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

to staying in my room, curtailing my visits for fear of what she would do in my absence, and my visitors for fear of what she would say to them behind my back. Ramón was away so much he thought my retreat from physical causes. That being so, he did not like to leave me alone with only the servants when he was absent. The complaints I had to make of Irene sounded to his ears like attentions for which I should have been grateful. But the last straw came when she took it upon herself to summon Ramón simply bemuse I closed my door to her, seeing only my own Maria, whom I have known all my life. I heard her tell that quack of a doctor she sent for that I was indulging in a childish fit.”
    Doña Isabel actually snorted, a flush of anger pink across the parchment of her cheeks. “Well, I had enough wits about me to put such a menace from me, but I cannot rest until I am certain there is no chance of her return.”
    “Surely if you explained to your grandson as you have to me he will understand?” Anne told her, firmly resisting the impulse to make her tone soft and soothing.
    “He will not listen. She has poisoned his mind until he sees me as an invalid to be pampered with grape juice and protected from all things. He does it from his great love for me, this I understand, but it makes me afraid that his love will cause him to wrap me up and put me away like a precious toy grown too fragile to play with. He needs someone else to love, someone else to distract his mind, but not, please God, Irene. If there is some small thing I can do to stall off that calamity, I will. Won’t you help me, señorita? Won’t you please say you will help me?"
    There could be only one answer to such an impassioned plea. "I would like to, Señora Castillo, though I don’t see what you hope to gain by this masquerade when it will last such a short while.”
    “Time. I will gain time in which to prove myself as sane and well as anyone of my age. Time to show him I do not need a watchdog. Time is always an ally. Much can happen if there is time...” A faraway look had crept into Doña Isabel’s eyes.
    Gently Anne said, “Yes, I see what you mean.”
    “Then, you will do as Ramón has suggested?” the old woman asked, clasping her fingers together. “You will explain to him that you have changed your mind and now agree?”
    “Yes, I suppose so,” she said. It was not something she looked forward to doing.
    “It would be well to tell him as soon as possible, before he has had a chance to reconsider or to see to the details of your flight back to the United States.”
    “You wouldn’t like to tell him, I suppose?” Anne asked with a wry smile.
    “I could,” Doña Isabel answered slowly, “but I do not think it would be best. As I said, I believe I am involved in Ramón’s reasons for his proposal to you. I am not, you remember, to know this engagement is not real. Naturally, you will accept my congratulations when the time comes without any indication of this little talk we have had.”
    “Yes, I understand,” Anne agreed, though privately she was already beginning to wonder what she had let herself in for.
    She was not left long in doubt. The moment she left Doña Isabel’s room, Carmelita seized upon her. “Señorita, you must hurry. Don Ramón is waiting for you in his library — has been for this half-hour while the chauffeur sits in the car outside the door.”
    Anne felt a tightening in the pit of her stomach. “Why didn’t you come for me?”
    Smiling over her shoulder, Carmelita said, “María has told me Don Ramón has asked you to be his novia. It is not good for a woman to run when the man she is to marry calls. It spoils him as a husband, no?”
    It was impossible to explain. Anne only shook her head, hoping that Señor Castillo shared Carmelita’s attitude.
    The library was a surprising room, more modern than Spanish colonial in character. It was fitted out like an office with an enormous desk fronting a matching