjustment just as hard to make as the children were? It couldn't be easy finding yourself landed with two children you barely knew.

‘Tell me what you want and it is yours.'

‘What I want?' she echoed, bewildered by the harsh statement. ‘It's not a question of what I want.'

‘Then let me talk to the person who decides such matters.'

Nell took the harsh request to be ironic—the sort of re
quest for divine intervention that a man who didn't know what to do might make.

‘You have to appreciate, Mr Carreras, the children feel very vulnerable at the moment,' she began tentatively. ‘They've had such a lot of upheaval and changes in their lives.'
God, talk about platitudes!
‘Their father's death was so awfully sudden and…listen,' she added in a rush, ‘I don't want to tell you how to bring up the children.'
Though maybe someone should because you're making a hell of a mess of it.
‘But maybe if you sat down and discussed things with them?'

‘I thought I wasn't permitted to talk to the children.'

‘I know this must be frustrating,' she replied sympathetically. ‘But you have to be patient.'

‘You are stretching my patience.'

‘Oh, for goodness' sake!' she shouted, her own frayed patience snapping. ‘Can't you stop thinking about yourself for one moment and imagine how the children are feeling right now, Mr Carreras?' You could only carry on giving someone the benefit of the doubt for just so long. ‘Other people do.' People like Javier.

‘Please be calm.'

‘I am calm!' she yelled, and frowned repressively at Katerina who giggled as she made this heated claim.

‘I can be very generous.'

Nell gave a sigh of exasperation; did he think he just had to throw money at any problem and it went away?

‘This isn't about money,' she reminded him severely.

‘Then what is it about—
revenge
?'

‘For heaven's sake, don't be so silly.'

Katerina, who was listening carefully to the one-sided conversation, gave a smug smile. ‘I told you he's impossible and he won't listen to anything you say. He thinks women are there to look decorative and have babies.'

Nell shot Katerina a warning look and the girl lapsed into sulky silence as Nell attempted to moderate her own tone, regretting deeply that she'd allowed her tongue to run away with her.

‘Javier was a pretty laid-back sort of dad…' Her own voice thickened as she thought of Javier with his laughing eyes and wicked sense of humour.

It might be a year since she'd reluctantly moved out of the sprawling, slightly shabby Edwardian villa in the unfashionable seaside town she had shared with Javier for almost two years, but he had still been very much a part of her life.

She sometimes wondered where she would be now had she not seen Javier in the crowded supermarket that afternoon with two fretful children. She had recognised him immediately, even though she had never attended one of his classes—the famous artist who had occasionally done a guest lecture at the art college she'd attended had been quite a celebrity. She had heard about his young wife's tragic death, of course; the art community had been buzzing with it.

Javier had been charmingly grateful when she had coaxed Antonio out of his hysterics, and if she hadn't taken matters into her own hands that would have been it. But Nell had come up with a brilliant idea, and, driven to take drastic action, she had turned up on Javier's doorstep the next day and suggested an arrangement that would be a solution to both their problems.

‘I'm about two steps away from homeless and you need someone to help with your children. For bed and board I'll be that someone.'

Javier hadn't taken her seriously but Nell had persisted and eventually he had agreed to a month's trial. The ar
rangement had turned out better than either of them had expected.

‘I have no desire to discuss my family with you.' Directly following this frigid, sneering response Nell heard the sound of a muffled speech in the background as though someone else was in the room. A woman, maybe? Was he speaking to her from his bed? Her wayward imagination threw in a deeply distracting image of a pale-limbed beauty trailing her teasing fingers down a lean brown muscle-packed torso.

Her tummy muscles quivered uncomfortably.

‘If you are indeed concerned about the children—surely you must see that the best place for them is with their family.'

‘A family they don't know. Listen, Mr Carreras, the children simply aren't used to the heavy-handed approach.' She caught her lower lip between her teeth; it was so frustrating that everything she said came out wrong. ‘Not that I'm saying you're heavy-handed
as such
,' she added hastily. ‘But a little bit of give and take…'

‘Just who am I speaking to?' It wasn't so much a matter of something new being in his voice as he made this abrupt demand, but more an absence of something that up to this point had been there. With a confused frown Nell identified this missing factor as restraint and realised that up to this point the children's uncle had been choosing his words with care.

‘This is Nell Rose; I was a friend of your brother's and for—'

‘
Nell Rose? Por Dios!
I know who you are, Miss Rose.' The palpable sneer in his cutting voice brought an angry flush to her pale cheeks. ‘Now am I to infer that Antonio and Katerina are with you, and they came willingly?'

‘Came willingly?'
Nell gave an uncomprehending shake
of her head, then realised he couldn't see her. ‘Well, they turned up on my doorstep about an hour and a half ago, so I suppose you could say that.'

She shook her head and ignored Katerina's suspicious hissed, ‘what's he saying?'

‘And where is
there
?'

Nell gave her address.

‘Hold the line,' he demanded abruptly.

 

‘I'm sorry, Superintendent, but it seems as if we are dealing with a runaway not a kidnapping situation,' Raul told the detective who had been listening to the conversation.

‘You know this Miss Rose? Is she genuine?'

Raul nodded. Human nature being what it was, the profound relief he had experienced when he had realised that the children had not been snatched had been replaced by a hostility for the woman to whom they had run. A woman who incredibly had had the audacity to instruct him on the finer points of raising children.

‘Genuine? Extremely doubtful. She was my brother's mistress. I do not know her personally.'

‘She was your brother's partner, but it didn't occur to you that the children might have gone to her?'

Raul, who considered this a fair question, accepted the mild underlying note of criticism in the other man's voice with an expressive shrug.

‘They were not together when Javier died; she is not the staying kind.'

Hearing the contemptuous bite in Raul's voice, it occurred to the detective that, for someone who claimed not to be acquainted with the woman in question, Raul Carreras appeared to have formed a very definite opinion of the woman's character.

 

The time stretched and so did Nell's patience—to breaking-point.

‘Miss Rose, are you still there?'

The yawn Nell had been trying to stifle escaped.

‘I'm sorry if I'm keeping you awake, but I was just convincing the police that we are not dealing with a kidnapper.'

Nell's jaw snapped shut.
‘Kidnapper?'
she yelped.
‘Me?'
she added in a weak whisper. ‘You're joking,
right
?'

‘Wrong, I am not joking.'

‘But why on earth would you assume the children had been kidnapped?'

‘What would you have assumed, Miss Rose, if you had looked in on them at two in the morning and found them gone from their beds with no explanation?'

At the other end of the phone Nell could not see Raul's eyes darken as he relived the moment he had discovered the children were missing. When, suspicions roused by the inanimate lump in Antonio's bed, he had pulled the covers back and found pillows artistically arranged beneath the quilt, he'd sprung into action. A rapid search of Katerina's room had revealed a second empty bed and he had ordered a search of the house.

While he'd been doing things he had been able to keep the sick feelings of dread at bay. It had been later, after the police had arrived and taken control, that he had been unable to repress his fear.

‘You?'
Nell couldn't keep the incredulity from her voice. A man who checked in on the sleeping youngsters before he retired for the night did not mesh with Katerina's description of someone who looked on his brother's children as an imposition.

‘What?'
The irascible voice sounded impatient.

‘Well, yes, but
kidnap
, isn't that a little extreme?' she asked faintly.

‘What world are you living in? We have a great deal of money and it is a fact of life that there are many people out there—unscrupulous people—who would do anything, and I mean
anything
, to dispossess us of some of it.'

Nell, aware of Katerina's scrutiny, tried not to let her horror at this chilling information show. She couldn't even imagine the sort of life he was describing.

‘What are the police going to do now?'

‘Police?' Katerina parroted sharply. ‘Has he sent the police after us?'

Frowning, Nell shook her head for the girl's benefit and laid a finger to her lips.

‘Don't worry, Miss Rose, they are not going to prosecute you for wasting police time.'

Even though Katerina was listening, Nell could not permit this blatant attempt to intimidate her pass. ‘Well, they'd have a hard time doing that, wouldn't they?'

‘If you'd contacted me as soon as they got there like any normal, responsible adult—if you'd stopped to consider the anguish their family would be feeling instead of waiting for hours—a great deal of grief, not to mention wasting police resources, might have been avoided.'

Nell bit her lip; it was only Katerina's presence that stopped her responding to this unfair accusation with a few home truths of her own. Raul Carreras was in no position to play the blame game.

‘Possibly this conversation might be better continued in the morning when everyone has had a little sleep,' she suggested stiffly.

‘Morning!'
A caustic laugh reverberated down the line. ‘You think I will permit the children to spend the night under your roof? Tell them I will be there in twenty minutes.'

‘My God, you really are as stupid as you look.'

There was the angry hiss of indrawn breath before a cold voice inserted with icy precision.
‘Twenty minutes.'

A martial light entered Nell's blue eyes as she replaced the dead receiver.

‘Is he coming? I won't go with him.'

Nell's cool voice cut through the rising note of hysteria in the teenager's voice. ‘You look tired, Kate. Why don't you crawl into bed until your uncle gets here?'

‘You mean he's going to take us away.'