Caroline casually, then walked past her without a word and began murmuring softly to the horse, petting the animal with surprising tenderness. How could he be so gentle with an animal and so harsh with his own wife?
"He's ready to go this morning, patrao," the groom said with a smile, and the talk between the two men quickly turned to coffee cultivation.
Caroline had learned quite a lot about the other side of the coffee business while working for the
Sinclair Coffee Company—receiving cargoes, packing for resale. If she could somehow learn about coffee planting and harvesting, she would be able to converse knowledgeably with her husband about the one subject that seemed to consume him.
Caroline made a mental note to ask her husband if there were books on the subject in the library. Or maybe she could find someone on the fazenda willing to teach her.
Jason approached, interrupting her thoughts, and Caroline smiled sweetly at him, hoping to disconcert him and succeeding. His bemused frown turned quickly into a scowl, but that instant of dismay satisfied her—for the moment. If he thought he could intimidate her by prowling around beneath her window all night and lunging at her like a wild beast, he would soon learn otherwise. He'd taken her by surprise last night. It wouldn't happen again.
Jason walked past her into the yard. The groom followed, leading the horses, and Caroline trailed behind. Jason took the reins of the bay stallion and swung effortlessly into the saddle.
The groom helped Caroline mount and she hurried to catch up with her husband, drawing alongside him as they started down the path she had taken yesterday to the beneficio. Her whole being quickened at that memory, and she forced her mind away, concentrating instead on her surroundings.
Lovely banana and palm trees grew along the path, but the absolute cleanness of the jungle floor still amazed her, as it had on her journey up the Amazon. Unlike the forests around the Mississippi River, undergrowth was virtually nonexistent here in the Amazon Valley.
"It's so isolated here, so primitive," she said, a bit in awe. "You could almost forget the rest of the world exists."
"Almost," he replied, and Caroline couldn't help wondering at the bitter smile that curved his lips.
As they rode slowly, the complete isolation of the jungle closed in around her and she wondered how he endured it. Did he even feel the loneliness?
I am so far removed from civilization here, he'd written, that sometimes I forget what it was like to have a casual conversation or to walk down a busy street and hear the sound of carriages passing by.
Yes, he felt it. But she wanted to hear him say it. She wanted him to talk about himself, to share something of his thoughts and feelings so she could reconcile this reality with those lovely, often poignant letters.
"You've been here so long. Don't you ever get lonely?" she asked.
He gazed sidelong at her, as he gave his horse's neck an affectionate pat. A corner of his mouth turned upward in a half smile as his turquoise gaze traveled the length of her body in a slow, calculated perusal that brought hot color to her face.
"Well, I suppose that's why you're here," he said, wheeling his horse around and plunging down the narrow path.
Speechless for the second time in her life, Caroline watched her husband ride away until he disappeared around a bend in the path. A slow smile curved her lips.
"Maybe the man's not made of stone after all," she said aloud. This could prove to be a very interesting morning.
Chapter Three
Caroline caught up with Jason at the edge of the orchards. A sea of coffee trees stretched before her in neat, straight rows. Their white blooms reminded her of the snow she'd seen as a girl while accompanying her father on a business trip to Nashville.
Jason sat forward in the saddle, his posture straight and majestic as he surveyed his domain. His spirited stallion tossed its head and snorted as if eager to be moving again. Jason patted it on the neck and murmured softly to soothe the animal.
When he finally spoke to Caroline, his voice resounded with pride. "Everyone laughed when they learned that I planned to grow coffee so deep in the jungle."
"Why?" she asked with genuine curiosity. Everything about this enigmatic, passionate man intrigued her. Why did you try to frighten me last night? she wanted to ask.
Jason shrugged. "The difficulty of getting it to market. They thought I'd