He walked round and got into the driving seat and started up the engine in one swift lithe movement, while Holly coped with anger, tears and a dozen other emotions that she did not attempt to interpret. There was one certain way of avoiding any further complications of this kind, and that was to leave the castle and go elsewhere for the remainder of her holiday. Only, she told herself, she hated to disappoint Aunt Nan.

CHAPTER FOUR.

Helena Mendez, now that she was back from Paris, made no secret of the fact that she intended Marcos to have as little time as possible free for Holly, and she had been to the castle several times during the week since her return. Holly avoided her whenever she could, partly because she felt a certain sense of guilt when she remembered how she had responded to Marcos's advances and partly because she frankly admitted to disliking the other girl. A dislike that she felt was reciprocated in full.

Helena certainly took little pains to hide how she felt about Holly being there still, and more than once Holly had seen the way her aunt frowned when the Spanish girl made some scarcely veiled jibe. Quite often she made remarks about Holly's less than aristocratic background, and on such occasions Don Jose was vocal in his objections, for remarks of that kind could apply equally well to his wife, and that he would not tolerate.

Marcos had not so far made any verbal objection, but had left it to his father to defend his guest. Once or twice, however, he had managed to catch Holly's eye and she could have sworn that there was a hint of apology in the black-eyed gaze, although she seldom held it long enough to be sure.

It was a week since Helena's return and after a particularly trying evening in her company, Holly was thankful to see the Spanish girl depart quite early, giving her ample time to go for a short walk before she went to bed. It would help to blow the cobwebs away and also help her to throw off the annoying sense of inferiority that Helena always gave her.

She smiled at her aunt when she announced her intention of going for a walk, letting her know the reason. 'I'm sorry about Helena, baby,' Aunt Nan said softly as they stood together in the vast grandeur of the great hall. She put a hand on her arm consolingly and shook her head. 'I wish there was something I could do about her, but - you see how it is, and I'm sure she doesn't really mean half of it. She-' She shrugged uneasily. 'I suppose she wouldn't have to resort to such - such cattiness if she was more sure of Marcos.'

'More sure of him?' Holly looked puzzled. 'I wouldn't have thought she had any fears in that direction, Aunt Nan.'

'I'm afraid she does,' her aunt said. 'I know the marriage is all arranged and has been for years, but it's been a very long wait and Helena's a - a very pa.s.sionate woman, like most Spaniards, and I'm not sure she finds Marcos quite as - well, as loving as he might be.'

'I see.' It surprised her, when she remembered her own experience with Marcos; she would have expected him to be a very satisfactory lover, especially with a girl he was going to marry. 'Well, she need not be afraid of me getting in her way, Aunt Nan. Marcos is very single-minded when it comes to the subject of marrying Helena Mendez, I can a.s.sure you - and I can't believe she finds him all that disappointing as a lover, either!'

'Holly!' Her aunt put out a hand, touching her face lightly, her blue eyes searching and a little anxious. 'I don't want to pry, darling, but if you-'

'Oh yes, I did, Aunt Nan!' Holly said quickly and with a short laugh that sounded much too harsh. 'I am speaking from experience. Believe me, Marcos Delgaro's no novice when it comes to making love, only you just don't have to take him seriously. Unless you happen to be going to marry him, of course, which Helena is, as he left me in no doubt!'

'Oh, Holly dear!' The gentle arms enfolded her as they had done when she was a little girl, and, for a moment only, Holly allowed herself the comfort of burying her face against that ample shoulder and closing her eyes, then she raised her head, smiling determinedly, her deep blue eyes bright and shining.

'Don't worry, dear Aunt Nan, I won't be swept off my feet by your dashing stepson! I've got more sense than that, although he is rather potent, as I'm sure you'll have guessed!'

Aunt Nan looked at her for a long moment in silence, her brow wrinkled worriedly, then she shook her head, as if she was still very uncertain. 'I hope you won't allow yourself to be swept off your feet, baby,' she said gently. 'I know Marcos is very much a man, but I thought - I hoped, that in your case he would- She shrugged her plump shoulders expressively, in a way that Holly was beginning to look upon as typically Spanish, so that she could not restrain a smile as she kissed her aunt lightly on her forehead.

'Aunt Nan, you're becoming a real dyed-in-the-wool Spaniard,' she teased her. 'That shrug is pure Latin - that's what comes of spending ten years in Spain!'

'I suppose so,' her aunt allowed, still looking uncertain. She took Holly by her arms and smiled at her anxiously. 'You will tell me if - if anything happens to make you unhappy, won't you, baby?'

"Yes, of course I will, Aunt Nan!' She hugged her affectionately and smiled. 'Now I'm going for a walk to blow the cobwebs away before I go to bed, it's a lovely night, with a huge Spanish moon and everything.'

'Well, don't go too far, darling,' her aunt said, then shook her head in self-admonishment. 'I must stop thinking of you as still a little girl,' she apologized. 'Enjoy your walk, Holly dear.'

It was a beautiful night, with a full moon and so many stars that Holly felt sure there must be more here than she could see in English skies. It was a perfect night for what the books called romance, the air scented with the orange blossom and the cooler breeze drifting down from the hills.

It was almost without thinking that she found herself walking down towards the stables and the paddock, for she was thinking about nothing in particular and only sought that pleasant state of peaceful tiredness that comes on a quiet evening. It was only when she raised her head suddenly, and listened to the sound of a guitar somewhere not too far away, that she realized how near she was to the stables.

A voice joined the plucking strings of the instrument and Holly smiled to herself, thinking it could only be Carlos, the stableboy. Stableboy was what she termed his position on the estate, but in fact he was a young man, very near her own age, and swarthily good-looking. She had seen him several times when she had been about near the horses with Marcos, and his dark eyes had left no doubt of his appreciation of her, despite the presence of his employer.

It might be as well, she thought, in the circ.u.mstances, not to go any further, but she was in no mind yet to abandon her walk. Furthermore, coming back to earth from her self-induced reverie had reminded her again of Helena Mendez's scathing remarks, and the scarcely veiled implications that she belonged to the lower orders. In which case she would surely not be out of place talking to the stableboy.

With only a brief hesitation, and one brief guess at what Marcos Delgaro would have to say about her consorting with his employees, she went on down to where the white stable buildings looked squat and ghostly clear in the brilliant moonlight.

There was a soft yellow light in the window of one of the smallest buildings, and an open door. Not really a cottage but a one-roomed building with the bare necessities for life, where Carlos lived alone. Unless, of course, he had some bright-eyed senorita in there with him, sharing his softly-lit room and his music.

But he was alone and sitting outside, she could see when she got nearer, his back leaned against the cottage wall, his knees raised in front of him, cradling the guitar, while he plucked the strings with a skill that told of long practice. He leaned back his head and sang softly in a voice that was inexpert but full and quite sweet to listen to, apparently oblivious of anyone being near until he came to the end of his song. Then he raised his head and looked across at Holly, who had hoped to remain unseen in the shadow of the trees.

'Buenas noches, senorita,' he called out softly, and Holly stepped, hesitantly, out of the shadows.

In her short pale yellow dress, she looked small and pale and not quite real as she looked at him uncertainly. Carlos got to his feet, slowly, his dark eyes glittering in the bright moonlight and reminding Holly that she had probably been very rash to have come here at all.

'Good evening, Carlos, please don't let me interrupt your singing.'

She tried to sound cool and off-hand, but she stood only a foot or two away from him and her heart was suddenly and warningly tapping at her ribs as she sensed that dark gaze raking over her from head to toe. Without the discouraging presence of his employer Carlos seemed to behave with less reticence, had less need to hide his obvious admiration.

As she faced him there in the quiet and darkness, with no one else within calling distance, she remembered Marcos's words to her, and wondered if he could possibly be right about her. She had come down here on her own, and she had known that Carlos lived down here alone in the little cottage by the stables. Beautiful and provocative, Marcos had called her, and perhaps Carlos would think she was being provocative, coming down here to the stables alone at this time of night.

'You find my cancion pleasing, senorita?' He spoke in a low voice and it was obvious what was going through his mind.

'Your song was very nice,' she said, to let him know she understood at least a word or two of Spanish. 'You have a very good voice, Carlos.'

'Mtichas gracias, senoritai' There might have been a hint of mockery in his answer, but she was not going to panic for nothing and he had made no move towards her so far.

'Do you often sing down here where no one can hear you?' she asked, and he laughed softly, his dark eyes glinting at her in the moonlight 'Ah, but I am heard, senorita,' he said softly. *You heard me, did you not?' She did not answer and he laughed again, plucking the guitar strings gently, his white teeth gleaming in the darkness of his face. 'Always there is a senorita to hear a love song, si?'

'Perhaps.' She must go, she realized that, before her being there precipitated a scene she was not at all sure she could cope with. She glanced up at the bright moon, intending to make some trite remark about it being a lovely night, and then turn and go back to the castle, but as she took her eyes off him and half turned to look up at the sky, he moved closer and put down the guitar, leaning it against the white wall of the cottage.

'Senorita!'

The moist warmth of his hands curled about her arms from behind, and she was pulled roughly against the rather plump softness of his body while his voice, garlic-laden and hoa.r.s.e with pa.s.sion, breathed in her ear. Words she could not understand but whose meaning was made only too clear by the accompanying gestures.

'Let me go!'

She pulled herself free only with difficulty and spun round to face him, seeing his eyes glittering like coals in the moonlight, his thick throat, revealed by an open- necked shirt, jerking violently as he swallowed. For a moment they faced each other, and then he shook his head and she saw anger replace the desire that had been there only a moment before.

His large, work-rough hands reached out for her again and she was pulled hard against him until his face was only inches from hers, and his lips drawn back from those excellent teeth in a travesty of a smile. 'So! You are atormentar, senorita! You do not find Carlos to your liking now that you have come to me, huh?'

'I did not come to you!' Holly denied, struggling against his hold and against a rising nausea brought on by the pungency of garlic at close quarters. 'Let me go, Carlos! Let me go or I'll scream!'

His smile told her that he was perfectly well aware no one would hear her, no matter how loud she screamed, and he brought his face even closer. Her scream, when it came, was promoted by sheer fright, and it was loud and piercing as she clawed at his face while turning her own away, twisting and pushing at him as she fought to escape.

Then, without warning, she was free and staring at . him with wide, unbelieving eyes as he staggered back against the wall of the cottage, the guitar falling with a splintering crash under his weight as he fell.

'Go back to the house!' The order was directed at Holly, and Marcos's curt voice had a coldness that chilled her as he stood over the fallen Carlos like an avenging angel. He looked tall and much darker, somehow menacing, and when she did not immediately obey he turned back to her, his black eyes glittering in the silver light like chips of jet. 'Siga adelante,' he ordered. 'Immediatamente!'

Her heart was racing so hard that she felt it would burst at any moment, but she could not run off and let him vent his anger on Carlos. Not when she had been at least in part to blame for the situation, so she stood her ground a small, light figure with the starry sky behind her and her hands clasped together appealingly.

'What - what are you going to do?' she whispered, and he looked at her for a moment as if he doubted he had heard her correctly.

'What do you want me to do, senorita?' he asked in a cold, hard voice, and Holly shook her head, her gaze going to Carlos. He stood wiping one hand across the trickle of dark blood from the corner of his mouth, his eyes half wary, half defiant and waiting to see what she would say.

'You - you can't take it out on Carlos,' she said, in a voice that sounded strangely thin and trembly. 'It - it wasn't altogether his fault.'

For a moment Marcos said nothing, then he looked down at the stableboy and again at Holly. 'Madre de Dios!' he murmured hoa.r.s.ely.

'Sen or-' Carlos was already half on his feet and prepared to put the blame fairly and squarely on to Holly. He looked across at her as she pleaded silently with Marcos, his eyes shifty and malicious, but Marcos would not hear him.

'Silencio!' he ordered, and turned his back on the man with a deliberate contempt, facing Holly again, his hands tightly clenched. 'You will accompany me, senorita. Immediatamente!' he added sharply when she would have protested.

Without a word Holly turned and started to walk back the way she had come, her heart rapping wildly at her ribs in an emotion she could not even begin to recognize. In a few seconds Marcos was beside her, striding along, his pace shortened to match hers, tall, silent and coldly angry, so that she dared not look back over her shoulder to see how Carlos was faring.

They were pa.s.sing the end of the paddock, in the dark shadow of the fig trees, before she ventured to say anything, and then only nervously, glancing at the stern, dark face, harsh and more unrelenting than ever she had seen it, in the cold white light of the moon.

'Marcos, I'm-'

'Please do not apologize,' he interrupted harshly, one hand dismissing her contemptuously. 'You owe me no explanations, senorita. What you do with your own time is your own affair, but please be so kind - when you are having an affair with one of my empleados, tell me before I make the same mistake again. Carlos is very useful to me, I would dislike it if I lost him on your account!'

'How dare you!'

Holly stopped in her tracks, her hands tightly clenched at her sides, her eyes blazing at him furiously as she sought for words to tell him exactly what she thought of him. He too, came to a halt, his dark features betraying the violence of anger that gripped him, making his lips tight and cruel-looking, and putting a cold, sharp edge on his voice.

'You are telling me that you were in no way to blame for that - the incident, senorita?' he asked, and Holly shook her head.

'Not altogether,' she told him. 'But you're wrong to - to word it as you do. I was partly to blame because I went down that way for a walk, but I didn't realize I'd see Carlos, or that he'd behave the way he did when I did see him.'

"But you knew he would be down there.'

He was not going to believe her, she could see that and she felt cold and miserable inside at being so misjudged. 'I - I suppose I did,' she admitted, and could not imagine why she should be looking at him so appealingly, as if he had every right to question her as he was. 'I just didn't think where I was going.'

'Huh!'

The snort of disbelief and the expression she saw glittering in his black eyes made her clench her hands even more tightly. It was such a beautiful night, with ma.s.ses of stars and that incredibly big silver moon, everything should have been set for a tender, romantic scene, and yet here she was fighting with the only man who had ever come close to making her fall deeply in love.

'Oh, you can believe what you like!' she cried in despair. She felt small and tearful as she looked up at that hawklike face and remembered how her hands had caressed it only a few short days ago. How that wide, cruel-looking mouth could kiss her in such a way that she was ready to forget everything and everybody, including the girl he was going to marry.

'Am I to believe that you just happened to go down that way by chance?' he asked. His hands were spread wide and the glitter in his eyes doubted every word she said.

'Of course I did!'

'After I had warned you?'

'After you'd warned me!' She echoed the words harshly. 'You should have warned me about yourself, senor! Until tonight you're the only one I've had reason to be wary of! Not that I'm likely to make that mistake again, not with Senorita Mendez going to such lengths to warn me off!'

'Holly!'

There was a note of warning in his voice, but Holly was past caring. 'I went for a walk to try and - and clear my head,' she went on rashly. 'After an evening with the senorita I needed to get out into the fresh air for a while. Who knows, maybe it was instinct that took me in the direction of the stables - maybe I was seeking what Senorita Mendez would consider my own level!'

'Parar!' He gripped her arms in a grip that made her wince, and shook her. 'You will not speak like that!'

'About Senorita Mendez?' She shook her head, angry and hurt. 'I'm sorry, senor! Of course it isn't allowed, is it?'

'About yourself, poca idiota!'

'Oh, but surely you share the view of Senorita Mendez,' Holly said, her voice husky and trembling. 'You could scarcely do anything else, senor!'

He looked at her in silence for a long moment and Holly felt that merciless grip on her arms relax gradually, and his thumbs begin a gentle, caressing movement on her soft skin. 'Do you think I hold so low opinion of you?' he asked softly.

'Don't you?'

She was trembling; her hands were shaking like leaves and she wanted to reach out and touch the soft white shirt, spread them over the place. where his heart beat would pulse strongly under her fingers. She was much too conscious of him and she must never allow herself to get into that dangerously vulnerable position again.

He did not answer at once, but the black eyes looked at her steadily and disconcertingly, making her heart respond to what she thought she saw there. Then he raised one hand and touched her cheek lightly with his fingertips. 'I cannot blame you too much for what happened,' he said softly. 'Nor Carlos either. You are a very beautiful nina, and Carlos-' He shrugged eloquent shoulders. 'He is a man, how can I blame him for falling into a trap that I fell into myself?'

Holly's eyes looked huge and shiny and she looked up at him uncertainly. Given even that much encouragement, it would be so easy to precipitate another situation like that earlier one, in the field below the castle, it all depended on her, she realized that. The temptation to take advantage of it was almost irresistible, but before she could say or do anything about it, either way, he was shaking his head, and sliding one hand under her arm to turn her back towards the castle.

'You must go back, nina' he told her. 'It is getting late, and Dona Ana thinks you already in bed.'

So that was what Aunt Nan had told him! Her aunt would realize, of course, that Marcos was the last person she wanted to meet on her moonlight walk, especially after that frank discussion they had had in the hall just before she came out. It had evidently not occurred to her that Holly would go in the direction of the stables.

Holly looked at him for a second, uncertainly. His anger, she thought, was spent for the moment, but she wondered if he contemplated going back down to the stables, and if he did, what he would say to Carlos. More to the point, what Carlos would say to him.

'You're - you're going back to the stables?' she asked, and he nodded, looking at her curiously.

'As I do every night before I go to bed, nina.'

'Oh-oh, I see!'

Either Carlos must have forgotten that nightly visit from his employer, or he had not expected him so soon, most likely the latter, for Marcos was never very early retiring for the night, she had heard him quite often when she was in the hazy state of just going off to sleep, and often wondered where he got to. It was unfortunate for Carlos that he had chosen tonight to pay an early visit, and she worried again about the possible consequences to Carlos. She had seen a sample of Marcos's temper, and remembered that ominous dark trickle at one corner of Carlos's mouth. Only her own presence, she felt sure, had saved the man from worse violence.

Marcos, it seemed, must have sensed her uneasiness and the reason for it, for he shook his head slowly, and a slight smile tipped one corner of his wide mouth, softening its hard line for a moment. 'I can see what is troubling you,' he said, and Holly looked at him with a frown, suspecting that he found her anxiety amusing, in some perverse way.

'You can't-' Holly began, but he was shaking his head again, that hint of a smile still in evidence.

"Do not worry, mi pequena' he said quietly. 'I will not beat Carlos insensible, as you seem to fear!'

'I -1 didn't think that at all,' Holly denied. 'It's just that I - well, in the circ.u.mstances, I thought-' She sought for words for a moment or two, then shook her head. 'It doesn't matter,' she said, and he smiled briefly one hand reaching out to cup her chin.

'Buenas noches, mi pichon/ he said softly, and bent his head, his lips brushing hers lightly for a moment.

Perhaps it was instinct that made her mouth respond to the light pressure, and she did not even realize that she put up a hand to curl its fingers over the one that cupped her chin, its gentle pressure unmistakable in its message. Whatever the reason was, his lips left hers for barely a second.

In the bright, silvery white of the moonlight his eyes glittered like jet when he looked down at her, and in a moment she was crushed against him, his arms holding her so tightly that the hard muscular strength of his body seemed to envelop her, and his mouth found hers again, but with a hard, fierce possessiveness that left her breathless and bereft of all sense except the certainty that she wanted nothing else but to be where she was, with him.

Her hand slid up around the strong column of his neck, and she twined her fingers in the thick black hair at the back of his head, clinging to him with such a wild, uncontrollable longing that for a time her pa.s.sion matched his.

It was only when she was on the brink of complete oblivion that cold reason, and the memory of her vow never to be in such a situation again, brought her slowly back to realization, and she put her hands to his face, forcing their lips apart and shaking her head slowly.

'No, Marcos!'