Free Perchance to Marry by Celine Conway Page A

with one or two of the nurses, went on with Carlos to the main building, which was ornate in architecture but clinically perfect. The Sisters moved swiftly along the corridors in their blue and white habits, smiled at Carlos and shook Sally’s hand with hearty firmness. Sally saw the patients only from doorways; all were islanders. Except one.
    They saw him in the wide sheltered veranda as they came out of the building by the front entrance. He wore black trousers and a flowing silk shirt and a very white bandage about his head. Above the bandage were thick, glossy black curls and below it a pair of laughing dark eyes enlivened by a sallow handsome face. He was about twenty-eight, patently bored and apparently friendly with Carlos, for he straightened from his lounging position near one of the fluted white pillars and moved towards them as they stopped in the veranda. Sally felt the young man’s bold, raking glance upon her as he bowed before speaking to the doctor.
    “Pardon, please ... have you spoken to him yet, Carlos?”
    Carlos frowned and shook his head. “I have not seen him today.” And then, correctly, “Permit me. This is Josef Carvallo ... Miss Sheppard, who is the fiancée of Marcus.”
    The change in the young man’s expression was swift and startling. He gave Sally a long, brilliant stare, bowed again and bore her hand to his lips; and he wasn’t in a hurry to release the hand either.
    Earnestly he said, “You are staying at Las Vinas, senorita ?”
    “Yes, I am.”
    “Then perhaps you could do for me this thing that Carlos is too busy to do.”
    The doctor said, “It isn’t necessary to bother the senorita, Josef. I will see Marcus as soon as possible.”
    “But Senorita Sheppard will see him sooner, no?”
    Before Sally could make a reply fate took a hand. A Sister called the doctor urgently, from the doorway, and Carlos excused himself and begged that Sally would sit in the car till he could join her. She smiled at the young man as though in farewell, but very gently, very politely, he laid a hand on her arm to detain her.
    “I will not keep you long,” he said. “As you see, I have had an accident. It is not serious—a gash which had to be stitched—but I cannot leave the hospital because I have no home here.” He paused, and the shining dark glance rested once more on her fair young face. “In a very distant way, through my mother, I am related to Marcus, though not to Carlos. I am anxious to see Marcus—can you arrange that for me?”
    “I can mention it to him,” she said. “How did you hurt your head?”
    His smile was mournful and mischievous. “In a brawl, I am afraid. It was at the hotel last night, only a few minutes after I had arrived in San Palos. I had a small disagreement with someone and he was a heavier man than I. I woke up early this morning in a ward here, and for breakfast I had pain in the head and a strong lecture from Carlos. You see, I am the black sheep of two or three families.”
    She had to smile back at him. “Does that make you very black?”
    “Unfortunately, yes.” His frank disturbing gaze again settled upon Sally. “You are really the fiancée of Marcus? I cannot believe it.”
    “Why not?” she asked carefully.
    He shrugged. “You are not his kind of woman. You are just a girl, and I would say you should marry someone young and gay and very ardent. You yourself are young, but you are sober because of this engagement which demands too much of you.”
    She wondered if he really saw a little way below the surface or whether it was a line he had decided upon. She said calmly, “You’re presuming to know too much on so short an acquaintance, Senor Carvallo. I’ll tell Marcus you want to see him.”
    “Please do not go,” he begged. “I had no wish to offend you. If I do not see you as a suitable wife for Marcus you must blame my faulty powers of deduction. Marcus is a most fortunate man, but then in everything he has always been fortunate.