Free The Arrogant Duke by Anne Mather

something, Teresa; there are rich and poor in this life, but what you are, or what you achieve, or simply what you do, is not designated by wealth and its compensations. A person has to find more than things to live with. Most of all a person has to live with himself. I sometimes wonder if you've ever found it difficult to live with yourself!'
    'Porco! How dare you speak to me like that!' Teresa's face was incensed.
    Juliet shrugged, and lay back in her seat. 'Don't imagine you can continually criticize me without getting something in return,' she replied softly. 'There are lengths to everyone's patience!'
    Teresa was breathing swiftly with anger, chewing furiously at her lips. Obviously, since coming to the island, no one, apart perhaps from Estelle Vinceiro, had ever crossed her.
    At last she said: 'Felipe listens to me. I shall speak to him. I shall find out what lies you have told him about me!'
    'Lies!' exclaimed Juliet. 'What lies?'
    'The lies you must have invented to make him let you stay here.' Teresa calmed herself a little. 'Yes. We will see who can win in this game, senhorita.'
    Juliet half-smiled. Teresa was so young. Even her malevolence was a childish thing. Why then did she harbour such adult ideas about the Duque?
    'All right,' she said, shrugging. 'You play the game, Teresa, and maybe we will all be surprised at the outcome.'
    They were sitting in stony silence when the Duque returned, and he frowned as he got into the driving seat. 'The atmosphere in this car could be cut with a knife,' he remarked thoughtfully. 'Might I ask why?'
    Teresa adopted the offended air she usually used in his presence. 'Senhorita Summers has been very rude to me,' she said, bending her head, in an appealing manner. 'Tio Felipe, surely you can see that all Senhorita Summers does is frighten and upset me.'
    'Frighten?' The Duque set the car in motion, turning through the village square. 'You are exaggerating, Teresa.'
    Teresa gave him a deliberately hurt look. 'No - no, I'm not. Yesterday - yesterday you didn't ask where we j drove. Oh, even to think about it.' She covered her eyes with her hands. 'I - I was terrified. I - I wasn't going to tell you - to worry you, but now I must!'
    Juliet raised her eyes heavenward. She was absolutely sure that the reason Teresa had not mentioned their journey yesterday sooner was because when she had seen Estelle Vinceiro with the Duque all thoughtsof anything else had gone out of her head, and anything that was so easily banished could not have been as frightening as she was now making out.
    The Duque lit a cheroot, while negotiating a bend that took them higher up the slopes above the sea, and curved round a promontory ahead leading to the far side of the island.
    'Well, ' he said. 'Where did you go?' He glanced round at Juliet. 'As my niece appears to be overcome, can you tell me, senhorita?
    'Yes,' replied Juliet easily. 'We drove up to a place called Venterra Montanah.'
    'Venterra Montanah!' The Duque swung the car round a curve and came to a halt. ' Venterra Montanah! Teresa, is this so?'
    Juliet hunched her shoulders. 'Did I say something wrong?' she asked, with some sarcasm.
    The Duque swung round in his seat, his dark eyes accusing. 'Are you aware of the dangers of that road?'
    'Dangers? You mean the curves?'
    'Yes, senhorita, I mean the curves!' The Duque looked furious.
    Juliet sighed. 'Well, for heaven's sake, I've driven on roads with much worse curves and gradients than those!' As soon as she said the words she wished she hadn't, for immediately the Duque looked sceptical.
    'Indeed,' he said slowly. 'And where, might I ask, have you driven on worse roads than those?'
    Even Teresa had taken away her hands from her eyes and was looking curiously at her new companion.
    Juliet shrugged deciding there was no use in making anything up. 'In the Alps, senhor , the Swiss Alps!'
    'I see. You have driven in the Swiss Alps.'
    'Yes, senhor.'
    'And might one ask how a girl who reputedly has to