‘I had a visitor,’ she said, deciding to come clean with the truth—or part of the truth anyway. ‘The village priest,’ she explained.
Luiz had gone still; even his heart seemed to have slowed beneath her resting cheek. ‘And…?’ he prompted very quietly.
‘And he wanted to know if our planned wedding was a sham.’ She smiled.
‘Was he threatening not to marry us?’
Clever, quick Luiz, she thought. ‘No,’ she denied. ‘In fact he assured me that if el conde came to his altar with his bride chained and gagged he would marry them.’
‘Then what was his point?’
Now there was a question, she thought, and on a soft rueful laugh she sat up, to run her fingers through her tangled hair. ‘His point was, I think,’ she began slowly, choosing her words with care, ‘to make me aware that certain—rumours were circulating the valley about the sincerity of our feelings for one another.’
‘Rumours?’ he repeated.
‘Mmm.’ She nodded. ‘Apparently it is being said that you and I met for the first time only a few days before you brought me here as your bride…’
‘And you said—what?’
He hadn’t moved a single muscle since this had started, and Caroline now had her back towards him, so she couldn’t see his face. The worst thing about Luiz, she told herself grimly, was his annoying ability to speak without giving a single hint as to what he was thinking.
‘I told him the information was inaccurate,’ she said. ‘That we had known each other for seven years. Then I lied a bit,’ she added with a shrug, ‘and told him we had been lovers for seven years…’
Only it hadn’t felt much like a lie when she had said it, she recalled. In fact it was probably closer to the truth than anyone would believe—in her case at least.
‘To which he said what?’
‘You’re very good at this,’ she remarked, turning her head to level him with a dry look.
Two sleek black brows rose in enquiry. Her stomach muscles leapt. He’s such a sexy devil, she thought helplessly.
‘The Spanish Inquisition,’ she explained. ‘In fact you remind me of a dripping tap. You just steadily and relentlessly drop your questions until you get to know what it is you’re after.’
‘To which he said—what?’ he repeated, and there wasn’t a single alteration in those black holes for eyes.
She looked away again, and a heavy sigh whispered from her because the truth was out of bounds. And there was another problem she had been worrying over since the priest’s visit.
‘I think he was trying to warn us that someone is making trouble for you,’ she said. ‘Someone is feeding rumours about the valley that you and I are a sham—which is, I presume, their way of making sure we will never gain the people’s respect. The other rumour is that you have more or less bought me from my father. Now, who but you and I know anything about that?’
‘You think I have been telling tales?’
It was such a ridiculous suggestion that she laughed. ‘You mean it is possible to get blood from a stone?’ she mocked—then released another sigh. ‘What’s worrying me, Luiz,’ she explained, ‘is that someone has to have been spying on us. And it sends creepy feelings down my spine just to think of it.’ She even shuddered.
A hand came to her naked back and soothed the shudders. ‘The spy in this case we already know, querida,’ he informed her quietly. ‘And because we also know he has some right to be bitter enough about the situation to spread rumours which may place us in a poor light, we will allow him a small—indiscretion. It is, after all, all he believes he has left to survive on right now…’
He was talking about Felipe. The name didn’t need saying. ‘Okay,’ she agreed, and curled herself back around him, needing to say more but afraid to say more in case too much came pouring out.
‘Okay?’ he repeated quizzically. ‘Just like that?’
‘Mmm.’ She snuggled herself into his warm, muscled strength. ‘This is too nice to spoil by talking about nasty things. And anyway, I’ve got far more pressing concerns on my mind right now.’
His eyes began to gleam, the humour she could see running through them heating her blood.
‘Shopping!’ she announced in mock censure. ‘I’m talking about my need to go shopping for some fresh clothes, since you abducted me with only enough clothes to last me three days! And I want to buy a really expensive bridal dress with all the trimmings,’ she tagged on, right out of the blue. ‘Because if I have to marry you then I insist that you let me do it in style!’
In the startled silence that followed his eyes narrowed slightly, as if he was reading a return to the old bitterness in what she’d said.
It wasn’t there. And a moment later she was being loved again—which she much preferred to talking.