The Valquez Bride

Seventy-four-year-old Henry Buckington had worked for her father’s father before her parents were married. He was part of the furniture. The place wouldn’t be the same without his stolid presence.

Then there was Stan and Myles Harris, the father and son team who managed the garden and the rest of the estate.

Audrey was right. Teddy’s cousin would bring in his own staff, not keep the ones who had served her and her father so loyally for so long. They would be cast out and left to flounder.

But could she marry a man she didn’t know to save them? A man she didn’t even like? A man she detested for his cocksure arrogance?

Alejandro Valquez expected her to say yes. Any other woman would have said yes ten times over. That’s what was so galling. He expected her to feel grateful that he was so magnanimously offering his hand in marriage.

A paper marriage.

How insulting was that? Could he make it any more obvious he thought her a deformed freak? Of course he would offer her a paper marriage. What else? He wouldn’t want her in his bed...not that she wanted to be in his bed or anything. A girl might have the odd erotic fantasy, which was perfectly natural, but it didn’t mean anything. It wasn’t as if she was hankering after a red-hot affair with him just because he was so staggeringly handsome...but still.

‘Did you know Dad had written his will like this?’

Audrey snipped off the end of the stalk of the flower she was holding. ‘I suspected he might.’

Teddy frowned. ‘You did? Why?’ Why didn’t you think to mention it during the last five months while I nursed him and stupidly fooled myself into believing he cared about me?

The housekeeper put down the secateurs and gave Teddy a direct look. ‘You don’t need me to tell you your father was a stubborn old goat who thought his way was the only way. I expect he was worried about you being left on your own. This is a big estate for a young woman to run without a husband by her side.’

‘So he engineered one for me? Do you know how...how insulting that is?’ Teddy folded her arms. ‘I can find my own husband, thanks very much.’

Audrey’s gaze had a wise old owl look about it. ‘You’d better get a wriggle on, lass. You’re not getting any younger.’

‘For God’s sake, I’m only twenty-six.’

Four years until she was thirty. Was that the sound of ticking she could hear? When she was a little girl she thought she would be married with a baby by now. As a little girl she had dressed up in her mother’s exquisite wedding gown and veil and tottered around in her high heels pretending to be a princess bride, dreaming of the day when she would become one for real. How far had life taken her away from her hopes and dreams? Her riding accident when she was ten had changed everything. She had gone from being normal to disabled. To being on the outside of everything. The odd one out. The poor little lame girl. The girl no one wanted on their team.

The girl no one wanted unless they could be bribed or bought.

‘Yes, but you haven’t been on a date since you came home from art school.’ Audrey picked up the secateurs and another bloom. Snip. Snip. Snip.

Teddy pressed her lips together. ‘I’m not good at dating.’

Audrey cocked her head as she studied the floral arrangement. ‘You don’t try, that’s why.’

Teddy frowned again. ‘I’m not a party girl. I never have been. I hate small talk. I’d rather paint or read a book.’

‘Alejandro Valquez has plenty of friends. Maybe he can lend you some.’

‘Oh, yes, I can just imagine me becoming chummy with all his pretty pin-up girls.’ She narrowed her gaze at the housekeeper. ‘Anyway, why are you so for this crazy scheme?’

Audrey gave her a pragmatic look. ‘I don’t want you to lose your home and this is the only way you can keep it. Your father was old-fashioned and set in his ways. He wanted to see you settled. He wanted you to marry a man of means. I suspect he thought this was the best way to do it.’

‘It’s the worst possible way!’ Teddy said. ‘I haven’t got a say in it. It’s being forced on me.’

‘I expect it’s the same for Alejandro.’

‘No, it’s not.’ Teddy balled her fists and set her jaw. ‘It’s not the same at all. He thinks it’s amusing to stride into my life and tell me what to do as if I have no mind or will of my own. I loathe him. He’s insufferably rude and arrogant. He thinks I’m gagging to say yes to him.’ Argh!

‘He’s one of the richest men in Argentina.’

‘If he’s so rich then why’s he so worried about a plot of land he could buy a squillion times over?’

‘It’s adjacent to his family property, that’s why,’ Audrey said. ‘I expect he can’t expand his polo breeding stud without it. He rebuilt his father’s polo resort business from scratch. He took over as CEO when he was in his early twenties. He’s been trying to get that land back ever since.’

Teddy rolled her eyes. ‘I suppose he wants to build some ghastly flashy hotel on it. What sort of man does that? Why doesn’t he want to preserve it for future generations to enjoy?’

Audrey shrugged. ‘Why don’t you ask him when you call him?’

Teddy folded her arms again. ‘I’m not calling him.’

‘You have to call him to give him your answer.’

‘My answer is no.’

Audrey let out a long whoosh of a sigh, her hunched shoulders going down with it. ‘I guess I’d better start packing my things...’

‘Oh, no you don’t.’ Teddy unfolded her arms to waggle a finger at her. ‘Don’t you go emotionally blackmailing me because it won’t work.’ Much.

Teddy hated the thought of her staff losing their home and their source of income. Their security. Their sense of purpose. It was giving her an ulcer just thinking about it. What would they do? Where would they go? What would happen to them? They weren’t the sort of people who could sit around and do nothing. They loved working at Marlstone Manor. It kept them active and mentally stimulated.

Could she do what was necessary to rescue them? Could she marry a man in order to keep her family home secure? Could she make that sacrifice for the sake of the only people she thought of as family?

It was only for six months.

It was a paper marriage.

The time would be up before she knew it. It wasn’t as if she had to move to Argentina with him. He wouldn’t want the inconvenience of a wife living under his roof while he partied all night with his lady friends. Oh, no. He would want her safely ensconced back here in England. Out of sight, out of mind.

‘You can’t fight this, Teddy. You can’t fight him.’

‘Are you talking about Dad or Alejandro?’

Audrey gave her a speaking look. ‘Both.’

* * *

‘You’re not seriously thinking of going through with it?’ Luiz said when he called Alejandro.

‘I want that land.’

‘Heck of a way to go about it,’ Luiz drawled. ‘I thought you said you were never going to darken the doorstep of a church ever—’

‘Yeah, well, this is different.’

Alejandro had thought it through from every angle. He would suffer the short-term marriage because it would achieve his long-term goal. It was a matter of honour. The land was Valquez land his forebears had owned for generations. Clark Marlstone had swindled Alejandro’s father at a low point in his life and it was up to him to get it back.