Jessica ignored her. 'Come, Lisa, I'll take you upstairs,' she said softly, hating the hurt pain in the little girl's eyes. She had just seen her god topple from his plinth, Jessica suspected, still unable to understand why Sebastian had spoken so harshly.
Dinner was always a formal occasion in the Calvadores household, but it had never been as silently tense as it was tonight, Jessica thought to herself as she refused any caramel pudding in favour of a cup of coffee.
'Senor Alvarez and Luisa arrive tomorrow, will you collect them from the airport?'
'I have some work to complete on the designs,' Sebastian said curtly. He had hardly spoken to any of them during the meal, and Jessica thought she might be wrong, but there was a controlled tension about him she had never noticed before. Was it because of their marriage? Was he, like her, wishing it had never taken place?
'I could go,' Jorge offered. 'I could take Jessica and Lisa with me.'
'I think not,' Sebastian cut in coldly. 'The car will be cramped with five of you, and besides, it is time that Lisa learned that good manners are something that cannot be discarded simply at whim. She will remain indoors tomorrow as a reminder.'
'Does that apply to me too?' Jessica demanded, temper flags flying in her cheeks. 'Am I to be "sent to my room", for forgetting Pilar's invitation?'
Sebastian's mouth compressed into a thin hard line. 'Lisa is at an age where her nature can still be moulded and formed. Regrettably, you are not. Now, if you will excuse me, I have work to do.'
'Phew!' Jorge grimaced when he had gone. 'He has a black monkey riding on his back tonight, hasn't he? Have you two had a quarrel?'
Quarrel! Jessica suppressed hysterical laughter. To have a quarrel they would need to talk, to share an emotion. They weren't close enough to quarrel.
'Sebastian is tired,' Tia Sofia palliated. 'He has been working too hard. I have warned him before…'
'I didn't know Pilar intended to visit me,' Jessica explained to his aunt, not wanting her too to,think she had been remiss.
'Pilar tends to be a little possessive towards Sebastian,' Sofia said gently, 'and sometimes that prompts her into actions of impulse. I'm sure she did not mean to cause any friction between you.'
Jessica said nothing. She was pretty sure that was exactly what Pilar had wanted to do, but she had no intention to saying so to the others.
'Has Sebastian said anything to you about Barbara?' Jorge asked her half an hour later as they wandered through the courtyard.
'Nothing,' Jessica told him, without adding that it was hardly likely that he would do so.
'He is annoyed with me, I am afraid, but I cannot marry a girl I do not love.'
It was a sentiment Jessica wholly appreciated. 'Of course not,' she agreed sympathetically.
The courtyard was illuminated by a full moon, bathing everything in soft silver light. The air was warm, almost too warm, and curiously still.
'We could be in for a storm,' Jorge commented as they headed back to the house. 'We need rain badly. It has been a very dry spring.' His sleeve brushed against Jessica's bare arm and he stopped her suddenly, his hand on her shoulder as he turned her towards him.
'You are so very different from your cousin,' he said softly. 'She is a taker from others, while you are a giver, but be careful you don't give my brother too much. He has a devil riding him that cannot be exorcised. He has been this way since Manuela died.'
What was he trying to tell her? That Sebastian still loved Manuela? Tears stung her eyes and she lowered her head, taking momentary comfort from Jorge's presence before turning to return to the house.
As always, she felt a reluctance to go upstairs. Sebastian was never there. He always worked late—avoiding the awful moment when he must join her, Jessica thought bitterly. If she had hoped that somehow the fact of her virginity might incline him towards her she had been bitterly disappointed. And the mutual desire he had spoken of so freely before they were married might never have existed. Jessica didn't know what was responsible for the change in him—but she hated the long, empty nights when she lay sleepless at his side, knowing she had only to stretch out her hand to touch him, and knowing it was the one thing she must never do. And humiliatingly she still wanted to touch him; it was there like an alien growth inside her, t
his need to touch and know. She couldn't forget his final cruel words to her on the night of their wedding, and there was still an unappeased ache within her that throbbed like an exposed nerve whenever she thought about how it had felt to be in his arms.
She opened the bedroom door, stiffening with shock as she saw the moonlit figure by the patio door.
'So you have returned.' Sebastian's voice was flat and unemotional. 'I thought after what I just witnessed that you might have decided to spend the night with my brother.'
For a moment Jessica stared uncomprehendingly at him, and then enlightenment dawned.
'Jorge and I were simply talking,' she protested, silenced by the harsh sound of his laughter.
'The way you had been simply talking this afternoon, I suppose,' he said savagely.
It was useless to tell him that she had simply met Jorge on the way back from her outing with Lisa, but at the thought of the little girl, she remembered the tear-stained face and trembling mouth when she had gone in to say goodnight to her, and read her the story they were both enjoying.