LITMIR.BIZ

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as he eased his way into the room, Caroline couldn’t help wondering how many of those people she had seen could have lived on what he ate. His girth was disgusting, and he brought with him an odour of sweat and sour tequila that caused her empty stomach to heave.

      ‘Ah—but you have not eaten!’ he exclaimed now, observing the untouched tray. ‘It is not to your liking, señorita? You want I should have Maria make you something else?’

      ‘Thank you, no.’ Caroline shook her head firmly. ‘I—er—I’m not hungry. Could you tell me again, what time did Señor Montejo say he would be here?’

      ‘Don Esteban say he will come before noon,’ responded the fat little Mexican thoughtfully, stroking his black moustaches, and viewing Caroline’s slim figure with an irritatingly speculative eye. ‘Mas, por cierto, el tiempo—the weather, you understand? It may cause—how you say—the delay, no?’

      Caroline’s spirits sank even further. ‘You mean the roads may be impassable?’ she suggested, and Señor Allende nodded.

      ‘Is possible,’ he agreed. Then he smiled, revealing tobacco-stained teeth. ‘Mas, no worry, señorita. Jose,’ he pointed to himself, ‘Jose take good care of you, till Don Esteban come.’

      ‘Yes.’

      Caroline forced a faint smile of acknowledgement, but she was not enthusiastic. She would not welcome having to spend another night between those dubious sheets, and Señor Allende’s attitude grew increasingly proprietorial. He was looking at her now, as if he had some prior claim to her loyalties, while she felt she would have preferred any other hotel to this. But Señor Montejo had made the arrangements, and she could only assume that this was the best Las Estadas had to offer.

      ‘So—–’ Señor Allende drew a fat cigar out of his waistcoat pocket, bit off the end and spat it repulsively on to the floor. ‘Why do you not come downstairs and wait in my office, no? I have a little bottle of something there to—how do you say it?—make the day sunny, hm?’

      He pronounced little as ‘leetle’, and it was all Caroline could do not to grimace outright. Did he really imagine she might find his company appealing? If she had not felt so absurdly vulnerable, she could have laughed at the predictability of it all. As it was, she took a backward step and shook her head politely but firmly.

      ‘I don’t think so, thank you,’ she replied crisply. ‘I’ll stay here. I can watch the street from my window, and I wouldn’t want to put you to any trouble.’

      ‘Is no trouble,’ exclaimed Señor Allende, spreading his hands in typically Latin fashion. ‘Come—–’ He stretched out one podgy hand. ‘Is much nicer downstairs.’

      ‘No!’ Caroline was very definite this time. ‘Please—I prefer to be alone. If you’ll excuse me—–’

      Señor Allende shrugged, and then his small eyes narrowed between the folds of flesh. ‘Okay, okay, is no big deal,’ he retorted. ‘Como quiere usted!’ And with another shrug of his shoulders, he left her, closing the door behind him with heavy definition.

      Caroline ran a relieved hand over the crown of her head and down to her nape, resting her head back against the support, expelling the tension that had briefly gripped her. The last thing she needed was complications of that sort, and she let her shoulders droop as she walked wearily back to the window. Where was Señor Montejo? Surely a night’s rain was not sufficient to cut all communications!

      Pressing her palms together, she put her thumbs against her lips and gazed thoughtfully down at the verandah opposite. For the first time she questioned her own expectations of her destination. What would the Montejo house be like? What would Señor Montejo be like? And how could she have been foolish enough to commit herself to a whole month’s probation, when she might conceivably want to leave after only one day?

      Somehow things had seemed so different in London. No one meeting Señora Garcia, who had conducted the interviews, could have had any doubts that anyone associated with her—and she was the child’s grandmother—could live in anything other than exemplary surroundings. She had exuded an aura of wealth and sophistication, in keeping with the Dior suit and Cartier pearls she was wearing, and Caroline had naturally assumed her son-in-law and his daughter would be the same. Perhaps she was wrong. Perhaps Señora Garcia’s daughter had married beneath her. Perhaps Señor Montejo would turn out to be more like Señor Allende …

      At noon, the buxom cook, Maria, brought her a bowl of greasy stew and some corn bread. Caroline suffered herself to eat a little of the stew and all of the bread, realising it would be foolish to starve herself in this climate, and then returned to her seat by the window, wondering idly if the road to Merida was still open.

      The afternoon dragged on, and Caroline grew increasingly anxious. What if, as seemed likely, Señor Montejo did not come? How many days might she be expected to stay in this awful place?

      Her eyes wandered restlessly up and down the street, watching the struggle an ancient truck was having trying to gain purchase on the slippery road, silently sympathising as its churning wheels threw a shower of mud over an elderly woman passing by. An ox-cart made better progress, though the rain was no less heavy, and she turned away, sighing, just as the door to her room burst open.

      It was late afternoon, and the low-hanging clouds had left the room in partial shadow, but the hotel proprietor’s bulk was unmistakable. He stood swaying on the threshold, an opened bottle of tequila clutched in his hand, and Caroline had no need to wonder how he had spent the day.

      ‘Holà, señorita!’ he greeted her unsteadily, raising the bottle to his mouth and taking a greedy draught. ‘Perhaps you like Jose’s com-company now, hm? You share a little drink with Jose, si?’

      Caroline knew she mustn’t panic. She was not exactly afraid, but she was alarmed, and although she felt reasonably capable of defending herself, should the need arise, she dreaded to think where she might go if he threw her out.

      ‘I don’t drink, Señor Allende,’ she said now, facing him bravely. At five feet six inches, she was almost half a head taller than he was, and infinitely fitter, if his size was anything to go by.

      ‘Do-don’t drink!’ he echoed, stumbling a little over his words. ‘Por cierto, you take a little tequila. Tequila is good, very good. You try some—here—here—–’

      He came towards her heavily, holding out the bottle, urging her to take a mouthful. Caroline’s stomach lurched as she stepped aside. The idea of putting her lips where his greasy mouth had been caused the lumpy stew to rise into the back of her throat like bile, and she swallowed it back nauseously, shifting to avoid his reaching fingers.

      ‘Señor Allende, please! I don’t want to try any,’ she protested, moving round the bed, but he only came after her, like some lumbering buffalo, panting as his thoughts accelerated beyond the pursuit.

      ‘You try, you try,’ he said, over and over again, licking his lips in anticipation, and Caroline realised it was going to be impossible to get out of this without a struggle.

      She was backed into a corner of the room, with the bed on one side, and the wall of the room, with its tiny crucifix, on the other, and her eyes turned despairingly from the religious image. No immortal being could help her now, and with sudden inspiration she sprang on to the bed, blessing her corded jeans that provided no swirling skirts for the man to grasp. But the proprietor was more agile than she thought, or perhaps desperation lent him speed. Whatever the truth of the matter, his plump fingers reached surely for her ankle, and his brutal jerk brought her down on the bed, the unyielding mattress almost knocking the breath from her body. In those first stunned moments, she felt him clambering on to the bed beside her, and now she really did panic. With a strength she hardly knew she possessed, she twisted on to her back, drawing up her knee in one swift motion, bringing it to the fleshy underside of his body with purposeful effect. His agonised groan was audible, and she scrambled out from beneath him, reaching the door just as another man was about to enter. She

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