Read Online The Abducted Heart (Sweetly Contemporary Collection) by Jennifer Blake - Free Book Online

principles, it would be against the interests of the family. To us, this still means something. So, would it not be better to make what Irene thinks to be so true indeed, at least for a short time? There is much to be gained, and little to lose. You will be seen a few times with Ramón, and soon his friends will be saying they do not blame him for preferring a lovely creature like you to his sour cousin. For yourself, you will have a nice holiday for two weeks — three — a month; then there will be a small quarrel in public with Ramón and you will return home somewhat richer than when you came.”
    The old lady made everything seem so logical, so simple. As her soft voice went on and on, Anne could feel her resolve weakening. “But I don’t even like your grandson,” she protested.
    “Don’t you?” The old woman tilted her head to one side. “Why not? He is thought to be a most attractive man, even without the undoubted allure of his money.”
    “He still thinks I deliberately stayed on his plane in order to bring myself to his attention.”
    “Tiresome of him, but going away will not convince him otherwise, nor will it give you satisfaction. Only by staying can you be revenged on him. It will be within your power to make him suffer, just a little you understand, for his attitude.”
    “I don’t want to make him suffer,” Anne said rather desperately.
    “Don’t you? Then you are more forgiving than I would be in your place,” Señor Castillo’s grandmother said.
    “He — he could have abandoned me when we reached Mexico City,” Anne pointed out in an attempt to be fair.
    “A Castillo? Never,” Doña Isabel declared. “Especially not a woman of your attractions.”
    “I’m not that attractive,” Anne said, as mutinously as if it made a difference to what the elderly woman was suggesting.
    “Because you refuse to allow yourself to be. You could be truly beautiful with the right clothes, the right attention. It would be great fun to bring about the transformation. To see my grandson’s fiancée creditably established would also be sufficient reason for me to leave my bed and go out and about again. You see, my motives are not entirely unselfish.”
    Turning her head in a wary gesture, Anne asked, “Meaning?”
    “Meaning” Doña Isabel answered slowly, “that I will do anything to keep Irene from returning to this house. She is the grandchild of my eldest sister, long dead, but I cannot bear to have her near me, nor does she feel any affection for me, for all of her extravagant claims otherwise. To her, I was no more than an excuse to force her way into Ramón’s company when he showed no inclination to seek hers. Ramón was fooled by her pretense of devotion and installed her as my companion over my protests. It was done, no doubt, for my own good, but I have not yet forgiven him for it. Lately she had grown sure of her position, sure that she could manipulate me, and Ramón, as she saw fit. She made it plain that she considered me an encumbrance she would be rid of as soon as she and Ramón were wed. For the sake of my health, of course, I would be shuttled into a very comfortable, very expensive home for the aged. Toward this end, she made a great display of my infirmities, calling attention to every lapse of memory in the most sorrowful tones, arranging the menus so I was fed gruel and milk and toast and stewed fruit suited to my invalid condition, wrapping me up in shawls and blankets until I almost suffocated from the heat. She cautioned me every time I put my foot to the floor, pushed a footstool at me every time I sat down, handed me my glasses when I could well put my hand on them, fussed about drafts and my favorite chocolate candy and the amount of coffee I enjoyed, and the fatal effects of colds and insects bites and evening air until I was ready to pass away in an apoplexy from sheer irritation of the nerves.”
    The old woman took a deep breath, her eyes flashing. “I was driven