1756 A H ARLEQUIN R04,/,44,6, 60c

All APPLE III EDEN'

an APPLE IN EDEN by KAY THORPE

When Eve's flighty young sis-ter got engaged to an unknown Spaniard over in the Canary Islands, Eve thought she ought to go there herself and investi-gate the matter, and find out what this Juan Perestrello was like.

She found, for a start, that he had a twin brother, Ramon . .

A HARLEQUIN

Rom ance

PRINTED IN CANADA

OTHER

Harlequin Romances by KAY THORPE

1 237—THE LAST OF THE MALLORYS 1 272—DEVON INTERLUDE 1 355—RISING STAR 1 504—CURTAIN CALL 1 583—SAWDUST SEASON

1 609—NOT WANTED ON VOYAGE 1 661—OLIVE ISLAND

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Original hard cover edition published in 1973 by Mills & Boon Limited.

© Kay Thorpe 1973

SBN 373 -01756- 1

Harlequin edition published February 1974

An the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the Author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the

Author, and all the incidents are pure invention.

The Harlequin trade mark, consisting of the word HARLEQUIN and the portrayal of a Harlequin, is registered in the United States Patent Office and in the Canada Trade Marks Office.

Printed in Canada 175•

CHAPTER ONE

FROM Lisbon right down to the Algarve the whole of the western coastline of Portugal seemed to be one continuous stretch of gleaming white sand. Looking down on it from thirty thousand feet, Eve recalled the holiday she and Lynn had spent to-gether somewhere along that blue-edged line a couple of years back. Even then the differences in their respective personalities had been beginning to make themselves felt in a way which boded ill for their future relationship, she supposed. Lynn had always been headstrong, and losing both their parents when she was only fifteen had not helped.

Barely twenty herself at the time, Eve had done the best she could, but her best apparently had not been good enough. Lynn's announcement at nine-teen that she had found herself a job as an au pair with a family in Spain had come as no real surprise. Eve had seen her go with trepidation, existed through three months of occasional postcards and even more occasional letters, and waited fatalistic-ally for this whim to fade along with all the others. Instead, like a bolt from the blue, had come the let-ter telling her that her sister was engaged to a Spaniard and was now staying on the island of Tenerife with her fiancé's family, enclosed within another rather longer epistle expressing the wish that Eve would accept the enclosed ticket and make

5

the journey to meet with the Perestrellos at the earliest opportunity.

Under the circumstances the bank had raised no objections to bringing forward her annual holiday from August to mid-June. And so here she was, Eve Raynor, on her way to the Canaries, the Perestrellos, and a sister who seemed suddenly even further away from her than she had realised.

As the southern tip of Portugal fell away to the rear, Eve leaned her head back against the seat and tried to instil some sense of order into the confusion of the last week. Fact number one to be faced was that Lynn was to marry a man she could hardly have known longer than a few weeks at the most, and one reared to a completely different way of life. It was all too quick, too precipitate; Lynn's de-cisions always were. Marriage to a doubtless hand-some Spaniard—and a comfortably well-heeled one, from the few facts she had let drop in her letter—might seem a very attractive proposition at the present time, but this wasn't something she would be able to simply walk out of when the novelty wore off. She needed to be sure, very sure, that her feelings were real and lasting, and reading between the lines Eve didn't feel convinced herself.

About Juan Perestrello himself she was making an effort to keep an open mind. She knew relatively little of the Spanish as a people, and found it diffi-cult to form any kind of real idea of what to expect. His own letter had been formal, giving away noth-ing of the writer. Eve had found it cool and im-personal, but that could be due to the necessity of

6

using English for her benefit. It was easy to mis-lead when using a language foreign to one. With Lynn herself there would have been little difficulty. Her sister had a flair for languages, and spoke Spanish with reasonable fluency. All the same, there was a great difference between living in a country for a few months and settling there per-manently.

Not surprisingly, as she had slept little during the previous few nights, she dozed intermittently during the two-hour flight across the Atlantic, rous-ing in time to see the magnificent peak of Mount Teide rearing proudly through the blanket of white cloud which cloaked this northern side of Tenerife. A few minutes later they were out of the cloud and steadily losing height over a red-brown landscape laced with green and scarred in many places by the new excavations where the once tiny coastal vil-lages were fast expanding to keep pace with the ever-growing holiday trade. Then they were over the line of low-lying hills, and the airport lay below.

It was raining when Eve alighted from the coach which had brought the passengers from the plane to the terminal buildings. It was also decidedly chilly, and she shivered suddenly in the thin linen suit which had seemed more than adequate at Gat-wick that morning. Seen from down here, the cloud looked almost to be touching the hills backing the stretch of stressed concrete, scudding across the sky in a manner which made mock of the Greek name for these islands.

Inside the building there was warmth and colour

7

and life—a lot of life. From this side of passport control, Eve scanned the faces of those waiting on the other side, but Lynn's was not among them. As the queue shuffled forward she became aware of the man leaning nonchalantly against the barrier, his gaze searching the faces before him in much the same way as her own. Even as she noticed him their glances met and held, and she felt the colour rise sharply and ridiculously to her cheeks at the sudden leap of speculation in the dark eyes of the Spaniard. She looked quickly away to study a nearby notice board with the intensity of non-comprehension, moved forward again and found herself opposite the desk and putting her passport meekly into the hand held out for it.

Then she was through, - and the man at the bar-rier was straightening his lean length and moving forward to accost her.

'Lynn didn't do you full justice,' he said in ex-cellent English. 'The green eyes and the russet hair I recognised, but she forgot to say just how attrac-tive you really are.' Before Eve could move he bent forward and kissed her lightly on both cheeks, his eyes glinting with amusement at the look on her face. 'It's the customary greeting within the family. I'm only anticipating by a few weeks. Did you have a good journey?'

'Yes, very good.' Eve added swiftly, 'Where is Lynn? Hasn't she come with you?'

The amusement deepened into mockery, sudden and unwonted. `No, she is waiting for you at the villa. I came straight here from Santa.' He took

8

her arm, turning her about. 'Come, we must collect your luggage.'

Conscious of the firmness of the long brown fin-gers through the thin material of her sleeve, Eve stole a glance at him, trying to assess the man be-hind the rakishly handsome face and taunting man-ner. Juan Perestrello was totally unlike any of her imaginings, totally unlike any other man she had ever met. About thirty, she guessed, and experi-enced enough for a man ten years older. It was in his eyes, his voice, his whole attitude towards a woman. And this was the man Lynn was to marry. Lynn, her baby sister, not yet out of her teens!

With her suitcase claimed they went swiftly out through swing doors on to a narrow forecourt and across to a long low coupe parked under a wall. Seconds later, Juan was in the driving seat and they were moving out to follow a coach down the slope to the roadway.

'You'll find it very much warmer than this where we are going,' he offered when they had been moving several minutes, accurately reading her thoughts. 'In the mountains we are always above the cloud which sometimes covers the northern part of the island.' He flicked a deliberate glance over her trim figure and slender legs, and smiled. 'The minimum of clothing becomes an advantage during the heat of the day. Lynn spends many hours in the swimming pool. She has brightened the scenery around and about the villa considerably, your sis-ter.'

Eve resisted the impulse to pull her skirt further

9

down over her knees, and decided that the only way to deal with Juan Perestrello was by using his own tactics.

'Why do you want to marry my sister?' she de-manded.

The atmosphere in the car changed subtly. There was a short silence, then he said evenly, 'Why does a man marry a woman in your country?'

'Well, various reasons.' 'Love, I assume, is among them?' 'Of course.' Despite herself Eve could feel the

warmth creeping into her cheeks. 'Only sometimes it's not ... I mean ...'

'Ah V His voice was soft and mocking. 'You think that I saw your sister and wanted her, and could have her no other way. Yes?'

`No ... well ...' Eve floundered again before the taunting glance. 'It's just that you don't somehow seem the marrying type,' she murmured defen-sively.

'I don't?' The mobile left eyebrow lifted once more. 'You interest me. Tell me more about my-self.'

'There isn't any more,' she said weakly. `I-I told you it was just a feeling. I'm sorry.'

'You have no cause to apologise. Neither do you need to worry about Lynn.' He said it with can-dour. 'You can rest assured that she's very much loved.'

Eve had to believe him, yet somehow the assur-ance gave her no comfort. She looked out of the window as they came down into the town, at the

10

twin towers of the cathedral rising on her left. La Laguna, once the capital city of the island, and now a university town as well as a holiday centre. Soon they turned off to the right and began to climb al-most immediately into the foothills. Within min-utes the cloud had lifted and broken, revealing clear blue skies and bright hot sunshine, and a view across the village to the sea, with the white sprawl which must be the port of Santa Cruz al-ready falling behind.

'How did you and Lynn meet?' she asked even-tually, feeling a need to break the silence which had fallen between them.

'She will tell you herself,' he answered. 'I would hate to spoil her story.' There was a note in his voice which Eve couldn't quite define. 'Meanwhile, I promise you that you're quite safe with me, chica.'

'It never occurred to me that I might not be,' she came back with as much dignity as she could mus-ter, and saw the glint appear in his eyes again.

'I think it did, but we'll let it pass. Perhaps while you're here we can do something to alter your opinion of the Latin male. You are looking for a husband yourself?'

'No.' 'Then you should be. In Spain you would already

be the mother of three at your age. Our girls marry young and stay married.' White teeth flashed in a smile. 'The little ones keep them out of mischief.'

'What a wonderful reason for having children,' she said with sarcasm, and succeeded only in widen-ing the smile into a grin.

11

'It's not the only one, I assure you. A husband must prove his virility for the satisfaction of all.'

Eve tried to imagine Lynn as a mother, and failed utterly. She still found it difficult to think of her as a wife—particularly the wife of this man next to her. Lynn was so young, so immature—un-less she had changed radically during her three months away from England, and that seemed un-likely. Yet Eve could have been sure that a man like Juan Perestrello would seek far more in any woman than just a pretty face and a winning man-ner, much less the one he was to marry.

They were climbing now through a forest of pine trees affording breathtaking glimpses of the valley floor far below. Ahead, between two lower peaks, was the first clear glimpse of the volcano itself, an inverted cone with its top depressed by some giant finger. There were occasional villas among the trees, few and far between and luxurious. The air com-ing in through the opened windows was clean and warm and heady with the scent of the pines.

' Not so far now,' remarked Juan when they had passed the twelve-mile stone out of Laguna. 'The villa stands at almost four thousand feet above sea level. In winter we sometimes have snow drifting down on to our doorstep.'

'You speak very good English,' said Eve diffi-dently, and the smile flashed again.

'For a foreigner, you mean. I went to school in your country for four years at the insistence of my father, who was half English himself.'

'Oh?' She gave him a startled glance. 'Then

12

you 'Have the same blood as yourself running in my

veins,' he finished for her. 'Though very much di-luted. You might almost say that we were cousins of a kind, chica, even before this.'

'Which side?' she asked, ignoring the last. Your father, I mean.'

'Maternal. Abuela lives down in Orotava with another of her sons since my grandfather died five years ago.' His tone altered, lost its mocking quality. 'An exceptional woman, capable of bending even Abuelo to her will when she so chose. You must meet her while you're here.'

While she was here. Two weeks. In that moment it suddenly seemed barely enough, though for what she wasn't quite sure.

'You said very little about your family in your letter,' she ventured. 'Is your own mother still alive?'

'Yes. Very much so.' He slanted a glance. 'It's still the Spanish custom for a whole family to oc-cupy the same home, and for the elders to be vener-ated as such by children and in-laws alike. Whilever she is alive Madre is head of our own household.'

Nominally at least, thought Eve, wondering if the emphasis had been for her benefit or in mental reaffirmation of some previous similar statement to Lynn. She could imagine her sister's reactions to the realisation that she would be number two female in her new home on her marriage; Lynn, who was used to being the kingpin in all her relation-ships. There would have been, or was going to be,

' 3

a whole lot of adjustment needed if this marriage was going to work out, and from what Eve had al-ready gleaned about the man at her side, most of it would have to come from Lynn herself.

Juan made no attempt to enlighten her further on the affairs of the Perestrellos, and Eve could not bring herself to ask any more questions. Shortly afterwards they turned off the road through a pair of iron gates, and ran along a rough gravel drive through the trees until they eventually emerged in-to a broad clearing overlooking the valley and the distant sea. The villa stood back, impressive in its size, beautiful in its clean lines and balconied up-per storey from which flowers and foliage spilled in profusion down the dazzlingly white walls. The front door was heavily studded Moorish style, set back under an arch. Fretted iron grilles covered the ground floor windows.

'Madre disliked almost everything about the place when my father first brought her here to see it,' confided Juan as he brought the car to a halt. 'Now she would live nowhere else. For myself, I think that the mountains contain the most beauti-ful of all the scenery on the island.' With scarcely a pause, he added, 'We'll find Lynn by the pool at this hour. She has no belief in the value of a cool hour in her room. Leave your case where it is. It will be taken directly to your room.'

Eve drew back the hand which had gone out automatically for the suitcase on the rear seat, and got out of the car before he had time to come round and open the door for her. Obviously amused, he

1 4

said, 'You differ greatly from your sister. She ap-preciates all of the small courtesies a man can offer a woman. Are you always so independent, or is it simply that I—how would you say it—rub you the wrong way?'

He was too near the mark for comfort; Eve had the feeling that he often would be. 'Perhaps I'm just not used to it,' she returned lightly. 'May I see Lynn right away?'

'Of course.' He indicated the paved pathway which curved out of sight around the far corner of the villa. 'We'll go by way of the grounds and come upon her by surprise.'

Accompanying him, Eve thought wryly that it surely wasn't too much to expect that Lynn might have made the effort to greet her at the door. Her sister certainly had not gained in thoughtfulness during her absence from home.

Backing on to the forest, the grounds to the side and rear of the villa were not extensive, but well laid out and carefully nurtured. The pool was set within a three-sided courtyard of white stone grille-work which formed a trap of reflected heat. Lynn lay gracefully on a long lounger under a gay um-brella, her slender curves covered by the briefest of bikinis, her long blonde hair tucked up under a matching scarf. She came swiftly to a sitting posi-tion as their footsteps impinged upon her con-sciousness, whipping off the dark glasses which were almost as large as her lovely face and smiling with all of the considerable charm of which she was cap-able.

1 5

'Evie I'm so glad to see you! Did you have a good journey?'

It was the same Lynn, sparkling, effervescent, and infinitely dear. The same—yet somehow not the same. Her eyes were too bright, her cheeks too flushed. Aware of Juan's presence, Eve found it difficult to act naturally as she kissed her sister's cheek and made the expected replies. She accepted the chair he pushed forward into the shade with-out looking at him.

'I can still hardly believe that I'm really here,' she said. 'It was all a bit of a shock.'

Lynn pouted prettily. 'Don't scold, Eve, there's a dear. I know I should have let you know before Juan brought me to the island, but everything hap-pened so quickly. How is Gavin ?'

'Very well,' Eve replied steadily. 'And I wasn't scolding, just commenting. Juan said on the way here that you would ...'

'Juan?' Lynn's eyes went from her face to that of the man who had perched himself comfortably on the end of her lounger, and some new expres-sion seemed momentarily to leap in them before she laughed suddenly and pushed at his arm with her outstretched toe. 'What have you been up to, Ramon ?'

'Nothing at all,' he answered without turning a hair. 'I never said I was Juan.'

'You never denied it either,' Eve pointed out with some heat, and he lifted his shoulders in a laughing shrug.

'It was far more interesting to allow you to go on i6

assuming that I was my brother—especially after you'd so clearly expressed your disapproval of me as a fitting husband for your sister.'

'I didn't say ...' began Eve. 'You didn't say, but you looked,' he interrupted

smoothly. 'And you were right. I could never equal Juan—in that capacity, or any other.' One lean brown hand reached out and stabbed at a bell push set into the arm of the chair. 'You would welcome a cool drink, I think. Do you have any special pre-ference?'

Eve shook her head, not trusting her voice. When she thought of all the things she had said to him on the way here she wanted to sink through the floor. Not that he hadn't asked for it, leading her on the way he had. The nerve of the man!

A manservant appeared from the direction of the house. Ramon gave an order in Spanish, and trans-ferred to a canvas chair as the man went off, lean-ing back to regard both girls with lazy interest.

'You're not at all alike in looks,' he commented. 'Lynn takes after her mother,' replied Eve. 'She

was quite a well-known photographic model about ten years ago.'

'And you have your father's features?' appraising them. 'A man of some character, I would say, and not a little stubbornness. Are you like him in other ways, too?'

'Too true she is.' Lynn said it lightly enough, but there was something in her smile which belied her tone. 'Dad and Eve were inseparable. Always going off on some jaunt together and leaving Mom and

17

me to our own devices. No one else got a look in.' Green eyes met black briefly and defensively.

'You were neither of you very keen on his kind of work,' Eve pointed out. 'And I only went with him when he was working on digs within reasonable distance of town. That one weekend you did go with us you hated every minute of it.'

'I should think so.' Lynn gave an exaggerated shudder. 'All that scraping and sifting just to get a look at an old paved floor '

'Mosaic,' corrected Eve patiently. 'That Roman villa was one of Dad's most important finds.'

'You didn't tell us your father was an archae-ologist,' put in Ramon, and Lynn shrugged.

'It never came up. He wasn't a well-known one, anyway.'

'Not to the general public perhaps. In his own circles he was regarded with a great deal of respect.' Immediately she had said it Eve wished she had held her tongue. She didn't have to defend her father to anyone, least of all a man who meant nothing to her at all. 'He was perfectly content with that,' she finished stiffly.

Ramon's gaze did not waver. 'I understand that both your parents were killed in an air accident?'

'Yes.' Even now it took an effort to talk about it unemotionally. 'Dad was to have made a lecture tour in the States, and I persuaded Mother to go with him.' She put on a smile for the elderly Spaniard as he placed a tall glass on the low table in front of her. 'Gracias.'

Lynn picked up her own glass and drank almost i8

half the contents at one go. caught Ramon's eye and gave a sudden little laugh. 'Oh, heavens, I forgot! Are you going to lecture me again?'

`No,' he returned equably. 'It's you who will suffer the most if you continue to take iced liquids so quickly in the heat of the day—although I doubt that Juan will be happy to see you ill. When do you expect him home?'

`I've no idea. I didn't ask. The usual time, I suppose.' Lynn sounded faintly put out. 'Aren't you going to have a drink with us?'

`Not now.' He was on his feet. 'I have to go to Puerto.'

'On business?' Ramon laughed, and touched her cheek. 'Si,

pequena hermana, on business. I'll be back in time for dinner.' His glance came back to Eve, and the dark head inclined mockingly. 'I look forward to continuing our discussion. Adios.'

He was gone, striding off down the path by which the two of them had approached the pool, long, lean, and vital. Despite herself, Eve found her eyes following him until he had rounded the corner out of sight. When she turned back Lynn was watching her with an odd expression.

'What did he mean, continue your discussion?' she asked. 'What did you talk about on the way_ up?'

'You mostly,' returned Eve. She coloured again at the recollection. 'Lynn, we've a great deal to talk about ourselves. How aid you come to meet Juan?'

The younger girl examined her nails with 19

meticulous attention. 'Through the family I was working for. He was visiting the mainland on busi-ness, and came to stay with the Rejons for a week. When he left I came with him.' She stirred rest-lessly. 'I suppose you'd like to see your room,'

'I wouldn't mind,' acknowledged Eve, recognis-ing that she was going to get the full story in instal-ments anyway. 'I feel terribly sticky and grubby, and I still have to meet Senora Perestrello.'

'Oh, you'll not see her before five,' was the in-different reply. 'She takes her siesta very seriously.' She got up, pulling on a flimsy jacket. 'I'd better show you where it is.'

Indoors it was dim and blessedly cool after the shimmering heat of the pool side. Eve went with her sister up a gracefully curving staircase with a balustrade of wrought iron, and along a corridor to a room shuttered against the sun and coolly tiled underfoot. The furnishings were few and simple, the decorations mostly white with touches of pale green. There was an adjoining bathroom, and Lynn showed her how to manipulate the shower.

'The water pressure up here fluctuates like mad,' she said. 'One minute it's a mere trickle, the next a flood. It's the one bit of excitement you can expect in an average day.'

Eve followed her back into the bedroom, watched her wander restlessly across to peer out

between the slats of the blind, said hesitantly. 'You can't be bored already, Lynn. You've only been here such a little while, and it's so beautiful. Besides ...'

20

'Besides, I've got Juan.' Lynn turned suddenly to face her across the width of the room. 'Supposing I told you I'd made a terrible mistake over Juan?'

Eve stood motionless for a long moment. 'Then I'd say,' she managed at last, 'that it's a good thing you found out before the wedding and not after. Have you told him?'

'Of course not. How can I when it's barely a month since I said I'd marry him?'

As long as that? thought Eve distractedly. That meant Lynn had been here on the island some three weeks before sending that letter. Surely the Perestrellos might have done something about in-forming her sooner than they had? But that was irrelevant at the moment anyway. She regarded her sister with a familiar sense of helplessness. 'But if you're so sure you've made a mistake you're going to have to tell him sooner or later. 214-e you so sure, Lynn? You must have believed you were in love with him when you accepted his proposal.'

'I suppose I was, in a way. He seemed so mature, so sure of himself compared with the boys I'd been going around with. And he's crazy about me.' This last with a complacency which made Eve want to shake her. 'They're in the tobacco business, the Perestrellos, you know. Cigar manufacturers. The factory is down in Santa Cruz. The family also owns a couple of banana plantations down in the Orotava valley. You must admit that security has its attractions too.'

'To a certain extent perhaps. Only I don't think it should be all-important. I take it the Perestrellos

21

haven't gone bankrupt overnight, or anything?' The irony was lost on Lynn. 'Of course not.' she

said again. She was beginning; to sound impatient. `So far as material things are concerned I could have anything I wanted from Juan.' Her voice changed. 'It wasn't until he brought me here that I realised what was missing. Ramon is the kind of man I should marry. What's more, he feels the same way.'

'He's told you that?' 'He doesn't need to.' Lynn's head was up, her

mouth curved. 'It's in the way he looks at me, the way he speaks. And today, pretending to you that he was Juan. It shows, doesn't it, that he wishes he was?'

How young she still was. thought Eve numbly. The same Lynn indeed, never content with what she had for longer than it took her to see something she considered better. Only this was different. This was someone's life and happiness she held in the palm of her uncaring little hand.

'Juan and Ramon are brothers.' she said. 'There are bound to be similarities which would lead you to feel an attraction for Ramon, but that isn't neces-sarily love.'

'What would you know about it?' Her sister's pretty mouth had tightened ominously. 'You can't even make up your mind about someone you've known for two years! What I feel for Ramon is quite different from anything I feel for Juan. only I didn't recognise the difference until I met him.

22

Compared with Ramon, Juan is so ... so slow!' 'You mean he's older?' 'No. That's what makes it so much more notice-

able. They're twins, you see. Both thirty, although I think Ramon is the eldest by an hour. He takes after his father, who was half English, while Juan is more like his mother. Ramon went to school in England, and he's travelled all over the world just about, while Juan stayed right here, quite content. I don't want to hurt him, but ...' She stopped, held out her hands appealingly. 'Eve, you've got to help me. Please l '

Eve said quietly, 'You want me to tell Juan for you, is that it?'

'Well, yes, I suppose it is.' Her voice was cajoling. 'You could do it so much better than I can. Explain things better. He'll understand. Actually,' she added, 'you're far more his type than I am.'

Suddenly Eve wanted to laugh. Hysteria, she thought. 'Oh, that would sort everything out com-fortably, wouldn't it?' she said. 'I take Juan off your hands, leaving you free to take up with Ramon. I'm sure the whole family would love that! '

'Oh, well, of course, if anything like that did happen we wouldn't stay on here,' returned Lynn with an airy practicality which left Eve speechless. 'I'd get Ramon to take me away somewhere, start a new life. We could live on the mainland and still be involved in the Perestrello affairs.'

Castles in the air. It had always been Lynn's 23

favourite game when they were both children, and she still hadn't learned to draw the line between fact and wishful thinking. Standing there, Eve be-came aware of a growing anger against the man who was the cause of all the trouble. Ramon no doubt found his brother's young fiancée very attractive, and saw no reason why he should not indulge in a mild flirtation with her, but that was as far as it went with him; his attitude by the pool had con-vinced Eve of that. In some ways that made his con-duct even worse. One could forgive a man suddenly and desperately in love a lot of things.

'Lynn, give it a little more time,' she begged. 'You might imagine yourself in love with Ramon now, but ...'

'I should have known you wouldn't understand,' said her sister disgustedly. 'It was a waste of time getting you here! ' She flounced to the door, turn-ing when she reached it to deliver her parting shot. 'The trouble with you is that you're jealous be-cause you know you couldn't attract a man like Ramon yourself. You always have been jealous of me!'

Eve sank slowly to a chair as the door banged. Lynn didn't mean all she said; it was just her way of hitting out at someone who had disappointed her. Yet what else could she have said or done her-self in a situation like this?

Fatalistically, she knew the answer. Lynn had to be convinced that Ramon had no real romantic interest in her, leaving her free to make up her mind about his brother once and for all. Someone

24

had to talk to him, and it seemed that it was going to be up to her to broach the subject, although just how she was going to do it she had no idea at all.

CHAPTER TWO

LYNN did not return during the rest of the after-noon. Eve rested in her slip on the bed for an hour, and at five was brought a tray of tea and cakes to-gether with the message that Senora Perestrello looked forward to meeting her guest before dinner in the salon.

Appreciating the gesture scheduled to make her feel at home, Eve gratefully drank two cups of tea and ate a cake, then spent the next couple of hours unpacking and getting ready for the evening. With no idea as to whether or not the Perestrellos dressed for dinner, she decided to play safe with a knee-length dress in lemon cotton simple enough to take the string of pearls which had been her parents' eighteenth birthday present. By seven-forty-five she was ready to leave her room and seek out Senora Perestrello in the salon, wherever that was.

The hall was empty when she went downstairs, and she hesitated at the foot, wondering which of the doors leading off it would be the one she wanted. As she was standing there one of them opened suddenly and a man came out. Apart from the fact that he was dressed in a dark suit and crisp white

25

shirt as opposed to the tailored slacks and casual cotton sweater in which Eve had last seen Ramon, the brothers were so much alike that at first Eve couldn't be quite sure which of them she was look-ing at. It was only when he looked up and smiled at the sight of her that she began to realise the dif-ferences. Juan was perhaps an inch or so shorter than Ramon, and rather heavier in build, and his eyes completely lacked the taunting challenge of his brother's.

'I am so very glad that you were able to come,' he said with obvious sincerity. 'I was sorry to be un-able to meet you at the airport as I had planned, but I am sure that Ramon managed excellently.' This last on a faintly dry note. 'You have seen Lynn, of course?'

'Yes, earlier.' She added quickly: 'I would have called for her now, only I wasn't sure which her room was. I've been resting for a few hours.'

'That was sensible,' he said. 'You will not yet have met Madre—my mother?'

'No, though she very kindly sent up tea for me. She is very considerate.'

'Yes.' He gave a wry smile. 'I wish that Lynn would try to discover this too. I'm afraid that Madre spoke her mind on the day that we discovered your existence, and Lynn has not yet forgiven her. It was a shock to all of us. I would not have dreamt of asking your sister to become my novia without first seeking your permission. You must believe this.'

So that was it! Had things gone as planned, Lynn 26

would have deliberately kept the Perestrellos in ignorance until after the wedding rather than run the risk of having her older sister say or do some-thing which might conceivably pull down her castle before it was finished. But things hadn't gone as planned because there had been Ramon, and sud-denly it had become necessary to have someone to help her wriggle out of the situation she had found herself in. Oddly enough, Eve felt no pain, just a kind of philosophical acceptance. That was Lynn, take her or leave her.

'She doesn't need permission,' she said in as light a tone as she could manage. 'She's fully of age.'

'Perhaps in your own country. Here ...' He paused, smiled a little. 'Our girls marry even younger, and yet in many ways they are far older than your sister. Lynn is so very vulnerable. The moment we met I wanted to cherish her, to protect her.' With simplicity he added, 'I love her very much.'

Eve's throat felt tight. Lynn didn't deserve a man like this, didn't know how lucky she was. In that moment she resolved that if Lynn was going to break off her engagement at all then she must do it herself, and with honesty. Juan deserved that much at the very least.

The sound of a car broke into her thoughts, and she felt her pulses quicken suddenly. Juan glanced at his watch, said, 'This will be Ramon,' and went to open the outer door as the car came to a stop in front. Watching him, Eve saw the broad back stiffen slowly. Then he was stepping back to allow

27

his brother and his fiancée free passage into the house.

'You're back early,' said Lynn with a hint of de-fiance. Her eyes bright, she glanced from Juan to her sister and back again. 'Ramon had to come back again this afternoon for something he'd for-gotten, so I did a quick change and went with him to Puerto.'

You should have let someone know that you were going out,' reproved Juan mildly, as he put his lips to her cheek. His eyes went beyond her to his brother leaning unconcernedly against a table just inside the doorway. 'It was hardly polite to leave our guest alone on her first day with us.'

'I understood you were resting,' said Ramon to Eve with a lift of his brow which included the lemon dress. 'You look fully recovered from the exertions of your journey.'

'I feel it,' she answered coolly. 'I was on my way to find Senora Perestrello.'

'So Madre has issued a summons,' Ramon grin-ned. 'You'll find her in the salon—down that corri-dor over there. Or would you prefer me to show you the way?'

'I will take her myself,' said Juan firmly, and then with a look towards his fiancée, 'Lynn ...'

'I have to go and change,' announced the latter with haste. 'I feel a wreck She looked charming, and knew it, and knew that the others knew it too. 'See you all at dinner.'

Ramon straightened lazily away from the table. 'I'd better go and change myself,' he said. He gave

28

Eve a long, deliberate wink in passing. 'Until dinner.'

Eve accompanied Juan down the corridor with confused emotions. Had Ramon really forgotten to take something with him earlier on, or had that simply been an excuse to return when she was out of the way and get Lynn to go with him? If the latter were true, then perhaps she was equally wrong about the strength of his feelings for her sister. Perhaps he did, after all, want her for him-self. The thought was somehow singularly depress-ing.

The room into which Juan showed her was simply but beautifully furnished in Moorish style, with heavy silk drapes drawn across the window embrasures. Señora Perestrello was seated beneath one of the wrought iron standard lamps, a tapestry frame in her hands. She was dressed in the tradi-tional black of her class, and looked aristocratic and faintly intimidating until one noted the warmth in the still lovely dark eyes.

'You are very welcome, nina,' she said formally. 'You are well rested after your journey?'

Eve replied in the affirmative, accepted the chair indicated and added, 'It's very good of you to in-vite me here, senora.'

'It is our pleasure,' with a smile. 'Naturally we wish to know Lynn's family. Juan, a drink for our guest.'

Her son moved to a side table set out with de- , canters and glasses. He poured two small sherries

and brought them over on another tray, offering 29

Eve first choice. When his mother had accepted hers, he replaced the tray on the table, smiled at them both, and left the room, closing the door quietly behind him.

'He is aware that we have things to discuss,' re-marked Senora Perestrello with an unexpected twinkle as she put her own glass down. 'Juan is a good son, and he will make your sister a good hus-band once he realises that a woman must have re-spect for a man to be happy with him. Do not mistake me; I am very fond of Lynn. But she has been, I think, somewhat over-indulged in her short life. She is already leading Juan what my husband would have called "quite a dance".'

Eve had to smile. She was going to like the Señora, which made the position she was in even more difficult.

'I think you may be right,' she said. 'Although Lynn can't be blamed for it. She was only very young when our parents were killed.'

'Yes, that was tragic indeed.' The words were genuinely sympathetic. 'You cannot have had a very easy time bringing up a young girl when you were so young yourself at the time. It is to your credit that she has turnd out as well as she has.' She looked with directness at Eve. 'You have already met my other son, of course. Tell me what you think of him.'

Confusedly, Eve said, 'I think he's ... very attractive.'

'Yes, he is all of that. Juan, too, is attractive, yet ...' She shook her head. 'There is a word you

30

have for it, this quality which Ramon possesses more of than his brother?'

'Magnetism?' supplied Eve, and thought wryly that the word had come too readily to her lips not to have been in the back of her mind before this moment.

'Yes, just so.' A smile hovered briefly. 'He is like his father was—and equally difficult to manage. I think sometimes that their grandmother has much to answer for in disrupting the old traditions as she did. Were it not for her both of my sons would already be husbands and fathers, with wives chosen from among the families of our acquaintance.'

'But had it not been for her,' said Eve daringly, 'you would never have met your own husband.'

'No, that is true.' The fine eyes twinkled again. 'And that is an experience I would not have missed. Will you not tell me more of yourself while you drink your sherry?'

Eve did so willingly, dwelling lightly on her work in the bank and describing the flat she shared —or had shared—with Lynn, but glossing over her own loneliness since her sister had left. Señora Perestrello listened with interest, interrupting only occasionally to put a question, her fingers busy with silks and needles.

'And you have no other relatives at all?' she queried when Eve could find no more to tell her. 'No uncles, or even distant cousins?'

'None that I know of. Both of my parents were only children in their respective families.'

`So there is something to be said for our own in- 31

stincts in favouring the large family,' commented the other. 'In Spain one would never be left en-tirely alone as you and your sister were.' She snip-ped off a thread, went on calmly, 'Now that you are here a date must be set for the wedding. It is a great pity that you cannot stay with us until then, but arrangements can be made for your return at the time. I think myself that it should take place soon after the feast of St Bartholomew—which would bring us to the end of August. Would that be suit-able?'

The end of August. Six weeks away yet, but still too close. Hardly knowing what to answer, Eve murmured something about consulting Juan and Lynn first, and received a surprised glance.

`Consult them if you will, of course, but it is the custom for the day and time to be arranged by the families of the bridal couple. Had Lynn only told us earlier of ...' She paused as a gong sounded from the hall, smiled and laid down her work. 'But there, we will continue our conversation at some other time. Now we must go to dinner.'

Juan met them in the hall and escorted them both to the white-walled comedor. They were all seated before Lynn put in an appearance, closely followed by Ramon. Seeing her sister's smile, Eve strongly suspected that the two had already met before entering the room, which made their reason for splitting up extremely suspicious. Throughout several courses, however, Ramon paid no more than a normal attention to the young woman sitting opposite him at the long table, but talked instead

32

of the festival to be held down in the town the fol-lowing week.

'It's lucky that you'll still be here then,' he said to Eve. 'It's one of the most colourful of our local fiestas. We must all make a day of it—including Madre,' with a smile in her direction.

Set-lora Perestrello smiled back, but shook her head. 'You must all of you see the fiesta, yes, but not in my company. I am past enjoying such a day as it should be enjoyed.' To Eve she added, 'There is a Battle of the Flowers in which the spectators join. One needs to be young and agile to withstand the press of the crowds.' She rose from the table. 'Come, we will leave our menfolk to their wine and their talk of matters which are not our concern.'

Back in the salon she poured coffee for all three of them, and they sat and talked for a while about inconsequential matters—that is, two of them con-versed while the third sat casting frequent and im-patient glances at her watch. Only when the door opened to admit the two men did Lynn's face finally relax.

Dinner had taken a long time, and by half past ten Eve could barely keep her eyes open any longer. She was grateful when Señora Perestrello suggested tactfully that she should have an early night after her journey. In her room she could not resist open-ing the shutters of her window to the night air for a few minutes, turning out the light so that it would not attract the moths, and stepping out on to the arched balcony which at this point overlooked the gardens to the rear of the house, and the steep fall

33

of the forest down to the valley far below. From where she stood the stars seemed almost within reach, and brighter than she had ever seen them before. Away on her left there was a glow in the sky which at first had her puzzled until she realised that it must be from the combined lighting of both La Laguna and Santa Cruz which lay so close together.

She had been standing there for a matter of minutes when she became aware of the smell of tobacco smoke rising on the warm air. Curiously she leaned forward to see where it was coming from, and saw a shape detach itself from the pillar im-mediately below.

'I felt the need of air myself,' said the lazy voice. 'And to stretch my legs, as you would say. Your tiredness has passed off?'

'No,' she answered swiftly, 'it hasn't. I only wanted to see what it looked like out here at night.'

'A pity.' He sounded regretful. 'There is a place close by from which it is possible to see the whole stretch of coastline.'

'Even in darkness?' she queried dryly, and he laughed softly.

'The darkness enhances all, chica. The twinkling lights of the coastline villages have a beauty which would gladden your heart. However ...' with a shrug more sensed than seen in the darkness ... 'Lynn tells me that you rise early.'

'I ... Well, yes, I suppose I do.' 'Then in the morning I'll take you to the mira-

dor. When the sun is up you'll feel safer with me, I think.'

34

'I don't ...' Eve began, and paused. She wanted to see him alone, didn't she? And what better op-portunity? 'All right,' she agreed with some trepi-dation. 'In the morning.'

'Excellent. I'll meet you on the terrace above the pool.' His hand came up and sketched a taunting salute. 'Buenas noches, Eve. Sleep well.'

The sound of her name on Ramon's lips lingered in her ears until she was back indoors with the shutters firmly closed against intruders, then was swamped by the swift return of the problems which beset her. Whilever this situation existed she and Lynn were both here under false pretences. One way or another she had to be sure of Ramon's in-tentions towards her sister.

Eve woke to a world of soft clear light in which every tree, every ridge, every mountain peak stood out in detail against the backcloth of azure sky. The air was still, the only sound the calling of birds. She dressed quickly in linen slacks and a cotton sweater and made her way down to the terraces. Ramon was already there, sitting on a wall, his lean frame clad equally casually. His face broke into a smile when he saw her coming, and he came to his feet.

'It's a lovely morning,' said Eve a little breath-lessly as she reached him, and she saw the dark eyes spark with amusement.

'Only the English find the weather of such vital importance.'

'Perhaps because we get so much of the other kind,' she returned promptly, careful to keep a

55

good eighteen inches of space between them as they moved along the terrace towards a high stone wall. 'Anyway, it's just a form of greeting like your Buenas dias. How far is this place?'

'A few minutes, no more.' He opened a tall iron gate and ushered her through on to a well trodden path leading directly in among the trees, pausing to close it behind him again. 'The mirador is open to the public, who sometimes find their way along this path and into the grounds—although I doubt that anyone will be there at this hour.' He slanted a glance. 'You're not afraid to be alone with me in daylight?'

'Should I be?' she asked lightly. 'It depends,' he answered, 'on what you might be

afraid of. It's natural for a man to want to kiss a pretty girl at any hour of the day.'

Eve's heart beat a little faster. 'Even if she doesn't want him to?'

He shook his head, smile mocking. 'But you do want me to, although you won't admit it to your-self. It's there in your eyes, the curiosity, the won-dering what it would be like to be kissed by a Latin. This Gavin Lynn spoke of, you allow him as much?'

'If I do it's between the two of us,' she retorted, determined not to let him rattle her.

'Lynn gave me to understand that he'll soon be your novio,' he went on imperturbably. 'True?'

'Perhaps.' 'Then you don't love him.' It was a statement,

not a question. 'If you did you wouldn't be taking 36

so long to make up your mind.' Eve said coolly, 'Lynn seems to have told you a

great deal.' 'We've talked together at times.' 'Is that all?' It was out at last. Not quite the way

she would perhaps have put it had she had time to consider, but how many ways were there of asking a question like that?

If she had been hoping to disconcert Ramon she was to be disappointed. 'If by that you mean have I made love to your sister, then the answer is no,' he said calmly. 'Had she been free that might have been a different matter. She's a very attractive young woman.'

And if she were free?' insisted Eve softly. There was a brief pause before he answered.

'Would I wish to marry her myself, is that what you're asking?' His glance was shrewd. 'Did Lynn ask you to question me on that matter?'

'You admit then that she could have reason to wonder?'

His shoulders lifted. 'I'm aware that she finds herself attracted to me. She makes little effort to conceal it. But she has no reason to believe that I might consider competing with my brother. No reason at all.'

So it was as she had suspected. Eve stuck her hands in her pockets. 'I wouldn't agree. You came all the way back for her yesterday.'

'I came back for some papers I had forgotten, and Lynn begged me to take her with me.'

'You didn't have to agree.'

37

'No,' equably, 'I didn't. It just so happens that I saw no cause to turn down the request.'

'Even knowing the way she feels about you.' He made a sudden impatient movement. 'Lynn's

feelings for me are no more than a passing fancy. Juan is more the man for her, only he still has to prove himself to her.' He waited a moment, then added in an altered tone, 'If you're so worried about the effect I have on her there's one very good way of overcoming it.'

She looked at him suspiciously. 'What?' 'By concentrating my full attention on yourself.'

His smile was disarming. 'It would be far from difficult.'

The telltale colour rose in her face. 'I hardly think that's necessary.'

'Oh, but from what you tell me it is. Sooner or later Lynn must make up her mind, and it's far more likely to be sooner if she thinks my interests lie elsewhere.'

'You mean pretend that you ... that we ...' Her voice tailed off.

'No, I didn't mean pretend. Why are you so afraid of emotion?'

'I'm not,' she denied quickly. 'I just don't like casual ... affairs, that's all.'

His laugh mocked her. 'An affair between the two of us would be far from casual, amada. I feel it in my bones! '

'Rheumatism probably,' she retorted. 'It must be the damp in here. I thought you said it was only a few minutes to this place.'

38

'It is. In fact we are there now,' as they rounded a ° bend in the track.

A moment later they emerged on to a tiny plateau jutting out from the mountain side for some twenty feet or so before falling again. Two large pointed rocks guarded the far edge like a pair of sentries at a gate. Eye walked on ahead of Ramon to the spot immediately between the rocks, and stopped abruptly. At this point the mountain-side dropped sheer into the valley thousands of feet below, giving a bird's eye view of several miles of the eastern coastline. Before her sky and sea stretched to infinity. Ev e felt her heart begin ham-mering, and her vision blurred suddenly. There was a clatter of loose stones from a great distance, then an arm came hard about her waist, dragging her back.

'Are you mad?' demanded a suddenly paler Ramon, shaking her. To you realise how close to the edge you were just then? Another second and you would have gone over ! '

'I know.' Eve was pale herself. 'I—I don't know what happened. It was as if something was drawing me.'

'Vertigo,' he said. 'I shouldn't have allowed you to venture so close alone. A height like this when you're not used to it ...' He searched her features, his hands still at her waist. 'You are feeling better now?'

'Yes.' His nearness was not helping her heart to regain its normal rate. 'Yes, I'm perfectly all right now, thanks. I'm sorry to have given you such a

39

fright.' She moved away, half relieved, half sorry when his hands fell without protest. 'It's a good thing you were here.'

'I do have my uses,' he rejoined on a dry note. 'And you'll certainly not come here alone at any time. I have your word on this?'

'Of course,' she said without hesitation, and he smiled.

'At least you'll accept my direction in some matters. Tell me, is it me or your own heart that you distrust?'

'Oh,' she said, 'are we back to that again?' One hand came up and tapped her lightly on the

chin. 'You'll learn that in Spain we are never very far from it. If your sister is to be convinced of our interest in each other then you'll have to try harder than this.'

'I thought the idea was that you should be in-terested in me,' she murmured.

'But all fires need feeding,' he returned, and a glint came into his eyes. 'You're afraid that I'll take advantage?'

Eve was certain of it, but decided against saying so at this particular moment. 'I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt,' she said instead. 'So long as you realise that I'm doing this for Lynn's sake.'

'Of course.' His smile was a taunt in itself. 'And I for Juan's. We'll return to the villa, shall we.'

Juan was coming out of the pool when they went back along the lower terrace. He saw them, and raised a hand in greeting, then came up to meet

40

them, tying the belt of a towelling robe about his muscular body.

'You are up and about early,' he commented. 'You have been walking?'

'I've been showing Eve the view from the mira-dor,' returned his brother easily. 'She thinks it is a lovely morning.'

Juan laughed, his glance flicking to Eve's face with something approaching relief in it. 'You ap-preciate our vantage point up here?'

'I think it's magnificent,' she said. 'Although I almost took too close a look at it. Isn't Lynn up yet?'

`Lynn,' said Ramon, 'is rarely up before Juan and I leave for Santa. Perhaps you can persuade her of the advantages of rising early.'

'I never could at home,' Eve admitted wryly. 'I always had difficulty in getting her up in time to have a bite to eat before going out.'

'What you English call a "bite" takes more time than most can spare,' was Ramon's dry response as they all moved towards the villa. 'I remember at school I used always to be overwhelmed by the amount of food that was expected to be tucked away after a night's sleep.' He grinned suddenly. 'How's my English slang after all this time?'

`Schoolboyish,' Eve returned promptly, and he [pinched the arm nearest to him.

'For that I shall extract retribution at a more 'suitable moment.' His eyes danced wickedly at her '[hastily controlled change of expression. 'A surprise, chica. Pleasant or otherwise I have yet to decide.'

He was going too far already, thought Eve fum-

41

ingly, unable to conjure up any spur-of-the-moment retort. She should have known that he couldn't be trusted to keep his word. Well, Lynn or no Lynn, there was a limit to what she would accept from him.

Señora Perestrello was already seated at the breakfast table laid out on a sunlit patio when Eve and Ramon got there, Juan having gone to put on some clothing. If she was surprised to see her son and her guest together she gave no sign of it.

'Buenas dies,' she said to Eve. 'You slept well?' 'Very well,' acknowledged the latter, accepting

a hot roll from the dish held out to her. 'It's so very peaceful here.'

'Yes,' serenely, 'it is. I would not like to live again in the town. Ramon must take you to Teide before you leave us. It has a peace and beauty all of its own up there.'

'I'd already planned to do that,' said her son, meeting Eve's eyes across the table. 'There are many places Eve must see while she's here with us. I'll be pleased to put myself at her disposal at any time when business is not too pressing.'

His mother looked from one to the other, and smiled. 'There is no reason why Juan cannot deal with business affairs alone for a while,' she said. 'Two weeks is such a short time in which to see all that is to be seen, and Eve cannot be allowed to travel the island alone.'

'I wouldn't be alone,' Eve put in quickly, sensing that things were getting away from her. 'Lynn would come with me.'

42

Senora Perestrello shook her head. 'Your sister does not appear very much interested in sightsee-ing, and two young women need the protection of a man just as much as the one. No, Ramon will accompany you wherever you wish to go, then I shall be at ease in my mind.'

'So that's settled,' he said with a gleam of de-rision.

'What's settled?' asked Lynn, entering the room at that moment. She looked fresh as a daisy in a white linen dress, but there was a frown behind the blue eyes as she looked from Ramon to her sister inquiringly.

'Oh, Ramon was just offering to take us both to see the island,' Eve said swiftly before he could speak. 'Isn't it good of him?'

'Very.' Lynn sat down in her place, still without having offered a word of greeting to Senora Perestrello (just thoughtlessness, Eve told herself, and hoped that the others realised it too). 'I heard you all out on the terraces a while ago. Did you go swimming with Juan?'

'No.' It was Ramon who got in first this time. 'Eve and I have been walking for over an hour. A very enjoyable hour. She and I appear to have many interests in common.'

Eve didn't dare to look at Lynn. She could have murdered Ramon. He was doing this with such de-liberation, telling Lynn in every way but the actual words that his attention to her was not to be mis-understood. It was cruel and unnecessary. Lynn

43

wasn't dense; she wouldn't need it spelling out for her.

Juan came in, his face lighting up when he saw his fiancée already seated at the table. It took so little to make him happy, thought Eve, watching him drop a kiss on her sister's slightly averted cheek before taking his place. Perhaps too little. If only he wouldn't make it so obvious that Lynn was the light around which his happiness revolved.

Lynn disappeared after the two brothers had left. Eve spent the morning with Señora Perestrello in a shady corner of the upper terrace, until the growing heat drove her to fetch a bathing suit and descend to the pool to cool off. The water was deliciously re-freshing. She swam a couple of lengths, floated a while and swam again, surfacing at the narrow end of the egg-shaped pool to find Lynn standing on the side waiting for her.

'I suppose you think you've been very clever,' she said bitterly as Eve climbed out of the water and squeezed out her streaming hair. 'What did you say to Ramon this morning?'

'I asked him what his intentions were towards you,' Eve admitted. She added appealingly, 'I don't want you to get hurt, that's all, Lynn.'

'You mean you want to make sure I don't get Ramon, don't you? I suppose you trotted out all that stuff about Juan being his brother, and the family honour and all that. Oh, I can just hear you! ' Lynn was working herself up into a rage. 'You want him for yourself, that's the trouble with you!'

44

Eve had to laugh. 'I've known him less than twenty-four hours. That's hardly long enough for me to decide on something like that.'

'You've known Juan even less than that, yet ob-viously long enough to decide that I should go ahead and marry him. But that's different, isn't it!

Eve hesitated. 'I think,' she said at last, 'that if you're going to marry anyone at all just yet, then Juan would definitely be a good choice. But I'm not sure that marriage is the right thing for you. You're only nineteen, Lynn. There are years ahead of you before you ought to start thinking of settling down.'

'Who said anything about settling down? With Ramon I wouldn't have to. He's modern. He doesn't think that a wife should be bound to the home like most of his countrymen—like Juan, for instance! Do you really think I'd even consider a life like his mother's? She's been into Puerto once since I've been here. Once!'

'Because Senora Perestrello is happy to stay at home it doesn't necessarily mean that it's expected of her,' Eve pointed out. 'And while I daresay it was once the accepted way of life for the women-folk to stay in the background, I'm sure that most of them today live more or less the same kind of lives as we do at home.'

'That's all you know. You haven't met any of them yet. Juan took me to meet some friends of

The family who have two daughters round about my age. You should have seen them, sitting there

45

with their sewing, speaking only when spoken to, and then only to agree with everything said. Like a couple of zombies I One of them is engaged—to a man chosen for her by her parents. I ask you!'

'From what I've heard, these arranged marriages often work out better than our own method,' Eve said mildly. 'So all right, some families still cling to tradition; I'm not going to condemn them simply because I don't understand their ways. But you're not going to persuade me that Juan comes into that category either. If he did he'd have made sure to choose himself a nice submissive little Spanish bride rather than a flashing-eyed English virago.'

Her attempt to raise a smile from her sister failed miserably. Lynn was in no mood for humour. 'He didn't choose me,' she said with a sniff. 'I chose him. And I've changed my mind.'

'Then you'd better tell him so. It isn't fair to go on letting him think you're in love with him when you're not.' Eve picked up a towel and began to rub her shoulders, although the sun had long since dried them off. 'We could perhaps get a couple of seats on a plane tomorrow. I can always send the Perestrellos the money for my own ticket when we get back.' It would leave her completely cleaned out of the savings she had managed to accumulate over the years, but that was something that would have to be faced later. For the present it was more essen-tial that the two of them stop abusing the Peres-trellos' hospitality as soon as possible.

'You can go if you want to. I'm staying put.' Lynn's mouth was set and mutinous, and Eve gave

46

a sigh. It was impossible to do anything with her in this mood; she knew that from long experience. But she had to try.

'Ramon won't marry you,' she said frankly. 'Even if you did break things off with Juan the most you could hope for is an affair with him—and somehow I think that even Ramon would draw the line at his own brother's ex-fiancée.'

'All right then, I'll have an affair with him.' Typically Lynn ignored the last remark. 'That would really give you something to worry about!'

Eve watched her stalk away with a feeling of helplessness. She had been wrong, it appeared; Lynn did need it spelling out for her. And what about Juan? What about the plans for the wed-ding even now taking shape in Senora Perestrello's mind? She had been here on the island less than twenty-four hours, and already she was right in the centre of a situation she couldn't even begin to know how to deal with.

CHAPTER THREE

IT was a smiling Juan who announced after dinner that as the following day was a Saturday, and there was nothing of any urgency requiring attention, both he and Ramon had decided to take the op-portunity of showing the girls some of the island's places of interest.

'We shall use one car only,' he said. 'With two

47

drivers the day will not be as tiring.' 'I shall have to sit in front all the time,' put in

Lynn swiftly. 'I get sick in the back on long journeys. Eve doesn't mind, do you?' with a chal-lenging look which dared Eve to deny it.

Eve murmured the only response she could make under the circumstances. Setting down her cup, she caught Ramon's amused glance, and thought sourly that he was being little help, although quite what she expected him to say or do she wasn't at all certain. The only thing liable to convince Lynn of the hopelessness of her dreams was some pretty plain speaking from Ramon himself, and that seemed unlikely unless he could be persuaded to take the whole situation more seriously than he appeared to be doing.

As it was she had spent a couple of hours with Señora Perestrello after siesta dreading the moment when the other would mention the wedding date again. As she hadn't, Eve could only assume that her acceptance of the time previously mentioned had been taken for granted, which was a relief for the time being, but hardly a matter she could just forget.

They set off right after breakfast next morning, with Juan driving on this first leg of the journey. Vibrantly conscious of the man seated beside her in the rear of the car, Eve took a great interest in the scenery she had first seen two days ago on her way to the villa, sticking rigidly to her own corner of the seat until a particularly tight bend caught her unawares and sent her sliding into his shoulder.

48

'Sorry,' she said confusedly. 'I didn't see that corner coming.'

`So I gathered.' His voice was dry. 'If you'd lean against me you'd have little difficulty in rounding the bends.'

'Thanks, I can manage,' she replied hastily. 'Which part of the island are we visiting?'

'The north-west coast. At Icod there is a dragon tree which you should find particularly interesting,' he added mockingly. 'It's said to be over three thousand years old.'

'Why dragon tree?' asked Lynn from the front, obviously feeling that it was time she made her presence felt. 'Does it look like one?'

`It looks like anything one wishes,' Ramon answered with lazy good humour. 'And it bleeds red when it is cut. If you're very good I promise not to throw you to it 1 '

'The tree gives off a resin which is used in the manufacture of varnishes, among other things,' ex-plained Juan. 'The resin itself is called dragon's blood.' He turned his head to give Lynn a smile Which faded abruptly when she refused to meet his glance. 'You are feeling well, amada?'

'Of course.' Her tone was short. 'Don't fuss, Juan.'

From where she sat Eve could see Juan's face through the driving mirror and her heart ached for him. He was so obviously trying his hardest to believe that everything was as it had first been between the two of them, but Lynn's attitude left little room for self-deception. She wanted suddenly

49

to take her sister by the shoulders and shake some sense into her. Didn't she care at all about the way she was hurting Juan?

No, it wasn't that she didn't care, came the thought. Simply that she failed to realise just how much he cared for her. Crazy about her, she had claimed on that first afternoon, and to Lynn that said it all. It wouldn't have occurred to her that some emotions went a great deal deeper than her own.

Today the skies were clear over La Laguna, and this time Eve was able to get a better look at the old city with its balconied houses and many churches contrasting sharply with the modern hotels springing up on its outskirts. From there they took the road out to the airport, continuing on past it through several villages of varying sizes and importance until they came within sight of the sea again on the western side of the island and en-tered the lovely Valley of Orotava. Down to the right lay the town of Puerto de la Cruz, dazzling white against the blue of the sea beyond.

They spent an interesting couple of hours at the Orotava Botanical Gardens viewing the many and varied plants originally brought to the island from America and Asia in order to acclimatise them for eventual transplant to the mainland. Interesting, that was, to Eve, who was delighted to recognise several varieties of plant life without having to refer to the catalogue. Lynn was frankly bored, and didn't bother to conceal her relief when they were on their way again.

50

At Icod there was a pause to drink coffee at one of the cafés in the shady main square with its pan-oramic views over the valley, before continuing on through the town to see the famous dragon tree and marvel at the grotesquely twisted trunk and tremendous height and breadth. Then it- was on again to the lava-covered town of Garachico, where the few old buildings remaining included a tiny fortress called the Castillo de San Miguel which had no less than five coats of arms carved over its doorway. Some short distance out to sea there were two rocks surmounted by crosses signifying the prayers of the inhabitants to be spared another disaster.

Even here the eye of enterprise had seen pos-sibilities, and attractive bathing places had been constructed in the lava covering the sight of the former harbour, with a café thrown in for good measure. Food had been packed for them at the villa, and with a couple of bottles of wine from the café the four of them adjourned to a quiet spot to enjoy a swim before they ate.

'We're not going to stay here for the rest of the day, are we?' said Lynn in some disgust when neither of the men showed any signs of preparing to move after the meal. 'There's nothing here ! '

'There's the sea,' remarked Ramon lazily with-out bothering to open his eyes. He had his back against a shady rock and looked quite content to stay there indefinitely. 'And the thoughts of what once was here where we're sitting now. Under the lava flow are buried people who lived and laughed

5 1

and loved just as we do today until that night al-most two hundred years ago when Teide claimed them.'

'Oh, don't! How awful! ' Lynn looked at him askance. 'Was it really like that?'

'Well, probably not. I imagine they would have warning enough at this distance to be clear of the town before the lava reached them.' He opened on eye and grinned at her expression. 'I was simply adding the interest you wanted.'

'Is that what you call it 1 ' But Lynn was smiling at him, fully aware of the picture she made in her red bikini against the background of black rock. 'You really are the limit, Ramon! And why this sudden need to rest? You don't usually take a siesta.'

'There are siestas and siestas,' he observed. 'And today I feel idle.' He was looking at Eve now, stretched out on a towel a few feet away; she could feel his gaze even through her closed lids. 'Why don't you copy your sister and relax for a little while?'

'Because I don't feel like relaxing,' she snapped back, the smile vanishing. She scrambled to her feet. 'I'm going to have a look round. Are you com-ing, Juan?'

Juan didn't need twice asking. Eve sat up to watch the two of them climb down over the lava to reach the path. When she looked round at Ramon his eyes were dancing.

'How did I do?' he asked. She said dryly, 'You'd do a whole lot better if

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you'd try being consistent. One minute you're smiling and joking with her, the next telling her to run away.'

His shrug was easy. 'The sight of your sister would bring a smile to any man's lips. Are you saying I shouldn't even find her attractive?'

`No, of course not. All I meant was ...' Eve hesi-tated, searching for the right words, and saw his grin come and go.

'You're not even sure what it is you do mean,' he said. 'If I'm to blame for this infatuation Lynn feels for me, then I'm the one who must decide on the best way to deal with it.'

'But you don't think you are responsible, do you?' she came back. 'You still deny that you gave her any encouragement at all.'

Again came the shrug. 'I was naturally attentive towards my brother's novia. A Spanish girl would accept this as her due without reading more into it than was intended.'

'Lynn could hardly be expected to know the rules.'

'I said nothing about rules. Only the immature fail to recognise the difference between admiration of a pretty face and genuine desire. Lynn has the body of a woman, but in many ways she's still a child who wants only what she hasn't already got.'

It was like hearing her own thoughts put into words, but Eve had no intention of letting Lynn down by agreeing openly with him. She said quietly, 'Then why did you say that Juan was the right man for her when according to what you've

53

just said she isn't ready for marriage with anyone?' 'You're putting words into my mouth again.

Marriage is what she does need. Marriage with a man like Juan who will exert a steadying in-fluence.'

'He doesn't seem to be doing very much in-fluencing at the moment,' Eve pointed out. 'Lynn appears to have him wrapped around her little finger.'

'It takes a lot to bring Juan to the point at which he begins to boil,' was the even reply. 'But when he does reach that point then he's a man to be reckoned with. Lynn will learn that much for herself quite soon, I think.'

'You really believe they will eventually get married then?'

'That's up to the two of them. It has nothing to do with either you or me.' He pushed himself into a more comfortable position. 'I think we've talked enough about that. Now we'll talk about ourselves. Tonight I'll take you into Puerto and we'll paint the town into the early hours.' His tone challenged her to refuse him. 'I have a feeling you like to dance.'

'I do,' Eve admitted, and thought fleetingly of Gavin, who hated it. 'But I don't think ...'

'It's settled. I've already told Madre that we'll be out to dinner.' He said it firmly. The others must make their own arrangements. This is sup-posed to be a holiday for you as well as an op-portunity to judge the Perestrellos for yourself. Tell me,' he went on with a return to his usually

54

lazy tones, 'what you think of us up to now.' 'What you really want to know,' returned Eve

on a deliberately light note, 'is what I think of you!'

`So?' The dark eyes were taunting. 'I think,' she said after a moment, 'that you're

very Spanish, and that I don't understand you at all well.'

'The understanding is not important as long as the emotions are clear. You don't deny that you're aware of me as a man?'

Eve conjured a smile. 'I imagine all women are aware of you in that way. You make sure of it. But you don't have to be afraid that I'll start taking you seriously too.'

`Ah no. You're far too sensible.' His tone was suddenly enigmatic. 'You see me for what I am, so that is what I shall be. There will be no pre-tence between us.' He reached out a hand for his slacks and shirt. 'The others are returning, and we have a long drive back. Are you quite dried off?'

Eve confirmed that she was and began to get dressed herself. By the time Lynn and Juan reached them they were both of them ready to move, and Ramon suggested that they should set out for the car with the basket and rugs, leaving the other two to follow on when they were dressed.

Eve waited until they had reached the car be-fore saying tentatively, 'Ramon, about tonight ...'

Ramon let down the lid of the boot and looked at her. 'If you're about to ask if I'd consider making it a party, then the answer is no,' he said unequivoc-

55

ably. 'You wish to change your mind?' 'I can't remember being given much of a chance

to make it up in the first place,' she answered with irony. 'It is settled! '

His mouth widened. 'You object to having plans made for your entertainment without first being consulted?'

'Well ... no. Of course not. I mean ...' She spread her hands ruefully. 'You're adept at confusing the issue.'

'The issue here being Lynn's possible reactions to our plans for this evening.' He studied her shrewdly. 'Your sister is old enough now to look after herself. So she may not like it that I should take you out alone. That's too bad. Juan will appreciate the opportunity to have his novia to himself for a while, and I would appreciate the company of her sister, also alone. However ...' with a philosophical shrug ... 'if you don't want to accompany me ...'

If she didn't there would be no shortage of those only too ready and willing to take her place. Eve surmised, and knew then that she had never had any real intention of refusing the invitation. Just this once she was going to please herself.

'I do,' she said firmly before she had time to start changing her mind. 'And thanks for thinking of it.'

His mouth curved. 'The pleasure is mine.' Lynn and Juan were coming across the lava flow

towards them. Lynn was a little in front, and seem-ingly determined to stay there. She looked sulky, and there were two spots of high colour in her

56

cheeks. When she reached them she got straight into the front passenger seat of the car and sat there stonily, totally ignoring her fiancé as he came up.

Juan's eyes were troubled, but he made no at-tempt to talk to her, climbing into the rear seat with Eve and settling back with a faint sigh. Won-dering what had passed between them while they had been alone, Eve wished that Juan would only learn to conceal his feelings more. The best way to deal with Lynn's little tantrums was to jolly her out of them, not let her see that they were having the calculated effect.

They took a different route back to the villa, driving up through the Orotava Valley to a place called El Portillo at the entrance to the volcano's main crater, and then down again past the TV mast and the Observatory via a road which wound peri-lously close to the precipitous mountain edge, and afforded views which took the breath away with their sheer magnificence.

`This is nothing compared with what you'll see from the very summit itself,' commented Ramon as both girls exclaimed involuntarily at one particular awe-inspiring vista. 'At twelve thousand feet or more you'll find yourselves on top of the world, with even the clouds hundreds of feet below. Up there the air is thin and cold, and the silence unbeliev-able.'

'How poetic,' said Lynn with a distinct edge to her voice. 'Are you adding colour again?'

There was a glint in his eyes as he answered her. 'We all of us do that at times. Today has bored

57

you?' `No,' she denied swiftly. obviously already regret-

ting her snappy retort. 'I just found it rather tiring, I suppose.'

'Then it will be good for you to rest this evening,' he said, and found Eve's eyes in the mirror as he added shamelessly, 'It appears that your sister and I must dine alone in Puerto.'

Lynn's head came round sharply. She opened her mouth to say something. thought better of it and subsided into a silence which lasted until they reached the villa. Getting out of the car, she an-nounced shortly that she was going to her room, and left the three of them gazing after her with varying expressions as she Bounced up the steps.

Ramon said something softly to his brother in Spanish, received a wry smile and a brief shake of the head by way of reply, and shrugged as he turned back to Eve. 'We'll leave the house about eightish and have a drink on the plaza first. You have time for a rest yourself before we go. It will be the early hours before we return.'

Lynn's door was closed when Eve passed it on the way to her own room. It was the wrong time, she knew, yet she couldn't bring herself to leave things as they were at the moment without at least at-tempting to bring them into perspective. Her tap on the door, however, went ignored, and when she tried it it was locked. So that was that for the pre-sent. Short of breaking the door down there was no way of getting through to Lynn.

There was still no sign of her sister when Eve 58

descended the stairs at seven-thirty. Señora Peres-trello was alone in the salon, the inevitable em-broidery in her fine hands. She nodded approval of Eve's long cotton dress with its tiny sleeves and fresh green flower pattern, and was obviously pleased that Eve had taken the trouble to come and visit her before leaving.

Ramon arrived some twenty minutes later, look-ing vital and devastatingly handsome in a white dinner jacket and black cummerbund. He kissed his mother goodbye without embarrassment, laugh-ingly promised to take good care of their guest, and took Eve's hand in his as they went out through the hall and down the steps to the car.

`You look,' he said before he closed the door, 'like everything that is good in both our languages! '

He took the moonlit drive down into Puerto de la Cruz at a steady pace, arriving there about nine. The plaza was thronged, most of the tables under the lantern-lit trees already taken. But an empty one appeared as if by magic at the bar chosen by Ramon, and the proprietor himself hurried out to serve them, greeting him by name and casting glances of unconcealed curiosity at Eve. In the fol-lowing half hour they were barely alone for longer than a few minutes, as people kept coming across to pass the time of day. Eve was introduced so many times that she quite lost count of the many faces, and knew that she would never fit them to the right names. Not that it mattered, she told herself. She would hardly be here on the island long enough to find herself in company with any of them again. A

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thought which gave rise to a sense of depression which she quickly and firmly smothered. Tonight she was going to enjoy herself without worrying about tomorrow for once.

Dinner at a nearby restaurant was followed by dancing at an open-air nightclub overlooking the sea. Heady with wine and the sheer stimulation of Ramon's company, Eve wished that the night could last for ever. She hadn't realised how much she had missed dancing since Gavin had come into her life. What else she had been missing she wasn't yet quite sure, and she shied away from exploring too deeply. All she did know was that in three short days her whole body had taken on a new vitality.

It was gone three o'clock by the time they even-tually left the club to drive home, yet Eve still felt no tiredness. Ramon had all the windows wound fully down, and the night breezes were revitalising in themselves. He drove fast through La Laguna and along the first part of the mountain road, talk-ing and laughing companionably. When they turned off suddenly to the right it took Eve un-awares, and for several moments she couldn't decide whether the mistake was his or hers. Only when the road they were on petered out into a track which ended abruptly in a small clearing overlooking the Orotava Valley did she begin to realise that his in-tentions were not yet homeward bent.

'Is this where you bring all the women you've taken out for an evening?' she asked stiffly as he cut the engine.

` No.' He said it quite calmly. 'I thought that you 6o

might like to see the valley by moonlight on a night as clear as this. The great patch of lights down there to the right is Puerto, while the nearer ones are those of La Orotava where my grandmother lives. Not many lights left shining there. It's a town which sleeps early.'

'Sorry,' said Eve wryly after a moment. 'I thought ...'

'You thought I brought you here to make love to you. Yes?' There was an element of irony in his voice. 'I'll not pretend that the idea hadn't entered my mind. For hours I've held you close with your lips only inches from mine. I'd hardly be a man if I didn't want to kiss them, and you'd be concealing the truth if you denied that you too tasted the urge. Do kisses have to be taken so seriously?'

Eve swallowed on a sudden tightness in her throat. 'I told you I didn't like casual affairs. If I kiss someone it has to mean something.'

'And when you kiss your Gavin, this means some-thing?' mockingly. 'Tell me what you feel when he takes you in his arms. Does your heart pound in your ears and your breath grow short? Do you feel weak at the knees and dazed with emotion?'

'Is that what happens to your women?' she quer-ied tartly.

He laughed softly. 'There's one way of finding out.' His hand cupped her chin, tilting her mouth to his. Eve resisted weakly, aware that it was just a token struggle, aware that she wanted him to kiss her, had been wanting him to all evening. And then his arms were about her and all pretence had

6i

suddenly gone as her own lips softened and yielded —responded. When he put her away from him he was smiling.

'Well?' 'So you've kissed a lot of women,' she said with

forced lightness. 'And now you can add me to the list.'

'But you enjoyed it.' It was a statement, not a question.

'You meant me to, didn't you?' She was back in her corner of the seat, determined to give him no further opportunity to undermine her resistance like that. Her heart was pounding, there was no doubt about it. 'It's very late,' she added quickly. 'Shouldn't we be getting back?'

'We have time to smoke a cigarette and enjoy the peace,' he came back equably. He took out his case and offered it to her, flicking a satirical brow when she refused. 'You smoked earlier.'

'Only half a one, she rejoined. 'I don't really like them.'

'But you have no objection to my own indul-gence?'

'No, not at all.' She watched him light up, fol-lowed the curl of smoke into the still air, said ten-tatively, 'I wonder if Lynn and Juan have made it up yet.'

The movement of his shoulders was eloquent. 'If they haven't there's nothing you can do to help them. It's up to Juan to sort out his own problems.'

'Is that what you told him this afternoon when Lynn left us at the door?'

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Momentarily his mouth widened. 'This after-noon I suggested that it was perhaps time to teach your sister a much-needed lesson, but he didn't agree. He has more tolerance than I have—perhaps too much. I would have spanked her.'

'Oh, please,' Eve protested. 'She's nineteen, not twelve! '

'Today she acted twelve. Lynn can be the most charming of young women, but she's too fond of her own way. If your father had taken the same interest in her that he took in you and his work she might not have needed a firm hand quite so badly as she does now.'

'Are you saying that my father fell down on his responsibilities?' she demanded with some heat, and he smiled a little.

'I realise that for you he could do no wrong, but yes, that is what I'm saying. Lynn was also his daughter; it wasn't her fault that she failed to share his enthusiasms in the way you did yourself. In Juan she may at first have seen those qualities she was deprived of : love, protection, even discipline.'

'And in you ?' asked a suddenly thoughtful Eve. 'If what you say is true then why should she find you the greater attraction now?'

'Because Juan has disappointed her and she hopes to arouse him into asserting himself by deliberately making him jealous. She may not realise it, of course, but it's true.'

'In your opinion.' 'In my considered opinion ...' with an amused

glance ... 'it's the secret desire of all women to be 63

mastered—to have a man prove to them that he's fit to be called one. You'd have little liking for a mate who allowed you to wrap him around your little finger. That's probably why you refuse to marry this young man of yours.'

'I haven't refused,' she returned with some asper-ity. 'And as you don't know him you're hardly in a position to pass comment on his personality. Gavin doesn't have to prove himself in any way to me. I like him the way he is.'

'Like? That's no basis for a marriage.' His lip curled. 'The truth is that you're afraid of the heights and depths of passion, afraid of being hurt. So you'll make yourself content with the shallower emotions and go on denying your real needs—just as you did a few moments ago when I kissed you.' He was watching her face, and now his voice softened and deepened. 'We only have the one lifetime, chica. Why not enjoy it while the flame still flickers?'

And then what? thought Eve tremulously. For a man like Ramon the flame would flare with brief intensity and die a natural death, but for her ... Her throat contracted. 'I'm tired,' she said un-steadily. 'It must be after four.'

The pause seemed to go on for ever. Then he smiled, shrugged and switched on the ignition. 'As you prefer. There'll be other times.'

Not if she could help it, Eve told herself as the car began to move again. The dangers of allowing her-self any kind of relationship at all with Ramon Perestrello were suddenly only too apparent.

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CHAPTER FOUR

WHATEVER had passed between Lynn and Juan during the Saturday evening, it appeared to make little difference to the former's general mood over the rest of that weekend. She barely spoke a word to Eve on the Sunday, and studiously ignored Ramon's presence at the pool side. To Eve, who had seen it all before, it was plain that she was desper-ately unhappy and unsure of herself, and that the only thing to do was to wait until she had come to terms with her own wayward nature. No matter what she decided she would have her own full sup-port.

On Monday, with the two men departed for Santa Cruz, the villa seemed unnaturally empty. Unwilling to admit that she had already learned to miss the taunting challenge of Ramon's presence, Eve took herself off to walk up through the forest to the nearest village, a matter of a couple of miles or so, arriving there hot and dusty to find that the only shop the place possessed had no postcards of any kind at all for sale. Had she thought about it earlier she could have asked either Juan or Ramon to bring her back a selection from the town, she realised with some vexation, uncomfortably aware of the frankly admiring glances being cast her way by the group of men lounging outside the little bodegon further down the main street. As it was, she now faced the return journey empty-handed, with her only comfort in the fact that at least the

65

way back lay downhill. She arrived back at the villa at noon, to find her-

self on the receiving end of a severe scolding from Señora Perestrello for failing to leave some intima-

tion of where she had gone .

`I was about to instruct that Ramon be fetched to look for you,' she said. 'Had you asked my advice I would have told you that the village could not fulfil your needs, and that the walk there would be far too tiring in such heat. You will promise me that you will not think of doing such a thing again.'

Eve promised readily, forbearing to mention that Lynn had been informed of her intentions. She found her sister lounging as usual by the pool. Tackled on the subject, the latter said airily that she had completely forgotten.

'Anyway, I can't see what all the fuss is about,' she finished ungraciously. 'You're capable of look-ing after yourself.' There was a brief pause, and her voice took on a harder note. 'In fact, you're cap-able of a whole lot of things I'd never have sus-pected. I've always looked up to you, Eve, as being above stooping to the kind of tricks I'd expect from anyone else, but you're really no different under-neath. I hope you enjoyed yourself with Ramon on Saturday night.'

'I did,' Eve replied steadily. 'He can be very good company, providing you don't take anything he says seriously.'

`And you wouldn't, of course,' with sarcasm. 'I suppose you'd like me to believe that you never even let him kiss you.' Perhaps fortunately she

66

didn't bother to wait for an answer to that one. 'What is Gavin going to say when he hears about you gadding about with another man?'

'It has nothing to do with Gavin,' returned Eve in the same even tones. 'We're not engaged or any-thing. In any case, there hasn't been anything for him to object to.'

'Yet.' Lynn gave her a dark glance. 'You're here for another eight or nine days, remember.'

'That's rather up to you.' Eve bit her lip, uncer-tain of how to handle the subject. 'Lynn, have you any idea at all of what you're doing to Juan? He thinks the world of you, you know.'

'Yes,' she said, 'I do know. Sickening, isn't it?' The cruelty of it left Eve feeling rather sickened

herself. She said sharply, 'You know, I think Ramon was right—you do need a good slapping. For two pins I'd do it myself 1 '

'Just you try,' was the biting response, 'and I'll push you into the pool! ' The blue eyes were spark-ling with angry tears. 'And you can tell Ramon to keep his opinions to himself in future. Who does he think he is! If he hadn't encouraged me I'd never ...' She broke off, turning her face away and dashing a hand furiously across her eyes. 'Oh, go away and leave me alone, can't you! Everything was fine before you came '

'Lynn.' Eve made an impulsive movement to-wards her, then checked. 'Darling, don't upset your-self like this. Please! ' There was only a momentary hesitation before she added swiftly, 'Look, if you want me to I'll tell Juan that the engagement is off,

67

and we can go home together, back to the flat. You'll easily find another job.'

`Just you stay away from Juan! ' blazed the younger girl. 'Don't you dare tell him anything! I'll decide for myself what I'm going to do when I'm good and ready, and not before. Until then you can just mind your own business! '

Nothing, decided Eve firmly, was going to per-suade her to fight any further over this with Lynn out here where anyone could overhear them. 'All right,' she said. 'If that's what you want. Only just try to remember that we've neither of us any right here if you've no intention at all of marrying Juan, and I .

for one don't find it pleasant to accept hospitality under false pretences.'

And with that she turned and dived into the pool to cool off.

The following two days were apparently busy ones for both of the brothers, and it was dinnertime before they put in an appearance each night. Eve welcomed the diversion of their company, even while dreading the ordeal of an evening spent hop-ing that no one would notice Lynn's animosity to-wards her, or that if they did they would regard it, as she herself was doing, as best ignored. Lynn had been hurt and she wanted to hurt someone back. Ramon was impervious anyway, so the obvious al-ternative was Eve. In a day or two she would get over it and they would be friends again. Lynn's moods seldom lasted longer than that, and often melted quite unexpectedly. Meanwhile, it was un-fortunate that Juan, too, must bear the brunt of

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damaged pride. 'Tomorrow you'll have been, here a week already,'

remarked Ramon on the Wednesday night over cof-fee on the terrace. 'It's been unfortunate that our -

plans for the last few days didn't quite work out, but this coming week will be better.' He glanced at Eve with a smile. 'I think it's time you met Abuela. Lynn found her difficult to understand. .I think.'

'Not at all,' said the latter shortly. 'She didn't like me, and I didn't care very much for her.' We under-stood one another perfectly.'

'That is hardly true,' protested Juan. 'It was you yourself who stated that she disliked you.'

`For a very good reason, because she made it ob-vious.' Lynn didn't even bother to look at him. 'You forget we're both English.'

Ramon said dryly, 'Abuela has lived in Spain for fifty years.'

A shrug was his only answer, and Eve saw his eyebrows lift. She was glad that Señora Perestrello wasn't with them, having retired early to her room with a slight indisposition. Lynn really was behav-ing abominably.

'I'd love to meet her,' she said quickly. 'Hasn't she ever been back to England in all that time?'

'Only on occasional visits to see her relatives,' replied Ramon, abandoning his speculative ap-praisal of his brother's novia. 'Now they're all dead she sees no reason to return. Spain is her country.' He paused to blow cigar smoke at a moth hovering around his head, went on, 'I'll take you down to Orotava tomorrow for lunch, and you can also meet

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some of our cousins. Six of them altogether. A pro-lific line the Perestrellos.'

Juan laughed. 'That is hardly our only claim to fame. It was a Perestrello whom Cristobal Colon himself chose to marry. You would know him as Christopher Columbus, of course,' he added to Eve.

Lynn got suddenly and jerkily to her feet. 'I'm going for a walk,' she announced in a tight little voice. 'Don't bother,' as Juan made to rise also. 'You stay here and discuss your family tree. I'm sure Eve will be fascinated by all the details I ' She took a couple of steps. then swung about to face them, her expression one which Eve, at least, recognised as the defiant alternative to tears of frustration. 'I'm sick of the whole lot of you, do you hear me! '

Juan was the first to break the small silence. 'I think,' he said very quietly, 'that you had better apologise.'

The change in his demeanour must have got through even to Lynn, but it was not in her nature to back down. 'Why?' she demanded. 'Because you don't like to hear the truth? I'm bored, Juan. 'Bored! Bored! Bored! And I don't care what you think! '

His eyes flashed as she turned away with a toss of her blonde head. When he moved it was with a speed which made Eve blink, seizing Lynn by the wrist and yanking her towards him. Next moment she was across his knee and being spanked with a vigour which jerked cries of pain from her lips as she struggled helplessly to free herself. When he did' set her back on her feet her whole face was aflame.

7o

`You ... You ... You beast ' she spluttered furi-ously. 'Who do you think you are! ' Her glance swung wildly in Eve's direction. 'Are you just going to sit there and say nothing? Don't you care what this ... this monster does to me! ' Her face crumpled suddenly, and she gave a small choking sob. 'Damn you,' she said tearfully, 'I hate you all! I'm going to pack! '

Juan watched her disappear indoors, an odd ex-pression on his face. Then he caught his brother's eye, grinned suddenly, and followed her.

`I suppose,' said Eve on a carefully expressionless note, 'that he imagines she will now fall straight into his arms and beg for forgiveness. He doesn't know her very well.'

` No,' returned Ramon equably, 'you don't know her very well. Would you care to gamble on the out-come? If Lynn is of the same mind when you see her again I'll personally arrange your departure from here in the morning, and escort you to the air-. port. If she has decided to stay after all ...' A smile crossed his lips. 'We must give that part of the wager some consideration, I think.'

`Don't be ridiculous! ' Eve was not at all in the mood for his brand of raillery. 'You think every-thing is one big game, don't you? You couldn't be helpful if you tried. I believed Juan was different until I saw that look he gave you just now. He doesn't care about humiliating Lynn like that in front of the two of us. Her feelings don't count pro-viding he proves his own superiority ! ' She was being both unfair and a little ridiculous herself,

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she knew, but she couldn't help it. Ramon's ap-parent readiness to see them both out of the way if necessary had stung in a way which made her want to sting back. 'There are ways of dealing with Lynn which don't have to include physical violence, but you're both of you too ... too steeped in antiquated ideas to recognise them! '

Ramon was lying back in his chair with a freshly-lit cigar, totally unmoved by her outburst. 'My own methods of dealing with such scenes differ greatly from woman to woman,' he said lazily. 'You, little one, require a far more subtle approach than your sister.'

'I am not one of your women! ' she snapped, saw his grin and immediately regretted having risen so predictably to the bait. 'Anyway,' she added in more controlled tones, 'I shall hardly be here long enough, whatever happens, to tax your subtlety in any way.'

'No,' he agreed, and waited a moment before adding casually, 'You'll no doubt be relieved to re-turn to the ways of men you can understand.'

'And appreciate,' she tagged on. 'Don't underesti-mate anything about the English—male or female. We have a saying: "what we lose on the swings we gain on the roundabouts".'

'You have a saying to cover every occasion,' was the dry reply. 'With so much time spent exchanging them it seems a miracle there's any left over for any-thing else. Are you going to be content to spend the rest of your life with a man who sees you only as the keeper of his home?'

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'That's untrue.' Despite everything she could do to stop it, Eve's voice had a tremor in it, partly from annoyance and partly from some other emotion she dared not examine too closely. 'There are different ways of showing one's feelings. Just because Gavin isn't as demonstrative as some it doesn't mean his regard is any less ... any less ...' She bit her lip, aware that she had already given too much away.

'Passionate?' suggested Ramon, and his lip curled. 'A man content to wait two years for your answer? You'd be tired of him within as many weeks '

'You're wrong.' Eve was sitting forward on the very edge of her chair, body taut as a bow string. `To you love and passion are the same thing. Well, they're not; they're two separate parts of a whole. Passion fades after a time, but in a real relationship it doesn't matter because there's a firm foundation underneath.'

He was looking at her with an unreadable ex-pression. 'Passion fades quickly only where the emotions are casual. And yours could never be that, chica. You told me so yourself. If you marry this man you'll never know fulfilment. For the rest of your life you'll yearn for what your senses will tell you could have been. Now, tell me you have a saying to comfort you in this too '

Eve kept her head slightly bent. 'And what would your advice to me be?' she managed with a coolness she was a long way from feeling. 'To have an affair with someone like you first so that I might know exactly what I was missing?'

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Mockery sprang into his eyes. 'Why someone like me when I'm already here, and available? I assure you that afterwards you'd not be content with any-thing but the best of lovers.'

' Modesty doesn't exactly form a large part of your make-up, does it?' Eve responded with a sarcasm donned with deliberation. 'I suppose I should feel grateful for your offer.' She came to her feet abruptly. 'I think I'll have an early night myself.'

`Buenas noches,' he said jeeringly. 'Spend a rest-ful night, chica.'

Lynn came to Eve's room early the next morning as she was dressing, slipping in to stand with her back to the door and a faintly sheepish expression on her face.

'I've been a pig, haven't I?' she said frankly. 'I honestly don't know why you put up with me.'

'For obvious reasons,' Eve replied, smiling back at her. She paused. 'I take it we're not leaving this morning after all?'

Lynn's colour deepened slightly, and then she laughed. 'All right, don't rub it in. I got what I was asking for, I admit it.' Her voice altered. 'You know, it's an - odd thing in this day and age, but there's something about a man who decides that he's going to be the one to wear the trousers. Juan said last night that it was time I grew out of all these silly ideas about equality and partnerships, that there was nothing inferior about women compared to men, but simply that as women we're entitled to the love and protection of the man we choose as our

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mate, and for that surely a little respect was a small price to pay.'

`It's over-simplifying,' said Eve after a moment, 'but I know what he means. Where the man is the main breadwinner then I might even agree.' She looked at her sister again and shook her head. 'You should be in your element as a Perestrello. You're just about as unpredictable as they are!' This time her pause was a fraction longer. `No more secret pining for Ramon?'

'Ramon?' Lynn laughed again and shrugged. 'Oh, I suppose he's got something that Juan will never have, but when it all boils down I'm not all that sure that I'd want him to have it. I mean, with Ramon you'd never be quite sure ... well, that you could keep him, I suppose. Whereas I know that Juan feels too deeply for me to even bother about other women.' This time there was no hint of com-placency in her voice, just a quiet kind of pride and wonder. 'I do love him, Eve. It's just that I lost sight of what I first saw in him for a little while.' She flicked a finger under the collar of her flimsy wrap. 'I'd better go and get dressed before Pedro or Maria see me wandering around like this. I just thought I'd come and set your mind at rest.' Her smile was warm and happy. 'Now you can set about enjoying the rest of your stay as it should be enjoyed. By the way ...' halting in the doorway ... 'did Señora Perestrello get around to mentioning plans for the wedding date yet?'

'As a matter of fact she did,' said Eve, determined not to be surprised by anything after this. 'How does

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the end of August suit?' 'As long as that?' Lynn wrinkled her nose. 'Poor

Juan!' Poor Juan indeed, thought Eve ironically as the

door closed. Life for him would never be quite the same again once he had married his 'Kate'. Her smile disappeared as she met her own eyes in the mirror. Lynn was happy, Juan was happy, Ramon ... well, who knew what he was thinking? As for herself, that was better left alone.

For the first time since coming to the villa Eve was able to enjoy a meal without sensing the under-currents that morning. With a little effort she was even able to meet Ramon's taunting glance as she took her place. Whatever were Señora Perestrello's conclusions on the subject she kept her own counsel, but her eyes were twinkling as they rested on the faces of her son and future daughter-in-law.

'Today Ramon tells me he is to take you to meet -his grandmother,' she said to Eve. 'She will be very pleased to see you, and to hear some small items of news of her former homeland. Her wits are sharp still, despite the fact that she is almost eighty years of age, but the stroke she suffered last year has slowed her speech some small amount so you will have to make allowances.'

'If she heard you now she'd very soon recover the full power of her tongue,' said Ramon, obviously amused by the preparation. `Abuela considers her faculties as in no way impaired by her inability to make her mouth move as fast as she would like, and she's still capable of expressing herself with direct-

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ness, as we were discussing last night ...' with a sly glance in Lynn's direction. 'She and Eve will have much in common, I believe.' He lifted a brow at her. 'I'll be back to collect you at noon.'

'And Lynn and I will spend the hour before lun-cheon discussing the plans for the wedding,' put in Señora Perestrello, and was rewarded by a smile from the former. 'You must tell me the kind of dress you would prefer and ...'

'Isn't that my province?' put in Eve impulsively, and then in some confusion as everyone looked at her, 'I mean, it's customary in England for the bride's father to pay for everything of that nature, and as we haven't ...'

'As you now have no father, and as this is not England,' continued Señora Perestrello kindly but firmly as Eve paused, 'there is no question of who is responsible for such matters. We are now Lynn's family—or very soon shall be so—as we are also your own. You must always feel welcome here.'

Eve murmured her thanks, conscious of the smile on Ramon's lips. She blessed Juan for passing off the moment by asking her to have more coffee.

The morning passed pleasantly. After bathing as usual she walked almost to the mirador before, mindful of her promise to Ramon, turning back to take the other path up through the trees instead, acknowledging the sense in his demand. Or was that a sign, she found herself wondering a little uneasily later on, that she was also learning an automatic acceptance of the male will?

Noon found her ready for Ramon's return in a

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simple white dress with a softly gathered skirt and elbow-length sleeves. With it she wore a floppy-brimmed hat in soft yellow straw which she had bought for the wedding of a colleague at the bank the previous summer, and had thrown in among her packing at the last moment on the off-chance that she might just have need of it. She was waiting on the steps when the car arrived. He looked her over appraisingly, expressed his approval of her appear-ance and held open the door for her with amuse-ment in his eyes as he regarded the tilt of her chin.

`You object to admiration?' he asked. 'No,' she returned. 'But I do object to being

vetted. I'm quite capable of suiting my appearance to an occasion.'

`So I see.' He was unperturbed. 'I have yet to see you looking more English. I'm sure Abuela will be suitably impressed.'

Eve looked at him quickly and away again. He was too sharp by half. She hadn't even been con-sciously aware herself of having deliberately em-phasised the nationality that Ramon's grandmother had given up until this moment. They made the journey to La Orotava via the Portillo and down over the ridge of the Monte Verdi, passing an ancient and curiously designed aqueduct on the way, and then the hospital, before dropping to a street named San Francisco which had many fine houses carved with the coats-of-arms of their owners along its length.

Their own destination lay further down into the town itself behind a high stone wall bright with

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bougainvillaea. Ramon left the car parked outside the wrought iron gateway and took her into a white-walled courtyard shaded by a couple of plane trees. The house was old Spanish, full of archways and alcoves and big dim rooms where the furnishings overpowered. Whatever English blood, and conse-quently taste, had been passed on had apparently concentrated itself in Ramon's father. They found the old Señora Perestrello awaiting their arrival in a high-backed chair in the salon, hands clasped loosely in the lap of her long black dress, eyes alive and shrewd as she watched Eve's approach.

'So you are the other's sister,' she said in English with some slight hesitation between the words. 'A madam, that one, but she has met her match in the Perestrellos.' She patted the arm of the chair set be-side her. 'Come and sit by me, child, and tell me your news of the old country. Does the weather im-prove these latter years?'

`From what I hear it's more the other way round,' Eve replied, taking the chair. Tut there's still no-where quite like England in springtime.'

`Spoken with true loyalty,' applauded her hostess. Tut one's home becomes wherever one's heart lies. This you will one day discover for yourself.' Her glance went suddenly to her grandson standing with his back to the ornate fireplace listening to the con-versation, and she added something in Spanish which Eve couldn't catch, and which it was doubtful she would have understood in any case. Ramon flicked a look at Eve, smiled and answered in the same language. 'Si usted tiene razon,' which Eve

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could just work out to mean `You're right' or words to that effect—a construction that advanced her un-derstanding very little.

For perhaps ten minutes or so they talked of Eng. land, with the Señora showing a surprising interest in such things as the latest Hampshire county cric-ket scores, and the racing form of various horses—items on which Eve was unable to contribute a great deal.

` My own father was a sportsman of some repute,' the other revealed after a few minutes, obviously taking pity on Eve's bewilderment. `He played for the county for several years back in the twenties. My own interests lay in the horses, although of course in those days racing was not a profession in which a young woman could involve herself without some loss of reputation.' Eyes twinkling, she went on, 'In many ways I believe it was something of a relief to all my family when I announced my imminent mar-riage to a foreigner who would take me away from all such temptations and teach me obedience. A female black sheep was too much for their constitu-tions to weather.'

`Their loss was our gain,' said Ramon with a laughing-eyed gallantry that brought a slow chuckle from the lips of his grandmother. `Without you where would the Perestrellos be today 1 '

`Without me where would you yourself be to-day?' she came back. `It is the mingling of my blood and your grandfather's which makes you what you are.' Her tone was indulgent. `Sometimes I think that perhaps in you the mixture was over-infused!'

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'But not regretted,' he said, and for a moment his eyes sought Eve's. 'We're all of us what we make of ourselves.'

`And most of us happy to be that way,' she flashed back, forgetting for an instant where she was.

Señora Perestrello looked from one to the other and a faint smile crossed her lined features. 'I'm feel-ing A little tired now,' she said suddenly. 'You will find the children out in the garden doing something quiet as I told them to. Perhaps you will bring Eve to see me again before she leaves the island, Ramon. I shall take luncheon alone in my room today.'

'Of course, Abuela.' His voice was unusually gentle. He bent and touched his lips to her cheeks. Adios.'

'Hasta la vista,' she replied. Outside the door Ramon looked at Eve with quiz-

zically raised brows. 'Well?' Eve took in a breath. 'She's ...' She paused, seek-

ing the right words to describe what she felt about the woman they had just left ... 'like no one else I ever met. A real character. She must have been very beautiful when she was young.'

'She was. As fair as Lynn, with the bones which defy time and age.' He took her arm. 'Come and meet the younger half of the family.'

There were four children ranging in years from about twelve right down to a toddler of three in the garden at the rear of the house, looked after by an elderly woman in the traditional dull dress of the Spanish nursery governess. They greeted Ramon with obvious delight, the younger boy jumping eag-

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erly into the arms stretched out to him to rub his curly head against his cousin's chin and chatter away nineteen to the dozen in his own language while examining Eve with bright curiosity over the broad shoulder. The older ones were rather more re-strained, politely greeting her in English when introduced and inviting her to take a seat under the shade of the trees. A little while later they were joined by Ramon's aunt and her eldest daughter who had been out visiting friends, and Eve found herself once more the object of female speculation as Juanita took a seat beside her on the wrought iron bench.

'I have already met with your sister,' she said in somewhat halting English. 'You are not very much alike in features.' There was a slight pause before she went on, 'The betrothal date has been agreed upon?'

`Yes, it has.' Eve felt a pang of sympathy as a faint cloud passed across the vivacious face. Hopes had been harboured here, too, that was plain. Perhaps within the family itself there had even been an ar-rangement of sorts before Juan had returned from the mainland with his bride-to-be. Cousins often married in Latin countries. 'It's to be after the feast of St Bartholomew.'

' said Juanita, and was silent for a moment before switching her gaze to her other cousin who was conversing some distance away with her mother. `And you are to be betrothed to Ramon—yes?'

'No,' Eve returned hastily, hoping he hadn't heard. `No, I'm only here for another week as a

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guest, and then I must go back home until the wed-ding (five whole weeks!). Ramon thought I might like to meet your grandmother.'

`Ah, yes, Abuela,' with a smile. 'She is a very un-usual person, is she not?'

`Very.' This was something Eve could say with conviction. 'You're very lucky to have her. I'd love to have a grandmother like that.'

Juanita laughed. 'Of us all I think that there is only Ramon who is not just a little afraid of her. He has always been her favourite because he is so like his father—her firstborn. Padre is also half English, of course, but it would never be guessed.'

Luncheon was served at the usual late hour, a light almost lazy meal with thoughts of siesta to fol-low. Afterwards the mistress of the house elected to go to her room for the quiet hour, and as the chil-dren were already in the nursery quarters that left Juanita to keep Eve and Ramon company on the patio.

' Manuel will be sad to have missed your visit with us,' she said when they were all settled in a shady corner. 'He has a strong desire to visit your country himself.'

'Encouraged by Abuela,' said Ramon lazily. 'Sometimes I believe she does it simply to anger Tio Jose because he refuses to be anything but what he is. Even now she is as difficult to manage as ever she was when Abuelo was alive.' He changed the subject, flicking a glance over the lovely little face of his cousin. 'And you, Juanita? What of your future? It's time you were thinking of a husband.'

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'I am only yet seventeen,' she replied with a lift of her small chin which reminded Eve of Lynn.

`Tio Jose has his eyes on a suitable match for you, I believe,' he went on as though she hadn't spoken. 'The eldest son of the Peraza family, isn't it? Very suitable! '

'I do not care for him.' Her eyes were flashing. 'He has ears which stick out!'

Her cousin let out a snort of amusement. 'There is more to a man than his ears, pequena primal Diego is a fine young man with excellent prospects. He will make you a good husband.'

'He is dull ! ' she hissed at him furiously, and then she saw the twinkle in his eyes and started to smile herself. 'You are teasing me again, Ramon. I should have known it!' She sobered once more. `Ah, but it is all very well for you. You do not have Padre to fight against. I often wish that I also had been born a boy!'

`And deprived the world of such beauty?' Ramon shook his head at her, but the mockery was gone from his glance. 'Ask the help of Abuela. She will speak for you to Tio Jose. You can't be forced into marriage with a man you don't love, nina.'

'Si.' Her smile was suddenly brighter. 'I will do that.'

It was Juanita who saw them off when they had rested a while longer, standing at the side gate to wave to them until the car had turned the corner on to the main street. Eve glanced at Ramon as he headed up the hill, said softly, 'You really do believe in setting the cat among the pigeons, don't you?'

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` Meaning?' he inquired without taking his eyes off the road.

'Well ...' She was aware that the family affairs of the Perestrellos were no concern of hers, yet some-thing pressed her on regardless ... 'encouraging Juanita to defy her father, for one thing.'

`So? You'd prefer that she marry a man she doesn't love?'

'Well, no, I don't suppose so. It's just that I thought arranged marriages were the accepted thing here.'

'Only in those families which refuse to relinquish the old traditions, and among the Perestrellos only Tio Jose clings on.'

'What about your aunt?' 'Tia Lucia is little help. She stands in awe of her

husband.' 'While your grandmother obviously doesn't.' A smile touched his lips. 'Abuela fears no man,

certainly not her own son. It's unfortunate that the only quality he inherited from her was her stub-bornness. They're like two mules at a gate; neither giving an inch.'

Eve said slyly, 'I seem to remember you telling me that the old were venerated in Spanish families as head of the household. Surely then, as a good Spanish son, your uncle should be prepared to bow to his mother's will?'

The glance he shot at her had a glint in it. 'You are looking for an argument?'

'No,' she answered innocently. 'Just trying to get 85

things straight. I must admit I find it all a bit con-fusing.'

They had left the town and were climbing the hill towards the aqueduct. Ramon brought the car to an unexpected halt, took her by the shoulders and kissed her hard and purposefully on the mouth, then set her back in her seat with a gleam of deri-sion.

'Now you're even more confused,' he said. 'You'd like me to explain our customs further?'

Eve shook her head, wondering what had pos-sessed her to imagine that she might get away with taunting Ramon without retaliation.

'We'll count that as part payment of our wager last night,' he added, putting the car into motion again. The rest we will ...'

'We will not.' Her voice at least was steady. 'We'll just forget the whole thing, if you don't mind

'But I do mind. As I was about to say, we'll leave the rest for another time.' He lifted a mocking brow when she failed to respond. 'Come now, what is there to be annoyed about in one unexpected kiss?'

'It's not the kiss I mind so much as your assump-tion that I won't mind,' she retorted. 'You think you only have to lift your little finger to have women fall over themselves to accept your favours! '

'True,' he agreed blandly, and Eve knew a sud-den reckless desire to pierce that hide of his just once.

'The trouble with people like you,' she began scathingly, and then stopped because he was openly laughing.

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'If you're hoping to make me angry you won't suc-ceed this way,' he said. 'Always with a woman there's this need to test the limits of tolerance, the tantalis-ation of wondering what would occur should break-ing point be reached. Nothing frustrates her more than a man who refuses to rise to the bait, eh?' with a grin. 'Should you find my own Achilles heel it will be in circumstances quite different from these, chica, so you may as well save both your breath and invention.'

Eve subsided ruefully. He really was impossible. And, she suspected, a bit too close to the truth for comfort.

Ramon took her to the door of the villa and han-ded her out of the car with his customary courtesy, but left the engine running. 'There is still work to be done,' he said. 'I'll go now and relieve Juan for a while.'

Eve said carefully, 'Then I suppose we'll see you at dinner?'

She received a shake of the dark head in reply. 'Tonight I have an engagement elsewhere.' Smiling he put out his hand and lightly tipped the brim of her hat. 'Tomorrow the fiesta. Adios, chica.'

With that he got straight back into the car and house wondering if his dinner date was male or female, and hoping against forlorn hope that it might be the former.

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CHAPTER FIVE

FOR the first time the evening seemed to drag, the food to taste less interesting to the palate without the added spice of Ramon's presence. Lynn had a great deal to talk about, chattering on excitedly about the wedding plans while Juan looked on toler-antly. Listening to her sister and watching her with her fiance, Eve found it hard to believe that a little under twenty-four hours ago this vivacious, laugh-ing girl had been looking so different. Lynn's needs were simple: a man she could love and look up to, a man who loved her enough to take the rough with the smooth. For Eve herself the problem was in no way simple because she wasn't even certain what it was that she did want. On the one hand was Gavin, quiet, dependable, familiar Gavin, while on the other ... no, not Ramon. There was no question of that. And not even someone like him, because there wasn't and never could be anyone quite like him. But perhaps somewhere there was someone with just a few of those qualities which brought her alive in this way she had never experienced before. Was that worth waiting for?

Her first thought when she woke the following morning was that she had now less than a week to go on the island. Only the realisation that this was the day of the fiesta saved her from the rising sense of depression. She got out of bed quickly, showered, and put on the dress she had chosen as suitable for a day like this, a cream cotton banded about the

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skirt and sleeve edges with multi-coloured ribbon. Juan was in the pool when she went out to the ter-race. She waved to him, and saw his arm come up in answer as he swam to the side. A moment or two later he joined her, smoothing back his damp hair.

`You look very gay,' he said. 'You are eager to be-gin the day?'

`I'm very much looking forward to the fiesta,' she confirmed. 'I've never been to a Spanish one before.'

`The beginning of the year is the best time of all,' he said. 'In January we have the bullfights down in Puerto in which all the young men take part. There is also a festival of song, and the crowning of the town's Queen. Perhaps next year you will be able to see that.'

`Perhaps,' agreed Eve lightly, doubting that she would be spending all that much time commuting between here and home. The expense apart, she had a feeling that after the wedding it would be better if she didn't see Ramon again for a long, long time. Meanwhile, and paradoxically, the thought that she was coming back again in August was the only bright spot on her horizon.

`You are reconciled to the idea of a Spanish brother-in-law?' asked Juan unexpectedly after he had lit a cigarette, jerking her out of her thoughts.

She looked at him in some confusion. 'Have I given the impression that I might object?'

He smiled. 'You have given the impression at times that you find the whole of the family over-whelming, and I have seen the doubt in your eyes. Our ways are not your ways, and you have wondered

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if Lynn will adapt, if she can be truly happy so far from her homeland?'

'I may have done once, not any more. Your grand-mother said yesterday that home was wherever the heart was, and I think Lynn has given hers into safe keeping.' She turned slightly away from him, self-conscious over her own turn of phrase, looking out over the valley already misted with heat. 'Few people could fail to adapt to such an environment.'

'Then stay with us,' he urged. 'Make your home with us. There is no need for you to go back unless you yourself wish it.'

Eve caught her breath. Stay here with Lynn. Be-come a part of this vivid, vital household. See Ramon every day. The swift flare of nameless hope waned and died. She conjured a smile, a regretful shake of her head. 'It's a lovely thought but ...'

'But far too impulsive for our cautious English Miss,' put in a satirical voice, and Ramon pushed himself away from the pillar where he had been leaning. 'Eve could never leave behind so much that is dear to her heart to throw in her lot with such as us, Juan. There's her work for one thing; her inde-pendence ! '

'If that is so essential there are jobs to be had here on the island,' said his brother mildly. 'You could even be the "English spoken" of our own place of business,' he added with a twinkle.

'We both speak English,' Ramon reminded him dryly. 'And what about the man she is to marry? The man who is to cherish her so tenderly through the rest of her years. Would you have her simply

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forget a man like that?' He was addressing his brother, but his gaze was relentlessly on Eve, sardon-ically studying her reactions. 'This is what she wants so this is what she must have—yes?'

Her head lifted a fraction. 'Yes,' she agreed. She smiled again at Juan, wondering at the body's abil-ity to accept direction from a mind which felt so totally at odds with itself. 'As I was saying, it's a lovely thought but hardly practical. Anyway, thank you for thinking about it.'

His eyes went from her to his brother, then back again. 'The choice is yours,' he said. 'I will see you at breakfast.'

Left alone on the terrace with Ramon, Eve drew forward a chair and sat down. She felt him move up behind her and closed her eyes as if against the glare of the sun. 'It's going to be hot down in Puerto,' she said.

'The air will be warm wherever you and I are to-gether,' he came back. 'It's the way we react on one another.' He added on a different note, 'I've an-noyed you?'

'Why should you have?' she asked without open-ing her eyes, then she sat up with a startled cry as her chair was hoisted round by the wooden arm. 'Why did you do that?' she demanded of the mad-deningly smiling figure now facing her.

'Questions, questions, .always questions ! ' he mocked. 'I did it because I'm not in the habit of addressing the back of a head, sweet and shining though it may be.'

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`It wouldn't occur to you to walk round, I sup-pose. ,

` No,' he agreed, 'it wouldn't.' He studied her, his upper lip faintly curled. `Tell me,' he said, `had I not interrupted would you have given Juan's sug-gestion some serious consideration?'

Would she? Could Juan have persuaded her against all her doubts—against her very nature even? Eve swallowed, said slowly, `You'll never know, will you?'

`I know. There's no shadow of a doubt! You'd have said no because you're afraid to stay here and accept what is between us. Afraid to realise the emotions I stir inside of you.' Eyes glinting, he leaned forward with a hand on each arm of her chair, trapping her there. `Supposing I tell you, amada, that one way or another I always get what I want in the end. What would you say to that?'

Eve sat motionless, conscious of his nearness, of the male scent of his hair, of the olive skin stretched taut across the bones of his cheeks, and the danger of drowning in the depths of the dark eyes. `I'd say,' she managed, `that this was one time you were going to be disappointed.'

His laugh and the flick of his finger at her chin were almost a disappointment in themselves. 'I could have said it for you. The very words. One day, chica, you'll learn the value of surprise '

`If I'm so predictable,' she responded tautly as he straightened away from her, 'then I don't need to tell you anything at all. Just leave me alone, Ramon!'

He paused in the act of putting a cigarette to his 92

lips, regarded her consideringly for a long moment. 'You really mean that?' he asked at last on an odd note. 'You don't want me to come near you any more?'

'Yes.' She had a sensation of being drawn inexor-ably along on a stream which went nowhere that she

a wanted to be, and knew no way to stem the flow. 'Yes, I do mean it.'

'Very well.' He looked at the cigarette in his hand, shrugged, and flipped it over the edge of the terrace into the shrubs below. 'Then that's how it will be. Come, pequena hermana,' with a jeering smile. 'We must keep up your strength with a little food! '

The town was thronged when they reached it, the narrow streets alive with colour and gaiety. Chil-dren seemed to be everywhere, dashing hither and thither with multi-coloured balloons blown up into fantastic shapes, brown legs going like pistons, eyes sparkling in eager little faces. Ramon had ensured a good view of the cavalcade by hiring a room over a cafe on the route, with a balcony large enough to take the four of them in reasonable comfort. The clamour of voices rose about them from the crowds surging below, rich with excitement and the happy knowledge of the day's holiday ahead.

The thud and boom of drums heralded the ap-proach of the procession, and Eve leaned forward eagerly as the first floats came into view around the corner of the street, piled high with flowers and vines and laughing senoritas in local costume who threw streamers and confetti into the crowds. Guitar

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music throbbed on the air, mingling with the cheers and laughter and cries of appreciation which greeted the various themes. There were vendors selling charms, toys, trinkets, food—anything one wanted, a thousand throats taking up the catchy tune of Spain's latest pop parade hit. Several times Eve saw girls on the floats glance up towards their balcony and wave a hand, and knew that they were acknowledging Ramon at her back. One in partic-ular not only waved but blew a kiss into the bargain, and she heard Ramon laugh as he no doubt returned it.

As the cavalcade began to pass on the crowd star-ted to follow, and Lynn tugged excitedly at Juan's arm. 'We're going too, aren't we? There's more than this?'

'Of course.' Laughing, he flung an arm about her shoulders and made for the door, obviously taking it for granted that the other two would follow.

Ramon indicated the throngs filling the street below. 'You wish to have your toes stepped on, your shins kicked, your sides full of elbows?'

'You make it sound like torture rather than fun,' Eve retorted, trying not to think about pressing through that crowd down there with Ramon close at her side. 'Where are they all going?'

`To the plaza. For the battle. Not for the weak or the frightened.'

Eve glanced back at him. 'You don't want to go yourself?'

His smile was pure malice. 'I want whatever you want. It's in your hands.'

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'Then we'll go along,' she said firmly. She leaned over the balcony to call out to Lynn and Juan who had just appeared in the street below. 'Hi, wait for us! '

'See you in the plaza,' called back Juan cheer-fully, and they were gone in the crush, leaving Eve to turn back slowly to meet Ramon's bland gaze.

'So,' he said, 'we go alone. Unfortunate, but you appear to be stuck with it. Try to think of me as a brother.'

'Stop it!' she said irritably, and saw his eyes crinkle at the corners. 'If you can't annoy me one way you'll try to do it another,' she snapped.

'And succeed apparently in every way. This morning I took you at your word, and that didn't suit you either. Do you want to change your mind?'

'No.' She moved quickly away from him to the door. 'I want to go to the plaza and find the others. If you don't want to come then stay here!'

'And leave you to the mercy of the crowd out there?' He came after her, caught her by the hand and drew her along with him so swiftly that she al-most fell down the narrow stairs on top of him. 'That would never do. You want company, you shall have it.'

The flowing tide outside had thinned out a little, but was still heavy enough on the ground to im-pede free movement. For Ramon, however, the very difficulty seemed to present a challenge at which he threw himself with enthusiasm, dragging Eve along behind as he cleft a way through the multitude, un-til eventually, breathless and dishevelled, she had

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to plead with him to rest a moment. 'You're doing it on purpose,' she accused when he

had drawn her into a convenient doorway. `If all these people are going to the plaza there can't be all that much of a hurry.'

'If all these people are going to the plaza we'll be lucky to even see the edge of it,' he returned practic-ally. 'Either we go my way or we don't go at all—in which case I shall put you in the car and take you back to the villa before returning to find the others.'

'I bet you would!' she said furiously, not at all sure just what it was she was so mad about but know-ing only that at this moment she could cheerfully hit him. With a slight detour on the way, no doubt!'

'Temper!' he reproved. His eyes were dancing `If I fail to arouse one kind of passion I can always fall back on another, it seems. You're improving, chica mia. A week ago you'd never have allowed yourself such lack of British control, yet look at you now : flashing eyes, clenched fists We'll make a Latin of you yet!' Laughing, he caught her hand which lifted almost involuntarily from her side. `No, that would never do. Not unless you want to be kissed until you don't know your head from your heels. Is that what you want?'

Hardly knowing whether she was standing on her head or her heels, she said unsteadily, 'I told you what I wanted this morning.'

'Oh, yes, you told me. And I agreed to see your reactions. Shall I tell you how you looked?' He had hold of both of her hands now, holding her there in front of him, ignoring the glances directed their

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way by the passers-by. 'You looked disappointed. You expected me to smile, to ignore what you tell me, to pull you into my arms and prove my own words.' He shook his head at her. 'What surprise would there have been in that? This way you've had a whole morning of uncertainty, only to find that I still have the same intentions towards you. That I still find you the most adorable, desirable, tantalisingly innocent little English Miss I ever met!

'Whereas I,' she got out through clenched teeth,

'think you are the most arrogant, conceited, over-bearing man I ever met anywhere. And if you don't let me go I'll ... I'll scream ! '

'Then I'd certainly have to kiss you to stop the noise,' he said. 'Which brings us back to our start-ing point.'

'Oh ' Eve glared at him, unable to find further words in which to express herself, and then the anger was dying and unwilling laughter trembling instead on her lips. 'Some day someone is going to do something drastic to you,' she said wryly.

'But not today. Today is fiesta—a time for fun, not fury.' He brushed his lips across the tip of her nose, caught her about the waist and swung her back into the street, hurrying her along so that her feet barely touched the ground, bewitched, be-mused and totally incapable of resisting him any more.

The plaza was a seething mass of bodies, the air full of streamers, flowers, balloons. Screams of laugh-ter mingled with shouts of mock protest as handfuls

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of blooms found their marks. Carried along on the tide of fun-bent humanity, Eve saw Ramon scoop his own palm along the nearest float, and was next moment covered in a drifting cloud of petals which settled in her hair, on her collar, even found their way into the pockets of her dress. Someone unseen pressed a packet of confetti into her hand and with-out stopping to think about it she flung the lot in Ramons face, screaming herself as he picked her up and flung her across his shoulder to shouts of 'Brava' from all about them. Pummelling at his broad back, she was borne to a float which had not yet been stripped of its blooms and dumped unceremoni-ously among them. With his hands full and a devil in his eyes, Ramon stood over her daring her to move.

`Have you had enough?' he demanded. 'Or shall I bury you ?'

Breathless, laughing, Eve held up her hands. 'I've had enough. Pax. Let me down, Ramon ... please! '

`Coward! ' he jeered, but he lifted her down. And then his glance had moved beyond her and a smile of a subtly different nature widened his mouth as his head inclined. Twisting in his grasp, Eve saw a girl who had blown the kiss to him during the caval-cade standing on a float a few feet away, body proud and lithe and challenging in the vivid flamenco dress, olive-skinned Byzantine face making no secret of its owner's reactions to the scene she was witness-ing.

'Time we pased on,' said Ramon in her ear, voice light, unperturbed, even amused, and Eve found

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herself moving once more through the milling throng, his hand imprisoning her elbow until they reached the comparative emptiness of a side street.

'A drink?' he asked. Eve answered in the affirmative, and waited until

they were seated outside the busy little café before saying tentatively, 'Were you supposed to see that girl at the fiesta today?'

'Which girl?' he asked maddeningly, and she gave him an exasperated look.

'The girl on the float back there. You know very well which one I mean.'

'Ah, that one ' He leaned back in his seat to re-gard her with raised black brows. 'It bothers you that I might have deserted such promise? Makes you feel guilty perhaps that you've so far failed to appreciate your own good fortune in having my company for the day.'

'It bothers me,' she returned with determined control, 'that your friend back there was obviously not expecting to see you with another girl, and that she was hurt.'

'Isabella hurt?' His grin rejected the idea out of hand. 'Angry, jealous, ready to tear out your eyes—that would be more like it. To be hurt you first need a heart.'

'To be jealous you'd have to have one already.' 'That's a form of pride,' he said. 'Not love.' 'They're both emotions.' 'But stemming from different values. To be jeal-

ous is simply to acknowledge a lack of confidence in one's self.'

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`Then it's something you'll never suffer from. You don't care about anyone or anything, do you, Ramon? Really care, I mean. You go your own way regardless of who gets hurt, having fun, jeer-ing at those who don't happen to be capable of your own hardness.' She broke off, confused by her own wildly erratic emotions. With Ramon one could run the gamut in minutes, from anger to laughter, from hatred to ... No, not that. She wasn't in love with Ramon. She couldn't be. He fascinated her, magnetised her, woke her to the realisation of needs she hadn't known she pos-sessed. But that wasn't love. That was simply basic chemistry—the attraction of opposites. One couldn't love a man who didn't even know the meaning of the word. 'I don't think I like you very much at times,' she finished lamely.

`Liking I can do without. The best affairs are based on far more passionate emotions such as anger and ...' his voice dropped to a sudden deliberate softness which made her pulses race afresh ... 'love. Do you love me, chica?'

'If I did I'd despise myself for my weakness,' she managed with a creditable lightness. 'You don't deserve

to be loved.' `No,' he agreed with the devil lurking in his

smile. 'But few of us get what we truly deserve. What would you like to do next?'

Eve looked down at her glass. `I'd like to find the other two and have some lunch,' she said. 'They must be wondering where we've got to.'

`They have other things on their minds.' He 100

tossed off his own drink, put the glass down again and said, 'I have a better idea. We'll leave the others to their own devices for a while longer and find our own lunch out of town, perhaps have a swim before it.'

'We haven't brought costumes,' she pointed out. 'The trappings of civilisation. Have you never

known the joy of gliding through the water un-hampered by unnecessary garments, the feel of silk on the skin?'

'Yes,' she returned without lifting her head. 'I swim end to end of my bath every night.'

'You make a joke of it because the subject em-barrasses you?'

This time she did look at him. 'Not at all. You see, I realise why you're doing it. You enjoy getting at me, don't you? At my British reserve, as you prob-ably term it. Well, what you get up to with your own countrywomen is your affair, only don't expect to tempt me into trying to compete in daring. I find nothing shocking in the thought of nudity, but neither do I find it particularly exciting.'

'Nor I,' was the ready reply. 'A woman clothed Incites an imagination which may well be disap-pointed with the reality. We can buy the things we need if we reach the shops before they close. You would trust me then?'

'I'd trust you,' she said scathingly, 'as far as I could throw you Are we going to find Lynn and uan, or do I have to make my own way back to the

villa by bus?' 'If you insist.' He eyed her admiringly. 'It's worth

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making you angry to see your eyes flash like that. A fiesta in themselves!' He came to his feet. 'We'd better make a start if we're to join your sister and Juan.'

Eve blinked. 'Join them where?' 'At the appointed place.' He gave her the mad-

dening smile. 'You didn't really think I'd allow you to keep me to yourself all the afternoon? There will be a party of us at lunch—the same party with whom we shall probably be spending the evening. A safety in numbers, yes?'

Wishing dearly at that moment for something heavy to throw at him, Eve had a sudden irrelevant mental picture of Gavin's reactions to such an im-pulse. Odd that such a short time ago her own abhor-rence of public scenes would have matched if not exceeded his, while here she was now glaring across the table at this laughing devil of a man and hardly caring a hoot about the people surrounding them. He was so infuriatingly sure of himself, she fumed. It would do him a power of good if she just turned and walked out on him, left him flat with all these folk looking on and laughing at his discomfiture. Yet when he held out a hand to her she put hers into it without a murmur and went with him.

Lynn and Juan were already waiting at the rest-aurant where they were to lunch, along with three other couples. All of them spoke enough English to make themselves understood, but kept forgetting the necessity and breaking into their own language, taxing Eve's scanty vocabulary to the full.

'I'll take a night school course before I come back 102

in August,' she said ruefully in the car going back to the villa. 'Then at least I'll be able to talk to the wedding guests, and know what they're saying. After all, I can't expect everyone to learn English just for my benefit—not in their own country.'

'Most of us speak at least a little,' said Juan. `Lynn could teach you Spanish if you stayed. Ramon has been unable to persuade you?'

'I haven't attempted to persuade her,' said his brother calmly. 'Eve must make up her own mind when the time comes.'

'Isn't that leaving it a bit late?' asked Eve sweetly. He smiled. 'You want to be persuaded then?' `No,' hurriedly. 'I can't just walk out on my job

and ... other things like that. Besides ...' 'Besides which you're allergic to the sun,' he

quipped dryly. 'Haven't you noticed, Juan, how she wilts in the heat?'

Eve felt wilted all right. The day had been long and crowded with incident, and she was suddenly in no mood for Ramon's brand of satire. 'Oh, shut up ! ' she said irritably. 'The sun isn't the only thing I'm allergic to '

Immediately she had said it she could feel the pink rising in her face. It had been a childish re-tort, and an unnecessarily rude one. What was wrong with her anyway? She could feel Ramon's eyes on her, but she couldn't bring herself to meet his gaze. It was Juan who broke the awkward little silence with a casual remark about the evening ahead.

The incident appeared to have been forgotten by 103

the time they reached the villa, much to Eve's relief. Upstairs in her room she took off the cream dress and lay down on the bed and tried to relax for half an hour, only to find her mind going round in rest-less circles. Eventually she got up again and changed into a bathing suit. A long cool plunge would both refresh and revitalise.

She had the pool to herself. She swam a couple of brisk lengths, did another under water, and then finished up with a lazy side stroke back to the steps. When she looked up Ramon was standing at the top of them.

'We missed our swim together this afternoon,' he said, shedding his towelling jacket. 'So we'll take it now.'

'I've had mine,' Eve pointed out, treading water as she eyed him uncertainly. 'I'm coming out now.'

He didn't move. 'I think not.' 'Ramon.' She said it as firmly as she could. 'I'm

cold and I have to dry my hair. You've played the fool all day. Isn't that enough?'

The day was dimming already for its plunge into night, and for a moment it was difficult to judge his expression as he leaned on the rail, then he straight. ened suddenly and stood back. 'Very well.'

Eve climbed the steps quickly, stopped at the top to ease her cap, and was swept off her feet by a pair of arms which held her as easily as if she had been a child.

'I'll teach you to call me a fool,' he said with a dangerous gleam, and before she could guess his intention he walked the couple of steps to the edge

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and tossed her back into the water. She came up gasping, having failed to take a

proper breath before going under, heard the splash at her side and flung herself forward for the safety of the steps. But she wasn't swift enough. There were hands at her waist, pulling her back and turn-ing her, the flash of his smile and the hardness of his tanned chest beneath her flailing fists. Then his mouth was on hers and they were sinking under the water, his legs trapping her feet so that she couldn't kick, his arms locked about her back. With her eyes instinctively closed, Eve was aware of nothing but her immediate sensations : the cushioning of the water, the absence of sound, the pressure of mouth and limbs and the response springing inside her. Then they were breaking surface again and Ramon was holding her away from him, laughing as she gasped for breath.

`The first time you've been kissed under water, I think,' he said sardonically. And the last time you'll call me a fool, chica mia. Many things I might be, but not that.' He let her go. 'Away now and make yourself pretty for tonight.'

Eve swam to the steps, climbed out and swept up her robe without a backward glance. There was no point in saying anything when whatever she did say would simply roll off his back, no point in claiming outraged virtue when he must have recognised her response. She had never felt quite so totally at a loss in the whole of her life.

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CHAPTER SIX

THE party they had been invited to attend that evening was a private one, held in one of the older residences in Puerto de la Cruz. By the standards she had come to accept as normal to the Perestrellos, Eve found it a rather formal affair, although the buffet meal was obviously an innovation adopted to suit the nature of the entertainment, leaving the guests free to talk or dance or eat as and when they preferred.

Just before midnight there was a display of fire-works out in the grounds, with everyone crowding out on to the patio to watch. Momentarily separated from her own party, Eve found herself standing be-side a tall fair-haired man she had noticed several times during the evening. She wasn't all that much surprised when he spoke to her in English.

'You're one of the Perestrellos' English guests, aren't you?'

'Is it that obvious?' she asked smilingly, turning to look at him.

'Well,' he said consideringly, 'you're not dark enough for a true Spaniard, and they don't as a rule have green eyes, although I have to admit I've only just noted those.' His grin was attractive. 'As a mat-ter of fact I've been watching you for the last hour or so in there. You and your ... sister, isn't it? The folk I came with told me who you were. I understand your sister is engaged to one of those two. Hard to tell apart, aren't they?'

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'On the surface,' Eve agreed, wondering if per-haps the news of Juan's claim on Lynn had dis-appointed this countryman of theirs. 'Are you stay-ing in Puerto yourself?'

'As a matter of fact I work on the island,' he answered. 'The name is Randolph. Tony Randolph. I'm employed on an engineering project in Santa for six months, with four still to run. How long are you over for?'

'Only another week,' she told him, and stifled the inevitable sinking feeling with a bright smile. 'How do you like it?'

'It's not bad. Not as steeped in tradition as I ex-pected, although they still tend to keep their women fairly strictly supervised. I made a date with one girl from the town a couple of weeks back who turned up with both her brothers in tow to give me the once-over.'

Eve laughed. 'Did you pass muster?' 'Apparently not. I haven't seen her since. They

probably decided that my intentions were too obvi-ously temporary.' They both joined in the applause for a particularly brilliant piece of display, then he glanced back at her. 'Has your partner deserted you?'

'I don't think so. He left me for a moment just be-fore they announced the fireworks, and I got carried out here in the general enthusiasm. Lynn and Juan are somewhere around.'

'Are you ...' He hesitated. 'I mean, does he have any particular- claim on you, or is he just the brother of the brother-in-law to be?'

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'No and yes,' she replied steadily. 'Then maybe we could meet again while you're

still here? I'd greatly enjoy an evening out with someone I didn't have to think Spanish with all the time.'

Which was one way of putting it, thought Eve humorously, if not the most flattering. 'I don't really ...' she began.

'Oh, come on. be a devil 1 ' he coaxed. 'We don't have to be formally introduced, do we? Anyway, I'd have thought you'd be ready for a bit of relaxing company yourself. You didn't look too much at ease when you were dancing with laddo 1 '

And that was the understatement of the year! All the same ... Eve opened her mouth to finish what she had been about to say, and closed it abruptly as Ramon appeared at her elbow with a look in his eye that she didn't care for at all.

`I've been searching for you,' he said. He gave Tony Randolph a comprehensive glance. 'Who is this?'

Eve murmured introductions, aware that the two men were summing one another up with neither of them liking very much what they saw. `Mr Ran-dolph works in Santa Cruz,' she added for no parti-cular reason other than an urge to keep talking. 'On an engineering project. He came with some Spanish friends.'

'Yes?' Ramon's appraisal continued. 'You know each other already in England?'

'Well, no.' It was Tony who answered, voice a little belligerent. 'As a matter of fact we've only just

i o8

met. I was asking Miss Raynor if she'd care to take pity on a fellow foreigner and have dinner with me one evening before she returns home.'

'Then I will give you her answer now. No.' Ramon's hand was under Eve's elbow. 'Come, the display is almost over.'

Just a minute.' Eve was trembling with a sudden influx of anger and bristling indigation. 'I'm cap-able of speaking for myself.' She forced a smile for Tony's benefit, squashing the childish urge to tell him that she would be delighted to have dinner with him any time. 'It was good of you to ask me, but there really wouldn't be much opportunity before I leave. I hope you enjoy the rest of your stay.'

`So do I,' he said, and turned away hastily, quite obviously not wishing to be involved in any kind of scene over what had only amounted to a matter of impulse.

Ramon's mouth was set in lines Eve hadn't seen before as he guided her firmly down some steps and along a path beyond the flood of light from the house until they were out of sight of the watchers still gazing skywards. When they finally stopped he turned her none too gently to face him.

'Now,' he said, 'we'll have one thing made clear between us. Tonight you are with me and under my protection, which gives me the right to squash flat any such advance as made by the man we have just left. No Spanish girl would think of acting in the way you did!'

'But I'm not Spanish,' she returned with some heat, 'I'm English. And in my country a man usu-

1 09

ally credits a woman with the ability to do her own squashing. I had no intention of accepting the invi-tation—even if it was a bit of a temptation.' The last she couldn't resist. 'He seemed nice enough, and obviously a bit lonely for his own kind.'

Ramon gave a derisive snort. He was trying to pick you up. Anyone could see that 1 There are plenty of English people he could be in company with in Santa if that's his only need. Is your know-ledge of men so limited that you fail to recognise those kind of tactics?'

'Your ways are not our ways,' she flashed back, and then bit off a small cry of pain as his fingers slid up from her elbows to grip the softer flesh of her upper arm with bruising force.

`No,' he said, 'they are not. And should you humiliate me like that again you'll very soon find out the differences '

'I humiliate you! I like that! It was you with your ... your jealousy who humiliated both of us!' Eve stopped, shocked by her own vehemence, added in quieter if no less angry tones, 'Lack of confi-dence, didn't you say earlier?'

`I did. And I say the same now.' His grip relaxed again, and a smile touched his lips. 'I'm not jealous, nina. It's a matter of pride.'

'You made out they were the same thing.' `Ah, but there are different kinds of pride. My

forebears would have called mine a matter of honour and demanded satisfaction. As I'm forbid-den that course of action I must take it out on you instead.'

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`If you felt that strongly about it you could have knocked him down,' she retorted with sarcasm, and he lifted a brow.

'You would have liked that?' 'No, of course not. I only meant ...' She knew

she was beginning to make a fool of herself, and the knowledge didn't help a bit. 'You know very well I wasn't serious,' she snapped.

'I know nothing of the kind. If you are to take everything I say seriously I can surely be forgiven for doing the same.' He let her go, flipped back a tendril of hair from her cheek. 'You'll be good for the rest of the evening, yes?'

'Oh, exemplary!' She moved hastily away from him. 'With you for company who could be anything else ! '

His sigh was mockingly resigned. 'I can see there are things I still have to teach you about me. And so little time left. I'll have to make certain that we spend most of it alone together.'

Eve gave a deliberate little shrug. 'Don't bother. I prefer to stay around the villa with Lynn.'

He laughed softly. 'You refuse to admit it even to yourself, don't you?'

'Admit what?' she asked without turning her head.

'That you want me as much as I want you. That you'd love to forget your oh, so British morals and allow your heart to rule your head for once.' He came up behind her, his hands sliding warm around her waist, his lips nuzzling the nape of her neck. 'Sweet Eve, the apple was tasted long ago. Would

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you have the world turn backwards?' 'Yes, if what you're suggesting is supposed to be

progress,' she answered low-toned. 'Let me go, Ramon.'

'You're trembling,' he murmured in her ear. 'You want to love me, but you're afraid. There's nothing to fear in love, amada. Trust me.'

Heart thudding, she tore herself free. 'You can't bear it, can you? To have someone actually dare to resist the irresistible Ramon Perestrello! If you tried being a little less arrogant, a little less sure of yourself I ...'

'Yes?' he prompted with interest as she broke off abruptly. 'You might be more prepared to fulfil my desires, is that what you were going to say?'

'No! I was going to ...' She registered his expres-sion and curled her fingers suddenly and tightly into her palms. 'You're teasing me.'

'If I am,' he came back, 'you rise to it with per-fection. But you can't be sure.' Tauntingly he pre-sented his arm. 'Shall we go back?'

The guests began leaving about two o'clock. Driv-ing homewards along the dark coast road, Lynn gave a contented sigh. 'I'll say one thing, you people cer-tainly know how to celebrate! Life here is one long holiday!'

'Don't you believe it,' Juan smiled. 'We work hard, so we deserve to play hard too. Two days of festivities followed by weeks of unremitting toil. Would you begrudge so little?'

Lynn was laughing. 'Unremitting toil indeed! The one time I came down to the factory I found

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both of you with your feet up drinking coffee.' `Leave me out of your arguments,' came the easy

interjection from the rear. 'I need the occasional stimulant.' He was looking at Eve as he said it; she knew it, but refused to turn her head. 'We'll have to show your sister our place of work before she leaves and correct any mistaken impression that we're there as figureheads only.'

`Whatever impressions I leave with I'm sure they won't be mistaken ones,' Eve retorted, but her tone was subdued. 'You don't have to prove anything to me.'

'After the weekend,' he went on as if she hadn't spoken. 'That will still leave time for Teide. Have you ever been right to the top of a volcano before?'

'No,' she said, and determined there and then that she had no intention of accompanying Ramon up any mountain, volcanic or otherwise. She was having enough trouble keeping her feet on the ground here below the clouds.

It was unusually late when she woke the following morning. By the time she got down the men had left and Señora Perestrello was busy elsewhere. There was a letter waiting for her at her place at the table. Eve slit the envelope with her knife and took out three closely written pages from Gavin with an odd sense of reluctance. It was strange, but it felt more than just a week since she had last seen him. Gavin was a part of another world, another Eve; she didn't want dragging back into that life just yet.

He began predictably by thanking her for her postcard, which made her feel guilty because she

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hadn't taken the trouble to write a letter herself, and went on to describe the weather, the state of his mother's health and the increasing difficulty in find-ing a place to park his car near the office, in that order and in detail. I got that promotion I was after, he said modestly on the final page. So we could afford to convert a part of Mother's house into a self-contained flat for her own use. I wouldn't ask you to share a kitchen with any other woman; I know how much women hate that. But I'm sure you will agree that we could hardly leave her entirely alone under the circumstances. She sends her love and looks for-ward, as I do myself, to your return home.

Big deal, thought Eve, and was immediately ashamed. She liked Gavin's mother, who bore her ill health with far more fortitude than her son, but sympathy wasn't enough to make an arrangement like that work out—at least not for her. If she had married Gavin she would willingly have agreed to contributing towards a nurse-companion to live in with Mrs Crooks. Only she wasn't going to marry him. Not now. She had learned far too much about herself these last few days.

Lynn came into the room as she was sliding the letter back into its envelope, stifling a yawn with the back of her hand.

'Hi,' she said. `Do you feel as dead as I do, or is it just me who can't stand the pace? What time is it? My watch has stopped.'

'Ten o'clock,' Eve told her. 'There's a clock in your bedroom.'

'So there is, but I'm not there, I'm here.' She 1 14

helped herself to coffee. 'Is that from Gavin?' 'It is.' 'Old reliable.' There was no malice in Lynn's

tone, but a certain curiosity in her glance. 'Eve, are you really thinking of marrying him?'

'Why?' she hedged. 'Don't you like him?' 'He's all right. There's nothing to dislike about

him, is there? He's just so ... so dull!' 'You once said that about Juan,' Eve couldn't

help pointing out. 'Yes, but I was undergoing a psychological crisis

at the time. I know what I want now, and I shan't change my mind. Do you know what you want, Eve?'

'Right now I'd like some more coffee if you've finished hogging the pot,' Eve said lightly.

'Now isn't that just like you! You never would tell me anything.' Lynn leaned forward with both elbows on the table, face suddenly serious. 'Eve, don't shut me out again. This last few days we've been closer than we've ever been—like sisters really should be. You don't have to feel responsible for me any more. I've got Juan to lean on now.'

Eve sat very still. 'Is that what I did?' she asked at last. 'Shut you out?'

'Yes, although I never realised at the time why you were doing it. All the worry you must have had over money because Dad spent his life in the past instead of looking ahead a bit. And me ex-pecting things to go on just as before. That holiday in Portugal must have taken some saving for, and there was I carping because we were in a tiny back-

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street hotel instead of one of the big glamorous ones. Perhaps if you'd told me the truth then I might have grown up a lot earlier.'

'You ... seem to have been doing a lot of think-ing.'

'Not that much. It was Juan who said never to take anything or anyone as they might appear on the surface without trying to find out what was underneath. Up till then I'd thought you resented me, resented the drag I must have been on your own life since Mom and Dad went. If I played up—and I know darn well that I did—then it's partly because I was so envious of you.'

'Envious of me?' 'That's what I said. You were always so much

cleverer and so capable. You were able to meet Dad on his own level, while I simply bored him.'

'That's ridiculous,' Eve said swiftly. 'He was tre-mendously proud of you.'

'Oh, sure. Both Mom and I knew that much. We were part of his collection, something he liked to look at. But it was you he talked to and wanted to be with most. I can remember you now, poring over those books together, using words I wouldn't even have known how to pronounce. Mom and I could have stood on our heads then and you wouldn't have noticed anything different.'

Eve swallowed the lump in her throat. 'Lynn, I'm sorry,' she said achingly. 'You and Mother always seemed so self-sufficient together. You didn't seem to need us. Why didn't you tell me all this before?'

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'I suppose I was doing my own shutting out.' Lynn's smile was rueful. 'Anyway, it's been said now so we can both forget it.' Impulsively she added, 'Why don't you do as Juan suggests and stay on here—at least until after the wedding. You'd easily find another job when you did go home—if you did go back. A better one than that stuffy old bank,' she tagged on with a return to the old Lynn. 'You don't want to marry Gavin, Eve. Even I know that!'

It was on the tip of Eve's tongue to agree with her, but one thought held her back. To tell Lynn that she wasn't going to marry Gavin could be one way of also telling Ramon, who would interpret that piece of information his own way. With several more days to spend here, she didn't intend to be the object of that kind of derisive triumph.

'Two years is a long time,' she said mildly. 'And I could do a lot worse.'

'Not much, though.' An old expression passed across Lynn's face. 'Still, who am I to tell you what you should do with your life! What shall we do with ourselves today?'

'Laze in the sun and be content. Incidentally,' Eve added lightly, 'what will you do with yourself all day when you're married to Juan?'

'Oh, that's all taken care of. I'm to learn how to run a Spanish home.' She smiled. 'And then Juan wants us to start a family right away, so I expect I shall have my hands full one way or another. Can you imagine me with a baby? The Rejons' child was three, and I found him enough of a problem! Still, I expect I shall cope.'

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'I'm sure you will,' Eve assured her, and tried desperately to shut out the mental picture of a laughing dark-eyed little boy who looked exactly like his uncle.

The weekend went through its phases. For Eve time seemed suddenly to be racing by, yet no one else appeared particularly affected by thoughts of her impending departure. When on Sunday after-noon Ramon disappeared for several hours without explanation she found herself unable to relax, wan-dering irresolutely from terrace to pool and back again to the villa, trying not to believe that he was very probably visiting the lovely Isabella, telling herself between times that it was none of her busi-ness if he was. When he did put in an appearance just before dinner she had reached a state where she was beginning actively to hate him for what he was doing to her emotions, and responded to his smile of greeting with a cold green glance which raised his brows in mocking speculation and made her want to kick herself for not having the sense to conceal her reactions to his absence.

It was with this in mind that she raised no objec-tion when he suggested a stroll in the grounds after dinner, and for once she made no definitive move to keep the few inches of safe space between them as they walked in the headily scented darkness.

'Did you miss me this afternoon?' he asked when several moments had passed in silence.

'Did you intend me to?' she hedged on a suitably light note.

He shrugged. 'Perhaps. It's economical to kill the 118

two birds with the one stone.' `Economical?' 'On the emotions. Mine,' dryly, 'are becoming

exceedingly shredded.' `If we're still talking about me you probably

mean frustrated,' Eve retorted sweetly. 'Although I'm sure Isabella fulfils all your desires in that direction ! '

`So you did think I might be with her.' The smile was back in his voice. 'You're very probably right at that. Isabella is all woman, and knows exactly how to make a man happy.'

`And doesn't mind sharing your interests with others, apparently.' Having fallen neatly into the trap, Eve felt she might just as well be hanged for a sheep as well as a lamb. 'A pity she didn't scratch your eyes out after leaving her flat like that at the fiesta.'

'She tried,' was the soft reply. 'That's part of a woman's attraction—the tigress concealed beneath the civilised veneer. You'd spit like a cat yourself were the circumstances reversed.'

`The circumstances would never be reversed.' 'You mean that you wouldn't demean yourself to

fight for any man's attention? He must come to you with his heart in his hand and beg for the crumbs of your affection instead. That kind of pride begs for a fall! '

Eve laughed with deliberation. 'I thought it was only the English who threw quotations around. There's an answer to that one.'

'I know the answer.' He had stopped moving and 119

was looking down at her with a dangerous curve to the line of his mouth. 'You still refuse to take me seriously, don't you? Didn't the lesson I gave you in the pool the other afternoon teach you any-thing at all about me?' He paused. 'Or is it that you want me to repeat it and don't know how to ask?'

The red lights were full on, but the retort was already on her lips. 'It might have been if it was worth repeating! You overrate yourself ! ' She struck out at him as he grabbed her by the shoul-ders. 'Take your hands off me! '

`Not for a fortune,' he said sardonically. 'We've finished playing games, you and I. You wanted to know how far you could go, and you've found out!'

Eve fought him desperately as he pressed her up against the rough bark of the tree at her back, but he held her easily, pinioning both her hands in one of his own and holding her head immovable while he found her mouth with bruising force: Then his lips were moving on and down, burning into the hollow of her throat, searing along the line of her collarbone, his fingers pushing aside the neckline of her dress, baring her shoulder to his kisses and brushing softer flesh. Eve felt her heart hammering

wildly against her ribs, her whole body quivering with the sudden overwhelming need to respond to the sheer stimulation of his touch. She made a Supreme effort and tore her wrists free of his grasp, pushing him away from her with both hands flat against his chest. 'Don't,' she said jerkily. 'That's enough, Ramon.'

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'Is it enough?' His voice was low and rough, his arms still pinning her against the tree. 'Are you sure you want me to stop?'

'Yes.' She could barely hear the word herself. She swallowed thickly and said it again. 'Yes! '

'Liar,' he said, and his hold on her tightened again. `Do you think you can hide your emotions from me? Why do you fight so hard against them? There's no shame in wanting what nature equipped all of us to want.'

`Nature equipped some of us with other values too,' she got out. `I'm sorry to disappoint you, but that's the way it is.'

'That isn't the way it has to be.' His voice was soft, dangerous. 'I could make you eat your words. And you know it.' The pause seemed to last an age before the slow smile widened his lips. 'You're learning, chica mia. That, at least, is something.'

Eve couldn't have explained her feelings as he let her go and stepped back from her. Couldn't, or didn't want to try. He might understand her, she certainly did not understand him—nor probably ever would. She rubbed her wrists where he had held her, and forced an even note. 'I've learned one thing, and that's not to overestimate your basic de-cency. I think we can forget about the Teide trip. I wouldn't go three paces alone with you after this, never mind to the top of a mountain! '

'Volcano,' he corrected equably. 'And the ar-rangement stands.' He turned away as if suddenly bored by the whole subject. 'It's time we went back to the villa.'

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CHAPTER SEVEN

THE tour round the Perestrello factory proved as interesting as Eve had anticipated, although she felt that the constant noise of the machinery would have driven her mad had she been forced to spend any length of time in its immediate vicinity. Afterwards the four of them drank an aperitif in Juan's timber-panelled office, before going on to lunch at one of the town's better class restaurants. In common with many other diners, they lingered over the meal right through the siesta hour, finding no pressing urge to leave the cooling stream of air descending on them from the great fans whirling softly over-head.

It was Lynn who suggested paying a visit on the elder Señora Perestrello before returning to the villa. 'We have plenty of time,' she said with a wry little smile. 'Anyway, I think I should make some opportunity to create a new impression. I certainly didn't make much of one the last time.'

`Abuela is no fool,' Ramon put in easily. 'She's capable of seeing all there is to be seen.'

Lynn wrinkled her nose at him. `If that's a com-pliment I wish you'd make it sound more like one. I think you take a delight in being deliberately ambiguous.'

'I take a delight in a great many things,' was the typical reply, and for a brief moment his eyes sought Eve's. 'Your sister appears to have little difficulty in deciding on my intent.'

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'Perhaps that's because I don't find you all that complicated,' Eve retorted with more spirit than truth. 'I'd like to see your grandmother again too.'

'It was planned that you should,' he said. 'She requested it, if you remember. And a request from Abuela is not to be lightly ignored.'

Juan was returning to the office as he had a client to meet. They took their leave of him outside the restaurant and made their way to Ramon's car parked in a nearby square. Reaching it, he put Lynn in the back and saw Eve seated firmly at his side, his glance challenging her to argue. It was past half past five when they reached La Orotava, and Señora Perestrello had only just emerged from her own siesta. She received them in the same salon, where the lamps were already lit against the length-ening shadows of the fading day.

'You should use the small salon on the lighter side of the house,' Ramon told her as he bent to kiss her raised face. 'Here it is always dark.'

'I am old,' she returned. 'And I am used to this room. It is also the better place from which to keep in touch with family affairs.' Her eyes twinkled wickedly at the last. 'Why is Juan not with you?'

'Unfortunately he had business matters to take care of. But you remember his novia?'

'Of course I remember her,' she replied with some asperity. 'I said I was old, not senile.' She regarded Lynn with her head on one side appraisingly. `So you decided to become a Perestrello after all, child.'

Lynn flushed a little. 'Did it appear so doubtful the first time I was here, senora?'

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'Shall we say that the doubt was there without examining it too closely. Now I think perhaps you have done a little growing since Juan brought you to see me.' Her smile was kindly. 'You must start calling me Abuela from now on. Señora is far too formal for Juan's novia.' She turned her attention to Eve. 'And what of our visitor? Have you enjoyed your stay on the island? I hope this grandson of mine has been looking after you as he should.'

`Everyone seems to have gone out of their way to look after me,' she returned steadily, avoiding Ramon's gaze. 'It's been a wonderful holiday. One I shan't quickly forget.'

'It isn't yet over,' Ramon reminded her with an inflection which drew her eyes to him despite her-self. His smile was bland. 'I've promised to take Eve up Teide,' he added to his grandmother, who nod-ded her approval.

`That is something no one should leave the island without seeing. Not that it will be so very long be-fore you are back with us again, child.' She turned her gaze back on her grandson, and her tone altered. 'I understand you spoke with Juanita the last time you were here. Tell me what you think of Diego Peraza as a prospective husband for your young cousin.'

Ramon lifted his shoulders. 'What I think is of little importance. It should be Juanita's choice. She could do worse, she might do very much better, but material assets mean nothing to a girl of her age.'

`No.' It was said thoughtfully. 'I must speak with Jose. He must learn to move with the times.'

I 24

Señora at six. By the time they reached the villa it ' The three of them finally took their leave of the

was already dark. Juan had beaten them to it. He met Ahem on the steps to inquire solicitously after the health of his grandmother.

'I hear you are invited to dine with the de Vals to- night,' he said to his brother as they went indoors, and Ramon nodded.

'Carlos telephoned this morning at the office. He returned only last night.' To Eve he added smoothly, 'We must leave here no later than eight.'

She turned swiftly back to look at him in sur-prise. 'We? But ..."

'But what?' he inquired blandly as she broke off. With the others there Eve had no choice. 'Noth-

ing,' she said. 'I'll be ready.' She was, but only just. She made sure of that.

Ramon was waiting in the hall when she went down on the stroke of eight. He watched her descend the stairs, taking in the smoky blue crepe dress and the spray of scarlet poinsettia pinning back her hair, and his mouth widened.

'A brilliant choice,' he said satirically. 'Is there anything you'd like to say to me before we go?'

'Nothing that won't save,' she returned with de-termined control, and Swept past him out to the car.

Unlike the last occasion, the dinner party turned out to be formal, with twenty guests invited to a meal which seemed to Eve to go on for ever. Seated at the long rosewood table glinting with glass and silver, she endeavoured to concentrate her attention upon the efforts of her neighbour to make himself

1 25

understood, only too aware of her own limitations and determined to take steps to achieve at least a fair grasp of the language before she returned in August for the wedding. She was in many ways re-lieved when her hostess eventually gave the signal for the women to leave the men to their madeira and cigars, and followed on docilely with the rest of her fellows to the huge salon for coffee and small talk.

Once there, however, she found herself the ob-ject of considerable attention which she soon real-ized stemmed more from curiosity over her exact relationship with Ramon than interest in herself as a person. Thinking amusedly that women were women the world over, she answered, all the ques-tions put to her, both veiled and otherwise, with as much equanimity as she could muster, knowing that few believed wholly in her avowal that Ramon was simply the brother of her sister's fiancé and nothing else.

'He is very much the son of his father,' remarked one woman on a note which made Eve wonder if perhaps her middle-aged yet still very striking com-panion had known that individual rather better than she should. 'The Perestrellos have always chosen their own paths, regardless of the conven-tions of their class.'

'You forget Jose,' put in her hostess. 'He is hardly to be regarded as forgetful of our traditions. I hear there is soon to be the announcement of a betrothal between his Juanita and Diego Peraza.'

'And most suitable,' said another, this time in 126

Spanish but slowly enough for Eve to work out the gist. 'An excellent choice '

'But Juanita doesn't want to marry him!' ex-claimed Eve before she could stop herself. She flushed as every eye in the room turned towards her. mean,' she faltered, 'she doesn't love him.'

There was a long pause before Senora- de Val said kindly, 'You cannot be expected to understand our customs, senorita. While it is true to say that many now embrace a changing way of life there are still those of us who see value in the old. My own marriage was arranged when my husband and I were merely children, and I have found no quarrel with such an arrangement.'

'Yet your own Carlos saw fit to defy your arrange-ments for him,' interjected the one who had spoken of Ramon's father, with a sly glance towards the young woman seated opposite Eve. 'Would you deny the child of another the right you could not deny your own?'

Her hostess spread her hands with a rueful little smile. 'Only you, Rosetta, would think to mention such things. It is entirely a different matter. A daughter can only be guided by her parents when it comes to the choice of a husband. Had the Armes not entirely approved of the match ...' directing her smile now at her daughter-in-law ... 'then Maria would not now be sitting here among us.'

Meeting the dark eyes of Carlos's wife for a fleet-ing moment, Eve wondered if that were wholly true. From what she had seen so far of Carlos de Val he did not strike her as a man who would have bowed

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his head to any parental decree which didn't suit him.

The men joined them soon after that. Ramon came across to where Eve was sitting, his smile mocking. 'Have you enjoyed your feminine chit-chat?' he asked low-toned.

'Back home,' Eve said expressionlessly, 'we call it a hen-party.'

His laugh drew several pairs of eyes their way. 'And what of the, opposition?'

'It's a debatable point. Does Maria speak any English?'

'Are you changing the subject or do you really want to know?'

'I want to know. So far I haven't heard her speak a word to anyone.'

'That's because she prefers to listen and learn, unlike some I can think of.' He held out a hand to her, daring her to refuse it. 'Come and meet her now that we have the time to talk. She and Carlos are both eager to become acquainted with my little English friend.'

Maria's English was laboured but decipherable. Obviously reserved by nature, she nevertheless made an effort to contribute towards the conversa-tion over the following fifteen minutes or so, asking Eve about her life in London with the wide eyes of one who found it difficult to visualise a girl of her own age living alone and unprotected in a big city. She herself had been married to Carlos for four years, and before that had been accompanied every-where by a duenna. The comparative freedom of

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her life now was still a thing of wonder, and she re-garded Carlos with unashamedly adoring eyes.

Eve could hardly blame her. He was one of the most charming men she had ever met, yet it was a charm which detracted not the least bit from his masculinity. Smaller than Ramon by a good couple of inches, and lacking the aggression which man-aged to colour even the other's simplest remarks, he still left an impression of strength and firmness of purpose which would linger long after the charm had been forgotten. The couple already had two children and intended to have more, as Carlos re-vealed with a candour which brought a blush to his wife's cheeks.

'Without children a marriage is not complete,' he said. 'As a man without a woman is not.'

'What about a woman without a man?' asked Ramon satirically.

Carlos laughed. `Ah, that, my friend, is another matter. Women have need of a mate for the fulfil-ment of their life cycle, but they are sufficient unto themselves in every other way. If we are not very careful, indeed, they may even yet learn the art of self-reproduction, and then we men will be totally redundant.'

'But still tolerated for old times' sake,' said Eve demurely, responding to the twinkle in his eyes. She smiled at Maria who was looking faintly shocked by the turn the conversation had taken. 'I suppose the babies have been in bed for hours?'

'Oh yes.' She glanced at her husband, added shyly, 'You would like to see them?'

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Eve said quickly, 'I'd love to, but if they're asleep ...' -

'We shall not waken them.' She stood up smiling. 'Come.'

The nursery was on the far side of the building, through what seemed like miles of passages and up two flights of stairs. Eve couldn't help but wonder what would happen to those contained in such an out-of-the-way wing in the case of fire. Eventually they came to a suite of rooms which opened from one another. Maria exchanged a few words with the quietly dressed woman who sat sewing in one of them, then took Eve through to another where a nightlight glowed softly over the two carved and polished beds which seemed much too large for the children they held.

Eve regarded the two dark heads, the small inno-cent features lost in sleep, and felt a plucking at her heart strings. This was what love was all about: the fusing together of two separate beings to create an image in the likeness of both, the years of watch-ing that child grow in the knowledge that this was something only the two of you could have made. In that moment she felt a deep and fierce envy of Maria.

'They're perfect,' she said softly. 'How old are they, Maria?'

'Three years and almost two years. The next time we shall hope for a girl, but another boy will still be welcomed. You like children, senorita?'

'Yes—and please do call me Eve. You must be very happy,' she added smilingly, 'to have such a

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fine husband and lovely children.' 'Si. Carlos is good to me. I am very fortunate to

have attracted the attention of such a man. You are not promised to anyone ... Eve?'

'No.' Eve made her voice light. 'I suppose by your standards I'd be considered well and truly on the shelf ! '

'The shelf?' 'Past the age for marriage.'

' Maria's brow cleared. 'You have strange ways of saying things in your country. It is true that Spanish girls marry often at an early age, but not always so. Carlos has a cousin who still remains un-married at thirty years of age, and declares she would have it no other way. As she is very beautiful it cannot be that no man has wanted her for a wife.'

But perhaps not the right man, thought Eve, just as Gavin was not the right man for her. Would she too finish up a spinster stating to anyone interested enough to ask that she preferred it that way? It seemed more than likely at the moment.

She was very subdued for the rest of the evening. Once or twice she caught Ramon eyeing her with an intent look, but she couldn't seem to snap out of it. Then it was time to leave, and there were all the goodbyes to be said, the polite words of thanks, the smiling response to Maria's shy request that they meet again when Eve returned to the island. Once in the car she leaned back with closed eyes, unable to think of a single thing to say.

'You found the evening boring?' asked Ramon when they had cleared the town without a word

'Si

passing between them. 'Not at all,' she denied. 'It's just been rather a

long day, or it's seemed one.' 'Sometimes the time does seem to stretch without

limit,' he agreed. He gave her a sideways glance. 'I think it may be better to cancel the plans I had for tomorrow after all.'

Eve clasped her hands in her lap and bit on the words which sprang to her lips. It was her own fault. This was what she had told him she wanted. Whether he had genuinely lost interest in taking her anywhere else, or was deliberately putting her in a position where she had to climb down from her own professed lack of interest, she wasn't sure. All she did know was that the disappointment had run through her like a knife cut.

'I thought you said one had to see Teide before leaving,' she said at last.

'You're coming back,' he returned, and waited a brief moment before adding casually, 'Or there is always the following day, if you like.'

Eve gave herself no chance to think about it. 'All right, we'll go Wednesday. I'd really like to see the view from up there after all you've told me about it.'

His smile was enigmatic. 'That is what I thought.' This time he drove straight back to the villa, not

even glancing along the road he had taken that first night. They went indoors together. Apart from the single bracket lamp at the foot of the staircase the hall was in darkness. With her foot already on the bottom tread, Eve felt his hand close on her elbow,

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turning her towards him. Heart thudding, she looked into the unreadable dark eyes and then at the faint curve of his lips. Her own mouth quiv-ered, and she knew that he must have felt the tremor which ran right through her. She wanted to run. yet made no move at all as he put out his hand and drew the flower from her hair, cupping it in his palm.

'It wilts,' he said. and released her. 'Remember, tomorrow you rest. It's a strenuous climb from the cable car to the summit of the volcano, and we must not exhaust you for the journey home.'

He crossed the hall to take the corridor leading to the salon as Eve went numbly up the stairs. Safely in her room she dropped her stole on to the bed and stood there in the darkness biting hard on her lips. Ramon had known exactly how she felt down there. had known that if he'd kissed her then she would have put up no resistance, and he had deliberately refrained. What kind of man was it who could stand back and mock the emotions he himself had aroused? The answer stared her in the face. The kind of man she could love—did love, because she couldn't help herself. You couldn't docket love. she realised Nothing about it was neat and tidy. Back home there was Gavin, kind, dependable, honest, and trustworthy. a man who deserved to be loved and who loved her. while Ramon treated life itself as a game to be played to his own rules and couldn't care less who got hurt in the process. Yet it made no difference. Given the chance, she acknowledged to herself, she would trade in a thousand Gavins for

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just one small part of Ramon's heart. And that was something she was going to have to learn to live with.

Despite her tiredness it was early when she woke. Finding it impossible to sleep again, she got up and put on a bathing suit and made her way down to the pool. As usual Juan was there before her. Sometimes she wondered if her future brother-in-law slept at all. He swum to the edge to rest his elbows along the overflow rim and grin up at her.

'Can you not persuade Lynn of the joys of early rising?' he said 'I have tried, but it has little effect.'

'You'll be in a better position to convince her after you're married,' she returned, smiling. 'Al-though I have a feeling you'll have to use force to do it. It's one of those things, isn't it? A matter of personal preference.'

He grimaced. 'Are you telling me that I should not expect Lynn to change her habits to suit mine?'

'I suppose I am, unless she wants to make the sacrifice.' Fastening her cap under her chin, she added a trifle too caustically, 'You Latins take this dominant male bit a little too far at times.'

Juan regarded her with eyes narrowed against the sun, seemed about to make some comment, then smiled suddenly and pushed himself off from the side with a backward thrust of his feet. Eve stiffened as a shadow fell across her.

`Do you call this resting?' asked Ramon. From the corner of her eye Eve could see the edge

of his blue trunks and one strongly muscled thigh, but for the life of her she couldn't have turned her

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head to look at him directly. The light was too clear, and he already saw too well.

'Some call this relaxation,' she said. 'It depends how strenuous you want to be. I was just going to float around for a while before it gets too hot out here. Does that meet with your approval?'

He laughed. and moved forward to stand in front of her, tall, lean, and hard. A medallion gleamed among the hair covering his chest. Eve found her-self studying it with a kind, of desperation, spelling out the letters in her mind with no idea at all of what they meant. 'Everything about you meets with my approval,' he said. 'Even when you snap at me like a puppy. Why are you avoiding my eyes?'

That made her look up, as he had certainly an-ticipated. 'I wasn't,' she denied. 'I was ... interested in your medallion.'

`You've seen it before.' He said it lazily. 'I always wear it. It protects me from my enemies.'

'Is one enough?' His mouth curved. 'That's more like it 1 I was be-

ginning to think you were not feeling yourself this morning.' He waved a hand to his brother on the far side of the pool. 'Juan is exhaustingly energetic. I think I might simply float around with you instead this morning.'

Eve could hardly say she didn't want him, and anyway it would hardly have been true. She stayed in the water a bare ten minutes all the same before excusing herself on the plea of drying her hair, and left the two men together.

They were at breakfast before Ramon saw fit to 135

mention that as they were not making the trip to Teide he had decided instead to drive over to the plantations for the first time in weeks and discuss various matters with Tio Jose who ran that side of the family business. He did not ask Eve to accom-pany him. With Lynn learning to make a real Spanish paella in the kitchen, and Señora Peres-trello busy with her household accounts, the day stretched endlessly ahead. Tired as she had genu-inely felt last night, Eve was by now fully recovered, and in many ways regretting the postponement of the excursion. When Pedro came to tell her that she was wanted on the telephone she thought at first that it would be Ramon phoning to tell her that he had decided after all to return for her and make the trip. When the caller announced himself it was several seconds before she could even remem-ber who Tony Randolph was.

'Look,' he said, 'I've been thinking about the other night and ... well, to put it bluntly, the more I think about it the sorrier I am that I didn't stay and sort things out there and then. You did say you weren't tied up with this Perestrello chap?'

'Yes,' Eve admitted, wondering what was coming. 'I did say that.'

'Then I think it's a bit off his dragging you off like that in the middle of a conversation. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I have a feeling you might have agreed to come out with me if he hadn't inter-rupted. Right?'

Eve hesitated, reluctant to deflate him with a flat denial, and not all that certain that she would have

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refused under different circumstances. 'I might,' she agreed cautiously. 'But ...'

'Then how about making it tonight? You go back on Thursday, don't you?'

'Yes,' she said. 'I do. And I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I couldn't possibly meet you tonight. I shall be spending the next couple of evenings with my sister.'

'Then meet me today—this morning,' was the prompt response. 'I've got the day off, and I haven't seen all that much of the island yet. There's a place down in the south-east part of the coast where the bathing is supposed to be excellent. We can get a meal there too.' Obviously Tony Randolph was not used to being refused. 'I really would like to talk to you again and correct any wrong impressions you may have gathered,' he added persuasively. 'I'd have you back any time you say.'

On the point of refusing again, Eve paused sud-denly. She was at a loose end, and where would be the harm? In some ways it might even be a bit of a relief to spend a little time in the company of one of her own countrymen. 'All right,' she agreed without stopping to think any further about it. 'But not as far as that. There are plenty of places nearer here that I'd like to see myself.'

'It's your choice.' He sounded agreeably pleased. 'What time shall I pick you up?'

'In an hour,' she told him, swiftly calculating how long it would take him to get out here. Impulsively she added, 'I'll walk down to the road and save you coming all the way up to the house.'

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'Fair enough,' he agreed after a slight pause. 'An hour it is.'

Eve put down the receiver with mixed feelings. Having said that she would go she was more or less committed, and yet already she was more than half regretting the hasty decision. She had known Tony Randolph for less than fifteen minutes altogether, and here she was arranging to meet him in secret-or as good as. She would have to tell Lynn where she was going, of course, but she shrank from the thought of Señora Perestrello knowing too. Not that it could be kept from her—or anyone else for that matter. She thought of Ramon's reactions, and her chin lifted. There was nothing wrong in what she was planning. She was going around in circles, mak-ing mountains out of molehills. She was going to spend two or three hours in the company of a rather attractive Englishman who was missing his own people. And that was all.

Nevertheless she found it difficult enough to face Lynn's surprise when she told her that she would be going out for lunch with the Englishman who had been at the party.

'I hadn't realised you'd actually met him,' said Lynn. She paused. 'Supposing Ramon gets back be-fore you do. What shall I tell him?'

Eve conjured a look of surprise herself. 'The truth, of course. What else? It's no concern of his.'

Her sister smiled a little. 'I doubt if he'll agree with you.'

Eve doubted it too, but the reminder served only to strengthen her resolve. In fact, she acknowledged,

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the realisation of Ramon's disapproval was more than half the reason for her acceptance of the in-vitation. He thought he had her just where he wanted her. It would do him good to realise that she was still very much her own mistress.

She reached the road just a couple of minutes be-fore the open tourer came racing round the corner, and returned Tony's smiling greeting with a faint sense of anti-climax.

'I thought we'd go down into Candelaria,' he said when she was in the car. 'There's a short cut from just below here which will save us 'going all the way back to Laguna.' He glanced at her ap-praisingly. 'You know, you're even more attractive than I remembered. I hardly deserve to have you here with me after the way I retreated the other night.'

'There was no reason for you to have stayed and faced it out,' Eve rejoined quickly. 'After all, we had only just met.'

'But your escort failed to appreciate our casual manners,' on a dry note. 'Has he kept tabs on you like that the whole time you've been here?'

' More or less, I suppose. It's the way the men here are.' She changed the subject. 'I gather you're still finding things a bit dull when you're not work-ing?'

'Not only then. A job is a job; I don't have to like what I'm doing. I'm an engineer because my father was one before me, and I was an easily led youth. It's no sinecure.'

'Is that what you want?' 139

'Doesn't everybody? Profit without undue effort, that's my motto.' His grin robbed the statement of any seriousness. 'Money does all the talking in this world.'

'Cynicism doesn't really suit you,' Eve returned, smiling back. 'You're not the type.'

'A clean-cut English boy, eh?' 'Hardly a boy,' on the same light note. 'How old

are you, Tony? Thirty?' 'Thirty-two.' He looked at her quizzically. 'Too

old?' She laughed. 'Oh, one foot in the grave! Anyway,

it hardly matters, does it, seeing that we shan't be meeting up again after this.'

'I don't see why not. I shall be back in England for the autumn. Nothing to stop us meeting to com-pare notes then, is there?'

'About what?' she hedged. 'Life, sweetheart. Seriously,' he tagged on, I'd

like to have that to look forward to. Unless there's someone likely to object. Is there?'

'No.' There wouldn't be, she thought, by then. 'Then perhaps you'll let me have your address

and phone number, and I can get in touch.' Why not? thought Eve unemotionally. Tony ap-

peared to be good lighthearted company, and she was going to need some of that in the future. 'All right,' she said.

Tony stayed lighthearted company throughout the following hours. They laughed a lot, and talked about everything under the sun. Eve felt relaxed and at ease with him in a way she had never felt

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with Ramon, and she refused to acknowledge that she missed the stimulation of that very lack. After a rather early lunch at Candelaria, Tony persuaded her to take the spectacular drive down the south-east coastline to El Medano, and up to Grenadilla to see the camels still used in those parts as beasts of burden, returning by way of the lesser roads through the foothills. It was a rather longer expedi-tion than Eve had anticipated, and by the time they had once more gained the track which led up on to the mountain road it was already approach-ing five o'clock.

'What's the hurry?' Tony inquired when she ex-pressed her concern over the lateness of the hour. 'They won't eat you if you're a bit later than they expected, will they?' He caught something in her expression, and his own changed a little. 'Am I wrong,' he said after a moment, 'or do I get the im-pression that you slipped out without telling any-body about this jaunt of ours?'

'Of course not,' she denied hastily. 'My sister knows where I am.'

'But your future brother-in-law doesn't,' shrewdly. 'Why not?'

'He wasn't there to tell.' Eve was beginning to feel like a schoolgirl caught playing hookey from class. 'I just seem to have been out rather a long time, that's all,' she finished lamely. 'Lynn might be wondering where we've got to.' She went on swiftly, 'It's been a lovely day, Tony. I've enjoyed it.'

'Me too. Pity you're going back so soon. It would

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have been great to repeat it. Still .. .' he patted the breast pocket of his sports shirt comfortably . . . 'I've got your address, and we can do something about that when I get back home. I must say, I'm glad I made the effort to get in touch with you this morn-ing. I didn't see any reason why that Perestrello chap should get away with keeping you under lock and key when you don't even belong here. Doesn't Lynn mind the thought of being kept in purdah for the rest of her days?'

'Wrong country,' Eve returned on a deliberately light note. 'And you're taking the whole thing too seriously.'

'Yes?' He sounded doubtful. It was almost twenty minutes past the hour when

they eventually reached the drive entrance. Eve was thankful that Tony didn't insist on coming to the door.

'Thanks again,' she said, getting out of the car. 'It made quite a change.'

'Yes,' he smiled. 'Well, don't forget we have a date in about four months from now. Goodbye, Eve.'

She stood and watched him out of sight around the bend in the road, turned to make her way along the drive and froze in her tracks as an engine started up somewhere ahead. Next moment the familiar white coupe shot round the corner and came hurt-ling towards her. Ramon drew to a skidding halt bare feet away, and got out of the car with a definite menacing look about the set of his shoulders. His eyes had lost all of their lazy good humour, Eve

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noted in the endless moment it took him to reach her. They were blazing; furious; dangerous.

`Where have you been?' he demanded. `Just along the coast,' she said, a belligerent note

entering her voice involuntarily. `And your English friend? He left you here?' She looked back at him steadily. 'I don't think

he'd have received a very warm welcome if he'd brought me any further.'

'No.' His lip curled. 'You are proud of yourself?' Her chin tilted. 'Don't get it all out of perspec-

tive, Ramon. It was an innocent drive, that's all.' 'Then why did this man not come and make him-

self known to Madre first? Or why did you not tell her your plans instead of leaving Lynn to make your excuses?' His tone was caustic. 'Have you no sense at all that you gladly accept an invitation to meet so casually a man you've met only once—and that briefly!' He was speaking swiftly, furiously, his accent more pronounced than she had hitherto known it. 'Or is it that you find you prefer the brief affair after all?'

Eve's hand swung up in an arc which ended on his cheek. It was a vicious slap, and it left its mark in the red weals which appeared as if by magic on the olive skin. Horrified, she watched them deepen and extend. What had come over her? She had never done anything like that in her life.

It seemed an age before Ramon spoke, and when he did he sounded strained, as though even then he was fighting to keep himself in check. 'You don't know how close you came to getting that back,' he

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said. 'If you ever try it again I'll give you the thrash-ing you deserve. Now get in the car 1 '

Eyes blazing, Eve opened her mouth to retort, then closed it again abruptly. He was more than capable. She slid wordlessly into her seat when he opened the door for her, sitting there with her pride choking her as he reversed up the drive at a speed which would normally have had her heart in her mouth. Lynn was standing on the steps when they got there. With the marks still standing out vividly on Ramon's cheekbone it was obviously no time to be asking any questions, but the younger girl looked at her sister as though she had never really seen her before. Only when Ramon had vanished indoors, tight-lipped and silent, did she venture to speak.

'Juan rang through a few minutes ago to suggest that the four of us ate out in town tonight. I don't suppose there's much use in thinking about it now.'

'I shouldn't imagine so for a moment,' Eve agreed heartily. `No reason why you two shouldn't go, though.'

'I don't think Juan will want to once he realises what's happened.' A bright curiosity in her eyes, Lynn added, 'Am I allowed to ask what did hap-pen?'

'Nothing very much. It was just a misunderstand-ing.' They were in the hall now. Eve welcomed the dimness and coolness. 'How long has Ramon been back?'

'About ten minutes.' Lynn sounded rueful. 'I had to tell him where you'd gone, and who with, Eve.

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He insisted. I'd never have thought Ramon could look like he did. Does he have something against

this man you met?' Despite everything Eve had to smile at the care-

fully phrased question. 'Nothing specific—unless you count his being English. I'll tell you what there is to tell later, Lynn. Right now I feel like a shower.'

It was a long constrained evening. On the surface Ramon seemed his usual urbane self, but there was a glitter in his eyes whenever their glances hap-pened to clash. Eve doubted that he would either forgive or forget very easily. But then, she thought in swift self-defence, he had asked for it. What he had said to her was unforgivable too.

It was pride and pride alone which kept her from excusing herself after dinner and going to her room. Only after Señora Perestrello herself had de-parted did she feel she might plausibly plead tired-ness and escape from a room which seemed sud-denly too confined to hold the two of them. She had reached the hall before Ramon caught up with her. She stopped when he said her name and looked back at him, heard her own voice speaking coolly and clearly.

'Did you want to apologise?' His mouth tautened dangerously. 'Don't press

me too hard,' he said. 'If there was an apology needed it was more than cancelled out by this,' put-ting a hand briefly to his face.

'Then you do admit to some provocation,' she insisted, and saw his brow lift.

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'Are you looking for justification, or simply at-tempting to provoke me again? I assure you it wouldn't be difficult.'

Eve wasn't all that certain herself. Where Ramon was concerned she no longer even knew herself. 'Why did you follow me?' she made herself ask evenly. -

'To remind you to wear trousers when we climb Teide tomorrow, and to take a warm jacket with you. It can be cold at the top.' He studied her re-actions sardonically. 'And don't say that you're not going, because I insist. The arrangements are al-ready made.'

'It would be easy enough to unmake them,' she came back, resenting his tone. 'You don't have to feel obliged to put yourself out over my entertain-ment any further. We'll take your duty as done.'

His breath came out suddenly and explosively through his teeth. With a couple of swift steps he was on her and shaking her violently by the shoul-ders, snapping her head back so that she looked straight into the leaping eyes. When he finally let her go her hair was all over her face and it took her all her time to stand steady.

'Never mistake tolerance for weakness,' he clipped. 'Now get out of my sight before I lose every last bit of it I '

Eve turned and went on up the stairs without another word. There seemed nothing left to say. Her neck ached, and she was certain that by morn-ing her shoulders would bear the imprint of each and every finger. The sooner the next thirty-six

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hours passed the better, she told herself fiercely, and closed her mind to the awful void that very thought even now conjured up.

CHAPTER EIGHT

IT was with some reluctance that Eve went down to breakfast the next morning, but it would have been hard to deduce from Ramon's manner that any-thing untoward had happened between them at all. Immediately after the meal he suggested that they should get off before the day became too hot, and went out to the car while Eve fetched her jacket and raffia bag from her room. Juan followed them down the drive to the road, turning right to their left and lifting a hand in smiling farewell as he accelerated away and down in the direction of the town.

Ramon whistled a snatch of unrecognisable tune between his teeth as they headed up into the moun-tains. There was little traffic on the road which al-ready shimmered in the swiftly rising heat, and gradually he increased speed, snaking the car smoothly round the hairpin bends. The scenery as far as El Portillo had already become familiar to Eve, but this time they carried straight on instead of taking the right-hand fork down to La Orotava, entering the huge, lava-strewn moonscape of the main crater, with the peak of the volcano towering another five thousand feet into the heavens several miles ahead. There was something strangely beauti-

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ful in the sheer barrenness of the place. Eve gazed in fascination at the varied colours of the lava face piled high at the roadside, at the grotesquely twisted shapes of rocks left isolated on a plain that less than seventy years before had been a molten river.

'It's almost primeval, isn't it?' said Ramon. Eve agreed with a sense of unreality, added ten-

tatively, 'Could it really erupt again in our life-time?'

'The experts predict that, it could happen at al-most any time within the next two or three years, though you'll see little to confirm that opinion on the surface.'

'But aren't you bothered? After all, you live right on its slopes.'

His shrug was casual. 'The lie of the land would deflect any lava flow away from our side of the mountain, although we may suffer the effects of earth movement. There would be warning enough to provide ample time in which to reach safety be-fore life became endangered, so you need have no fears on Lynn's account.'

If the truth were known, Eve hadn't even spared a thought for her sister up to that moment. She had been thinking only of him. She said quickly, 'I haven't. I'm sure she'll be perfectly safe whatever • happens. It just seems so awful to think you could lose everything like that.'

Ramon smiled suddenly. 'Homes can be rebuilt, and the risk for us is small. What use is there in worrying about things which may never happen?'

'I suppose you're right.'

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'I know I'm right.' He changed the subject. 'Did ever see a film called "Two Million Years BC"?'

'With Raquel Welch?' She gave him a question-g glance. 'Yes, as a matter of fact I did. Why?' The movement of his head indicated the terrain ough which they were passing. 'It was filmed

ght here in Las Canadas. It was the nearest, ap-ently, that the film-makers could get to the world

it was then. We came up to watch the filming one y, Juan and myself. Somehow it seemed entirely

atural to see wild figures clad only in animal skins nning across the skyline.' Eve could imagine. It was all the scene needed.

he stole another look at her companion, just as he chose that very moment to turn his own head. The familiar taunting gleam was there.

'Is the battle abandoned?' he asked. Her answering smile was wry. 'I'm not so sure it

asn't won. You can be pretty brutal when you're angry.' 'You're not without ferocity yourself,' was the

reply. 'Shall we forget yesterday and enjoy to-day?'

Forget tomorrow too, thought Eve resolutely, and nodded her agreement without hesitation.

Shortly afterwards the base station of the cable-way came into view, and they left the road to branch up and round into the wide parking lot fronting the building. It was still early despite the heat, and so far no other traffic had arrived. Inside the station it was cool and pleasant. Vendors were at work lay-ing out their wares on trestles set along both sides

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of the long hall beyond the ticket office, through which all visitors had to pass to reach the cable cars themselves. There was also a self-service café afford-ing superb panoramic views of the south-west coast-line of the island. Here they were able to obtain coffee, although the cableway itself was not yet open.

Ramon left her there for a few minutes while he went off in the direction of the ticket office. When he returned he told her that he had arranged for the two of them to accompany some members of the staff to the upper station in a short time.

'They have a bar up there which must be one of the very highest in the world,' he said. 'When you take off the cap from a bottle of beer the contents come bubbling out of their own accord. We shall have the peak to ourselves this way. It's the best way of all to experience the particular ...' He left it there, smiling a little as he looked down into her upturned face. 'Well, we'll see what you make of it.'

Including the driver, there were five of them to make this first trip to the summit. The other three were young men of high spirits and not a little bold-ness, judging from the glances cast Eve's way. All waiters in Spain seemed to be young and exuberant, she thought, taking her place alongside Ramon at the front of the cage. Soon they were moving, rising smoothly and with surprising speed up the face of the volcano, the car swaying slightly as it passed over the supporting pylons. It was a long ride, but as they were never at any time more than forty or fifty feet from the ground, not a particularly scaring

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one. At the top the car slid neatly into a space cut out for it in the covered iron platform and stopped.

The moment she stepped out through the doors of the landing stage on to the mountainside proper, Eve was thankful for the jacket Ramon had advised her to bring. The wind cut like a knife through the thin sleeves of her shirt. Once away from the im-mediate vicinity of the station, however, the force dropped considerably, and she was able to raise her head and look about her. Straight ahead of her rose the seemingly vertical cone of the volcano peak, a mound of shimmering white scree which even now dwarfed them. The path went up it in a series of angles, eventually vanishing out of sight behind the lip of the distant crater. Eve regarded it in near dismay.

'I'll never make it,' she said out loud, and felt Ramon's arm come encouragingly about her shoulders.

'You will. I'll help you. You can't fail now having come this far.' He urged her forward. 'It isn't as difficult as it appears.'

To him it might not have seemed so, to Eve there was nothing at all deceptive about the climb which followed. Had the path itself been smooth it might have helped, but the surface was thickly littered with gravel-like rock which moved dangerously underfoot and lifted clouds of white dust at every tep. There was a strong smell of sulphur in the air

d a feeling of tightness in her chest due to the re-uced oxygen. Only the thought of Ramon's de-ion kept her from abandoning all ideas of reach-

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ing the top. By the time they did make it her legs felt like jelly

and her heart was pounding. Standing weakly on the rim of the crater, she looked down into the gently sloping, grass-covered bowl and felt a sense of total disillusionment. Was this what all that effort had been about? Then Ramon took her by the shoulders and turned her about, and she caught her breath. They stood on top of a mountain kingdom, its ranges fading into the hazy distances of the north east, its valleys floored in cloud and shadow. The sky from up here was amost white, the colour washed from it by the sheer dazzling strength of the sun's rays. Silence wrapped itself about them like something tangible, deep; warm; complete.

How long she just stood there looking she had no idea. 'It's magnificent,' she breathed at last. 'No, it's more than that, it's awe-inspiring! You know, I've never really understood what it is that makes people risk their lives climbing mountains, but I think I might be beginning to now.'

Ramon was watching her face. 'Then you think it worth the climb?'

'Oh yes 1 ' She looked at him then, and laughed. 'At least it can't be any harder going down.'

He put out a- hand for hers. 'We'll see. If you manage it without complaint I'll buy you a drink down at the bar.'

'And if I don't?' she was prompted to ask. He looked back at her over his shoulder. 'Then

you can buy me one. Either way our thirsts will be satisfied.'

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It was certainly quicker going down, but almost as much effort was needed, Eve discovered, to keep her feet from sliding away beneath her. Her shoes were full of stones, her slacks white with dust to the knee—as were Ramon's also. Climbing Teide might be a must, she thought, but it was no place to go on anywhere important from. Showers and a few dry-cleaning machines would be a useful addition to the facilities already offered down at the cable-way base.

The bar was situated on the far side of the plat-form, down another steep and rocky path edged by an iron handrail which shook in its foundations when Eve happened to touch it. The bar itself was built of concrete colour-washed a dingy white and set back into a ledge cut from the solidified lava. There was a small open space in front of it with two pine tables and some matching benches, while be-yond the black river tumbled in petrified motion to the floor of the main crater five thousand feet below.

From here it was possible to see a corner of the landing stage, and to hear the whine of the pulleys as the cables tautened against the weight of an approaching car. This time it was carrying a load of about twenty, and within minutes the tables were overflowing with those who had obviously taken one look at the next stage and decided not to bother. With voices all around her, Eve amused herself try-ing to pick out nationalities, recognising Italian, French and German, she thought, but failing com-pletely in the case of the couple at their own table.

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'Norwegian,' said Ramon in an undertone, look-ing amused. 'Time to go, I think.'

The journey back to ground level was once again a solitary one, although the car which passed them at the halfway mark was loaded from end to end. Out in the parking lot there were a couple of dozen cars and a coach. Another coach was coming along the road from the south, slowing to take the acute turn for the station.

It was this road which Ramon took when they left, heading down through the crater for the road which would eventually bring them out at Gren-adilla, though from a totally different direction from the one Eve had taken the day before. A few minutes later they were stopping again, this time at a rambling hotel set right in the crater itself.

'We can get cleaned up here and take a swim,' Ramon told her, and then smoothly before she could comment, 'I took the liberty of asking Lynn to supply a suit from your room before we left. You were not in a mood to be spoken to on such matters.'

'You think of everything,' Eve answered, but she was smiling as she said it. He really did.

They spent a very enjoyable couple of hours at the hotel, despite the fact that the water in the pool was some of the coldest Eve had ever sampled. After their swim they had coffee and rolls on a patio over-looking the rugged scenery of the crater, and went on their way again feeling both clean and refreshed. Beyond the crater the scenery became very similar to that on their own side of the mountain, with tracts of pine forest interspacing the steps of arable

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fields. It was in one of these former that Ramon eventually turned off from the main road, bumping along a little used track to a clearing which had a magnificent view down to the coast at El Medano.

'I have a picnic basket in the back,' he said. 'We have shelter here from the heat of the sun, and time to spare in which to enjoy a leisurely meal.'

And solitude, thought Eve with a swift and un-certain leap of her heart. It wasn't Ramon she was afraid of so much as herself. Today was the last she would spend with him for over a month, and even when she did return their whole relationship might have changed. If he made love to her here as he had in the garden the other night would she have the strength of mind to resist him? she wondered. Or would she, like so many others before her, lose sight of tomorrow in the overwhelming need of the moment?

Ramon was watching her with a little smile play-ing around his lips as she made a pretence of examining the view from different angles. He had spread rugs and cushions under the shadiest tree, and was taking his ease among them.

'Come and have a glass of wine,' he said at last. 'You're making me dizzy with your flitting around.' Voice taunting, he added, 'There is plenty of room for the two of us.'

'In a minute,' she said quickly, and heard him sigh.

'Eve, if I intended to launch myself on you the moment you come near I wouldn't be sitting here at all. However, there's every possibility that should

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I have to come and fetch you I might find myself overtaken by the urge after all. The choice is en-tirely yours.'

Eve looked at him and started to laugh. 'Ramon, you're incorrigible ' she said.

'I'm encourageable too,' he returned lazily. 'But little enough of that I get from you. Didn't I tell you that all fires need feeding occasionally if they are not to go out? The next time I hold you will be when you ask me to do so. Now come and sit down.'

She did so, wondering if he had meant what he said, and if he really did think that she would ask. It wasn't like him to place the initiative in a woman's hands like that, she was sure, so why with her? If he thought that she needed his kisses so badly then he had another think coming. Not for anything would she give him that triumph.

She accepted the wine in a spirit of bravado, sip-ping it slowly as she sat with her arm round her drawn-up knees. Tomorrow at this time she would be on the plane heading homewards, back to the flat and her job and ... Gavin. She wasn't sure yet just how she was going to tell him that she wouldn't marry him. If she said she was in love with another man he would think she was crazy. You didn't fall in love in a fortnight. You spent weeks and months getting to know one another first, learning each other's tastes in literature and music and all the other important things in life, growing together slowly and surely in a way which would last—she could hear him now. Not for Gavin the intoxication of wanting until it hurt; he kept his feet firmly on

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the ground. The physical side of marriage was only a minor part of it, he had said on the few times they had discussed it. There was so much else for two people to share when they were properly tuned.

As if he could read her thoughts—and she thought he very probably could—Ramon said sud-denly, 'When will you tell him?'

It was a moment before Eve could bring herself to say lightly, 'Tell who what?'

'Your Gavin, of course. That you can't marry him after all.' He was lying flat on his back looking up through the gently waving branches at the blue sky. 'Will he take it very badly?'

Exasperated, she said, 'What makes you so sure that I'm going to tell him anything? Just because you've kissed me once or twice it doesn't mean that I have to enter a nunnery for the rest of my life. Even if I told him about it he'd probably be under-standing. He's like that.'

' He is?' Ramon sounded frankly disbelieving. ' No woman of mine would be let off so easily.'

'I'm sure.' Sarcastically she added, 'Do you thrash all your women on principle, or do you just like proving your superior strength?'

He grinned. 'I treat a woman as she wishes to be treated. In all of you there is a streak of masochism which responds to violence––of one kind or another. Give a woman a gentle man and she will try her utmost to rouse him to assert himself over her, then when she succeeds complain that he is a bully and a brute. You tantalise a man to the limits of his con-trol and then withdraw, hold out your hand only to

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snatch it back. It's little wonder that so many of you get yourselves raped ! ' He waited a moment, then rolled over on to his face to study hers. 'Not rising to it? Perhaps you're wise.'

'I'm not rising to it,' she returned, 'because that's exactly what you'd like me to do. You think that by getting at me that way you'll make me say or do something which will give you an excuse to prove your point.' That didn't sound quite right. She tried again. 'I mean ...'

'You mean,' he interrupted, 'that you know I'm right, but you're damned if you're going to admit it because that would take all the fun out of the game. And if you think you've successfully sidetracked me from my original question you're mistaken. You're not going to marry Gavin.'

'That sounds more like a statement,' she mur-mured, playing for time.

'Possibly.' His eyes had not moved from her face. 'Shall I tell you why not?'

'Would it make any difference if I said no?' He laughed. 'No, chica, it wouldn't make the

slightest difference. You won't marry your Gavin because you're in love with me. You won't say it; you probably even conceal it from yourself. But it's true nevertheless. And because you're in love with another man you could never bring yourself to lie in Gavin's arms.'

Eve's heart was pounding thickly into her thoat. He was so calm about it, so cool. Suddenly and des-perately she wanted to hurt back, to prick that arrogant veneer and know that she had done it. 'If

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there's one thing I have to admire about you,' she said, 'it's your supreme self-confidence. Did it ever occur to you that I might have been completely bowled over by someone else entirely—like Tony Randolph, for instance?'

She didn't even see him move, but next minute she was flat on her back on the rug and he was kneel-ing above her, pinning her down with both hands on her shoulder. His face was a taut mask.

'You dare to mention that man's name to me after what happened between us yesterday,' he gritted. 'You dare to sit there and taunt me with a man who thinks so little of you that he drops you from his car on the roadway! Dios, woman, I could make you eat every one of your words I ' His hands bit cruelly into her flesh. 'And why not? Why should I spare your feelings when you make no effort to spare me mine? I could take you now and you could do nothing to stop me '

Eve gazed straight in his blazing eyes and felt the tremors running through her. He was angry enough for anything, and she was certainly no match for his strength. 'I wouldn't even try,' she managed after an interminable moment. 'That's what you want, isn't it, Ramon, to have me struggle and plead. Well, I won't give you the satisfaction 1 If you want to act the savage go ahead.'

For a fleeting instant she actually thought she had gone too far. Then his grip relaxed suddenly and unwilling admiration replaced the fury in his gaze.

'You constantly surprise me, Eve,' he said. 'I think you really would have sacrificed your principles

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'Yes, nina, I know you hate me, and that you'd love to scratch my face to ribbons if you had the chance; we're none of us as civilised as we like to believe when it comes down to the basic emotions. But as I'm quite a lot bigger, and certainly a great deal stronger than you you're hardly likely to have that chance, so you may as well settle down. Running away is futile when you know very well you'll be fetched back.' The wicked light danced in the dark eyes. 'On the other hand, running away and being allowed to go would be frustrating, wouldn't it?'

Eve subsided. For the moment at least he had the upper hand, and he knew it. She reached out to pick up the glass which had flown from her hand when he had pulled her down, wondering where the liquid which had been left inside it had landed. When she looked up again Ramon was still watch-ing her.

'You're not going to sulk?' he said. 'No,' Eve answered forcibly, 'I'm not. I'm going

to have some more wine. That is,' she added on a satirical note, 'if I may.'

Ramon laughed and bent to get the bottle from the basket. 'I have never known another girl quite like you,' he stated.

Which would be something to think about these coming weeks, Eve supposed, and realised in that moment just how much she was going to miss the sheer unpredictability of his behaviour. Life with Ramon might be turbulent, but it was never dull. On the other hand, marriage with a man like that could quite well turn out to be sheer hell after a

rather than subjugate yourself to me. True, I wanted you to plead with me. Just for once I wanted to get beneath this pride of yours and make you realise ...' He broke off, shook his head and released her. 'There are other ways.'

'Of what?' she asked, sitting up and drawing in a painful breath. 'Bringing me to heel? I've no in-tention of joining your gallery of has-beens, Ramon. Tomorrow I'll be home in England.'

'And safe?' His voice had regained the familiar mocking quality. 'And what if I follow you there?'

She looked at him quickly and away again. 'Even you wouldn't go to that much trouble just to chalk up another conquest. You're just going to have to count me as the one that got away.'

His smile was enigmatic. 'We'll see. Are you ready to eat?'

Eve's control snapped. 'No, I am not! I want to go back to the villa and some civilised company.'

'Then you will have to want,' he returned equably. 'We stay here until I say we move.'

'All right.' She came abruptly to her feet. 'Then I'll walk back to the road and thumb a lift. Any-thing rather than stay here with you!'

She had taken all of a dozen steps before he caught up with her. He put an arm about her waist, swung her off her feet and carried her back to dump her unceremoniously down on the rug again, then stood over her, daring her to move.

'You take a lot of convincing,' he said. 'But I'll have you obey me one way or another.' He watched the expressions chasing across her face with a smile.

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short time, she told herself, and knew even as she thought it that given the chance she wouldn't need to think twice about it. Not that there Was any hope of his asking her to marry him. Once out of sight it would 'very probably be out of mind too, so far as his feelings went.

She was tired when they eventually arrived back at the villa at five, and found time to be thankful that nothing special had been arranged for her last evening on the island. In her room, Eve lay on the bed and thought back over the day's colourful phases, marvelling at her own temerity in some of the things she had said and done. A bare fortnight ago she had arrived here on the island a calm, well balanced young woman who had her life mapped out sensibly; tomorrow she would be leaving it a bundle of conflicting emotions. Leaving Ramon would be agony, yet she couldn't bring herself to regret having known him. He had opened her eyes, forced her to take a new look at long accepted ideals, given her a whole new , range of sensations and responses. She might never know another man like him, but one thing was certain, she would never be content to settle for another Gavin.

CHAPTER NINE

THE airport was thronged. Standing there in the big, pillared reception area with the three seeing her off, Eve felt like someone in a well-rehearsed

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play, nodding, smiling, saying all the right things, hiding the heaviness inside her behind a cheerful facade. In just three minutes from now she would be going out through passport control and the de-parture lounge to take her seat on the plane, not to return for a whole month. It still didn't bear think-ing about.

'You won't forget to see about that Nottingham lace, will you?' Lynn reminded her. 'I'd like to feel I'd imported a bit of my own country into the occasion. I shall have to have it within the next week or so if we're to get it made up in time.'

'I won't forget,' Eve promised. 'I'll see to it first thing in the morning, in fact.' She smiled at Juan. 'I suppose so much fuss seems ridiculous to a man? One bit of lace is much the same as another.'

His reply was just as light. `Some would say that we think the same about women, but that too de-pends upon the individual.' He bent to kiss her cheek. 'Adios, Eve. We all look forward to your return.'

Now, at last, she had to look at Ramon and find the right words, but he forestalled her.

'I'm seeing you through passport control,' he said easily.

Lynn hugged her. 'I don't want you to go,' she sighed. 'But at least I know you're coming back soon. Hasta la vista, Eve.'

Ramon slipped an arm through hers as they went up the steps, his fingers warm on her wrist. 'You have your ticket, your passport ready?'

'Yes, here in my bag.' She was savouring each one 163

of these precious extra minutes with him, counting the seconds, her pulses racing with the hope that he might have saved the words she longed to hear for this last moment alone even while her common sense told her not to be a fool. If Ramon loved her as she loved him he would have told her so last night when he had kissed her goodbye on the terrace. It had taken every ounce of will power she possessed to stop herself from blurting out her own feelings at that emotive moment, but she had been so very thankful that she had managed to control the urge when he let her go with a sardonic 'Till the next time, chica'. Ramon took his pleasures where he found them, and wasted no time on regrets. Tonight he would probably be with Juanita again, with Eve Raynor already forgotten.

The gate was almost clear when they reached it. Only a couple of passengers remained to be dealt with Ramon came to a halt and looked down at her, lifted the hand he still held and put his lips to the palm, then he let her go and smilingly handed over her travel case.

'Adios, chica. Until we meet again.' It was done and she was back at the desk, handing

over her passport and watching the efficient, olive-skinned hands open it through blurred eyes. Then she was through and walking on into the departure lounge, not daring to look back. There was the Customs check on hand luggage to go through, then the bus ride out to the plane standing ready on the concrete apron. On the plane she took a window seat and fastened her belt, listened to the pleasant

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impersonal voice of the stewardess welcoming them aboard over the intercom and waited through the usual minutes of suspended animation until they were cleared for take-off. Then the Comet was moving out on to the runway, gathering itself like a runner for the starting pistol. The whine of the jets became a roar and then a bellow as the concrete slid away beneath them at an ever-increasing rate, and there came the sudden smoothing out of sound and speed which was the only immediate indication that they had left the ground. Eve watched the terminal buildings shrink and fall back out of sight, then she closed her eyes and put her head back hard against the seat rest.

The first three days back in London were cool, wet, and miserable. Eve was more than relieved when Monday came round and she could get back to the bank. As she had told no one but her employ-er of her reason for taking her holiday early her return caused no more than the normal casual interest among the staff. Mr Alison himself was far too relieved to have her back to waste any time on recalling why she had been away in the first place. Apparently the 'temps' they had sent him from the bureau had both been next to useless, and things had rather piled up. It was going to be necessary, he was afraid, to put in some overtime until they got sorted out again.

There was a letter from Lynn when Eve got back to the flat that evening. She opened it before she even took off her coat, scanning swiftly over the three pages to discover that Ramon hadn't spent

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one evening at home since her departure, and that he was making a business trip to the mainland shortly. Probably centred around Mad-rid, or some-where similar, she thought numbly, where he could combine business with pleasure. No doubt he had women friends all over the place.

For want of anything better to do she washed her hair again after a light meal, listened to a play on the radio while she caught up with some mending, and flipped through a magazine. Eventually, un-able to stave it off any longer, she lay back on the settee and thought about warm, scented nights and the feel of strong arms about her, of the heady passion of Ramon's kisses and the response he had drawn from her, of the laughter and fun, the anger and pain. Just three days since she had known all that and already her need was unbearable. And how much more unbearable would it be the next time, after the wedding? Seeing him again could only make things worse, yet there was no way out of it. She couldn't let Lynn down by refusing to go back.

The weather improved enough over the follow-ing couple of days for a return to summery clothing. Having cleared the backlog of correspondence, etcetera, by Wednesday, Eve decided to utilise her first wholly free evening by having a meal out and then walking down to the Victoria Embankment Gardens to listen to the brass band concert. She left the bank with several of the girls from the office, laughing over some humorous incident one of them was relating. When the tall, lean figure detached itself from the pillar at the entrance she could

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hardly believe her senses. She just stood there look-ing at him, aware of the hammering of her heart and the sudden flutter of excited curiosity among the girls with her.

'What are you doing here?' she heard herself ask, and saw the strong mouth pull into the familiar tantalising smile.

'Is that the only greeting I get after flying two thousand miles to see you?' He took her hand and put it to his lips in a gesture wholly and calcu-latedly Latin, seemingly totally unaware of the wide-eyed audience. 'I told you I'd follow you.'

'Ramon ...' Eve remembered her companions, who were still to captivated to think of moving on, and broke off. Forcing a smile, she wished them all goodnight and began to move herself, Ramon fall-ing in at her side. As soon as they were out of ear-shot she said furiously, 'What are you trying to do, give them all the impression that I spent the last fortnight with you?'

'Didn't you?' he asked. His eyes were dancing. 'You think they might believe you a fallen woman after this?'

'That's what you'd like them to believe! That's what you'd like everyone to believe! No one must ever know that Ramon Perestrello actually lost a fish from his hook before he'd landed it, must they?' She stopped and faced him, every instinct in her at war with itself. 'I thought you were supposed to be away on business?'

'I am,' he returned imperturbably. 'My business first, the other later. As you say, I won't admit to

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defeat. We have a week, chica ?ilia, in which to catch up on our affairs.'

'We're not having an affair! ' she flung at him, and saw a passer-by glance at them with startled curi-osity. 'Why can't you leave me alone?' she added in suddenly subdued tones with an underlying note of desperation.

'Because you don't want me to leave you alone,' he returned, eyes glinting down at her. 'You hoped I would come after you, didn't you, Eve? You can no more bear the strain of being apart than I can myself.' He smiled, and took her arm. 'But don't worry about it now. For the time being we'll be very English and sedate. Where would you like to go for dinner?'

'It's too early for dinner,' she said, and heard the sudden little tremor in her voice without surprise. 'Ramon, please go away. I—I don't want you here.'

'But I am here, and I'm staying.' His hand tight-ened fractionally on her arm. 'You wouldn't wish to fight with me on a crowded street, would you?'

Eve had to smile. It was impossible not to. If Ramon saw reason to get tough with her he wouldn't give a hoot where they were. 'You're a swine,' she said wryly. 'You really are! '

'True.' He was smiling too. 'And as we're agreed on that much you'll climb willingly into the next taxi which comes along without having to be persuaded, won't you? I didn't intend that we should eat now, only that you might have a prefer-ence for later. For now, we're going to go to your apartment so that you may change into something

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more suited to the kind of evening I've planned.' 'And ... later?' she asked, looking him straight

in the eye. He shook his head. 'As you would say yourself,

don't cross the bridges before you come to them.' He flicked up a swift hand as a taxi appeared out of a sidestreet with its flag up, and swept her unpro-testingly across the pavement and into it, pausing himself to give the driver the address.

'I suppose,' she said as he settled himself beside her, 'that you asked Lynn for it before you came away?'

`No,' he returned equably, 'I got it from the tele-phone book at the airport. Lynn doesn't know I'm here. By the way, had you realised that you went out this morning without locking the door behind you?'

`No, I hadn't. I ...' Eve looked at him quickly. 'How do you know that?'

'I found out when I tried it about an hour ago,' was the bland reply. 'I wasn't at all sure what time you finished your work, so I called first at the apart-ment, and made some inquiries of a neighbour who was in.'

'Maureen,' murmured Eve abstractedly. 'It's her half-day.' She was wondering what the other had thought at the time, especially if she had seen Ramon entering her flat so freely. 'I suppose you did go inside?' she said.

'Of course. I left my case there.' 'You did what?' 'I left my case there,' he repeated obligingly. 'I

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daresay it will be safe enough until we get there ourselves. It's a very pleasant apartment, if a little small. I liked the prints grouped on the far wall, and the way you arrange your furnishings to give the maximum of floor space. Lynn told me once that you did the decorating yourself. You certainly have a good eye for colour.'

`Ramon, you're not staying the night at the flat.' Eve said it flatly and firmly. 'This time you've taken just a little too much for granted 1 All right, I'll come out with you, but first you book yourself into a hotel.'

He was smiling. 'Of course. It was my intention to do that by telephone while you change. So far there hasn't been a great deal of time.'

If the taxi-driver's face was anything to go by, Eve wasn't the only one to treat that statement with scepticism. She shut up after that. Any further ex-changes on the subject could be left for when they were alone. She could still hardly credit that Ramon was actually here in London, let alone in the taxi beside her being his usual outrageous self. She had longed for him so badly, yet here they were within a few minutes of meeting again, right back where they had left off. It wasn't love which had brought him all this way, it was the challenge to his pride. He wanted her on his own terms.

By the time they reached the flat she was out-wardly composed. She went on up while Ramon paid off the taxi fare, almost falling over the leather suitcase standing just inside the door. The moment he walked in she pointed to the telephone, then

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gave him a sweet smile and went through to the bedroom, shooting the bolt audibly behind her.

There was a dress at the back of her wardrobe which she hadn't worn for ages. She took it out and looked at it for a moment before deciding to wear it now. It was black and plain, with long bell sleeves lined with a brilliant purple silk print. Gavin had considered it too noticeably different for his notion of good taste. Eve wondered how long it would take for Ramon to get around to asking her about Gavin, and how she would answer him when he did. Not that there were really any two ways about it.

Ramon was still on the phone when she went back to the living room some fifteen minutes later. He said 'Thank you' as she closed the door at her back, and ran an appreciative eye over her as he replaced the receiver on its rest. 'Perfect,' he said. 'Classic simplicity with a surprise up the sleeve at every move. It's often been said that clothes are an extension of personality. Now I see why.'

'Did you book a room?' Eve demanded, ignoring the satire.

He lifted a pained eyebrow. 'First things first. I obtained a reservation for dinner at one of your leading night spots. It seems a long time since we went dancing together.'

'Did you book into a hotel?' repeated Eve, enun-ciating each word with care and precision.

He lifted his shoulders and smiled, settling back comfortably into his chair 'I tried and failed. There are no rooms to be had.'

'Oh, don't be ridiculous! Of course there are. 171

There must be!' Ramon pushed the directory towards her. 'Then

you try. I already phoned a dozen hotels only to be given the same answer.' His grin was taunting. 'It's the tourist season, amada. The place is full of foreigners.'

'Well, this place isn't going to be ' She seized hold of the directory and began flipping through it. 'It doesn't have to be central London, does it?'

'It most certainly does.' He watched her in amuse-ment. 'It can be left until later. There's almost sure to be a last-minute cancellation somewhere. I can try again when I bring you home.'

'If you haven't got somewhere to stay by then you won't be bringing me home,' she retorted. 'I told you ...'

'I know what you told me.' He said it lazily, but there was a certain glint in his eye. 'You've done nothing but tell me what I'm not going to do since we met. Matters will sort themselves out to our mutual satisfaction, never fear. In the meantime, I intend to enjoy our evening together, so pick up your coat and we'll get along. We can call some-where for a drink before going on to dinner.'

It was useless arguing with him; Eve already knew that. Short of refusing to have anything more to do with him, and getting someone in to help her show him the door, she either went along with him or sat here twiddling her thumbs all night. She wanted, desperately, to be with him, but not alone as they were now. She wasn't sufficiently sure of her-self for that. Helplessly she picked up her coat and

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handbag from the chair where she had slung them and accompanied him from the flat.

Drinks at the Waldorf were followed by dinner at the Talk Of The Town. Sipping champagne and eyeing her companion across the lamp-lit table, Eve could finally bear the waiting no longer.

'Aren't you going to ask me about Gavin?' she demanded on a belligerent note which brought a smile to Ramon's lips.

'I don't need to ask. You will have told him very gently and considerately that you can't marry him because you've found out that there is more you want from life than he can offer.'

The champagne, the soft lights, the music, were all combining to make Eve's head spin a little. She had not been slow to notice the way other women had looked at Ramon when they were being shown to their table, yet he himself appeared to have eyes for no one but her. That was one of the good things about him: he could make a woman feel she was the only one he wanted even while she knew in her heart that she was merely a passing phase. It was the knowledge that she was envied which helped to make her reckless.

'Such as?' she asked with soft deliberation. He quirked an eyebrow. 'You wish me to put it

into words?' 'Why not?' 'Why not indeed?' He reached across and took

her hand, turning it over so that it lay palm upper-most on the cloth between them. 'It's all in there; the pattern of your life. I see a strong will and a

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stubborn nature blocking the lines of fulfilment, but not for long. The girl is becoming the woman, warm and passionate and yearning for love.' His voice was low, taunting. 'She needs a man who will match her, not one who would find such strengths of emotion beyond comprehension. A man who can teach her to love without fear or reticence, bend her to his will yet never break her.'

'Now who do I know who might fit that bill?' Eve murmured with a thoughtful frown. 'He'd have to be attractive, of course, and very knowledgeable ... and compassionate.' She gave him a sweet smile. 'That cuts you out, anyway.'

He regarded her equably. 'You think I lack com-passion?'

'Let's say you haven't shown many signs of it.' 'No? I think I showed a great deal of it both on

the night when you taunted me in the garden and the day we went to Teide.'

'You're confusing it with caution. You would have hated your mother to know that you'd seduced —if that's the word for what you're talking about—a guest in her home.'

'You would have told her?' 'I wouldn't have needed to. She'd have known.

A very perceptive person, your mother.' 'Yes.' Ramon was smiling. 'Is it the champagne

which is making you so clear in your thinking tonight?'

'Is that what I am? Then perhaps I should have some more.'

'I think not. I don't want to have to carry you 174

home.' She gave what was meant to be a low laugh, saw

several heads turn towards them and sobered abruptly. 'I think I might be getting just a little bit tight.' she said. 'It's a long time since I had champ-agne.'

'A little over two weeks, to be accurate. You didn't get tight that night. On the contrary, I seem to recall that you were most sober.'

'That was because I'd just begun to realise how necessary it was going to be to keep my wits about me. Mind over matter, and all that.'

He looked interested. 'And tonight you no longer feel the same necessity?'

'No ... Yes 1 ' She felt suddenly confused. 'You're putting words into my mouth.'

'There wouldn't be room. Your own seem to be spilling over.' He stubbed out the remains of his cigar. 'Come and dance.'

Out on the floor she had melted into his arms be-fore she realised what she was doing. When she tried to pull back a little he held her firmly, smiling into her eyes. After a brief moment she relaxed again, leaning against him with closed eyes. Later could look after itself. This was now, and she was going to enjoy it while she could.

Ramon took her back to their table when the music finished, but he didn't pull out her chair for her to sit down. Instead he took hold of her purse and gave it to her. 'Time to go,' he said.

'But we'll miss the cabaret,' she pointed out, and he shrugged.

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`So we miss the cabaret. We have things to sort out.'

Of course. The hotel room. Eve argued no further but went with him meekly. It wasn't until she got out into the fresh air that the full effects of the champagne began to make themselves felt. She climbed unsteadily into the taxi which the doorman procured out of thin air, and made no demur at all when Ramon put his arm about her and held her close. The drive over to Lambeth seemed unusually short. In no time at all Ramon was paying the driver and taking her arm up the front steps and then the stairs.

Once inside the flat, Eve sank to a seat in the nearest armchair and put her hands to her cheeks with a little laugh. 'You know, I feel quite light-headed!'

Ramon moved towards the kitchenette. 'I'll make some coffee.'

She was still sitting in the same position when he came back with the tray. She watched bemusedly as he set out cups and saucers and poured, meeting amused dark eyes as he handed her a cup.

'I'm fully house-broken,' he said. `If pressed, I can turn out a quite superb paella.'

'Only quite?' 'Cooking isn't my main interest.' He smiled at

the run of warmth under her skin. 'You're feeling more yourself?'

'Yes.' She was, and it wasn't the coffee alone that had done the trick. She put down the cup and nod-ded towards the telephone. 'Hadn't you better

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start trying?' Her mouth firmed when he didn't move. 'You never had any intention of finding your-self a room, did you?' she demanded. 'You planned this! '

He hadn't sat down since bringing in the coffee, neither had he touched his own cup. Now, he stood looking at her for several seconds before saying softly, `No, I didn't plan it. But if that is what you want to believe I'll go along with it.' He took off his suit jacket and slung it over a chair back, loosened off his tie and regarded her with deliberation. 'Time for bed.'

Eve shrank back involuntarily in the chair. 'Stay away from me! Do you hear me, Ramon! Don't you dare ...'

'Now you're acting like a child again.' He took a couple of swift steps and scooped her up in his arms, then walked across to the bedroom door and kicked it open. Eve struggled wildly as he carried her over to one of the twin beds and put her down on it, but he held her securely, kneeling on the edge of the mattress to pin her helplessly down, much as he had that afternoon in the forest glade. 'Now what have you to say for yourself ?' he asked mockingly.

Her eyes were twin emeralds. 'If you don't take your hands off me,' she flashed, 'I'll scream my head off ! '

He shook his head. 'You wouldn't do that. You'd hate your neighbours to know that you had a man here with you. Eve Raynor succumbs to no such temptation.' A pause. 'Of course, you could always say that I forced my way in without invitation, and

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that the suitcase out there belongs to someone else entirely. The girl next door may take a little con-vincing, as she saw me here this afternoon, but if you want to risk it ...'

'Stop it 1 ' Her voice was unsteady. 'Ramon, you wouldn't! '

The mockery hardened suddenly into something else. 'Don't be too sure. You've done enough blow-ing hot and cold tonight to give any man reason. A salutory lesson could be what you need.' He studied her, his lips twisting again. 'Perhaps in future you'll at least give me the benefit of the doubt before jumping to hasty conclusions.'

'All right,' she said in low tones after a long moment, `so I'm suitably chastened. But you're as much at fault.'

'Because I've always made it obvious that I want to make love to you?' He tapped her cheek with a finger tip, humour restored. 'That's not a fault, chica, but a fact. And the question of when still has to be resolved between us.' He let her go, and straightened. 'I'll prove my good intentions by spending the night on your couch in the other room, or would you deny me even that much?'

Eve sat up and ran a hand over her hair, not look-ing at him. 'You can take the blankets from Lynn's bed, and there's a pillow in the cupboard over there.'

With his arms full he went to the door, pausing to look back at her before he closed it. 'Sleep on what I said.'

Sleep on it. Eve closed her eyes for a moment, 178

fighting the urge to call him back. A few minutes ago she had struggled to get out of his arms. Now, suddenly, she could think of nothing she wanted more than to spend the night in them. Only to-morrow would come, and Ramon would go, and then where would she be. It was no use. She just didn't have the kind of courage it took to accept the limitations of his kind of love. She got up quickly from the bed and began to undress.

Sleep was a long time in coming, and when it did it was plagued by dreams At some point during the night she opened her eyes to find herself sitting up in the bed with her heart pounding like a steam hammer and her mouth open as if in a shout, but with only the vaguest recollection of what it was that had scared her awake. She blinked in the stream of light from the room beyond as the door opened, still not fully enough in possession of her senses to sort out what Ramon was doing here in the flat in the middle of the night.

He came swiftly across to the bed. 'You cried out,' he said. 'Were you having a nightmare?'

'I think I must have been.' Memory came crowd-ing back. She swallowed thickly. 'I'm sorry if I woke you.'

His smile was dry. 'I wasn't asleep. I've been read-ing for the last couple of hours. Are you all right now?'

'Yes.' He was wearing judo-style pyjamas in dark blue silk, the vee of the jacket front reaching almost to his waist. Eve could see the silver medallion against his chest, half hidden among the curling

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dark hair, the ripple of muscle as he moved an arm. She lifted her eyes to his face, lingered for a pulsat-ing moment on the strong line of his mouth, and finally met his eyes, her own wide and dark. When he sat down on the bed and took her in his arms she didn't resist but met his lips with honesty, feeling the strong beat of his heart against her breast, the tingling assurance of his hands. She slid her own arms up and around his neck, curled her fingers into the roughness of his hair and shut her mind to everything but the exquisite intoxication of the moment.

It was Ramon who did the pushing away this time, holding her from him with hands gone sud-denly harder. 'No,' he said roughly. 'Not like this to comfort a child in the dark. You come to me as a woman or not at all.'

She looked at him with quivering lips, bewild-ered, hurt. 'I don't know what you want,' she whispered, and then gave a small cry as he cruelly tightened his grasp.

'I want you. Not just your body, but all of you! I want to know your thoughts, your feelings, to hear you tell me what I am to you. I'll settle for no less than that.'

Surrender. Total and complete. That was what he meant. Eve gazed at him shakily, searching his face for some sign of softening. But there was none. He was merciless, unshakable, offering her the single choice. And if she gave him what he asked for? If she sank her pride and told him what he meant to her

what then? A few days together, perhaps. A few 18o

ays of watching him grow gradually restless and then bored. To give everything was to leave herself defenceless.

Her head lifted. 'All right,' she said, 'I love you, Ramon. I think you're inhumanly cruel and quite without feeling yourself, but I can't help it. You're the only man I've ever loved, and probably the only one I ever will love. Now get out of my room! '

He didn't move. 'You said probably the only man you will ever love,' he said, and then his expression was changing, his mouth widening, his eyes glint-ing. 'Dios, woman. I'd better be the only one 1 I'll have no wife of mine so much as look sideways at another man I '

Eve stared at him, too stunned at first to even be-gin to think straight. Then, suddenly, she came back to life, scrambling to her knees on the bed with her fists clenched and her eyes blazing. 'I wouldn't marry you if you were the last man on earth! Of all the conceited, arrogant, insufferable, overbearing ...'

'Irresistible?' he suggested as she cast around for some further epithet. 'Lovable, dependable, agree-able?' He was laughing, fending off her descending fist with his arm. 'I warn you, Eve, if you slap me again I'll spank you! '

For the first time Eve became aware of the flimsi-ness of her nightdress, and subsided abruptly into the bedclothes again. 'I hate you, Ramon,' she said tremulously.

'I know.' He put his arms about her and held her close, kissed her bare shoulder, her throat, feathered

1 8i

his lips along the line of her cheek and found her lips with an urgency which stimulated the kind of response she hadn't known herself capable of. Then he was putting her away from him firmly. 'And I'm going to hate myself when I get back to the other room. But if you can give in to me then I must sacri-fice too. Only not for long, amada mia. Not for us the strain of waiting weeks for a day and a time. You're going to marry me here in England, as soon as it's possible, and return home with me as my wife. How soon is it possible?'

She felt dazed, unbelieving. Was this really hap-pening or was it all part of the dream? But no, be-cause that had been a nightmare while this was everything wonderful.

'I think it's something like three days,' she said. 'But Ramon, we can't ...'

'We can, and will. Unless, of course, you feel that you're being robbed of your bridal role?' with a twist of his lips. 'If such things mean more to you ...'

She smiled, shook her head. 'I wasn't even think-ing about that. I couldn't care less about all the trappings. It's just that ... well, at the risk of sound-ing trite, so sudden. When did you decide that you wanted to marry me?'

'About three minutes after we first met. You were aware of the current which sprang between us too, although you wasted so much time in denying it.'

'I should think I did, the way you made it seem.' She paused, looking into the lean, striking features. 'And you let me go without a word. If you really did

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know I was in love with you how could you be so cruel?'

`It's the way I am. I intended you to suffer a little in return for the number of times you threw this Gavin of yours in my face before I came and sorted matters out.'

'Including Gavin?' she asked demurely, and he smiled.

`If it had proved necessary, although I was sure you would have thought it a matter of honour to make your intentions plain at the earliest oppor-tunity. What were his reactions?'

'Gentlemanly. He said that if I felt I couldn't marry him then there was nothing he could do about it.'

Ramon made a derisive sound deep in his throat. 'A man like that doesn't deserve any woman!' There was a pause while he studied her with an expression which made her pulses race afresh, then he said softly, 'Tomorrow, I must move out to my hotel. Three days alone with you here would be more than flesh and blood could stand.'

'You mean,' she said at last in strangled tones, `that you had a room booked all the time?'

'Of course. One doesn't come to London in August without a reservation. I phoned the hotel last night after I had put you to bed and told them I had been delayed.' He lifted a taunting brow. `Do you have any complaints?

A spark of pure devilment lit her swiftly lowered eyes. 'Only one,' she said softly. 'I don't want to be

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left alone again tonight, Ramon. Please stay with me.'

In the silence of the room his breathing seemed suddenly quicker. 'If you're sure that's what you want,' he said at last.

'Yes, I'm sure.' Now she lifted her face to him. 'It will be the real proof of our love, won't it, to spend the night together without touching one another. I'm sure you'll find Lynn's bed very comfortable.'

For one long moment he just sat there looking at her, then his mouth began to twitch. 'You,' he said, 'are a vixen, Eve. If I didn't love you to distraction I would draw those sharp little teeth of yours once and for all! Lynn's bed can remain empty. I'll stay on my couch and leave the door open between us.' He pressed her down into the pillows, tucked the sheet up under her chin and got to his feet. At the door he turned. 'And if you scream again I shall ignore you,' he said. 'So make sure you only dream pleasant dreams.'

'I will,' she said softly. It didn't seem possible that she would sleep at all

with so much going on in her mind, but she opened her eyes to find sunlight pouring into the room and the smell of coffee filtering through the partially opened door. Memory returned in a flood of warmth and palpitating emotion. She was going to marry Ramon, return with him to Tenerife. Oh, not as soon as he said, of course. He would have to realise that there were all sorts of arrangements to make first. Her job, for instance—although Mr Alison would have to make do with a week's notice instead

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of the usual month. Ramon was bringing through a tray from the

kitchen when Eve went into the sitting room. He was fully dressed in a cotton shirt and pale slacks, and his hair was damp and curling slightly at the ends. He ran an eye over her long yellow housecoat and smiled. 'You look like a daffodil, but twice as lovely.' He put down the tray and held out his arms to her. 'Come over here.'

She went to him without hesitation, lifting her mouth to meet his halfway. He held her tightly for a long moment after the kiss, his face against her hair, then he put her away from him, said briskly, 'Come and have your coffee before it goes cold. Later you can cook me an English breakfast. It will do me no harm to indulge your habits in the short time we'll be here.'

'I want to talk to you about that,' said Eve, taking a seat beside him on the settee and pouring the coffee. 'I'm going to have to give at least a week's notice at the bank, you know. It should be a month, but I think Mr Alison will understand when I tell him the reason. Men can be as romantic as women over things like this.'

There was a lengthy pause before Ramon said evenly, 'Today we make the arrangements for our marriage. In three days at the most from now we will be on our honeymoon. You'll tell the manager of your bank that you are leaving his employ at once, and spend those few days showing me those parts of London which I haven't yet seen.'

Eve twisted her head to look at him, saw the firm 1 85

set of his mouth and felt her own straighten corres-pondingly. 'I'm sorry,' she said, 'I just can't do that. It wouldn't be fair or right. I have to give Mr Alison time to find another secretary. It will only be a week, Ramon. Surely that isn't too much to ask.'

'It's more than I'm prepared to wait.' He put down his cup and met her gaze unwaveringly. 'I intend to have my way in this, Eve. I'll speak to your employer myself this morning if necessary.'

'You won't.' Her cup went down with a bang. 'This is my affair '

Ramon said quietly, 'You still don't know me very well, do you?'

'No.' Her chest felt tight. 'And at the moment I'm not at all sure that I want to. You don't want a wife, you want a ... a subject. An obedient little slave! Well, I'm not going to be it. I'm an indivi-dual, not a robot to be programmed to your habits!'

He was sitting back in his seat studying her with an enigmatic expression. 'Is that how you see your sister?'

'No,' she admitted after a moment. 'But that's because Juan doesn't try to enforce his will against hers all the time.'

'Not in the small things, perhaps. Like the ma-jority of men he enjoys indulging the woman he loves. But when it comes to something which is important to him then it's a different matter—as it is to us all. I'm asking- you to put me first, Eve, be-fore every other consideration. Is that so much?'

'You're not asking me,' she said. 'You're telling me.'

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He sighed. 'So I'm telling you. If you'd preferred a man who was willing to beg for your favours you would have chosen your Gavin.'

'It still isn't too late,' she flashed. 'I'm not mar-ried to you yet—thank goodness! ' She was trem-bling with anger and the knowledge of what was happening between them, yet felt powerless to stop it. 'If it comes down to a choice I'd rather be quietly happy with Gavin than spend the rest of my life being ... bullied by you! '

His smile was slow. 'Even if your choice of words fitted you'd still be a liar. You want marriage with me, but you want me to make it easy for you—or you tell yourself that you do. If I gave in to you now you would persuade yourself that you were glad, yet deep down inside you would be the disappointment of knowing that I was not after all the man you'd thought I was—the man you fell in love with. And you don't have that choice because you have already accepted me.'

She gazed at him, uncertain of his mood, not at all sure of her own. 'You can't force me into mar-riage.'

'I can.' He hadn't moved, but there was some-thing in his very stillness which made her heart beat faster. 'Didn't I once tell you that I always get what I want one way or another? I know you very well, Eve, and I love everything about you—including your stubbornness, your spirit and your values. For your sake I was willing to wait to know you wholly and completely, but if there is any doubt at all in your mind that you are going to marry me then I'll

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make sure of you here and now. Believe me, I'd find it far easier not to wait.'

It was no use telling herself that he wouldn't. He would, and she knew it. Eve felt the wonder stirring inside her. To be loved and wanted so much that a man was prepared to go to any lengths to have her—that was every woman's secret dream. Suddenly the conditions she was trying to impose upon her own emotions seemed petty and unimportant.

'Ramon ...' she began, then paused and smiled. 'We'd better get a move on if we're going to get to the office at all.'

Minutes later, with her head against his chest she said softly, 'Do you think we'll often fight?'

He laughed. 'Of course. You are what you are and I am what I am, and no one changes completely. But you'll learn to handle me, just as Abuela learnt to handle her husband, and then I'll be lost.'

'Down but not defeated,' she murmured. 'You make it sound like a game.'

'It is,' he said. 'The greatest gamble of all.' His arms tightened about her again. 'But I was born to win.'

And so, apparently, thought Eve, was she.

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