to look for his beastly wine?’
‘Really, Gina!’ her grandfather protested. ‘What on earth has come over you? I sincerely hope that I can rely on you to treat Don Antonio with every courtesy?’
‘Yes…yes, of course. I’m sorry,’ she mumbled helplessly, feeling totally stunned and somehow unable to stop herself trembling, as if in the grip of a raging fever.
‘Oh, Lord! I’ve just realised…’ she added hurriedly. ‘If he’s going to be arriving that late I’d better book him into one of the local country house hotels. Maybe Hintlesham Hall? The food is really excellent, and…’
‘My dear girl—what is wrong with you?’ Sir Robert Brandon retorted tetchily. ‘For generations we’ve had a long-standing trading partnership with his company. And his uncle is, of course, an old friend of mine. Which is why I’ve already told Don Antonio that we wouldn’t dream of him staying anywhere other than in our own home.’
‘Our own home…?’ she echoed vacantly, her numbed brain clearly not functioning on all cylinders.
‘And I’m quite sure that I can rely on you to see that he is well looked after,’ her grandfather told her firmly, before terminating the call.
‘Oh, my God…oh, my God… What in the hell am I going to do?’ Gina found herself muttering, before jumping to her feet and striding rapidly up and down her office as she realised that matters were rapidly going from bad to far, far worse!
How could she have forgotten that she’d agreed to give the housekeeper and her husband a long weekend off, to visit their daughter in Wales? And, glancing down at her watch, she realised that they would have already left the house and be well on their way by now.
‘For heaven’s sake—calm down,’ she said, forcing herself to stand still and take some deep breaths to steady her nerves.
It was a large old house, with many guest rooms, and she was perfectly capable of coping with Antonio on her own. After all, she was no longer a silly young girl, and was quite used to entertaining business guests. Besides, it was years since she’d set eyes on the man. Why, he could be married, with a whole host of children by now. Anyway, hadn’t Grandpa said that Antonio wouldn’t be arriving until this evening?
So…if she booked a table for dinner in a good local restaurant—making absolutely certain that all conversation was kept firmly to business matters—she shouldn’t have too much of a problem. Then, when Antonio discovered that his missing shipment of wine definitely wasn’t here, he’d obviously be off, back to wherever he’d come from, by midday tomorrow at the latest.
All the same…there was no point in sitting here in the office, feeling as though she was going to be sick any moment. In fact, the sooner she went home and checked that the beds were made up in the guest bedrooms the better.
While still feeling coiled up tight like an over-wound clock spring, Gina could almost physically feel herself beginning to relax slightly as she drove her small Mazda sports car down the long drive, lined with ancient oak trees, to Bradgate Manor.
She’d always loved the large old Tudor mansion, which had been the country home of the Brandon family since the days of Queen Victoria—when it had been acquired by her great-great-grandfather for his young wife, who had been born and raised in Suffolk. And it was, of the course, one of the reasons why Gina had jumped at the opportunity of working in the local Ipswich office.
Who wouldn’t prefer living deep in the country when compared to life in the crowded, dusty streets of London? Gina asked herself as she parked her car in the garage next to the stable block and walked slowly back towards the house. And especially on a lovely sunny day in early June, with no sound to disturb the peace other than the faint cooing of wood pigeons from a nearby clump of trees and the distant hum of a tractor in one of the fields.
Having checked that everything was in order, and deciding to place Antonio in a guest suite as far away from her own bedroom as possible, Gina found herself wandering restlessly through the empty house. In fact, she was feeling so tense and strained that she couldn’t seem to keep still for more than a few seconds.
Firmly reminding herself that there was no reason why Antonio should recall the time when a young, gauche teenager had made such an utter fool of herself wasn’t much use, either. Because, try as she might, she couldn’t seem to banish from her mind’s eye a vision of the dangerously exciting figure of Antonio Ramirez.
With his head of curly hair the colour of raven’s wings—either worn loose, curling over his collar at the back of his neck, or wet-combed tightly to his head, after a shower—and the deeply disturbing, wicked glint in those large, gleaming dark eyes, heavily fringed with long black eyelashes, he’d been devastatingly attractive!
So it was no wonder, she told herself, that an impressionable young girl, fresh out of school, had immediately fallen head over heels in love with the most strikingly handsome man she’d ever seen. Who also happened to be the brother of her best friend, with whom she’d been staying during that Easter holiday all those years ago.
And Gina clearly hadn’t been the only one to be so affected by the twenty-six-year-old man’s aura of strong masculinity and rampant sex appeal. Just about every female in the large, extended Spanish family between the ages of nine and ninety had seemed to regard Antonio in exactly the same light.
‘Just look at them!’ Roxana had laughed. ‘They’re all over my brother, like a rash. Estúpidas…no?’
And she’d been the most stupid of all! Gina recalled grimly. Then she became furious with herself for getting in such a state about an episode—however shameful and embarrassing—which had happened so very long ago. Then she brought herself up with a start. This simply would not do! It was utterly ridiculous to keep on pacing up and down, getting more and more nervous with every passing minute, while waiting for the damned man to turn up. In fact, what she needed was some fresh air and exercise. So, the most sensible decision would be to get changed and take her horse out for a good hard gallop.
That would definitely blow the dusty cobwebs of memory from her mind, she told herself firmly, spinning around on her heels and running up the wide, old oak staircase towards her bedroom.
Antonio’s lips tightened with annoyance as, for what seemed the hundredth time, he quickly stamped on the brake.
Having to drive a strange car on the wrong side of the road was bad enough. But the amount of traffic on this heavily congested route leading out of London was proving enough to try the patience of a saint.
However, taking into account the possible loss of his wine, and that quite extraordinary meeting with old Sir Robert Brandon, he told himself grimly, it now looked as if he’d made a very bad mistake by including this quick trip to Britain in his tight schedule.
‘I’m so sorry, my boy,’ Sir Robert Brandon had told him earlier today. ‘It looks as if that shipment of yours has been misdirected to our branch at Ipswich, in Suffolk. I’ll put my staff on to tracking it down straight away.’
Unfortunately, Sir Robert’s idea of ‘straight away’ seemed to mean that it would take at least two weeks to sort out the problem.
‘Two weeks!’ Antonio had exclaimed in horror. ‘But I hadn’t planned to spend more than a day or two in England.’
However, after some discussion, he’d reluctantly agreed that his best and possibly only option was to
