‘What’s in New York?’
‘My best friend.’
‘Can you go to New York another time? I know you’ll enjoy it if you give it a chance.’
Rose hesitated. Jessica would understand; so long as she went there to visit eventually, she doubted that it would matter to her at all, but the thought of extending her stay in Argentina unsettled her. None of it felt real still, almost as if she hadn’t yet woken from a dream, and as nice as Benjamin was, she felt as if she were intruding on his world rather than being part of it.
‘You might find that polo is in your blood, after all, and if you don’t spend time here, you might never know,’ Benjamin said, his eyes seeming to twinkle as he watched her. ‘What do you say? Will you stay, Rose?’
Something ignited inside Rose then, a swirl in her stomach that spiralled through her body as she stood before Benjamin.
‘You truly think I’ll love it?’ she asked.
He grinned, and it was contagious. ‘I don’t think so, Rose, Iknowyou will. Once you’ve spent a week in Argentina?’ he raised his eyebrows as he leaned closer. ‘You’re never going to want to go home.’
Rose swallowed what felt like a hard lump in her throat, having a feeling that he might be absolutely right. Because right now, as she looked out at the sprawling fields around her, she could very much see herself staying in Argentina forever.
12
ARGENTINE OPEN POLO CHAMPIONSHIP, BUENOS AIRES, 1938
‘How are you feeling about the game this weekend?’ Valentina asked her father as they strolled past the stables.
He reached for her hand, holding it in his for a moment as he smiled across at her. She wasn’t a little girl anymore, but she still loved to hold her father’s hand, to bask in his attention like this when it was just the two of them.
‘I’m feeling good. Polo is what I live for.’ He laughed. ‘Other than you and your mother, of course.’
Only the day before, she’d visited the olive grove with him, and today he’d asked her to meet him after her lessons, which made her think there was something he wanted to tell her. It turned out that she wasn’t wrong.
‘Valentina, you asked me some time ago about Spain,’ he said. ‘It was one of the hardest decisions of my life to move here, to leave behind my country and start somewhere afresh, but I did it to prove myself. I wanted to move away from my family and show that I was a self-made man, and Argentina was a country I’d always loved. I’d played polo here before and I had a feeling it was the right place for me to make my mark.’
She nodded, listening carefully to him.
‘My heart is divided these days, though. I am Spanish but I’m also an Argentine now, just as you are. But no matter how much I fall in love with Argentina, we must remember our Spanish heritage, always.’
It was Valentina reaching for his hand then, and he clasped it back, drawing her in close so she could lean her head into him. She was tall now, taller than her mother, but she doubted she would ever reach her father’s height.
‘Promise me that you’ll always take care of this property, Valentina. Your mother doesn’t have the connection to the land that you and I do, which is why it’s up to you to ensure it’s never sold,’ her father said. ‘One day, you will raise your own children here, and you must never let anyone take your birthright from you. This is to be Santiago land forever.’
Valentina squeezed his hand. ‘I won’t ever leave here, Papa. I promise.’
He lifted her hand and placed a kiss to it. ‘My beautiful girl, what would I ever do without you?’
It wasn’t often her father became emotional, but Valentina saw tears shining in his eyes then, and as they kept walking, she had the strangest feeling that something was wrong, that he was keeping something from her.
‘Papa, is anything troubling you? Is there a reason you wanted to walk with me today?’
‘Does a father need a reason to spend time with his daughter?’
‘No, Papa, of course not.’
Valentina dropped her head so that it fell against his shoulder. She only wished they could spend more time together like this, just the two of them. They were the moments she loved the most, more than anything, and she cherished every single one of them.
Valentina had always loved attending the polo and watching her father play, but today she had more reason than usual to be excited. Her father was playing, but so was Felipe’s father, which meant that Felipe was there as his groom, preparing all the ponies and even riding them to warm them up before the game. She was currently watching him cantering back and forth on one horse at the same time as leading another, and despite his young age, he made it all look effortless. Valentina’s father had said he was a natural horseman, and she could see that he hadn’t been exaggerating. It wouldn’t be long before he was the one playing.
In the beginning, she hadn’t been able to understand why her father had brought a stable manager all the way from Spain instead of finding someone already in Argentina, but she could see now that they were friends more than anything. It was impossible to miss the easy manner they had with each other, and clearly Felipe’s father was well respected by the other players. Only last week, she’d heard that it was he who’d helped them win a tournament, which had of course made her father all the more fond of him.
When it was almost time for the match to begin, Valentina watched as Felipe swung around, going to tend to the horses waiting on the sidelines for their turn. She found it fascinating how often the players switched horses throughout a game, and how excited the horses seemed when it was their turn. She was still very much looking forward to her father taking her to watch a women’s game one day—she could barely believe it was true that women’s games even existed—to see young ladies swinging mallets and showing off their skills, and if it was as exciting and fast-paced as watching the men.
