Just for a moment there was a gleam almost of amusement in the dark eyes. ‘Goodnight, Lauren.’
Her name on his lips sounded different—exotic almost. She felt a sudden tremor run through her. With the twins ranged alongside, she followed Gabriel from the room, aware the whole way across the wide expanse of floor of Rafael’s gaze on her departing back, and unnerved by the knowledge.
She must have drawn an audible breath of relief when they reached the hall again, for Gabriel looked at her with a certain understanding.
‘My brother can be intimidating,’ he said, ‘but he means what he says. Neither you nor the boys will ever want for anything again. Of that you can be assured.’
‘That isn’t why I’m here,’ Lauren protested for what seemed the umpteenth time. ‘There’s more to life than money!’
‘But little comfort without it.’ Gabriel moved across to open an arched door beyond which a narrow staircase spiralled out of sight. ‘I’m afraid we don’t have any lifts, but it’s only the next floor. Rafael thought the higher rooms would be too far for the children.’
Not just the children, Lauren could have told him. The castle was elevated to start with. From the top of the tower, the ground must look a mile away. The boys, thank heaven, didn’t appear to have inherited her fear of heights. If anything, they were a little too daring. At four years of age, they knew nothing of the laws of gravity as yet.
The stairs gave on to a central landing with three doors opening from it. Two bedrooms, with a smaller room converted to a bathroom between. Lauren was rendered speechless by the magnificence of the four-poster bed in the room she was to occupy. With a mattress level at least three feet from the floor, she would need to take a running jump to make it, she reflected.
The boys’ room had modern twin divans, much to her relief. Brought in specially for them, Gabriel informed her when she remarked on the difference in style of furnishings.
‘Rafael’s idea,’ he said. ‘He thought the original furnishings unsuitable for children of their years. This was my room when I was a boy, while Francisco had the one you’re occupying. Rafael has the upper floor to himself still.’
‘You haven’t turned out just for us, have you?’ Lauren asked anxiously.
Gabriel laughed and shook his head. ‘I chose to move my sleeping quarters years ago. Not that it would have been any penance. You can’t know how much I’ve looked forward to your coming. To think that Francisco kept you such a secret all these years!’
A fact he hadn’t been all that keen on acknowledging to anyone, Lauren could have told him, but refrained. Francisco was dead and gone. Why further debase his memory?
The luggage had already been brought up, the two cases unpacked and everything put tidily away in cupboards and drawers. One of the nightdresses Lauren had brought was laid out ready on the bed in her room. White and sheer, it drew Gabriel’s eyes like a magnet.
One of the few presents Francisco had ever bought her. White for virginity, he had said satirically at the time, because she was still a virgin at heart. She had never worn it up to now, but it was too lovely and expensive a garment to discard out of hand.
‘I’m going to have difficulty climbing up on to that bed,’ she said with a laugh in an effort to dispel the memories. ‘You don’t happen to have a ladder handy, do you?’
‘You’ll find a wooden step underneath for the purpose,’ Gabriel replied, taking her seriously. ‘Do you need help in preparing the boys for their bedtime? One of the staff can be alerted.’
‘No, thanks, I can manage fine,’ she assured him. ‘I always have up to now.’ She gave him a smile. ‘We’ll see you in the morning, then. What time is breakfast?’
‘The hotel guests are served between eight and nine,’ he said. ‘Rafael prefers to take his meal no later than seven-thirty, but you have no need to follow suit. If you wish for something more substantial than coffee and bread rolls or churros, there is a wide choice available.’
‘Just cereals for the boys, perhaps. I’ll be quite happy with coffee and rolls.’
‘I’ll tell the kitchen.’ Gabriel added, ‘And tomorrow I’ll show you the whole place.’
‘That will be nice.’ Lauren made a move towards the door. ‘I’d better go and check on what those two are up to. They’re too quiet for comfort.’
The boys were quiet, she found, because they were both of them sound asleep, curled up on their respective beds without a care in the world. Too cruel to disturb them now, she thought fondly, gazing down at the twin faces. Baths would simply have to wait until morning.
‘I’ll just take their shoes off and leave them,’ she murmured to Gabriel who was hovering in the doorway. ‘They’re not going to come to any harm sleeping in their clothes for once.’
‘No harm at all,’ he agreed. He waited until she had emerged from the room and closed the door softly behind her to add, ‘You are a very caring mother, Lauren. And a very beautiful one too. I envy Francisco the five years he spent with you.’
There was a caution in her smile. ‘You need never envy anyone anything, Gabriel. Goodnight.’
He accepted the dismissal with obvious reluctance. ‘Goodnight.’
Left alone at last, Lauren went back into her own room and closed the door, standing for a moment in silent contemplation. Three brothers, all so different. Gabriel might resemble Francisco the most in actual looks, but his was by far the softer personality. That he was attracted to her was more than apparent; he hadn’t even attempted to conceal the fact. She was going to need to be careful in the way she handled their relationship.
Rafael was another matter altogether. In some ways he frightened her. Not a physical fear, more an inner disturbance. She had a strong feeling that her stay here was going to prove anything but tranquil.
CHAPTER TWO
FIRST light came just before seven, turning the sky from black to pale grey then spreading blue. Watching from her window, Lauren thought she had never seen anything quite so beautiful as the mountains sprang into sharp silhouette, taking on colour and detail by degrees. The air was clean and sharp. She drew in deep breaths of it. A couple of weeks of this couldn’t be anything but good.
The boys had been up and about for over an hour. It was only with difficulty that she had restrained them from running riot. They were occupied now with the painting books and crayons she had brought with her from home, but the interest wouldn’t last too long. Inquisitive by nature, the two needed constant stimulation. Lauren had taught them both to read, and was justifiably proud of their prowess. With luggage limited, however, she had been unable to bring along too much in the way of reading matter, and local shops were unlikely to hold a great stock of children’s literature in the English language. Boredom spelled trouble with a capital T where the twins were concerned.
At half-past seven, with the sun just creeping over the eastern range, she took the two of them downstairs. All was silent in the hallway, all doors leading from it closed. Lauren chose the one next to the room she had been in the previous evening, to find herself in what was obviously a study-cum-library. César and Nicolás eyed the crowded bookshelves with interest, undeterred by the man who rose from his seat at the big dark wood desk. Dressed this morning in cream trousers and dark brown shirt, he was no less disturbing.
‘I’m sorry,’ said Lauren hastily. ‘I was looking for the dining-room.’
‘No matter,’ Rafael assured her. ‘The comedor is across the other side of the hall. Whatever you wish to eat, you have only to ask. We cater for all tastes.’
‘Just cereals,’ she responded. ‘For the twins, that is. We never eat anything cooked at breakfast.’