The Secret Spanish Love-Child - By Cathy Williams Page 0,36
had seen that for every act there was always a consequence. Maybe then he might have stuck to what he had always known.
She blinked with a start when Maria paused to push open the door to Luke’s room and then, a few minutes later, the heavy wooden door that was next in line.
It was a vast room dominated by a four-poster bed, not the modern, undressed, minimalist version, but a four-poster bed of the old-fashioned variety that was only ever glimpsed nowadays in magazines or seen in period movies. It was spectacular enough to produce a gasp from Alex, as were the rest of the furnishings. The large, ornate dressing table, the rich royal-blue of the floor to ceiling curtains, the wardrobe with its panel of exquisitely fashioned glass, which was reflecting their images back at them as they stood in the doorway.
‘I have put you here…Gabriel’s room is in the other wing and I know you would have wanted to be close to your son in the room next door…’
Maria’s words echoed around her head and then crystallised slowly but surely as Alex’s wandering gaze finally alighted on the clutch of suitcases tucked neatly away in the corner of the bedroom. Hers, Luke’s…and Gabriel’s. Louis Vuitton rubbing shoulders with cheap and synthetic department store.
She looked round in confused horror, trying to meet Gabriel’s eye, but he was busy talking to his father while Luke hopped from one foot to the other, bored with the house tour and eager to get to the kitchen for whatever untold delights awaited him.
‘Um…’ Alex cleared her throat. ‘I don’t think this is quite right…’ she ventured hesitantly into a sudden bemused silence. ‘I can’t help but notice…well…’ She gestured to the offending pile of suitcases on the ground.
‘We will take care of these,’ Gabriel said smoothly, inserting himself between Alex and his parents and Maria’s puzzled face uncreased into a smile. Luke had slipped his hand into hers and was tugging.
‘Look—’ Alex gave it another shot, although she had to angle her body awkwardly just to avoid addressing his back ‘—there seems to be a misunderstanding here…’
Tall though she was, he was, however, taller and broader and she was forced to watch helplessly as the troops departed and she was left standing in the room with Gabriel, who slowly closed the door behind him and turned to face her.
‘I thought that went well. Better than expected, in actual fact.’ He strolled towards the window and glanced outside before turning to perch against the broad window ledge, on which were arranged a pair of solid black marble sculptures of galloping horses.
‘What’s going on?’ Alex demanded, folding her arms, refusing to be drawn into polite chit-chat and infuriated by his attitude of casual indolence when she was itching for answers.
‘I don’t get you.’
‘Oh, don’t pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about, Gabriel!’ Alex resorted to an explosive outburst and pointed at the stack of cases on the floor. ‘Why has your bag been put in the room I’m supposed to be sleeping in?’
‘Because this isn’t your room; it’s our room. And I am as surprised as you are. I wouldn’t have thought that my parents were quite so liberal minded. Then again, today has been full of surprises.’
Alex looked at him in seething silence. ‘I’m not sharing a room with you,’ she said through angrily gritted teeth.
‘You haven’t got a choice.’ Gabriel spoke with utmost politeness. When she bent down to reach for her two nylon suitcases, he was at her side before she could straighten and this time there was an implacability on his face that sent shivers down her spine. As did his proximity. As did the intimacy of their situation, with that hulking great bed behind her, significant and shockingly evocative.
‘What do you mean? Of course I have a choice! Luke’s room is big enough to hold a small party! It’d be no problem if I slept with him tonight until this misunderstanding is sorted out!’
‘Didn’t I mention to you that my parents are ultra-tradi-tional?’ His voice was like dark chocolate swirling around her, suffocating her ability to think on her feet. ‘They haven’t considered the possibility that there is no relationship between us.’
‘But didn’t you tell them…?’
‘Tell them what? That you are happy for Luke to remain illegitimate? So that you can do your own thing? That they will only see their grandson when visiting rights are allowed? That he will be the innocent victim of an unstable background? Surprise,