‘Damn them!’ Sebastian said with soft violence. ‘I don’t want this all over town. Where the hell is she?’

‘What about those doors over there?’

‘They lead to the part of the house I use for business. Catalina never goes there. Besides, they’re always kept locked.’

‘This one isn’t,’ Maggie said, trying a handle and finding herself in a corridor.

A plump middle-aged man called Marcos was advancing on them, an insincere smile on his face. He was a political opponent of Sebastian, and-to quote Catalina-a creep.

‘The poor young lady has probably gone to lie down. Is this where you keep your study? A hotbed of secrets, I’m sure.’ He headed for the next door.

‘No!’ Maggie cried. For suddenly everything had become clear to her, and she knew what was about to happen. If only Catalina had had the sense to lock the door behind her…

But she hadn’t. The next moment Marcos had pulled Sebastian’s study door open, revealing Catalina standing there, locked in a passionate embrace with José.

Time seemed to stop. In that awful pause, a gaggle of fascinated spectators crowded after them into the room. Both Catalina and José seemed too frozen to move. Her elaborately arranged hair had been torn down and hung in disarray about her shoulders. One shoulder of her dress was pushed down, almost exposing a white, beautiful breast. Her lipstick was smeared and her eyes had the cloudy look of a woman driven to madness by kisses.

Of the two, it was the girl who pulled herself together first. Stepping forward, she faced the crowd accusingly.

‘What are you staring at? Have you never seen a woman in love before? This is José. He loves me and I love him. I’m going to marry him.’ She whirled on Sebastian. ‘Him, not you!’

‘Be silent!’ Sebastian said warningly.

‘I won’t be silent. Who do you think you are to bring me here and say I must marry you, whether I like it or not?’

‘I never-’

‘You did, you did! What choice did I have? The great Sebastian de Santiago favours me, and I’m supposed to faint with the honour. Well, I say no! I won’t marry you. I hate you.’

A guffaw of laughter broke from the ever-increasing crowd. As though the sound was the last straw, Catalina’s courage collapsed and she flung herself, sobbing, into José’s arms.

Sebastian took a step forward to Catalina, but in the same moment something snapped in Maggie. Moving quickly, she placed herself in front of the two young people.

‘Leave them alone,’ she told Sebastian quietly. ‘Whatever you have to say, this isn’t the time or place. And you-’ she addressed the grinning spectators ‘-have you no pity for her? She’s a child. She should never have been brought to this. How dare you stand there and enjoy her misery? You should be ashamed, all of you.’

Sebastian was as pale as death, but when he spoke he was in command of himself. ‘As you say, this isn’t the time or the place. Please take Catalina away and look after her. You-’ he indicated José ‘-have abused the hospitality of my house and will leave immediately.’

Maggie put a gentle arm about Catalina and led her away. José looked confused. ‘Get out of here while you’re still safe,’ Sebastian told him savagely.

The next moment he’d become the host again, smiling, ushering everybody out, apologising for the early end to the party. It wasn’t hard to get rid of the guests. Don Sebastian de Santiago was too rich, too powerful, too handsome, not to have enemies, and they were all eager to start spreading the hilarious news.

When the last guest had gone and Maggie had finished calming first an hysterical Catalina, and then an hysterical Isabella, she returned downstairs and faced Sebastian in his study.

She hadn’t known what to expect, but she was unprepared for what awaited her. The man whose gentle resignation had touched her heart earlier had vanished. In his place was a stranger with glittering, hate-filled eyes.

‘Do you think I don’t know who to blame for this?’ he said in a hard, icy voice.

‘The only person to blame is yourself,’ Maggie told him firmly.

‘Who told me that she would make this happen? Who warned me weeks ago that she would work to undermine me, and humiliate me before the world? Like a fool I didn’t believe her. I trusted her, and I tell you that never again will I trust a woman.’

As his meaning became clear, Maggie turned on him in outrage. ‘Do you mean me?’

‘Who else? You threatened to do all in your power to make Catalina betray me. Don’t deny it.’

‘I said I’d try to open her eyes. I never meant anything like this to happen.’

‘Don’t lie to me!’ he said savagely. ‘You practically threw her into that pretty boy’s arms. You invited him to this house, you told him about your skiing trip so that he could follow, and when I found him there you told me it was you he was chasing.’

‘Because I believed it,’ she cried. Horrified, she was beginning to see how everything looked.

‘You told him you were going to Sol y Nieve.’

‘Only in passing. It wasn’t a hint for him to follow.’

‘To be sure, I believe you,’ he said bitterly.

‘How dare you call me a liar?’ Maggie snapped.

‘That is nothing to what I would like to call you. I’ve been insulted in front of the world, and that lies at your door, you scheming, manipulative witch.’

‘It wasn’t like that. It was a chapter of accidents, and-’

‘To think that I brought you into this house!’ he brooded, not seeming to hear her.

‘And I didn’t want to come,’ she reminded him. ‘But you were so set on having your own way that you mowed me down, as you do everyone. You brought me here as your fiancée’s chaperone, and I hadn’t been under your roof two days before you tried to seduce me.’

‘Don’t talk like an ignorant girl, because you’re not one. You’re a woman of the world who’d only take a man to her bed as an equal.’

‘But I didn’t take you to my bed. And how glad I am now that I didn’t. To you it’s nothing but a kind of power game and, I told you before, you’ll never have power over me.’

‘No, you prefer the power to be on your side,’ he said, his eyes glinting with a strange light. ‘You demonstrated that very effectively tonight.’

‘How can I make you believe that it wasn’t some kind of conspiracy?’ she demanded.

‘Don’t try. It was all just a little bit too convenient to be an accident.’

Maggie sighed. ‘Believe what you like, Sebastian. You will anyway. Let’s just make an end of this.’

‘And how do you suggest we do that?’

‘I’d have thought it was obvious. It’s time for me to go. You must be longing to see the last of me.’

He stared at her. ‘Do you really think you’re going to simply walk out of here without putting right the injury you’ve done me?’

‘How can I do that? If you think I’m going to bully Catalina into marrying you-’

He made a gesture of impatience. ‘Of course not. Our marriage is impossible now. But there’s still the inconvenient matter of the cathedral, the archbishop and several hundred guests, all arranged for ten days’ time.’

‘You’ll have to cancel them. People will understand.’

‘Oh, yes, they’ll understand-and they’ll laugh themselves sick.’

‘Well, what else can you do? It’s happened now.’

‘Don’t be stupid, Margarita. The answer must be as obvious to you as it is to me. I have arranged to be married on the sixteenth, and that’s what I mean to do. Anything else would simply give the town more cause for derision.’

‘But you haven’t got a bride,’ she said incredulously, wondering if she was dealing with a deaf man. ‘What are you going to do? Call in one of your conquests to make up the numbers? Will any woman do?’

The strange light was there in his eyes again. ‘Not any woman,’ he said. ‘You.’

She stared at him. Then something caught in her throat and she forced herself to give a brief, choking laugh.

‘I’m not laughing,’ he said quietly.

‘You’re right. It’s the unfunniest joke I’ve ever heard.’

‘I was never further from making jokes in my life. You don’t understand Spanish honour. Perhaps your race has no honour, but here it’s a deadly serious matter. The one who does the injury is the one who makes reparation. You have injured me, and it is you, and nobody else, who must make it right.’

‘I think you must have gone mad,’ she said coldly.

He nodded. ‘Maybe that’s it. My brain is whirling with so many terrible thoughts that perhaps I’ve gone mad. But beware my madness, Margarita, because it will brook no opposition. A madman isn’t civilised. A madman will do whatever he has to in order to gain his end.’

‘Then he’d better listen to some common sense,’ she flashed. ‘It’s not me who’s forgotten that this is Spain, but you-this is one of the most bureaucratic countries in the world. First we would have to apply to the authorities for permission, and that can take a month-’

‘I have friends who will see that it doesn’t.’

‘Oh, yes, your friends in high places. Will they also get my birth certificate from England, and translate it into Spanish, and my husband’s death certificate?’

‘That will be Alfonso’s job.’

‘It’s impossible in the time.’

‘He’ll leave for England first thing tomorrow morning.’

‘And so will I.’

He laid a hand on her arm. ‘No,’ he said, so quietly that she almost didn’t hear. ‘You will stay here, because in ten days’ time, we are going to be married.’

She began to sense the force of his will. He spoke softly because his steely inflexibility left no need for noise. Sebastian had said what he wanted, and that was what he would have. Meeting his eyes, it was almost possible to believe that she would meekly do his will.

Almost. But she too had a core of strength deep within that would tolerate no surrender. It asserted itself now, making her throw him off.