The black invader Read Free Page A

promised Don Jose I'd have a word with you and you're going to Hsten to me even if I have to hold you forcibly while I talk!'
    'You '
    'Listen, damn you!' He shook her hard, glaring relentlessly into her flushed and angry face, but his words penetrated simply because of their sheer unexpectedness. 'You took secretarial training in your last two years at school, I understand?' Kirstie nodded automatically. 'Don Jose claims you were very good, and by coincidence my uncle is in need of a secretary. Whether or not the two needs can be satisfied at one stroke depends very much on you, Senorita Rodriguez. Your Spanish is almost faultless, and providing you come up to standard in other respects and can learn to control that childish resentment, I see no reason why you shouldn't be suitable.'
    The look in her eyes betrayed how stunned she was, and Kirstie tried desperately to get things into perspective. 'But I don't know ' she began. ,
    'You would be working at the Casa de Rodriguez,' he went on. 'I imagine that would be an added attraction.'
    Surprise followed surprise and Kirstie stared at him. 'At the house?'
    He nodded, but she was unaware of a certain look in his eyes that recognised the first sign of weakening. 'If you're interested and can stop behaving like a spoiled child, come and see my uncle this afternoon for an interview.'

    'I—I don't think I've ever seen him.'
    It had only just occurred to her that as members of the same family, he and his uncle could be expected to share some family characteristics, and Miguel Montaiies was not the kind of employer she had in mind when she spoke of taking a job. Evidently something of the sort had crossed his mind too, for a faint smile touched his mouth for just a moment.
    *If you're concerned in case my uncle is anything like me, or I am like him,' he told her, 'you have no need to worry.' Kirstie hastily dropped her eyes, uneasy at being so accurately read. 'You really do dislike me, don't you, Senorita Rodriguez?'
    Kirstie shifted her uneasy gaze about the landscape of trees and rice-fields and little white barracas, and wished he wouldn't watch her so intently. 'I don't see that you can blame me for that,' she said.
    'But I do!'
    The violence of his response startled her so that she turned her head involuntarily to look at him. He had a strong, almost harsh profile and he carried his head with the pride of a Moorish lord from whom, according to her grandfather, he was descended. Everything about him suggested power, and not least the hawkish features, tanned and weathered by the sun, and the almost black, thick-fringed eyes that watched her so steadily.
    His proximity was oddly affecting, and it was the reason she apologised v/ithout really knowing why she did it, and in a strangely breathless voice. 'I'm sorry.'
    When he raised a hand just briefly to run it through his hair, his arm brushed hers and sent unexpected shivers through her, and his anger seemed suddenly to have cooled with her apology. 'I'd like to believe that,' he said quietly. 'Shall I make an appointment for you to see my uncle this afternoon?' Kirstie nodded, taken aback to realise it was to be so soon. 'Will about three-thirty suit you?'
    Again she nodded, bringing herself hastily back to earth when she realised that something a little more de-

    finite was required of her. *Yes, that will be fine, thank you.' She moistened her lips anxiously. 'Shall I come to the house?'
    'Naturally.' She gasped when a long finger sHd beneath her chin and raised her face so that he looked directly down into it. 'You won't mind too much?' he asked, and softness edged his voice and showed in his eyes, as if he knew exactly how she would feel going back.
    'I'll mind,' she whispered, 'but I'll come.'
    'Good!'
    Again Kirstie turned to loose the mare's rein, but again she was prevented from achieving it by a hand on her arm. This time, however, it was a much less forceful touch and when she turned towards him she did so quite