horse was bored with inactivity, and it didn’t like the turn this conversation was taking. Animals could sense tempers rising faster than humans, and Nacho was determined that passions of any kind would not be roused between him and Grace.
Passion could kill, as he knew only too well, and he never made the same mistake twice.
‘SURELY compromise is all part of adapting to your new situation?’ Nacho insisted as he continued to follow Grace along the riverbank. He caught a glimpse of her face as she strode along. Her jaw was firm and the set of her face was still angry. He could almost see her thinking, What would you know about it? And the answer to that, for once in his life, was absolutely nothing.
‘Why should I compromise?’ she said, confirming those thoughts. ‘That sounds too much like defeat to me.’
‘Grace! Watch that branch—’
‘I’m okay,’ she fired back, and the big dog adjusted direction seamlessly to lead Grace safely round the fallen branch.
But she still couldn’t know she was so very close to the edge of a steep bank, or that from there it was just a short fall into the fast-flowing river. Nacho’s head reeled with sudden dread as he thought back to another time and a tragedy he should have been there to prevent.
‘I might not be able to see the river,’ Grace said, as if she could read his thoughts as well. ‘But I can hear it. And with Buddy to guide me and keep me safe—’
‘There’s absolutely no danger of you falling in?’ he demanded sarcastically as the ugly memories continued to play out in his head. ‘And if such a thing were to happen, your dog would, of course, leap in and save you.’
‘Yes, he would,’ she said, ignoring his sarcasm. ‘Buddy has more ability than you can possibly imagine.’
His imagination was all too active, unfortunately, and while Grace was staying here she was his responsibility. ‘Next time you feel like putting your life at risk, call me first.’
He ground his jaw when she laughed. It would be better if Grace left immediately.
‘I’m sorry if I shock you with my independence,’ she said. ‘Would you have preferred me to remain cowering in the guest cottage until you arrived?’
‘If you expect to do any sort of business with me you should think firstly about being more polite, and secondly about being more compliant.’
‘More compliant? What do you think I am? And if you speak like that to everyone you meet, no wonder they’re not polite to you. My job, as I understand it, is to independently judge your wine—so I would have thought that for your sake, and for the success of your business, my compliance would be the last thing you should want.’
She had an answer for everything. His practised gaze roved over Grace’s slender frame. She had changed completely in all ways but one—physically she was every bit as attractive as he remembered.
‘Elias has been very good to you,’ he observed, curious about this new Grace.
‘Yes,’ she said, relaxing for the first time. ‘He took me on when no one else would even give me a job. And he paid for my training.’
It was interesting to see her open up, though the training must have been recent, which was hardly what he hoped for in an expert. ‘I’m surprised Elias was less than frank with me. He only had to pick up the phone to explain what he intended to do.’
‘And would you have allowed me to come if he had done that?’
He had no answer to that.
‘And please don’t blame your PA,’ Grace insisted. ‘You must have been in the air when Elias e-mailed. Your housekeepers have made me very welcome, so it would seem she has done her job to perfection.’
His PA had called him, but he’d hardly been listening. One of the old-timers at the business meeting he’d been attending had been telling him that Nacho’s visit to London had reminded them all of the old days—when his father had gone tomcatting around Europe, he presumed. Nacho had wanted to defend himself, to protest that that might have been his father’s way but it wasn’t his, but he wouldn’t betray his father. The conversation had taken him back to being a boy, standing tall and proud in front of his parent, and being told that Nacho would be in charge of the family while his father was away.
It was only at school that he had learned the truth. His parents weren’t the only ones who had been good at keeping secrets. Nacho had kept secrets most of his life.
‘You won’t blame your PA for this, will you?’ Grace pressed him.
‘No, of course not,’ he said, frowning as his thoughts snapped back to the present and Grace.
She nodded her thanks as she continued to walk confidently behind the dog.
She might have been on a footpath in London rather than a remote trail in the shadow of the Andes.
How could she know the difference?
Whatever he thought of Grace arriving in Elias’s place, it was impossible not to rage against her fate.
‘The air’s so good here,’ she enthused, oblivious to his thoughts as she sucked in a deep, appreciative breath. ‘It’s like the finest wine: crisp and ripe, laced with the scent of young fruit and fresh blossom.’
His expression changed. Perfect. A romantic. Wasn’t that all he needed in a business associate? Not that Grace would be around long enough to do business with him. As soon as he could politely get rid of her he would.
But as the wind kicked up, lifting her glossy blonde hair from her shoulders, he felt exactly the same punch in the gut attraction he’d felt at the wedding.
Turning towards the mountains, he searched for distraction. The Andes were always a glorious sight—a towering reminder of the majesty of the land entrusted to him. It was a trust that even the most bitter of memories couldn’t alter. The rugged peaks sheltered his vines from the worst of the weather, while the glacier-melt flowing down the slopes of those peaks sweetened the glistening purple grapes.
And Grace could see none of it …
Meeting a beautiful young woman in the first flush of her beauty and wanting her, and then barely two years later seeing her like this, was a stinging reminder that nothing in life remained the same.
‘Your housekeeper mentioned you had business in South Africa?’ Grace said, obviously in an attempt to get the conversation going again.
‘I was there on business,’ he said curtly.
No wonder Nacho had a reputation for being the most difficult of the Acosta brothers. But Grace thought she could see a reason for it. As the oldest child, responsible for his siblings, Nacho hadn’t had much time for himself. Even on the polo field he was the leader of the pack, with all the responsibility that involved.
She
