Man of Destiny by Rose Burghley Page B

her shoulders. “Ah, well, it didn’t require a great effort to get over him. Even on the ship I was beginning to find that Anglo-Saxon fairness of his a lit tl e cloying. I like men to be dark ... my men!” She smiled almost slumbrously at Caroline. “And when I saw you shooting away from the ship with Dom Vasco, and realised how lucky you were to be even temporarily under the protection of someone like him, I was suddenly inspired. I had a right to be cosseted and cared for, too, by my in-laws ... the Marques owed me something. So I wrote warning you that anything might happen, and followed up the warning by booking myself an air flight to Lisbon. The Marques invited me to stay with him in Estoril, and then brought me here. Naturally he thought I was simply burning to see Richard ...”
    “I think you succeeded in impressing Dom Vasco with the fact that you’re very devoted to Richard,” Caroline remarked drily, and Ilse looked pleased.
    “Do you think that went down well? He’s such an autocratic creature, isn’t he? And yet he was terribly sweet to me, I thought.” Her face hardened suddenly. “Who is this Carmelita de Capuchos who is to act hostess for us tonight ? ”
    “A cousin of Dom Vasco, or so he told me himself.”
    Ilse sighed with relief.
    “Only a cousin ? Oh, that’s splendid! And probably old-maidish, and not too young... ? ”
    “I’d say she is in her early thirties, and beautiful in a strange sort of way.”
    “Oh!” The green eyes were not so pleased. “What do you mean by a strange sort of way ? ”
    “Well, she struck me as being a little like a paper-white rose,” Caroline admitted, because that was exactly how Carmelita de Capuchos had struck her, and was not surprised when Ilse flung away from her and became petulant all at once.
    “By that you mean she’s got a Portuguese pallor, and is probably as dull as ditch-water?” she stated rather than asked. “I’ve seen her type before, in Portuguese East Africa ... and there are probably lots like her within a few miles of this place! That kind of woman doesn’t constitute a menace, unless a man is contracted to marry her. And you haven’t heard anything about Dom Vasco being betrothed to his cousin, have you?” wheeling round and studying Caroline’s face with barely concealed anxiety while she waited to hear whether that was the case or not. Caroline shook her head.
    “I haven’t actually heard that they’re engaged—”
    “Then why do you suspect it?” sharply.
    Caroline felt surprised. Why did she suspect that Carmelita de Capuchos was interested in Vasco in the way a woman does become interested in a man when someone has suggested to her that it would be a good thing if she married him ... one day ? Why, although she had met Carmelita only twice, had she made up her mind that there was a woman who had succeeded in making an impression on Vasco — getting past his guard—and that, whether she knew it or not, she had him in the hollow of her hand?
    “ I have seen them together,” she replied evasively. “They seemed to me to make a good pair.”
    Which, now that she stopped to think about it, was true enough.
    Ilse made an impatient movement, and rang the bell for the maid to come and unpack her suitcases, and run a bath for her. She had already shooed the girl out twice, because she wanted to be alone; but now she no longer wished to be undisturbed ... She wanted to go ahead with her preparations for the evening, and make certain there was nothing hurried about them, or nothing that wasn’t carefully planned beforehand.
    “ Dom Vasco is a very handsome man,” she remarked, “and the fact that he isn’t married proves that he hasn’t yet met the right woman. Without wishing to prove you wrong, I could prove you very wrong indeed! So wrong that you might be surprised ... one day!”
    With a meaning smile she whipped open her beauty-box, and started to remove her make-up. Then she pressed the bell still