A Touch of Notoriety(34)

Raphael had no doubts that her need not to share those emotions with him was because Beth considered him to be another one of the people conspiring to prove that was exactly who she was.

And she would be right...

* * *

Rodney was once again waiting for them in the cavernous hallway of Cesar’s mansion house when they arrived back at the estate half an hour or so later. One look at the bland expression on Rodney’s face as he gave Raphael a brief nod in answer to his silently enquiring glance was enough to set all of Beth’s alarm bells ringing.

‘What’s happened?’ she prompted warily.

Rodney looked at her blankly. ‘“Happened”, Miss Navarro?’

The ‘Miss Navarro’ just made those alarm bells jangle all the louder.

‘Happened,’ she echoed grimly. ‘And don’t try and tell me that nothing has,’ she warned as the security man opened his mouth to reply, ‘because I won’t believe you. Either of you,’ she added with a pointed glance at Raphael.

Raphael’s expression remained coolly aloof. ‘I am sure, after your hard day at work, that you must now wish to freshen up and change before dinner.’

Beth set her feet more firmly on the tiled hallway. ‘Not until I know what’s going on.’

Raphael’s mouth tightened with impatience at the look of stubbornness on Beth’s face as she looked up at him challengingly. ‘You will be informed of what is going on after I have spoken to Rodney. Alone,’ he added tightly as Beth’s expression now set in mutinous lines.

She gave a slow and stiff shake of her head. ‘That isn’t good enough.’

‘Nevertheless—’

‘Raphael, unless I’m mistaken, it’s my life, and my future, the two of you are going to be discussing!’ Her brown eyes flashed darkly with anger.

Yes, it was, and Raphael had no doubts, having come to know Beth much better these last few days, that her present anger was a shield to those other, bewildered and frightened emotions she kept locked inside her, rather than anger itself.

His expression gentled slightly. ‘And if I were to promise to inform you immediately, if what Rodney is about to report is of relevance to you?’ Raphael winced slightly as he sensed, rather than saw, the way Rodney stiffened.

Implying the investigations the other man had carried out today, under Raphael’s instruction, were indeed significant...

Beth was still eyeing the two of them with suspicion. ‘I have your word on that?’

Raphael nodded stiffly. ‘I have just said so.’

She drew in a deep and shaky breath. ‘Okay.’ She nodded tersely. ‘You know where my bedroom is,’ she added with a return of her usual derisive humour, before sending him a mocking smile and moving lithely up the wide staircase.

Raphael ignored the jibe as he waited until Beth had disappeared down one of the hallways at the top of the stairs before turning back to the other man. ‘I take it that your visit to the parish of Stopley in Surrey proved fruitful?’

‘Oh, yes.’ Rodney’s stiff smile of confirmation was more of a humourless grimace.

A grimness echoed in Raphael’s own mood as the two men retired to the privacy of Cesar’s study for the rest of their discussion.

A discussion Raphael had no doubts he would shortly be relating to Beth.

* * *

Waiting to see if Raphael would come up to her bedroom was a little like being in a dentist’s waiting room—and just as painful. That Rodney had something of import to relate to Raphael, she had no doubts. Something of import to her...

In an effort to keep herself busy Beth finished unpacking the last of her clothes from her suitcase, putting them on hangers before placing them in the wardrobe, and then going through to the adjoining bathroom to take a shower and changing out of the business suit and blouse she had worn to work.

None of which helped to settle the fluttering sensation in her chest and the butterflies in her stomach. At this rate, all this suspense and tension were going to give her a heart attack, and then it wouldn’t matter to anyone who she was: Beth Blake or Gabriela Navarro.

And no doubt, despite all of her denials, she was going to find out the answer to that soon enough...

Even so, Beth was slightly taken aback to leave the steam-filled bathroom, wearing only a towel wrapped about her, to find Raphael waiting for her in her bedroom!

His back was turned towards her as he stood outlined in front of one of the two windows, staring out into the wooded grounds at the rear of the house. Those same woods where Beth knew Grace had jokingly suggested Cesar might like to have her buried after one of her sister’s more outspoken exchanges with him!