“But the man should have air and light. He shouldn’t be enshrouded like that.”
“I would agree, but I am not a medical man, and I cannot say what is best for my uncle.”
“Common sense—oh, never mind,” Jessie said irritably. She hated feeling like an intruder, but she was an intruder.
“You must leave, Jessica,” Rodrigo said gently but firmly.
Jessie’s brows narrowed. “He hasn’t been told about me, has he? Was that the doctor’s idea, too, or Nita’s?”
“You are being unfair. Can you not see how upsetting it would be for him to think about something that may not be true?”
“Your uncle would know the truth.”
“But have you considered that the shock could kill him?” asked Rodrigo.
“I’m sorry,” Jessie conceded, “but I believe it’s worth the risk.”
“Rodrigo, who is that you have with you?”
Jessie started at the soft voice. Rodrigo gave her silent warning with his eyes.
“There is no one, Uncle.” His voice was no longer a whisper.
“Lying to me, my boy?” the voice scolded. “My eyes have not failed me. I can see out of this mausoleum even if you can’t see in.”
“I only meant to save you disturbance, Uncle,” Rodrigo said contritely. “You need your rest.”
“I rest entirely too much. What I need is diversion. Now, who is this?”
Long, tapered fingers drew back the thin curtain, and Jessie gasped. “You’re so young!”
“Not as young as I used to be, my dear.”
“But I had another image of you,” she blurted without thinking. “Gray-haired, wrinkled…damn, I didn’t mean—”
Don Carlos chuckled. “What a delight you are, young woman. Come closer so I can see if you are as pretty as you appear. My eyes may not be failing me, but the light in here is deplorable.”
Jessie moved to the side of the bed, amazement growing. She had not once considered that resemblance would bear out the truth, but it did. The man lying in the enormous bed was so like Chase it was uncanny. Older of course, but not nearly as old as she had thought. It had not occurred to her that he could have been so young when he knew Mary. He was only forty-six or -seven now, gaunt and pale and quite underweight, but that did not hide the fact that he was much too young to be dying. His hair was as black as her own, with only a single thin streak of gray running above his forehead. His eyes were dark and inquisitive. His lips turned up at her perusal, just the same way Chase’s always did.
“You seem even more surprised by my appearance than you were before,” Don Carlos said.
“Señor,” Jessie replied disconcertedly, “it is just that you look like someone I know.”
“Jessica,” Rodrigo’s voice warned her.
“It is true, Rodrigo.” He caught her double meaning, and she nodded at him. “But I have not forgotten our talk.”
“Talking about me, eh?” Don Carlos sighed. “A disagreeable subject for young people to be discussing. You should be talking of gay things, of parties and—hasn’t my nephew confessed his skills as a matador?”
“Ah, no, señor, he has not.”
“Really, Rodrigo? You usually charm all your new ladies with tales of your bravery.”
Jessie reddened at the assumption.
“You are mistaken about Rodrigo and me. We have only just met.”
“You are Nita’s friend then?”
“No, I…my name is Jessica Summers. I was traveling—”
Jessie couldn’t finish. How could she lie to him?
“Traveling?” Don Carlos repeated. “On a tour through Europe perhaps? And now you are my guest? But this is wonderful. I am glad to know the hospitality of my house has been extended even though I could not extend it myself. And where is your home, señorita?”
“It is señora, and my home is in America.”
“America. How delightful. You will have to visit me often, and we will speak English together. Mine has grown rusty, and I would like to test it.”
“I will be glad to, señor.”
“Señor, señor—you must call me Carlos. And where is this lucky man who is your husband?”
“We, ah, became separated during our travels.”
“But will he find you here?”
“I am certain of it, Don Carlos.”
“Good, good. You must bring him up to meet me as soon as he arrives. And no nonsense from you, Rodrigo, about my being too ill to have visitors. I need the stimulation. Why, this lady’s company has done me a world of good.”
Rodrigo smiled. “That is wonderful, Uncle, but you really should rest now.”
“You are not listening to me, Rodrigo. Why don’t you run along and leave me to converse with my guest? Have you not told her of my trips to America? She and I have much to talk about.”
“Trips, Uncle? But you have only been to America once, when you were even younger than I am now.”
“Nonsense,” Don Carlos announced, “I returned ten years ago. But of course you wouldn’t know that. It was after Francisco’s funeral, and your mother immediately took you off with her to France.”
“You sailed to America? Why?” Rodrigo asked.
“To search for someone.”
“You didn’t find her, did you?” Jessie asked quickly, before Rodrigo could stop her.
“No. That country of yours is much too big, my dear,” Don Carlos replied sadly. He looked at her strangely.
Jessie saw the startled look that came over him and realized she had blundered. She’d assumed he had gone back to look for Mary, and she’d said “find her.”
“I…I really should be going now, Don Carlos,” Jessie said uncomfortably. “I couldn’t forgive myself if I overtaxed you.”
“You haven’t, I assure you,” he replied in an unusually quiet voice. “But you will come again?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Then I suppose I must let you go.”
She took his hand, and he brought her fingers to his lips. All the while his eyes locked with hers so penetratingly that she felt he could read her every thought.
Don Carlos stopped her as she reached the door. And his English words, the first he had spoken and which she knew Rodrigo could not understand, made her catch her breath.
“One more thing, Jessica Summers. This man that I remind you of and my overcautious nephew would rather you not speak of, who is he?”
Jessie looked back at him. She thought she heard hope in his voice. Impossible. He couldn’t have guessed, not by the little she had said. But she had come so far, and he had to know.
“He is my husband, Don Carlos.”
“My God,” he whispered brokenly. “Thank you.”
Chapter 43
THE sun was at its highest, and heavenly scents drifted through her open window with the heat from the garden. But Jessie did not appreciate the lovely day. She had spent a restless night thinking about Don Carlos. She suspected that she had done what she’d set out to do, she couldn’t be sure. Oh, where was Chase?
As if she didn’t have enough worries, she had felt the first stirrings of her baby last night, just the faintest flutterings, but enough to set her wondering about the next few months. Damn Chase, when would he get here?
Chase couldn’t believe his luck. It had gone sour for a while after they’d had that bad storm at sea and been blown so far off course that they were nearly a week behind schedule. He’d made port in Málaga and found an interpreter who could also act as guide. Most promising was that the name Carlos Silvela was well known, through his shipping and banking concerns. It proved easy to find him, and now here he was.
But he was afraid his luck was about to turn again, for the beautiful blonde who had opened the door was looking at him as if he had two heads. Her mouth was open, but no words came out. He was about to call his guide when the lady finally spoke.
“So it’s true!”
“I beg your pardon?” Chase replied. ?
??I don’t speak Spanish.”
“Dispense. I…I speak English, but not so well. You come for…to see…”
“Carlos Silvela,” Chase supplied. “My guide assured me this is the place. Is he here?”
“Slower, señor. Too fast for me.”
“I’m sorry. I’m looking for Carlos—”
“Sí, sí,” she interrupted. “This I know. Your wife, she say you would come. I did not believe her story.”
“My wife?” Chase frowned. “Ah, I think you are mistaking…let me get my guide.”
“You are not Chase Summers?”
He had turned away, but he spun around again. “How could you know that?”
“It is as I say, señor, your wife is here.”
“Impossible!”
Jessie had let it go on long enough. She stepped out from her hiding place just off the foyer.
“Not impossible, Chase.”
Nita looked from Jessie to Chase, confusion overcoming her. “You see, señor, your wife. Now I leave you to her. Understanding your English has given me the aching head.”
Jessie watched Nita leave the foyer. A thoroughly sour expression clouded the Spanish woman’s lovely features. But she gave Nita no further thought, turning back to Chase and wondering why he was just standing there looking shocked.
“Have you a perfectly reasonable explanation for being here, or do I turn you over my knee and beat the living tar out of you for being the most irresponsible—”
“Don’t you take that tone with me, Chase Summers!”
He started toward her, but she backed away.
“How dare you travel in your condition? Have you no thought for yourself or the child? What if something had gone wrong?” Then his tone changed. “Did something happen? Are you all right?”
“Do you really care?”
“Jessie!”
“I’m fine.”
“What the hell are you doing here? I leave you safely with your mother—”
“Let’s be more specific,” Jessie fumed, always more comfortable attacking instead of defending. “You dumped me on my mother and then deserted me!”
“Deserted? Didn’t Rachel tell you I’d be back before the baby was born?”
“She told me,” Jessie said stiffly. “I didn’t believe it, and I still don’t. I haven’t forgotten I told you you could go your own way. Damn you, you sure didn’t waste any time leaving, did you?”
“Jessie, I’m this close to wringing your neck!”
“And I’m this close to socking you in the nose,” she retorted. “But I doubt it would solve anything.”
They glared at each other for several seconds. Then Chase’s eyes softened and turned a velvety brown.
“Oh, Lord, I’m glad you’re here,” he said. “I’ve missed you, Jessie.”
She was crushed in his arms, his lips molded to hers. He kissed her as if he were starving and she were his first taste of food. It didn’t take a second for Jessie to return his kiss with equal fervor. She clung to him, digging her fingers into his back. How she had missed the taste of him, the feel of his arms! She had almost forgotten the way he could make her feel, how he could make her want him to the exclusion of everything else.
“You’ve missed me, too, sweetheart.”
The words came from somewhere far away, muffled. He was nibbling at her neck.
“I haven’t missed you,” Jessie answered automatically.
Chase straightened, his eyes happy.
“If you’ll recall, Jessie, one of the last times you said anything to me at all was in Cheyenne. You were nearly in tears because your mother wouldn’t stay with you. So I thought you’d be delighted to spend some time with her. It was the perfect opportunity for me to get this part of my life settled. You couldn’t travel, anyway. Or you shouldn’t have.”
“I’m not quarreling with your motives, Chase,” Jessie said levelly. “I won’t even say you could have waited until after the baby was born. You left me without telling me. You didn’t discuss it with me.”
“How could I, the way you were? There was no telling how long you would be in shock.” He looked suspicious then. “When did you recover—as soon as I left?”
“As a matter of fact, yes.”
“Thanks,” he grumbled. “I suppose you’ll be telling me my presence was what was keeping you in shock?”
“No, your leaving was what snapped me out of it,” she admitted.
“So you missed me! You weren’t pleased to find me gone?”
“Well…no,” she admitted again.
“Then I feel sorry for Rachel. She must have had a hell of a time coping with your tantrums.” He shook his head mournfully.
“Stop teasing me, Chase. I don’t think it’s at all funny. You had no right leaving me with my mother. I’m not her responsibility, I’m yours. You wanted to marry me, and now you’re stuck with me.”
“You mean it, Jessie?”
His soft voice caught her off guard. “Of course I do.”
“Well, I’m not complaining, sweetheart.”
“You’re not?”
He was grinning at her. “I like the idea of being stuck with you. Now, why don’t you show me where our room is? We never did get around to sealing our marriage vows.”
Jessie blushed.
“It’s the third door down the hall,” she said. “I can’t tell you about your—about Don Carlos until we’re alone.”
Chapter 44
JESSIE caught a lock of his hair and twirled it about her fingers, sighing in utter contentment. Chase lay on top of her, so still he might have been sleeping. But he wasn’t.
Jessie giggled, remembering that time in the wagon. “I thought you never slept on your stomach.”
“I’m not.” Chase didn’t move. “I’m sleeping on you.”
“I know you’re holding your weight back. You can’t relax—”
“I’m doing just fine,” he murmured.
“Come on, you can’t sleep now, anyway. Siesta isn’t for another hour or so. There’s lunch first, and you have to meet your cousins and—”
He looked up at her, grinning. “You mean we get to come back up here today and no one will think anything of it?”
“Chase, you’re terrible!”
“Am I? It’s been forever since I’ve seen you.”
“It’s only been—”
“Forever.” He kissed her to shut her up. Then he sat up, and his mood changed. She knew he’d been dying to ask, yet afraid to. She decided to help him.
“Aren’t you going to ask about Don Carlos?”
He wouldn’t look up. An interminable time passed without a response.
Finally he mumbled, “There’s no hurry.”
“I don’t believe—”
“Leave it alone.”
“But you’ve come so far!”
He looked at her, then looked away. “Jessie, it’s been twenty years since my mother first told me about the man. That’s a hell of a long time to wonder about someone. It’s a long time to—” He paused. “Call me a coward, but I’d rather not hear it.”
She couldn’t let him falter, not after all this time.
“Chase,” Jessie said gently. “Don Carlos has been ill for a long time, and now…now he’s worse. They wouldn’t even let me see him, afraid I would upset him.”
“But he is alive? You’re sure, Jessie?” He was gripping her shoulders.
“Yes, I’m sure. I got in to see him in spite of them.”
“Is he dying, Jessie?”
“I don’t know,” she sighed. “They haven’t actually said, but they treat him as if he were. Nita wears mourning clothes already. She’s your cousin by the way, the one who answered the door.”
“Never mind. Tell me.”
“Well, he didn’t seem to me like a man who was dying. His voice was strong. He’s alert. He’s just weak, and, well, maybe he just doesn’t have any reason to live.”
“Leave it to a woman to come up with a
diagnosis like that,” Chase said disagreeably.
“Well, it’s possible. Anyway, I intended to tell him all about you, but Rodrigo—”
“Rodrigo?”
“Don Carlos had two sisters. Nita’s mother is dead. Rodrigo is the child of the other sister. She’s still alive, traveling now. Anyway, Rodrigo was with Don Carlos last night. He made me realize that such shocking news could do Don Carlos more harm than good.”
“Has he so many children that one more would be too much of a burden to acknowledge?”
“Chase, he has no children. That’s why I had to be so determined. I thought knowing about you would please him. But I couldn’t tell him if the shock would make him worse.”
“So he doesn’t know? And now you’re telling me I’ve come all this way for nothing because I shouldn’t try to see him, either?”
She gave him a second, then announced, “If he saw you, he would understand instantly. Why do you think Nita was so surprised when she saw you? You look just like him, Chase.”
She watched his face as he took in the realization. If he looked just like Don Carlos, then Don Carlos truly was his father. He stood stock-still, staring into space. “So, one look at me and he drops dead from shock, eh?”
Jessie supposed it wouldn’t hurt to tell him about her fanciful notion.
“Actually,” she began hesitantly, “I mean, well…I can’t be sure—”
“Damn it, when did this problem expressing yourself start? You’ve never had any trouble before.”
“Don’t go taking your temper out on me, Chase Summers! If you don’t want to hear what I have to say, then I won’t say any more.”
He sat down on the bed again. “I’m sorry, Jessie. You have to understand—”
“I do,” she interrupted. “And what I wanted to tell you was that your father might just have realized for himself what I couldn’t bring myself to tell him. I can’t be sure, mind you.”
“How?” He was so bewildered, it hurt her to look at him.
“Well, I was amazed at the resemblance between you, and he saw my surprise. I admitted that he reminded me of someone I know. But”—she made herself recall all of it—“it wasn’t only that. We were talking about America, and he mentioned that he had gone back there ten years ago, looking for someone. I don’t know why I assumed it was your mother he was looking for, but I did. I also assumed he hadn’t found her, and I said so. He looked at me so strangely when I said ‘her.’ And then, when I was about to leave, he asked me right out who it was he reminded me of. I didn’t think it would hurt to admit it was my husband, so I did. I think he thanked me then, but of course I could easily have misunderstood. I was across the room and could barely hear him.”