‘Ahh, no, not really. This was an unexpected trip, so I didn’t have long to plan.’
He ran around and got into the driver’s seat, starting the car and pulling out into the slow-moving traffic. ‘Everything you read will tell you that it’s dangerous here, but it’s not. The only thing that’s true in the tourist guides is when they say we’re the Paris of South America.’
She smiled as she looked out of the window. ‘I hadn’t heard that one.’The Paris of South America. It had a nice ring to it, and she hoped it was true.
‘Are you taking me directly to the office?’ she asked.
‘No, I’ve been asked to take you to the Santiago estate,’ he said. ‘It’s a forty-five-minute drive from the city.’
Rose startled. ‘I had arranged to meet the lawyer at his office,’ she said. ‘I think it’s best if you just take me there. Please give me a moment to find the address.’
‘No,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘I work for Mr Gonzalez, and he told me that his instructions had changed. He will be waiting for you at the property.’
Rose took her phone from her bag, feeling a little uncomfortable and wondering whether she’d been naive in getting into a car with a driver just because he knew her name. She was in a foreign country heading out of Buenos Aires, to meet someone she didn’t know, in a car with a total stranger. She closed her eyes and tried to clear her head, but opened them when her phone vibrated in her hand, telling her she had a message.
Hey! Safely at home. Hope you’ve landed. Text me xx
Rose quickly typed a message back to Jessica, before sitting up a little straighter and deciding to watch the scenery as it whizzed past, to at least get a feeling for where she was if anything did happen. But she knew what Jessica would tell her if she was there: don’t overthink everything, just have your wits about you and don’t panic.
Which was precisely what she was doing when she found the address to the Santiago property and entered it into Google Maps so she could check they were going where her driver said they were. She had no reason not to trust him, he’d been perfectly polite to her after all, but she also had no reason to trust him, either.
Just over forty minutes later, and with her phone back in her bag after she’d realised that he was most definitely taking her directly to the Santiago estate, Rose had to stop her jaw from falling open. They were entering a long driveway that was flanked by fields on each side, and she admired the endless trees and the wooden railings that seemed to go on for miles. Up ahead, she could see a large Spanish-style house with a terracotta roof, familiar to her from the photos she’d seen online, and farther out to the right there was a set of low-slung buildings that were harder to make out.
Her door was opened almost immediately when the car stopped, and the man who’d opened it took a step back, waiting for her to get out. When she did, he held out his hand and gave her a wide smile.
‘SeñoritaRose,’ he said, gently shaking her hand and placing his other hand over it, as if he was already familiar with her. ‘It’s such a pleasure to finally meet you. We spoke on the phone. I am Luis Gonzalez.’
She nodded, put immediately at ease by his warm manner. ‘It’s very nice to meet you, too.’ Rose wasn’t sure why he’d saidfinallywhen they hadn’t even been in communication with each other for longer than a week, but he seemed even more friendly than he had been on the phone.
‘Welcome to the Santiago estate,’ he said, holding his arm wide and gesturing around. ‘I am honoured to be the one to show the property to you for the first time. It’s one of the largest private estates in Buenos Aires, and one of the largest polo farms in all of Argentina. It was once home to more than a hundred and fifty polo ponies.’
Rose felt as if she were about to wilt under the sun, and yet the lawyer didn’t have so much as a bead of sweat on his forehead, despite wearing a suit. She gently dabbed her upper lip with her finger. Her tourist guide had said springtime wouldn’tbe too hot, but compared to London it was positively tropical and she wasn’t used to it.
The lawyer seemed unworried by her silence, or if he was, he was excellent at hiding it.
‘Rose, your great-grandmother was represented by my law firm for over seventy years,’ he continued. ‘First by my grandfather, then my father and then me. So you see, it was very important to me to fulfil her wishes upon her death, especially when these documents had been filed so many decades ago in preparation for this day. They were sealed and held in my office until her passing.’
‘I just, well, this all seems like a dream to me,’ Rose said, turning and looking around, taking in the surroundings, seeing horses grazing in a nearby field. ‘I’m finding it very hard to believe that I have a connection to this land—to any of the things you’ve told me, if I’m honest. It has certainly all come as a complete surprise.’
He smiled as if he understood, but she was certain that he didn’t. He couldn’t possibly understand how she felt after the upheaval she’d experienced over the past year.
‘Your great-grandmother was a very private woman,’ he said. ‘She was fiercely independent, and she knew her mind right up until the end. There is no disputing that your grandmother was the rightful heiress to this estate, then your mother, and now you.SeñoraSantiago had watched your grandmother from afar for many years, and it was always her intention to leave everything to her when she passed away. It’s only sad that you never had the chance to meet her.’
Rose followed him as he began to walk, trying to process what he was telling her. She could barely imagine that this woman, the owner of the beautiful property she was standing on, had been watching her family from afar as he’d described. With such resources at her disposal, why hadn’t she come forward andtried to make contact with them? Or perhaps the question was,howhad she not come forward? Rose didn’t have children of her own, but she couldn’t conceive of staying hidden from her own biological child for all those years, if she’d known where she was.
‘There are no other relatives who will lay claim to the estate?’ Rose found herself asking. ‘No one else who might be expecting to inherit the Santiago property?’
Luis shrugged. ‘If there are, we will represent you and make sure they go away. Our client was very firm in her instructions, and she was of sound mind when we drew up her will. You, your mother or your grandmother were to inherit it all, with smaller provisions made for her staff and friends.’
Rose stopped when they rounded a corner and came to the other side of the house. There was an expansive paved courtyard with an enormous wooden table set below an overgrown pergola, with ten chairs placed around it, and a large swimming pool that made her want to dive in. She could already visualise the long summer lunches and relaxed afternoons that it must have played host to, and it made her yearn to have her mother or grandmother with her, so they were seeing it, too. Even the way a green vine with tiny white flowers crept over the pergola was magical.
‘This property has been in the Santiago family for well over a hundred years,’ he said, his voice soft now as he came to stand beside her. ‘And whether you want to be or not,youare a Santiago, too. The blood of this family, of this land, runs in your veins, and I believe that after spending time here, you will feel the connection. It’s what Valentina would have wanted, for you to belong here.’
When Rose turned and met his gaze, she could see that he meant every word, that it wasn’t simply a rehearsed speech said to make her feel better.
‘Unfortunately, I know nothing about Argentina or horses or polo…’ Rose began, her voice trailing off as she tried but failed to explain how out of her depth she felt.
But the lawyer only grinned. ‘You have heard of Nacho Figueras, yes?’ he asked.
