Free Paradise & More (Torres Family Saga) by Shirl Henke Page A

Castilian pride demanded she hide her shame. She had loved him from afar since childhood, plotted and manipulated her entry into his life, desperately wanting to win his love, only to have it end this way. And it is all your own fault, stupid schemer!
           “I appreciate your assistance,” she said with a tear-clogged voice that she struggled to keep level. “I am certain you have had much practice lacing ladies' gowns. You unfasten them with consummate ease.”
           He chuckled as he pulled the fitted bodice tightly around her breasts and began to work the fastenings down her back. “Have you traveled often with the court?” He felt her stiffen.
           “Why do you ask? Your family has spent far more time with the Majesties than mine.”
           “Yes, but things have not been going so favorably for the House of Torres this past year—or for anyone of Jewish blood. As the daughter of a Crossbearer, I doubt that should escape your notice.”
           The grimness in his voice frightened her. “I have nothing to do with my father's activities,” she replied angrily.
           “What of Dona Estrella? She, I hear, is most often with the court…and the king.” His voice was a silky insult now.
           Magdalena whirled on him, her jaw clenched in pained fury. She raised her hand and gave his handsome, arrogant face a stinging slap.
           He grasped her delicate wrist with bruising roughness and yanked her against him. “So, you do not like the comparison between you and your famous mother.” Her flushed face was a telling admission that she was well aware of the truth of his accusations about Estrella Valdés. “I repeat my earlier question, Magdalena. Why have you sought to befriend my father? What plan ferments in that devious, overly educated mind of yours? Court politics...or is it the Holy Office that you serve?”
           “You lured me up here, seduced me, tricked me only because you think I am plotting something for my parents!” Her voice broke now and those burning, humiliating tears gushed from her eyes as she struggled to pull free of his hold.
           His smile was patronizing. “In truth, I wanted very much what you so freely offered, lady. You are very lovely and I am not so calculating as those of the House of Valdés. Perhaps you judge me by your own standards?”
           “You insult me beyond endurance,” she said through gritted teeth, dashing tears away with one small fist as she yanked the other free and whirled away from him, stopping only to scoop up her slippers and surcoat before she raced from the room.
           “We will meet again, Magdalena Valdés,” he called after her. The words echoed in the empty outer chamber and he felt oddly bereft. Once when he was a boy hawking with his brother Mateo, his favorite peregrine was cruelly injured by a larger tercel and had to be destroyed. The scheming Valdés minx had naught to do with that. Why did the memory flash into his mind now?
           He should never have given in to his lust and become ensnared in her web. He misliked any connection with her family. The temper of the times was far too dangerous for such dalliance—if a mere dalliance it had been. She seemed so genuinely inexperienced before he had taken her and so profoundly outraged afterward that she had almost convinced him of her innocence. Absurd. She was no virgin. Still, such a skilled little liar had apparently fooled his father, who was no mean judge of character. He summoned a servant and ordered a bath. He would soak and ponder until he could discuss Magdalena Valdés with Benjamin and Serafina.
           Magdalena tore down the stairs to the courtyard, pausing only long enough to don her slippers. Heedless of her unbound hair flying behind her and her long surcoat billowing over her arm, she fled past the fountain and out the rear gateway leading toward the stable where Blossom