Meeting in Madrid by Jean S. Macleod

standing still by the roadside. Catherine turned her head sideways to look at her rescuer.
    ‘I’m sorry,’ she managed because it always seemed necessary to apologise for her actions. ‘I couldn’t stop him once he got going.’
    ‘Get down,’ Don Jaime ordered.
    She saw how hard his mouth was.
    ‘I can’t!’ She was still clinging to the pony’s neck.
    ‘Certainly you can.’ He dismounted, but he did not try to help her. ‘You will strangle the horse if you don’t let go.’ Cautiously she regained an upright position, straightening in the saddle.
    ‘Now take your foot out of the stirrup and swing towards me,’ he commanded. ‘I will not let you fall.’
    What a fool he must think her! Catherine bit her lip and obeyed his instructions, leaning heavily against his shoulder as she struggled to remove her foot from the second stirrup. In an instant his arms were about her, holding her securely before he finally put her on the ground.
    ‘What an exhibition!’ She tried to laugh. ‘I told you I wasn’t very good on a horse.’
    She was trembling visibly, aware of his nearness and the contact of their two bodies as he had held her for that one brief second in time.
    ‘You have had a nasty shock,’ he said quite gently.
    Was that all? His hands were still on her arms, his face close as he looked down at her with genuine concern in his eyes, but after a moment he put her gently away from him, steadying her on her feet, although he must have been aware that she was still trembling.
    She wanted to explain how terrified she had been but couldn’t. Her heart was pounding madly, and every nerve in her body seemed to be jarred, yet in that first moment when his arms had closed about her she had felt secure.
    The clamour in her heart would not die down, even now that there was no further cause for alarm. Physically she was safe enough and probably there had been no real danger. She tried to meet his eyes complacently, but her errant heartbeats seemed to fill the silence between them with overwhelming sound.
    ‘You must get straight back into the saddle,’ he advised in a matter-of-fact tone which steadied her a little. ‘It is the only way. If you allow yourself to be afraid now you will never ride successfully.’
    She hardly heard what he said, turning her head away, still conscious of the pounding of her own heart. I can’t fall in love with him, she thought. I couldn’t complicate a situation which is already dangerous enough!
    ‘I’m all right now,’ she managed to say. ‘It’s like—riding a bicycle, isn’t it? One spill shouldn’t mean defeat.’
    ‘Let me help you,’ he said, cupping his hands to assist her into the saddle. ‘We must be thankful that nothing more serious has befallen you.’
    ‘Don’t blame Ramon too much,’ she begged, meeting his eyes with a quiet entreaty in her own. ‘It wasn’t really his fault.’
    ‘Ramon is always going off at a tangent,’ he said. ‘I dare say he has no idea what happened.’ His dark gaze swept the empty road ahead of them. ‘He will be almost home by now.’
    ‘I should have been more attentive,’ she blamed herself. ‘I never dreamed that Vivo would actually bolt.’
    Her words dropped into a little confused silence while he looked up at her.
    ‘All right now?’ he asked as Teresa and Manuel appeared round a bend in the road.
    ‘Quite all right, thank you.’ She had cleared her voice to answer him with confidence. ‘I won’t make the same mistake again.’
    ‘Cathy!’ Teresa cried when they were within hailing distance, ‘Are you all in one piece?’ She looked greatly relieved when she saw Catherine still in the saddle. ‘You gave us a great fright, I must say, but now it seems that you have not taken any harm, after all.’ She began to laugh. ‘If you had seen yourself!’ she exclaimed. ‘All yellow bottom and flying hair! I thought you were going to strangle poor Vivo before you fell off!’ She looked from Catherine