Read Online Meeting in Madrid by Jean S. Macleod - Free Book Online

supreme. In thinking of the hacienda she automatically wondered about Dona Lucia, who was Teresa’s stepmother and temporary mistress of Soria. What would she be like? Kind or condescending or even frankly hostile? It was impossible to say.
    ‘Don Jaime, of all people!’
    The cool, English voice broke in on her reflections and she looked up to find a tall, fair-haired girl of about her own age standing by Don Jaime’s side. He rose immediately to offer her a seat.
    ‘I’m playing croquet,’ she announced, laying her mallet aside, ‘but I have just time to be introduced.’ She was looking at Catherine. ‘You’re from England,’ she suggested. ‘Are you on your way to the hacienda ?’ An underlying doubt had tinged her voice for a moment and then she laughed. ‘Don’t tell me you’re Teresa’s tutoress!’
    ‘Miss Royce—Miss Alexandra Bonnington,’ Don Jaime introduced them formally. ‘Alex is quite a character around Orotava,’ he added. ‘She paints!’
    ‘Which sounds as if I commit all the deadly sins at one go!’ Alex Bonnington laughed. ‘But I can assure you that I do it for a living. Otherwise, I couldn’t afford to stay here. Jaime only sees me on the rare occasions when we’re both able to relax.’ She looked at Catherine with a deepening interest. ‘I hope you’ll be able to come to Orotava now and then, Miss Royce,’ she said. ‘We have an excellent library at the Club and there are plenty of English people around if you feel in need of a chinwag in your own language. Hullo, Teresa!’ She turned to the younger girl with a faint smile. ‘Are you still the little rebel without a cause?’
    ‘Not without a cause,’ Teresa answered with more dignity than Catherine would have suspected. ‘I know what I want to do in the end.’
    Alex had practically ignored Ramon, giving him no more than the briefest of nods.
    ‘Will you take some tea with us?’ Don Jaime asked. ‘We were just about to begin.’
    ‘I’d love to, but I was on my way to make up a foursome,’ said Alex, picking up her mallet. ‘Why not drop in and see me one day?’ she invited as she shook hands with them for the second time. ‘Do you paint. Miss Royce?’
    ‘I’m afraid not, though I’ve often longed to try,’ Catherine confessed.
    Alex Bonnington considered her for a moment in silence. ‘You may need something to do in your spare time,’ she suggested. ‘Teresa will bring you to see if you can.’
    Again there was the underlying doubt in her voice which Catherine was quick to detect.
    ‘ ’Bye!’ said Alex. ‘Till we meet again.’
    They met swiftly and unexpectedly half an hour later in the ladies’ cloakroom.
    ‘I’ve cut my hand,’ Alex explained, holding her wrist under the cold water tap in one of the basins. ‘Terribly silly of me, really. I just don’t know how I did it. I broke a tumbler while we were having some squash to drink and groped under a bench for the pieces. I bleed like a pig,’ she ran on, ‘so don’t get alarmed. It’s not at all serious, I assure you.’
    ‘Please let me help, all the same,’ Catherine offered. ‘If
    we had a bandage—’
    ‘Teresa will go for one,’ Alex suggested. ‘Ask at the office, Teresa, there’s a dear, sweet girl!’
    While they waited Alex allowed the water to trickle slowly over her wrist.
    ‘How are you going to cope?’ she asked.
    ‘With Teresa?’ Catherine hesitated. ‘I think we’ll see eye to eye sooner or later. Teresa isn’t very pliable just now, as you may have guessed, and she wants to be a dancer more than anything else, but she has plenty of time to change her mind, although I don’t think it’s exactly my task to help her to the right decision. I’m here mainly to teach her to speak English.’
    ‘I wasn’t thinking of Teresa,’ Alex said carefully. ‘I was considering the whole set-up at Soria. You haven’t met Lucia yet, I gather, so I feel that I should warn you to be on your guard. Lucia will be