Page 48 of Midnight Rider
Thecondessafrowned. “Yes. But, of course, he was not good enough for Lupe,” she added quickly. “Is that not so, my dear?”
Lupe started to answer, but Eduardo’s black eyes burned into her face and silenced her.
“When did Bernadette go home,Abuela?” he asked quietly.
The old woman toyed with her napkin. “Last evening, I believe.”
“Last evening!” he exploded. “You told me she was upstairs!”
Thecondessalooked vaguely distressed. “You were tired, my dear. I thought it just as well not to upset you. I told Lupe, and she agreed that it was better to say nothing until you were more...rested.”
He stood up, his bearing autocratic and menacing. “Bernadette went home alone in the dark. Is this what you are saying?”
“It was still light,” Lupe replied quickly.
“Ay, Dios.”He breathed harshly. “That long ago, and I knew nothing of it.”
“She is a vicious girl!” thecondessasaid with equal harshness. “She poured a pitcher of cream over my head!”
Eduardo gaped at her. “What?”
“She did!” Lupe said. “Your poor grandmother, she might have caught a chill! I had to fetch a servant to clean up the mess! How can you wish to remain the husband of such a savage woman?”
Both his eyebrows lifted. He was staring as if he didn’t recognize either of them.
“Why did she pour cream on you,Abuela?” he asked.
The old woman frowned. “We were arguing. She simply lost her temper.”
“She would never attack without provocation. So what did you say to her?”
The old woman glowered. “She said that she was going home and that you deserved no better than the company of Lupe and myself. She said that we were creatures without honor.”
He was beginning to wonder about that, himself. His black eyes narrowed. “And you said...?” he prompted.
She sucked in a breath. “I said that you would be well rid of her!”
“Why?”
She colored red. Her eyes averted. “She said...”
“Yes?”
She swallowed and lowered her eyes. “She told Lupe that she would leave deliberately, so that the servants would gossip about it. So that they would say that you did not live up to her...expectations!”
He threw back his head and laughed. It was the first bit of amusement he’d felt in such a long time. He could picture Bernadette throwing cream over his grandmother, blatantly accusing Eduardo of disappointing her in bed and leaving him to face the renewed gossip about his prowess. He should be furious, but he wasn’t. Bernadette had neatly turned the tables on his grandmother, and he was filled with admiration for her. He was beginning to get a very clear picture of what was going on in his house. He’d been blind in every way, it seemed.
“It is not amusing!” his grandmother said furiously.
“Yes, it is,” he returned. He smiled down at her. “You are my family, and I love you very much. But you have been most unfair to Bernadette, who never meant you any harm. Her life has been a very difficult one. Her father blamed her for the death of her mother in childbirth. He has treated her like a burden for all these years. In a sense she married me to escape him. And you have sent her back into the fire.”
Thecondessaaverted her eyes. “She is uncivilized.”
“She is spirited and independent,” he corrected. “She is the sort of woman who will stand beside a man and fight the world with him and for him. Sadly, it will not be me,” he added, surprised to find that it disturbed him to know that. “You should have given her a chance. So should I have,” he added quietly.
His grandmother waved her hand. “It is done,” she said. “She has gone and I think she will not come back.”
“We will see.” He bent to kiss his grandmother’s solemn face gently. “You care for me, in your way, but you have no idea what sort of man I am, or what sort of wife I require. You made a disastrous choice in Consuela, and I never told you for fear of hurting your feelings. I should have been less caring and more honest. Consuela hated this place and hated me. Her hatred turned her into a cold, bitter woman. She became demented, turned her back on her own baby and let him starve to death,” he said harshly.