Felipe kissed her back, and Valentina had the most awful feeling that it might be the last time their lips would meet. The kiss felt sad—heavyalmost—and she wished they could go back to stolen kisses and whispers of the future they were going to have together.
‘Felipe, I need to tell you something,’ she said, hesitantly, not wanting to ruin the moment but knowing, just as he had, that she might have to leave at any time if they were caught.
He stared into her eyes as she held the horse figurine in her hand still, somehow finding strength from it.
‘I don’t think I’m going to like what you have to say,’ he said.
Valentina took a deep, shuddering breath. ‘My father cared very deeply for your family. In fact, he cared for everyone who worked for him, but your father was very special to him. It seems to me that what they had went deeper, that they were good friends more than employer and worker.’
Felipe nodded, and she continued, ‘In his will, my father left specific instructions for what was to happen to his estate. I, for one, was to inherit almost everything, but I wanted you to know that he left provision for your family. Your father was to receive a generous sum of money, along with the choice of whatever horses he would like to keep, and the deeds to the house your family live in were to be transferred to your father, also.’
She watched Felipe’s face and saw the disbelief that passed over his features.
‘He also made provision for every single employee to receive a sum of money.’
‘And you’re telling me this because it’s not going to happen? Even though your father?—’
‘Nothingmy father wanted is going to happen,’ Valentina said, hearing the bitter edge to her voice. ‘My mother already has her own lawyers involved, and they’re threatening to overturn it all. She wants control of everything, and she’s trying to say that he wasn’t of sound mind, that no man in his right mind would give away so much money.’
Felipe took her hand in his. ‘What does this mean for us?’
Tears filled Valentina’s eyes again. ‘She has plans to marry me to a man I’ve never met.’
Felipe’s mouth formed a hard line.
‘I’ve told her I won’t do it, that she cannot force me, but she’s adamant that I don’t have a choice. And she’s also said…’ Valentina’s voice caught in her throat.
‘What? What has she said?’ Felipe asked, his eyes searching her face.
‘She’s said that the only way your father gets to keep his job is if I go along with her wishes. Otherwise she’ll make certain that he never gets another job in Argentina ever again. She said that she’ll ruin your family by any means necessary.’
‘What could she do to ruin us? Who would believe lies and rumours?’
‘Felipe, if she inherits everything, then she will be one of the largest landowners in the country. My father took great pains to ensure his wealth never changed who he was, but my mother is different.’ She took a breath. ‘My mother scares me with her ambitions.’
‘Then you need to fight for what’s yours,’ he said.
Valentina shook her head. ‘I can’t, not until I’m eighteen. Until then, there’s nothing I can do.’
They sat in silence, and she shivered despite the blanket, her skin still damp from the rain.
‘If I asked you to leave with me now, to run away and marry me, to never come back here, would you come?’ Felipe asked.
Valentina’s smile was immediate. ‘Without a moment’s hesitation,’ she said. ‘If it was just you and me, I’d tell you that we should run right now, leave before the sun comes up in the morning.’
‘But?’ he whispered.
‘But I don’t think you’d ever forgive me,’ she whispered back. ‘You would miss your family, and I would be the reason you could never go home. It would be my fault that they’d lose everything.’
They sat a while longer, with Valentina leaning into him as Felipe’s arms wrapped around her once more, his breath warm against her cheek.
‘This can’t be the end, Valentina,’ he murmured. ‘I can’t stand by and watch you marry someone else, but I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.’
‘Then wait for me,’ she said, sitting back and cupping his cheeks in her hands. ‘Just promise that you’ll wait for me.’
‘I can do that. I’ll wait for you forever if I have to.’
‘I promise you that I’ll find a way to have my father’s will reinstated, and when I do, I’ll return for you,’ she told him, taking his hands in hers and whispering kisses across his knuckles. ‘Nothing can keep us apart, and I’ll resist this arranged marriage with every fibre in my body.’
