'I'm going to show you my secret place,' Lisa told her importantly. 'No one knows about it but us… And Tio Sebastian.'
Lisa took her hand and led her towards the stable block. Her pony whinnied as they walked past, and they stopped to stroke his nose and feed him carrots from the bucket by the door.
'A long time ago this was where they made the wine,' Lisa told her importantly, opening a door into what Jessica had thought must be part of the converted garages, but which in fact she realised was a store place of some description. There was an old-fashioned wine press which she recognised from pictures, several large vats and some decaying barrels. 'It's down here, come on!'
Urged on by Lisa, she followed her to a cobwebby corner of the building, startled when Lisa motioned to another door. Jessica opened it, almost overbalancing on the steep flight of steps leading down from the door. As she glanced down the narrow, dark steps she felt a shuddering reluctance to descend them. She had always loathed the thought of being underground, but Lisa displayed no such qualms.
'It's fun, isn't it?' she demanded, leading the way with an agility that suggested she knew every step by heart. Jessica had to duck quickly to avoid the low roof as the steps suddenly turned and then levelled out.
They were in a rectangular room, illuminated by one single bare bulb suspended from a wire which ran the length of the ceiling. The ceiling itself was arched and composed of crumbling bricks. Moisture streamed off the walls, and the air felt cold and damp. Lisa, completely oblivious to Jessica's dislike of her treasured hidey-hole, beamed up at her with evident pleasure.
'No one ever comes down here now,' she told her. 'They used to store the barrels here a long time ago.'
She was going to have a word with Sebastian about allowing Lisa to wander so freely somewhere so potentially dangerous, Jessica decided when the top of the stairs was gained and they had switched off the light. It made her blood run cold just thinking what might happen to her alone down there. For one thing, the ceiling hadn't looked too safe; there had been deep fissures in some of the bricks.
They were on the way back to the house when Jorge suddenly caught up with them. He had been out riding and his hair was tousled from the exercise. He was an attractive boy, Jessica reflected, smiling warmly at him, but he was not Sebastian.
'Tio Jorge, Tio Jorge, put me down!' Lisa squealed, laughing as he swung her up in his arms and whirled her round and round.
'Not until you gave me a kiss,' he threatened teasingly.
Obligingly she did so, while Jessica laughed. 'So that's the secret of your great charm, is it?' she mocked. 'Kisses by threats!'
'Be careful I don't do the same thing to you,' Jorge told her mock-threateningly, while Lisa announced earnestly, 'You can't kiss Jessica, Jorge, because she's married to Tio Sebastian!'
'Out of the mouths of babes,' Jorge drawled,
sliding Jessica a sideways dancing glance. 'Not that I wouldn't like to try. My brother is a very lucky man.'
They were still laughing when they reached the courtyard, Lisa in the crook of one of Jorge's arms, while the other rested lightly on the back of Jessica's waist in a gesture more protective than provocative.
But the laughter drained out of Jessica's face when she saw Sebastian's grimly angry face. He was sitting on the terrace with his aunt and Pilar, and all at once Jessica felt acutely aware of her untidy appearance, cobwebs no doubt clinging to her dress and hair, Jorge's arm on her waist.
'Jessica, had you forgotten Pilar was coming to see you this afternoon?'
Jessica shot a surprised glance at the Spanish woman's perfectly made up and bland face. As far as she knew they had made no such arrangements, nor was there any reason why they should do so. She didn't like Pilar and she knew the feeling was reciprocated. For one thing, she disliked the way Pilar treated Lisa, who was, after all, her sister's child.
To save any argument she apologised lightly, and was about to excuse herself to run upstairs and tidy up, when Pilar astounded her by saying, 'That is perfectly all right, Jessica. I quite understand. When one has an attractive man as an escort one tends to overlook engagements with one's woman friends.'
Sebastian looked thunderously angry, and Jessica bit her lip. Surely he didn't think she had deliberately ignored an engagement with Pilar? And Jorge—why was he looking at his brother in that evasive fashion, not explaining that they had simply met at the stables and walked back together?
Lisa, sensing the tension in the atmosphere, reached imploring for Sebastian's hand, her voice uncertain, her small face anxiously puckered. She was stretching on tiptoe and suddenly she over balanced, clutching the nearest thing to her for support, which happened to be Pilar's arm. The glass of fino Pilar was holding in her hand spilled down on to the cream silk dress she was wearing, and with a cry of rage she rounded on Lisa, taking her by the shoulders and shaking her furiously.
'This is too much, querido!' she complained to Sebastian. 'The child is uncontrollable and clumsy. I have told you before, she should be sent to a convent and taught how to conduct herself… What may be suitable behaviour in an English household does not commend itself to our people. Perhaps you should explain that to your wife, for it is obvious that she has been encouraging Lisa to run wild. Clumsy girl!' she told Lisa, now pale and trembling, her dark brown eyes huge in her small face. 'When I was a child, I would have been whipped and sent to my room for the rest of the day for such unmannerly behaviour!'
Jessica longed to intervene. Her blood boiled in answering fury. How could Pilar terrorise Lisa so? It had been an accident; admittedly it was unfortunate that the sherry should have been spilled, but Jessica doubted that the cream silk was the only dress in Pilar's wardrobe, or that she couldn't replace it quite easily.
'Perhaps you are right, querida,' she heard Sebastian saying evenly. 'Lisa, you will apologise to your aunt, and then I think you will go to your room…'
'It is probably more Jessica's fault than Lisa's,' Pilar added maliciously. 'Have you seen how grubby the child is? She is probably overexcited.'
'My wife does seem to have that effect on some people,' Sebastian agreed coldly. 'Lisa,' he commanded, looking at the little girl, 'I have told you once to go to your room, I will not do so again!'
Jessica saw his aunt check a response, her expression unhappy, and all her own indignation boiled over.
'It was an accident,' she interrupted hotly. 'Poor Lisa is no more to blame than… anyone else. Sebastian, I…'
'Be careful, Jessica,' Pilar mocked. 'Sebastian does not like to have his decisions queried, do you, querido?'