‘Maybe we could meet up for dinner some evening once we get back from our wedding trip,’ Rigo said hesitantly. ‘Mercedes was very taken with Suzy. ‘
Ruy was still struggling to deal with the awareness that Suzy would no longer be around the following evening. ‘That...that would be good, great,’ he stressed, endeavouring to express his gratitude for that invite with greater warmth.
Rigo swung away to greet an older man who had grabbed his arm to get his attention. Ruy strode onto the dance floor to reclaim Suzy. She and her partner had gathered an audience with their display and he judged it time to intervene, not because he objected to her dancing or attracting attention, but because he intended to make the most of every moment he had left with her.
‘Gosh, that guy was very intense,’ Suzy hissed, breathing heavily from her dance moves but visibly grateful to leave her partner. ‘He wanted me to audition for some television competition show and he was so pushy. I’m not good enough for that sort of thing.’
‘I’m no expert but I think you probably are good enough,’ Ruy overruled.
‘But it’s not me. I’m not a performer. I never was. I like teaching kids. I like dance as an exercise but I’m never comfortable with people watching me when I do it,’ she whispered. ‘It drove my teacher mad when I was a teenager when I wouldn’t apply for stuff but that’s the way I am.’
‘Nothing wrong with that...’ Ruy looked askance at her as she pulled away from him.
‘I’m hot. I need to freshen up. I won’t be long,’ she told him, walking off into the crush.
The overpowering plush opulence of the large cloakroom made her roll her eyes. Emerging from a stall to wash her hands at the vanity counter, she jerked in surprise when she saw an older blonde woman seated in a chair in the corner and staring at her. ‘Sorry, I didn’t see you,’ she muttered in taut Spanish.
‘I wanted a closer look at the woman Ruy Valiente is planning to marry,’ the blonde informed her, rising from her seat. She was so thin she was almost emaciated, the bones of her chest visible through the glittering diamond necklace she wore.
‘Why?’ Suzy asked baldly as she dried her hands, rather creeped out by the suspicion that she was being ambushed on purpose.
‘Only a very confident woman could attend this wedding with Ruy and still hold her head high.’
‘And why’s that?’ Suzy enquired, removing a lipstick from her clutch.
‘A decent woman would have been too embarrassed to show her face so boldly. After all, Ruy slept with Rodrigo’s first wife and she killed herself when he dumped her. It took his brother a very long time to get over that betrayal.’
Suzy was so shocked she was frozen in suspended animation with her lipstick tightly caught between her fingers. The blonde departed with a malicious smile. In a haze of disbelief, Suzy renewed her lipstick and stared into space, blank with shrinking horror at what she had been told. Was it true? It couldn’t be true! That could not be the reason that Ruy had a troubled relationship with his brother! Ruy could not be guilty of such an indefensible act, she reasoned in consternation.
And yet...and yet he had been unwilling to admit the story behind the gossip she had mentioned. Surely only a man ashamed of his past behaviour would behave that way? Rigo’s wife had killed herself? After having an affair with Ruy and being ditched? Suzy was appalled at that claim. But she also knew that gossip, even cruel gossip, was often based more on entertainment than fact. She was leaving the cloakroom when Mercedes approached her.
‘I saw Elisa Torres coming out looking smug,’ she said anxiously. ‘Did she speak to you?’
‘The skinny blonde with the diamonds?’ Suzy checked and nodded. ‘She didn’t seem friendly.’
‘No, she wouldn’t be. Elisa’s daughter, Fernanda, made a big play for Ruy last year, probably with her mother’s encouragement.’ Mercedes grimaced. ‘There is no man in Spain more likely to be more turned off by a woman chasing him than Ruy and he froze her out. Seeing him engaged to another woman will have enraged Elisa. Did she say anything to you?’
‘She said something in Spanish, but she spoke too fast and I didn’t catch it. The look on her face was sufficient warning,’ Suzy fibbed for the sake of peace, because she knew she could have asked Mercedes for the truth but she had sufficient consideration for the bride’s feelings on her special day to swallow her nosy questions. The brunette would not wish to be drawn down that path and it would make her uncomfortable, not only because it was intensely private stuff but also because she had only just met Suzy. In such circumstances, silence was golden.
‘That’s good, because Elisa is usually critical rather than pleasant,’ Mercedes confided, accompanying Suzy back to the main reception room.
For the remainder of their time at the reception, Suzy kept on smiling and trying to behave normally. But the whole time she was stealing stricken glances at Ruy and wondering. Did he? Could he have? Could she have fallen in love with a man that immoral, disloyal and seedy?
And the moral of that story was that she had once agreed to marry Percy Brenton, crediting that he was, at heart, a decent enough older man worthy, at least, of her respect and trust. How could she ever have been that gullible about a man who had literally blackmailed her to the altar? Events had proven her to be badly wrong in her naïve assumptions when it came to Percy, she reminded herself painfully.
How much did she really know about Ruy? And did it even matter if he was guilty as charged when their brief affair was virtually over? Why would she confront him now with such explosive accusations? Their relationship as such was already almost over, bar her final departure. Was there any point in stirring up such sordid unpleasantness? Particularly when, with Ruy’s stake in her father’s pub, she might well be forced to see him again in the future. No, she would keep her lips firmly sealed and endure her curiosity. What else could she do when Ruy had already refused to discuss the gossip she had questioned? Obviously, he didn’t want to talk about such sleazy stuff, not now when it was all over. And why would he even want to discuss it with Suzy when he had already made it clear that his past was none of her business?
‘You did really well today,’ Ruy told her on the drive back to the palacio after midnight. ‘Thank you.’
A tense smile curved Suzy’s mouth. ‘Well, that appearance was what I was here for,’ she reminded him quietly.
‘You were very convincing,’ Ruy continued.
‘I must be a better actress than I ever appreciated,’ Suzy demurred, relieved that she had less than twenty-four hours left to spend in Spain. Stepping back from Ruy and the level of intimacy they had indulged in was a challenge and to behave normally while accomplishing that feat was an even bigger one.
Her feet were killing her. She wondered if it was a rule that new shoes always had to pinch, but even if she had been warned she would have picked them because they had been the perfect match for her dress. In the marble hall, she kicked them off and lifted them to pad barefoot upstairs.