Chapter Nine #3
And yet...and yet he had been unwilling to admit the story behind the gossip she had mentioned.
Surely only a man ashamed of his past behaviour would behave that way?
Rigo’s wife had killed herself? After having an affair with Ruy and being ditched?
Suzy was appalled at that claim. But she also knew that gossip, even cruel gossip, was often based more on entertainment than fact.
She was leaving the cloakroom when Mercedes approached her.
‘I saw Elisa Torres coming out looking smug,’ she said anxiously. ‘Did she speak to you?’
‘The skinny blonde with the diamonds?’ Suzy checked and nodded. ‘She didn’t seem friendly.’
‘No, she wouldn’t be. Elisa’s daughter, Fernanda, made a big play for Ruy last year, probably with her mother’s encouragement.
’ Mercedes grimaced. ‘There is no man in Spain more likely to be more turned off by a woman chasing him than Ruy and he froze her out. Seeing him engaged to another woman will have enraged Elisa. Did she say anything to you?’
‘She said something in Spanish, but she spoke too fast and I didn’t catch it.
The look on her face was sufficient warning,’ Suzy fibbed for the sake of peace, because she knew she could have asked Mercedes for the truth but she had sufficient consideration for the bride’s feelings on her special day to swallow her nosy questions.
The brunette would not wish to be drawn down that path and it would make her uncomfortable, not only because it was intensely private stuff but also because she had only just met Suzy.
In such circumstances, silence was golden.
‘That’s good, because Elisa is usually critical rather than pleasant,’ Mercedes confided, accompanying Suzy back to the main reception room.
For the remainder of their time at the reception, Suzy kept on smiling and trying to behave normally. But the whole time she was stealing stricken glances at Ruy and wondering. Did he? Could he have? Could she have fallen in love with a man that immoral, disloyal and seedy?
And the moral of that story was that she had once agreed to marry Percy Brenton, crediting that he was, at heart, a decent enough older man worthy, at least, of her respect and trust. How could she ever have been that gullible about a man who had literally blackmailed her to the altar?
Events had proven her to be badly wrong in her na?ve assumptions when it came to Percy, she reminded herself painfully.
How much did she really know about Ruy? And did it even matter if he was guilty as charged when their brief affair was virtually over?
Why would she confront him now with such explosive accusations?
Their relationship as such was already almost over, bar her final departure.
Was there any point in stirring up such sordid unpleasantness?
Particularly when, with Ruy’s stake in her father’s pub, she might well be forced to see him again in the future.
No, she would keep her lips firmly sealed and endure her curiosity.
What else could she do when Ruy had already refused to discuss the gossip she had questioned?
Obviously, he didn’t want to talk about such sleazy stuff, not now when it was all over.
And why would he even want to discuss it with Suzy when he had already made it clear that his past was none of her business?
‘You did really well today,’ Ruy told her on the drive back to the palacio after midnight. ‘Thank you.’
A tense smile curved Suzy’s mouth. ‘Well, that appearance was what I was here for,’ she reminded him quietly.
‘You were very convincing,’ Ruy continued.
‘I must be a better actress than I ever appreciated,’ Suzy demurred, relieved that she had less than twenty-four hours left to spend in Spain.
Stepping back from Ruy and the level of intimacy they had indulged in was a challenge and to behave normally while accomplishing that feat was an even bigger one.
Her feet were killing her. She wondered if it was a rule that new shoes always had to pinch, but even if she had been warned she would have picked them because they had been the perfect match for her dress. In the marble hall, she kicked them off and lifted them to pad barefoot upstairs.
‘I could carry you,’ Ruy proposed with amusement.
‘Not required.’
She got ready for bed quickly. From below lowered lashes she covertly watched Ruy undress, marvelling at how familiar his every move had become to her.
He was so organised, so methodical. Everything had a place, and nothing got lost because it always went back in the same spot.
She was the exact opposite but sharing a room with Ruy had made her tidier, not only because that was his preference, but also because she was now mortifyingly aware that in the palacio, if she left something on the floor, someone else had to pick it up.
The mattress gave a little with Ruy’s weight. The lights went out. He reached for her and she tried not to freeze.
‘Er...we can’t,’ she muttered, cheeks burning as she brought out the excuse she needed. ‘It’s that time of the month.’
The heat of his lean, powerful body spread slowly through the chill that gripped her.
‘Not a problem,’ Ruy murmured, still holding her close.
Suzy had expected him to let go of her and retreat, but he did neither.
‘Are you feeling all right?’ he asked, a shade awkwardly.
‘I’m not great,’ she fibbed.
And he let go of her immediately, switched on the lights, emerged from the dressing room in jeans and left the room.
Suzy sat up, wondering where he was going.
She lay down again, planning to fake sleep, but a few minutes later Ruy reappeared with tablets and a glass of water, sitting on her side of the bed and feeding them to her.
That he would be that considerate hadn’t occurred to her and she was embarrassed, forced to swallow pills she didn’t need.
‘Try to go to sleep,’ he urged as he doused the lights again.
He didn’t put his arms round her again and, absurdly, she wished he would because it would have been the very last time they were that close. She squeezed her eyes tight shut and ordered her brain to shut down but there was no closing out the revelation that Elisa Torres had made.
Had Ruy fallen in love with his brother’s wife?
He must’ve done, she assumed. Surely he would not have betrayed his brother’s trust for anything less than an all-encompassing love?
And yet it did not excuse him because love didn’t turn a sordid affair into a case of Romeo and Juliet.
Ultimately, Ruy had ended the relationship but Rigo must still have been devastated.
And then his wife had died, and he could hardly have got any sort of closure from that tragic conclusion.
She marvelled that Ruy’s twin had invited him to his second wedding and could only admire Rigo for his ability to accept the past and forgive.
The next day, she had to work hard at keeping her spirits up.
She was determined not to reveal the truth that she was dreading returning home when in reality it was what any sane woman would want after discovering such bad news about the man she cared about.
Before lunch, which they would be sharing with Ruy’s closest relatives, she laid out the dress she had selected from the rails.
It was a dark blue dress that barely showed any skin, extremely conservative.
She had picked it after meeting a couple of Ruy’s very starchy aunts and uncles at the wedding the previous day.
It helped to remember that she was merely fulfilling a pretend role and that in a few hours she would be taking off the truly beautiful ring for ever.
None of it was real, she reminded herself doggedly.
It was her own foolish fault that she had dived too deep into her first affair even after being warned that it wouldn’t be a relationship.
And she had no real grounds for complaint, had she?
He had told her with candour that they had no future and he had treated her well and with respect.
He hadn’t shared his deepest secrets but then who did in a casual fling?
If she were discovering that in reality she couldn’t do casual comfortably with a man, that was her problem, not his.
Ruy studied her in surprise as she came downstairs. ‘You don’t look like you in that outfit,’ he remarked.
Suzy wrinkled her nose. ‘I might as well serve up what your relations like and expect from your future wife. Why ruffle feathers when it’s not real?’
‘I don’t care what they think,’ Ruy intoned almost harshly.
‘Ruy...you agreed to a fake engagement celebration for their benefit. Of course, you care. You were raised to care, weren’t you? You can’t help that,’ she reasoned.
‘I try not to follow my father’s rules,’ he countered.
‘I suppose that family is simply family and your father’s rules don’t come into it,’ Suzy murmured, connecting briefly with his stunning dark golden eyes and feeling her heart pound and her mouth run dry before swiftly evading that direct connection.
He wasn’t the man she had believed he was, she reminded herself fiercely, heartbroken at the idea that he could have behaved so badly.
He was neither loyal nor trustworthy. He was a cheater, and a man who would cheat with his brother’s wife would probably be unfaithful in future relationships as well.
Of course, there was a chance that that vindictive woman had been lying, but Ruy’s own refusal to discuss the gossip he had acknowledged had convinced Suzy that there had to be a nasty secret in his past, one that, quite understandably, he didn’t wish to discuss.
But what sort of judge was she of any man? Particularly after her foolish trust in Percy? That had been a big fail on her part, and she couldn’t forget how na?ve she had been.