Questions tumbled over in her mind, and she started with the least important first. "Where are we going now?"
"We are going to the village where we will have a quiet meal." Ramon put his arm around her shoulders, his fingertips playing with the little turquoise stud in her earlobe. "While we are dining, Rafael will have his married daughter prepare her spare bedroom for you. I had intended for you to stay at the house but it is not habitable. Besides, I had not considered the need for a chaperon for you until Rafael reminded me."
"A chaperon! You can't mean it," Katie sputtered. "It's—it's—"
"Necessary," Ramon provided for her.
"I was going to say Victorian, archaic and silly."
"True. But in our case it is still necessary."
Katie's delicate brows rose. "Our case?"
"Katie, this village is like a small town where very little happens, so everyone watches what everyone else does, and they gossip about it. I am a bachelor, therefore, an object of interest."
"So I gathered from what Senor Villegas said," Katie retorted primly.
Ramon's lips twitched, but he made no comment. "As my fiancée, you too are an object of interest. What is more important, you are also an American, which makes you a target for criticism. There are many here who believe that American women all have loose morals."
Mutiny was written on Katie's beautiful face. Her high cheekbones were tinted with pink and her blue eyes were sparkling dangerously. Ramon, correctly interpreting the danger signals, swiftly pulled her close and pressed his lips to her temple. "By 'chaperon' I did not mean someone to follow you around, Katie. I only meant that you could not live alone. If you do, the moment I set foot through your door the gossips will say that you let me share your bed, and because you are an American, everyone else will believe it. You may think you do not care, but this is going to be your home. You will not like it if, even years from now, you cannot walk through the village without having people whisper about you."
"I still object to the idea, on principle," Katie said, but without much conviction because Ramon was sensuously exploring her ear.
His muffled laugh sent thrills racing down her spine. "I hoped you were objecting to the idea because you thought a chaperon would make it more difficult for us to... be alone together."
"That, too," Katie admitted with breathless candor.
Ramon's chuckle was rich and deep. "I am going to stay with Rafael's family. Gabriella's house, where you will be staying, is only a mile away." Smoothing his hand from her silken cheek back to the coil of her chic chignon, he said huskily. "We will find the time, and the places, to share ourselves with each other."
Katie thought that was a beautiful way to describe making love; two people sharing their bodies with each other so that each could derive pleasure from the other. She smiled, wondering if she would ever understand him. He was such a unique combination of gentleness and strength; of raw, potent virility overlaid with smooth sexual expertise and tender restraint. No wonder she'd been confused since the day she met him. She'd never known anyone even remotely like him in her entire life!
At the edge of the village square Garcia pulled over and stopped. "I thought you might prefer to walk," Ramon explained, helping Katie to alight. "Garcia will deliver your things to Gabriella's house, then go back to Mayaguez where he lives."
The sun was beginning its descent in a blaze of pink and gold against the blue sky as they strolled across the plaza in the center of which was a stately old Spanish church. "This is where we will be married," Ramon told her. Katie's gaze roamed appreciatively over the church and the small buildings that surrounded it on all four sides, creating the village square. The Spanish influence was evident in the arched doorways and windows, and the black wrought-iron trim on the shops that sold everything from fresh bakery goods to small, intricately carved religious figurines. Flowers bloomed everywhere, hanging from balconies and windows, and in huge urns in front of the shops, adding their vibrant splashes of color to the picturesque little square. Tourists with cameras ambled across the plaza, stopping to peer into shop windows or sit at the little sidewalk cafe, sipping cool rum drinks as they watched the villagers.
Katie glanced at Ramon who was walking beside her with his suit jacket hooked on a thumb over his shoulder. Despite his outwardly casual appearance, Katie could almost feel his anxiety as he waited for her first reaction to his village. "It's beautiful," she said honestly. "Very picturesque and charming."
The sideways look he slanted her was dubious. "But tiny, and not what you expected?"
"Prettier and more convenient than what I expected," Katie argued stubbornly. "It even has a general store. And," she added with a teasing glance, "It has two hotels! I'm very impressed."
Her joking succeeded where her sincere compliments had not. Grinning, he put his arm around her waist and drew her close against his side for a brief, tight hug. "The Casa Grande," he said, nodding toward a quaint, three-story hotel with wrought-iron balconies, "boasts ten guest rooms. The other has only seven, but it has a small dining room and the food used to be good. We will dine there."
The restaurant had five tables, four of which were occupied with tourists who were laughing and talking. Katie and Ramon were given the remaining table. The waiter lit the candle in the center of the red-and-white-checked tablecloth and took their order. Ramon leaned back in his chair and smiled at Katie who was watching him with puzzled eyes. "What are you thinking about?" he asked.
"I was wondering where you lived before now, and what you've been doing. You couldn't have been working at your farm, or you wouldn't need to stay with Rafael."
Ramon answered slowly, almost cautiously. "I have lived near Mayaguez in the past, and until now I have been working for a company that is going out of business."
"Is the company in the farming business?" Katie asked.
Ramon hesitated and then he nodded. "Among other things, it is a canning operation. Instead of going to work for another company, I had already decided when I met you that I would prefer to work on my own farm rather than pay someone else to do work that I could be doing. During the next two weeks, I will still devote some time to the company; the rest I will spend working with the men who will be repairing our house."
Our house. The phrase made Katie's stomach clench. It sounded so strange. So final. Averting her eyes, she played with her glass, slowly turning it in her fingers.
"What frightens you about that, Katie?" he asked after a pause.
"Nothing. I—I was just wondering what I would be doing while you're gone."
"While I am working you can shop for things we will need for our house. Many items you will be able to buy in the villages. Furniture will have to be purchased in San Juan. Gabriella will take you to the shops and act as translator for you where one is needed."
"Furniture?" Katie stared. "Don't you have furniture in your place in Mayaguez?"
"I am going to sell it. It would not be appropriate for the cottage, anyway."
Katie, seeing the way his mouth tightened, assumed that his furniture would be an embarrassment to him, as the cottage had been, and that he didn't feel it was good enough for her. She knew perfectly well Ramon was having her stay with Rafael's daughter because he couldn't afford the expense of putting her in a hotel for three weeks; his explanation about wanting to forestall gossip didn't deceive her in the least. He couldn't afford a hotel, and he certainly couldn't afford a houseful of new furnishings, either. Yet he was going to buy them for her—to please her. Knowing that made her feel acutely uneasy.
What if something happened to convince her she shouldn't marry him after all? How could she possibly face him with an announcement like that, after she let him spend so much of his money trying to give her what he thought she wanted? She felt as if she were caught in a trap, a cage into which she had willingly placed herself, but as the doors began swinging closed on her, panic was setting in. Marriage in all its awes
ome finality suddenly loomed ahead of her, and Katie knew that somehow she had to feel free to leave if she changed her mind at any time during the next weeks.
"I want to pay for part of the furniture," Katie blurted suddenly.
Ramon waited for the man who was serving their meal to leave before replying. "No," he said succinctly.
"But—"
"I would not have suggested we buy it if I could not pay for it."
He meant that to end the discussion once and for all, but Katie was desperate. "That isn't the point!"
"No?" he asked. "Then exactly what is the point?"
"The point is that you're already spending a great deal of money renovating the cottage, and furniture is very expensive."