FROM THE WINDOW Cortez watched Elin walk across the lawn holding Harry in her arms. She had swept out of the study, leaving him reeling from what she had told him. He went cold at the thought that she could have bled to death following Harry’s birth, and guilt knotted in his stomach as he acknowledged the damning truth that if Elin had died he would never have known about his son.
The gazebo next to the swimming pool offered shade from the midday sun, which was strong even in March. Elin sat down on a garden chair and held the baby against her shoulder. Even from a distance Cortez could see the gentle expression on her face as she cradled her son.
A lioness protecting her cub.
The vehement words she’d flung at him a few minutes ago echoed inside his head. ‘I fought to stay alive for my son and I will fight to the death to keep him.’ Cortez thought of another woman who had been fiercely protective of her child. His mother had brought him up without any support from his father. Marisol Ramos had been shunned by her family and by many of the villagers, who had judged her for being an unmarried mother. She had worked day in, day out at her small vineyard to earn money to feed and clothe him.
He remembered the recent discovery he had made while he’d been at Cuckmere Hall and had sorted through some of Ralph Saunderson’s private papers. He had found an old bank statement which proved that his father had given his mother money when she’d told him she was pregnant. But Marisol had not spent the money to make her life easier, and the only explanation Cortez could think of was that she had saved the money to pay for him to go to university.
A good education had given him the means to escape the poverty of his childhood, and it could be argued that he owed his success partly to Ralph’s financial contribution. He had been shocked to discover that his father had not completely abandoned him. Like he had abandoned Elin. The knot of guilt in his stomach tightened.
But if Elin loved Harry as much as she insisted, why was she a drug-user? She had furiously denied that she was a drug addict and Cortez conceded it was possible that the tabloid stories about her having a drug habit were exaggerated. But in London the nanny had not been unduly surprised when Elin had been incapable of caring for Harry. He had assumed that Elin had been semi-conscious on the flight to Spain as a result of something she had taken, but could there be a different explanation? For his baby son’s sake he had to find out the truth about Elin, and his first step would be to talk to the nanny.
Barbara was in the nursery, unpacking the latest delivery of baby clothes and toys that Cortez had ordered for his son. ‘Harry will have to be dressed in two new outfits a day if he is going to wear all these lovely clothes before he grows out of them,’ she said as she folded a cute sailor suit and placed it in a drawer.
‘I’m sorry to give you extra work,’ Cortez murmured, glancing at the boxes strewn across the floor. He spied a wooden train set and wondered how old Harry would be before he became interested in toys. He was looking forward to watching his son grow up and he was determined that he would be around when Harry took his first steps and spoke his first words. There had been many times when he was a boy that he’d wished he had a father like the other boys at school. His son would never doubt that his father loved him, Cortez vowed.
‘To be honest, I like having something to do,’ Barbara told him. ‘I often feel guilty that I am paid to do very little.’
‘Caring for a baby must be a full-time job.’
‘Yes, but Elin has always insisted on doing everything for Harry. Even when he went through a period of waking several times in the night, she kept his crib next to her bed so that she could see to him. Of course she couldn’t do very much just after she’d given birth and she was weak from losing so much blood. That was why her brother hired me. And then, when Elin was getting her strength back, she developed a serious kidney infection. I do hope that this latest bout of a recurring infection which made her so unwell for the past few days will be the last,’ Barbara said. ‘The drugs she took to fight the infection are very powerful and, as you noticed, the side-effects absolutely knocked her out.’
Cortez stiffened but he managed to keep his tone casual as he asked, ‘What exactly are the drugs Elin took?’
‘She was prescribed a powerful penicillin antibiotic to destroy the bacteria that causes the infection. But, as I said, the drug has unpleasant side-effects, which meant that Elin was unable to breastfeed Harry when she developed a kidney infection soon after he was born.’
Cortez stared at the nanny. ‘To your knowledge does Elin use recreational drugs, for instance cocaine? There have been reports in some of the more lurid English newspapers that she is involved in the drug culture which is popular in nightclubs,’ he persisted when Barbara looked astonished.
‘Good heavens, you don’t want to believe anything you read in those kinds of papers. They are called the gutter press for a good reason. There was even a story printed last year which stated that Elin was having an affair with a married actor simply because they were photographed leaving a club at the same time. But she’d never even spoken to the man. As for her taking recreational drugs—’ the nanny shook her head ‘—I’ve never seen any evidence of that, and I simply don’t believe it. Elin is the most devoted mother I have ever met and I am absolutely convinced that she would not do anything that could be detrimental to Harry.’
‘I see,’ Cortez said slowly. The uncomfortable realisation was dawning on him that he might have misjudged Elin. And it was not the first time, his conscience reminded him. When he had gone to Cuckmere Hall for the reading of Ralph Saunderson’s will, Elin had told him that he was her baby’s father but he had refused to believe her until a DNA test had proved she was telling the truth.
But if she was not a drug-user, and according to the nanny Elin was a good mother, then he was unlikely to win custody of his son in a court battle. And he could not forget that Elin had turned down the chance to own Cuckmere Hall. He knew she loved the house. The value of the estate plus the additional money he’d offered her amounted to thirty-five million pounds. It was a sizeable fortune and he had believed that she might be tempted, but she had unhesitatingly rejected his offer and scathingly told him that he could not buy his son.
Even so, could he trust that her apparent devotion to Harry was real? Cortez’s jaw hardened. After Alandra he had vowed never to trust any woman. But Elin was the mother of his child and somehow they were going to have to come to an agreement on how they could both be parents to their son.
* * *
Elin had fled from the acrimonious atmosphere in the study and sought refuge in the garden. But when Harry became fretful for his next feed she took him back to the house and her heart sank when she met Cortez in the entrance hall. Revulsion swept through her as in her mind she heard his cold voice offering her Cuckmere Hall if she gave up all rights to her baby. It had been even worse than his accusation that she was a drug addict and she tensed as he strode towards her, fearful of what he was going to say to her, what new insult he might throw at her now. Her wariness must have shown on her face and he frowned when she clutched Harry tightly to her chest.
‘Dios, you do not need to look so terrified,’ he said roughly. ‘I am not going to hurt you.’
‘Really?’ Her voice was brittle, her emotions balanced on a knife-edge. ‘You don’t think I might have found your disgusting attempt to bribe me to give up my baby hurtful?’
He did not answer but something flashed in his dark eyes that she might have believed was regret if she did not know that Cortez Ramos had a lump of granite where his heart should be.
‘I have to go to Madrid on business and I will be away for one night, at the most two,’ he said abruptly. ‘The trip