The Ring The Spaniard Gave Her - Lynne Graham Page 0,54

suffered at his lack of argument did not make her feel generous. ‘What I was told convinced me that I want nothing more to do with you!’

Suzy was devastated when he failed to contradict her. She had hoped against hope that he would have an explanation, a miraculous excuse, but then that weak hope only reminded her of how poor her own judgement was and of how she could not trust her own feelings. She might love him but that did not automatically mean that he was a decent person. Hadn’t she once believed that Percy was decent too? That unfortunate acknowledgement tore her down even further in her estimation.

‘That is, of course, your choice even if I’m surprised that you would be so judgemental when you can be in possession of few facts,’ Ruy retorted icily.

A kind of rage more powerful than anything Ruy had ever felt before was roaring through him. Liliana had forced him to live through a nightmare and she had cost him and his unfortunate brother so much. He refused to believe that her spectre could cost him Suzy as well. ‘You believed whatever seedy gossip you were told, then.’

‘I didn’t want to, but, yes, I believed it because you wouldn’t discuss anything private with me, which implied that there was something shameful in your past.’

‘Everyone’s got something shameful in their past, Suzy,’ Ruy incised with gritty cynicism at such innocence, and his rage was now roaring inside him like a forest blaze. ‘But logic should tell you that things aren’t always what they seem.’

‘I don’t want to hear some devious explanation that paints you white and her scarlet! That such a thing ever happened is unpardonable. It should be enough for me to say that I can’t be with a guy capable of behaving that way,’ Suzy framed in a pained rush.

Ruy was outraged, deeply offended and hurt by her complete lack of trust in him. His deep anger and his ferocious pride drove him, preventing him from making any further attempt to explain himself or reason with her. ‘Then I too have nothing more to say,’ he bit out with savage brevity.

The silence stretched thick as a blanket and it felt claustrophobic. Pain burning inside her, Suzy gazed silently back at him, willing him to pull a miracle out of his pocket and fix everything but somehow knowing now that that wasn’t going to happen. She felt sick and she simply nodded on the least said, soonest mended rule because his past was still not really her business. And any prospect of it being her business had died when that horrible woman had made her sordid allegations and Ruy had then confirmed the facts.

‘I’ll finish packing, then,’ she said jerkily.

He walked out of the door. If he had slammed it, she would have felt a little better, but he didn’t. She removed the diamond ring on her finger and set it on the dresser. She left the green dress and the blue one she had worn that afternoon over a chair because she wanted no reminders. Didn’t need them, she conceded wretchedly. She suspected that it would be a very long time before she forgot Ruy Valiente and the happiness he had given her before she’d discovered that it was all as much of an illusion as their fake engagement.

CHAPTER TEN

‘YOU CAN SIT in the car while I nip into the off-licence,’ her father wheedled. ‘Save me parking across the road.’

‘You usually go on your own... I’m kind of busy here,’ Suzy argued, barely lifting her head from the academic website she was studying.

Roger Madderton frowned down at his daughter. ‘I’ll be blunt, then. I’m tired of you moping about the place like a wet weekend. Two weeks of that is enough. You need to get out of the flat, even come down and help behind the bar—’

‘Flora’s managing fine,’ Suzy reminded her parent stiffly, because it had been something of a shock to discover on her return that her place had been filled more than adequately by the older woman, who was also cooking up a storm of popular meals to sell to their weekend customers. That had stung when Suzy had only contrived to serve up pizzas and paninis, her catering skills being rather more basic.

And then there had been the mortification of all the tales about Percy Brenton that had come her way whenever she was seen. The locals seemed to think it was their bounden duty to tell her