A Price Worth Paying(47)

‘Alesander told me. One of your ancestors—your grandfather, was it?—he ran off and married the bride meant for an Esquivel groom.’

The old man nodded. ‘Ah, sí, he did.’ He laughed then, a cackle of delight, before his face grew serious again. ‘But did he tell you what happened afterwards?’

‘Only that it has resulted in a century of simmering rivalry and a cause of resentment between the two families ever since.’

‘And the rest? Did he tell you the rest?’

She reeled back through her memories of her conversation with Alesander. ‘No, I don’t seem to recall anything else.’

He nodded. ‘Ah, he didn’t tell you, then—probably for the best. Anyway, it doesn’t matter now.’

‘What is it, Abuelo?’ she asked, the skin at the back of her neck crawling. ‘What doesn’t matter now?’

‘Only that when it was too late—when he discovered his bride was married to another, Xalbeder Esquivel vowed revenge and that the Esquivel family would drive the Otxoas from their land once and for all. That has always been their goal. That is why we have had to fight them ever since.’

Felipe peered at her, his watery eyes glistening, his crooked mouth smiling in a way she had never seen before. ‘Don’t you see what you have achieved by your marriage to Alesander? The curse is lifted. The Esquivels can never drive us from our land because the Otxoas will be ones with this estate for ever. I am so proud of you, mi nieta, so very proud.’

She let him pull her to him and hug her, feeling wiry arms around her, feeling bony shoulder blades stripped of flesh through his thick shirt, feeling the earth fall beneath her feet. If he only knew what she had done.

Oh God, what had she done?

By her own hand she had signed away the Otxoas’ last links to this land. And she hadn’t just let it happen—she had made it happen. ‘Please don’t be proud, Abuelo,’ she pleaded, feeling sick. ‘I don’t deserve it.’

‘Bah.’ He waved her objections away with a sweep of one gnarled wrist. ‘You have made an old man with no hope very happy. I am only sorry I did not trust Alesander at first. I thought he was only interested in the land. But he loves you, I can tell. And the way you look at him, with such love in your eyes …’

‘Abuelo …’ she chided with tears in her eyes, trying to gently cut him off. She could not bear to hear more, least of all to hear him talk of a love that had no place in her marriage. ‘Please don’t.’

But Felipe was equally determined to finish. ‘Please, hear me out. There is not much time left to me now, and it is selfish of me to hope for anything beyond a death that lets me slip away quietly in my sleep and rejoin my Maria, that should be all I wish. Yet still I wish for more. I wish with all my heart that there might be news of a child before I go.’

‘You’re not going anywhere, Abuelo!’ she cried, holding his knotted fingers in hers, knowing that his wishes were for nothing, knowing there could never be a child.

‘You will tell me,’ he insisted, ‘if there is news. Promise me you will tell me and put a smile on an old man’s face before he dies.’

‘I will tell you,’ she said as the tears streamed down her face, ‘I promise.’

‘Don’t cry for me,’ he said, misinterpreting her tears. ‘I am not worth crying over. I did not mean to make you sad.’

‘I’m sorry,’ she told him, with one final brief, desperate hug, ‘I am so very sorry.’ And she fled from the cottage in tears.

What had she done?

She ran on and on through the vineyard, her emotions in turmoil, oblivious to the magnificent view and uncaring of the vines snatching on her hair and tugging at her clothes, totally gutted at what she had done.

She’d lied to her grandfather. Yes, to make his last days happy, it was true, but what consolation was that when she’d lost him everything he’d ever held precious in the process? The last of his vines and she’d as good as given them away.

And she’d piled lie upon lie upon lie until he believed so much in this fiction she’d created, that he was building an entire future based on this perfect marriage.

This perfect lie.

And he’d told her he was proud of her and he’d thanked her for saving the family, for breaking a vow of revenge and a curse on them for generations.

When she was the curse.

She’d betrayed Felipe and his trust in her. Betrayed his love for his only remaining relative, the only person he could put his faith and hope for the future in.