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blank as possible.
    ‘No. Those are the Llobera arms. My mother was the only child of her generation and the last of the family.’
    Megan felt unaccountably sad. ‘Aren’t there any of them left?’
    ‘I have my grandmother still alive, and an unmarried aunt. That’s all.’
    ‘But there are lots of Valloris?’
    Carlos smiled. ‘More than enough,’ he agreed. ‘ At one time my father used to hang his own arms and my mother’s side by side in our house in Barcelona, but when he married again, Margot objected that her predecessor’s presence in the house was greater than her own, so my father took down my mother’s arms and put them away. I came across them by chance and brought them here. I am very proud to have them.’
    Megan’s eyes filled with tears. ‘ Y o u must have been hurt,’ she said bluntly.
    He shrugged, ‘Small boys are always imagining woes for themselves ! ’
    ‘Well, I think it was mean ! ’ Megan insisted.
    He laughed at her. ‘Would you have allowed them to stay?’ he asked ironically.
    She nodded her head defiantly. ‘Yes, I would ! I’d have been proud of them!’
    His mouth curled in disbelief. ‘I think not.’
    ‘ But I would ! They wouldn’t only be a reminder that my husband had been married before, they would have been a part of you !’ She stopped, a little shocked by what she had said. ‘I mean, you’d have been there anyway,’ she went on uncomfortably.
    ‘Another constant reminder ! ’
    Megan’s eyes widened. ‘But one couldn’t be jealous of a small boy !’ she exclaimed.
    He looked at her closely. ‘Perhaps you would not be,’ he conceded, catching a tear on his forefinger as it brimmed over her eyelashes. ‘It is hard to know that the son and heir is already waiting to inherit when you have your own children to consider, though. Pepe has always had to come second to me, except in his mother’s affections.’
    Megan backed away from him, ashamed that he should have seen her tears. ‘I would have tried to love you equally with my own children,’ she said obstinately.
    ‘Perhaps Margot tried too ! ’
    ‘I don’t see how she could have helped it I You can’t have been very old—’
    ‘Old enough to be difficult. I refused to speak a word of English to her for a long time. The Spanish are a proud people, and I have all the pride of my race. I am sure I was a thorn in her flesh, as I meant to be. Not at all the forsaken small boy that a woman could have loved !’
    ‘ I would have loved you !’
    ‘ Would you?’ he asked very gently.
    She nodded fiercely. ‘ You wouldn’t have got the better of me !’ she declared. ‘I’d think pretty poorly of myself if I couldn’t win the affection of one small boy, Spanish or not !’
    Carlos looked amused. ‘I think you probably would have succeeded,’ he admitted. ‘It would have been a novel experience to have had a pretty girl crying over me !’
    ‘ I’m not crying ! ’ she said crossly.
    ‘No?’ His eyes mocked her. ‘You’re very young, Megan.’
    She glared at him. ‘What’s that got to do with it?’
    ‘More than you think,’ he retorted. ‘If you were older you wouldn’t break your heart over a boy who doesn’t exist any more !’
    Megan bit her lip. ‘I think he does,’ she said in a whisper.
    ‘In me?’
    She nodded briefly. ‘ What is the rest of the house like?’ she asked quickly.
    He put his hands on her shoulders and turned her to face the light, whether she would or no. ‘There is very little of the small boy left in me,’ he told her grimly. ‘I grew up a long time ago !’
    ‘Oh?’ She forced herself to sound light and amused, but she felt neither.
    ‘ Do you doubt it?’
    She licked her lips nervously. ‘No,’ she said.
    His hands tightened on her shoulders, pulling her against him. She turned her head away, afraid that he meant to kiss her, and even more afraid of her own possible reaction.
    ‘I—I’d like to go to my room ! ’
    ‘ It is you who