Page 25 of His Innocent for One Spanish Night

‘Wonderful!’ Emily nodded. ‘Although I admit, I was worried I was going to be sharing with the housekeeper...’

‘God, we wouldn’t do that to you! It’s always vacant. Alejandro prefers that his staff live out. And it’s just as well that they do—they would need to bleach their eyes otherwise.’ Perhaps she saw Emily’s frown. ‘He has many lovers,’ she explained.

‘My mistake...’ Emily did her best to sound casual ‘...but I thought you just said he was engaged.’

‘Not formally engaged.’ She rolled her eyes and made a wavering gesture with her hand. ‘They’re very on-off. He does what he chooses while Mariana waits impatiently in the wings. Or should I say soars overhead like a vulture, waiting for it to go wrong—as it invariably does...’

She pulled up a map onscreen that showed Emily the sherry triangle and the vineyards she would be going to visit today. A lot of the vineyards seemed to be the property of the Romeros.

‘The Romeros want that part...’ Sophia pointed to another area of the map. ‘That’s Mariana’s family’s land. When she and Alejandro marry the bodegas will merge.’

Emily’s heart forced her to at least make an attempt at hope. ‘Ifthey marry.’

‘Oh, they’ll marry,’ Sophia said, with a certainty that made Emily’s newly kissed lips pinch in tension. ‘Both the families want it, and in fairness Mariana is probably the only person who could put up with one of the Romero brothers.’

‘I see...’

‘They’re great to work for, though,’ Sophia said. ‘You just have to think product, product, product. Have you managed to do any research?’

‘Not really,’ Emily admitted. ‘I tried, but the old website is down and I kept coming up with Maria de Luca...’

‘Maria’s their mother...’ Sophia tapped away on the laptop that would soon be Emily’s. ‘Technically.’

‘Technically?’

‘She left José, their father.’ She waved her hand in the air. ‘Long ago...as soon as Carmen was born. She’s a couple of years younger than me...so twenty-five years ago or more.’ She leant forward and lowered her voice. ‘But now Maria has decided to start visiting José...’ She made a money gesture with her hands. ‘No doubt she’s trying to ensure that her name is in the will and her image remains on the bottle.’

‘The woman on the label is their mother?’ Emily checked, surprised that Alejandro hadn’t mentioned it last night.

‘Sí.’Sophia nodded. ‘Maria’s a very famous flamenco dancer—not just in Spain but internationally. Although she won’t be attending the festival here! Believe me, she would get the cold shoulder. I’m only telling you this so when you read about who she is for yourself you don’t decide to do a section on the website on her. It wouldn’t go down well.’

Emily was very relieved to have the warning, because, knowing now that the gorgeous woman on the bottle was actually a legend in her own right, ofcourseshe would have gone down that road.

‘Last year they started working on the rebranding. José wanted every trace of Maria gone, and of course Sebastián and Carmen agreed.’

‘What about Alejandro?’

‘He wanted her image to remain, but was outvoted,’ she said. ‘But then José got ill and suddenly changed his mind. Sebastián and Carmen want the new branding to go ahead, but it’s Alejandro who has the deciding vote now.’

‘So I’m to make no mention of her?’ Emily frowned, because it seemed a rather large thing to leave out.

‘I honestly don’t know,’ Sophia admitted. ‘Sebastián is in Madrid at the moment, and then he’s off to New York. He would rip her off every label if he could.’ She shrugged, but more in exasperation than indifference. ‘Just tread gently, and don’t go planning anything on the website around her.’

‘Thanks for the heads-up,’ Emily said, and she sincerely meant it.

‘You’ll be fine. You’ll be mainly dealing with Alejandro, and he doesn’t let emotions get in the way...’ She moved on to other matters. ‘Most of the staff speak a little English, or at least enough to get by...’

‘That’s good.’

‘But Alejandro says do your work in English, then we’ll arrange translation. Just...’ She paused. ‘The other website design company we looked at was so...’ She raised her hands in an exasperated gesture. ‘No original ideas. So staid and boring...’ She smiled. ‘And the Romeros are not.’

Emily had rather worked that out for herself!

‘If Sebastián closes this deal in NYC it will be huge. He wants the new website up as soon as possible. But Alejandro is more insistent on you taking the time to get it right...’

‘What about the sister?’

‘Carmen has very little to do with the bodega. She practically lives in the family stables.’

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