Ramón snorted. “Of course it was. That’s why I sold it.”
“Selling good grapes for a little money and a few cases of bad wine is poor business,” she said briskly.
Ramón bristled and leaned forward. “You think so, eh?”
“I do. You’d be better off continuing to make a smaller quantity of wine here and keeping the Valle Verde label, which you will know from your sale of the old vintages has a reputation and is worth something. It would also maintain the wine-making expertise on the estate. Once old Luis—my father’s winemaker—dies, his knowledge and skill will go with him, and he is nearly seventy. When I left, he’d begun to train his grandson, but I noticed today you had Manuel mucking out the stables.”
“The main income of Valle Verde now comes from the horses.”
“Yes, but putting Manuel to work with horses is another false economy. Anyone can muck out stables, but Manuel, he has the ‘nose’ for wine.” Ramón looked blank, so she added, “A winemaker’s ‘nose’ is a talent you are born with. It cannot be taught. Manuel is completely wasted on horses.” So much for not discussing business with an empty-headed woman, she thought, seeing Ramón’s stunned expression.
“How do you know all this?”
Bella shrugged. “My father taught me. He knew Felipe had no interest in estate management.”
Ramón glowered as he shoveled food in his mouth. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “You should never have married that damned Englishman. With your fortune and that knowledge you would have made me a very useful wife.”
“She will make me an even more useful wife,” Luke interposed silkily across the table.
Ramón grunted. “Careful, Englishman. I can still make her a widow.”
Perlita spoke for the first time. “Ramón.”
He glanced at her, frowning. She met his gaze steadily and fingered the pearls at her neck, and after a moment he looked away, his color slightly heightened.
In his eyes Bella saw a fleeting glance of… was it shame? Surely not. She recalled what Perlita had said about the other side of her lover.
Didn’t stop him being a thief.
In a different tone, Ramón said to Bella, “You are not the simpleton I thought you were, cousin, so what will you do now you know your husband has made no provision for you in his will?”
“Keep him very healthy,” she said without hesitation.
Ramón gave a snort of laughter. “Almost I could envy you, Englishman.” And he glanced at Perlita and his gaze warmed. “Almost.”
For the rest of the evening he engaged Luke in conversation, firing questions at him about crops and livestock and estate management in England. Luke answered with assurance and intelligence, Bella noted. He would not need her skills or knowledge.
Bella and Perlita, on opposite sides of the table, couldn’t speak of anything they did not want Ramón to hear, so except when Luke addressed them in conversation, they spent most of the night in silence.
“So theyareyour mother’s pearls?” Luke exclaimed after supper when they were alone in their bedchamber again. “I thought at first they were, but when you didn’t react…”
“Yes, they’re unmistakable. If I wanted to prove it, I could. The biggest pearl has a tiny mark on it where I bit it when I was a child.”
“Then, dammit, I’m going to get them back for you.” Luke strode toward the door.
“No!” Bella flew across the room to stop him. “Leave it, Luke.”
He frowned. “But they’re all you have of your mother.”
She shook her head. “No, my mother is here.” She touched her heart, then sighed. “Besides, I left the pearls behind eight years ago, knowing Papa was mortally wounded and Ramón was to be the new owner of the estate. I didn’t think. It’s my own fault I lost them.”
“You were thirteen,” Luke growled. “With too damn much to think about as it was. And I don’t like it that that little bitch sat there smugly wearing them to taunt you.” He clenched his fists. “I’ve a good mind to—”
“No, no, please.” She grabbed his arm. “I couldn’t bear it if you and Ramón fought. Besides, Perlita wasn’t being smug or taunting me.”
He grunted. “Why else would she have worn them? If she hadn’t, we’d have been none the wiser.”
“It wasn’t her choice to wear them; it was Ramón’s. She knew nothing about them until tonight, I’m certain. She must have asked him about them after I asked her, and then he made her wear them. She wasn’t at all happy about it, I could see.” She removed the silk shawl and folded it carefully.
