Microsoft Word - Sherwood, Valerie - Nightsong (47 page)

And now as they rested on their elbows, lazily touching in the afterglow, she knew she had never felt such kinship with a man before. She had sympathy for Robin Tyrell-that was it. In the world's eyes he was a rakehell and always would be-but then wasn't she an adventuress herself?

She had sympathy for Robin's plight, too. Caught between a harridan of a mother-in-law and a wife who was turning into one!

Well-she would rescue him from that! Just how, she wasn't quite sure but she was suddenly certain that she was going to try.

Because . . . just possibly . . . she had found tonight what she had so long been seeking, that something more than sex to share with a man.

She just might have found the love of her life.

The next day the governor was better-not well enough for making love but wide awake enough to require caution on the part of the lovers.

Suitors continued to wail love songs nightly beneath Marina's balcony.

Downstairs Penny and Robin ignored the caterwauling. They played whist and gazed smiling into each other's eyes.

They didn't know it, but they were falling in love.

THE HOUSE ON THE PLAZA DE ARMAS

HAVANA, CUBA

The arrival of the white and gold galleon had brought a flurry of social life to Havana.

Not to be outdone, the governor-whose gout had improved- was giving a ball the next night in honor of the El Dorado's officers. The entire household was excited about its-even Marina had turned tractable.

Carolina had arrived back in Havana only the day before Penny, having been refused entrance to the house and wrangling with old Juana at the door, had made so much noise that Carolina called out to ask who was there. Upon learning it was Penny, she told Juana to let her in.

Penny brushed past the old woman and found Don Diego and Carolina sipping tall drinks in the courtyard by the tinkling fountain.

"Come join us," Carolina said graciously.

Penny's keen gaze took in the pair of them, lounging at table-Don Diego coatless with his flowing white shirt open at the front above his dark trousers, Carolina clad only in her light chemise and with her fair hair cascading down over her slim shoulders. To Penny, they both looked as though they had just risen from making love.

"Well, so much for fever!" laughed Penny. "I came over to deliver an invitation to Don Diego to attend the governor's ball tomorrow night-but I see now that you'd much rather stay home with 'fever.' Don't worry, I'll make your excuses--and I'll find my own way out."

"Penny, I never meant for Juana to keep you out!" Carolina protested in a stricken voice. "It was just that the governor's daughter bothered us so much." She didn't mention that they hadn't been home, anyway!

Penny's sapphire eyes considered her younger sister. She had discovered in herself a reluctance for Robin and Carolina to meet. She had sensed that Carolina had stirred something deep and forgotten in the dissolute marquess-and might again.

But now that she saw how things were, now that Don Diego and Carolina were holed up in the house and apparently reluctant to leave it, there was no problem!

"Oh, Marina is bothering someone else now," she told them in a blithe voice. "An Englishman who arrived aboard the El Dorado. It seems he was picked up at sea from a foundering vessel and he tells a wild tale about lost papers, and being shipwrecked twice! Anyway, Marina was suddenly mad for him-she gets these wild infatuations. And when he didn't respond she must have sent a rose to every young man in Havana! All that noise under her window-"

"We heard it last night!" "-was her swains serenading. She's busy showing our house guest what a popular girl she is!"

"You mean this man is actually staying at the governor's house?" exclaimed Carolina.

"I had rather thought an Englishman, arriving willy-nilly on these shores, might end up in EI Morro!"

"Oh, he has a glib tongue, has this one!" Don Diego had been listening to this conversation. Now he entered it. "Tell the governor I will be well enough to attend his ball-and with a lady."

Carolina whirled. "Oh, you can't-we can't! I mean-"

"With a lady?" Penny caught her breath. That meant Robin and Carolina were sure to meet! "Don't tell me he means you, Carolina!" she said warily.

"I am afraid he does," Carolina said unhappily. "But it would cause a great stir and-"

Penny drew a deep breath. If Robin still cared for Carolina, better to know it now!

Quickly she joined in on Don Diego's side. "Let it cause a great stir," she said with a shrug. "I am going myself."

"You are?" Carolina stared.

"Yes, I am to be the governor's official hostess-since he is a widower." And social Havana might accept her as such because -even though tongues would undoubtedly wag-there were those who would see that Marina was still too young and hoydenish to assume that duty. Some of the women would insist, of course, on regarding Penny as merely an upper servant, allowed too much leeway. But for Don Diego to bring his mistress to the governor's ball? Surely the roof would fall in if he did!

"Of course you must do it," urged Penny, who, if she was in for a penny, was always in for a pound.

"The governor will be amused. But have you anything to wear?" Carolina admitted she did not. "Which is another reason why I must not consider going. I can hardly appear in riding clothes!"

"Well, if there was anything Constanza had in quantity, it was ball gowns," Penny said cheerfully. "I will certainly be able to find you something."

And she did. She was back that afternoon with an armload of clothing that Carolina could hardly believe. Great billows of white were spread out across the bed: a glamorous gown of heavy white lace over thin white satin and a marvel of a white silk petticoat, and a tall carved tortoiseshell comb to hold up a floating white mantilla so sheer and lovely-

"It looks fit for a bride!" gasped Carolina. "Wherever did you get it?"

"Oh, it was one of those many gowns packed away," Penny said with a shrug.

"Constanza must have worn it as a young girl, so it should fit you, although Luz will have to adjust the hem. Try it on, Carolina."

These lovely things were impossible to resist. Carolina tried it on and whirled delightedly before the mirror in the big front bedroom.

"But-I cannot wear it," she protested to Penny. "This white mantilla. It stands for virginity and I-"

"Of course you can wear it," said a voice from the door, and the two girls turned to see Don Diego lounging there. He gave Carolina a stern look. "You will wear it because you are soon to become my bride. I intend to announce it at the ball tomorrow night."

"What?" cried Penny. "Oh, this is wonderful! You can wear the gown tomorrow night and later you can be married in it! Consider it a wedding gift from me," she added, laughing.

Carolina's chiding look reproved her. "You must certainly not announce it," she told Don Diego. She sought for a reason. "My-my past will be looked into. Word has not been spread about Havana that I am the Silver Wench. If that were known, with the price Kells has on his head"-she gave "Don Diego" a warning look-"someone might decide that the way to lure Kells to his death in Spain would be to spirit me away there, and so collect fifty thousand pieces of eight!"

She saw she had not won her argument.

"Don Diego," she said desperately. "I am afraid to attract so much notice."

"You will accompany me to the ball," he said in a mulish tone. "And you will wear that dress and that mantilla."

"Very well." Carolina sighed, capitulating to the lesser evil. "I will go to the ball and I will wear this dress. But promise me-promise me that you will make no announcement!"

He frowned down upon her. "I will make no public announcement as yet," was all the promise she could wring from him. He whirled about and left them.

"I had no idea things had progressed so far," laughed Penny, helping Carolina strip off the lovely gown. "I'll drop these things by Luz and tell her how much hem to take up. She'll do it very swiftly, I promise, for I think she's afraid of me now that I'm the governor's mistress!"

"Do you think you will marry the governor?" asked Carolina, feeling that in some crazy way it might all come to pass-she who had been the Silver Wench might marry Don Diego and become a lady of Spain, and Penny, who had been the infamous Rouge of New Providence, might marry the governor and have all Havana at her feet. Could such things really happen? she asked herself wonderingly.

"Marry the governor? Not likely! Marina would expire at the very thought and I think the governor is too fond a father to ask her to accept me as a stepmother! But I am not so set on marriage as you are, Carolina-and anyway, I much prefer the Englishman. Which reminds me"-she began to make for the door -"he has promised to slip away from Marina and meet me by the quay. No less a personage than Don Ramon del Mundo has invited him to view EI Morro-I think because he wants to impress this Englishman, who claims to be an envoy of the English King, with Spanish might-and I am to tag along. Isn't that nice? Care to go with me?"

Carolina shook her head at Penny's impudence. She could be recognized by prisoners in the dark recesses of EI Morro-recognized and denounced.

And would that bring her, too, within searing distance of the fire?

THE GOVERNOR'S PALACE HAVANA, CUBA

The governor's palace was a blaze of light. All of aristocratic Havana seemed to have descended upon it. The carriages, coming and going by torchlight, discharged elegant dons and their mantillaed ladies at the big handsome house on the Plaza de Armas.

From next door Carolina and Don Diego had just arrived at the door-e-Carolina had tried to be very late, had kept making excuses, but Don Diego had finally told her impatiently that he would drag her along half-dressed if she did not hurry. With a sigh she had finished combing her hair into a fashionably high coiffure, stuck the high-backed tortoiseshell comb into it at the back and bent her head and let old Juana spread the fragile white mantilla across her blonde hair.

When she lifted her head again, old Juana had clapped her hands joyfully at the sight.

"A bride!" she had cried. "A very bride!"

"Not yet," sighed Carolina, who felt it would never come to pass, despite Don Diego's determination. She had walked down the tiled stairs regally on Don Diego's arm and now they were being welcomed in the house next door by the governor himself, a pouting Marina, and beside them, a sparkling-eyed Penny. Tonight Penny was an astonishing vision in her tight-fitting black taffeta bodice, her wide matching skirt embroidered in jet, and her sheer black lace mantilla that drifted down over the tall Spanish comb set into the back of her elegantly coiffed red hair.

Carolina lifted her chin when she saw Marina. She tensed, half expecting a scene.

But Marina only bowed stiffly, accepting Carolina's presence as one more insult, and cast a baleful glance at Penny, whom she regarded as being the undoubted cause of Carolina's presence.

The governor looked startled when he saw her, but he was instantly in control of himself and greeted Don Diego courteously. It was obvious that neither he nor his daughter recognized Carolina's white gown and mantilla as having belonged to Dona Constanza, and Carolina felt a wave of relief sweep over her.

Perhaps they would be able to get through the evening after all.

But her feeling of confidence was short-lived.

They had barely entered the big candlelit room, where the milling guests were sipping glasses of wine and the musicians were warming up for the dancing, when Carolina looked across the room and met the gaze of a tall dark man in elegant gray satin. A man who registered shock at the sight of her.

Carolina had the dizzy feeling of being transported back in time to other shores, other days. For a moment she swayed against the tall dark figure of Kells beside her, elegant and Spanish-looking in his dark Spanish clothing. She did not think the man across the room could have seen Kells because his gray eyes were fixed on her in thunderstruck astonishment.

"Don Diego," she said hastily, "I will be back presently. I see someone I want to speak to."

Don Diego had been looking over her shoulder at Dona Jimena Menendez, who was waving her black lace fan rather faster at sight of him and considering the beautiful blonde with him in some alarm. Dona Jimena's messages were among those he had chosen not to answer these days past. He felt it would be best to speak to her before she could say something outrageous to Carolina-for she was quite likely to do just that.

They parted, going their separate ways-Don Diego to wend a circuitous way to his left where Dona Jimena now sought to detach herself from a lively crowd of gentlemen who pressed around her; Carolina to make her way across the room and with the barest nod of her head cause the tall gentleman in gray to follow her into the next room where a table was laid with refreshments for the guests to eat later. The servants had just finished and it was temporarily empty.

Carolina was waiting for him, tapping her fingernails against the side of the long heaped-up table. She was furious to discover that she was trembling as he lounged in, and it was only with an effort that she managed to keep her voice low.

"Robin Tyrell!" she said bitterly. "Can it be that you are the Englishman who arrived here with some wild tale about being shipwrecked twice?"

The Marquess of Saltenham grinned at the accusation in her voice. "The very same!

An envoy from the King, no less, to the governor of Havana!" At the expression on her face, he added with lifted brows, "Well, what would you expect me to say, Carolina? The truth? That I had run away from Reba and her confounded mother and was escaping across the seas to Barbados?"

"Is that true, Robin?" she demanded, hating him for being so damnably attractive, lounging there in his elegant gray satins with his lazy gaze traveling appreciatively up and down her slender figure.

"It is true, Carolina." He swept her a rakish bow and placed his hand dramatically over his heart. "Or should I call you 'Christabel' now?" he wondered. "Tell me, does anyone here besides Rouge and myself know you to be the Silver Wench?"