The Spaniard's Love-Child Read Online Free

aren’t used to the heavy-handed approach.’ She caught her lower lip between her teeth; it was so frustrating that everything she said came out wrong. ‘Not that I’m saying you’re heavy-handed as such ,’ she added hastily. ‘But a little bit of give and take…’
    â€˜Just who am I speaking to?’ It wasn’t so much a matter of something new being in his voice as he made this abrupt demand, but more an absence of something that up to this point had been there. With a confused frown Nell identified this missing factor as restraint and realised that up to this point the children’s uncle had been choosing his words with care.
    â€˜This is Nell Rose; I was a friend of your brother’s and for—’
    â€˜ Nell Rose? Por Dios! I know who you are, Miss Rose.’ The palpable sneer in his cutting voice brought an angry flush to her pale cheeks. ‘Now am I to infer that Antonio and Katerina are with you, and they came willingly?’
    â€˜Came willingly?’ Nell gave an uncomprehending shakeof her head, then realised he couldn’t see her. ‘Well, they turned up on my doorstep about an hour and a half ago, so I suppose you could say that.’
    She shook her head and ignored Katerina’s suspicious hissed, ‘what’s he saying?’
    â€˜And where is there ?’
    Nell gave her address.
    â€˜Hold the line,’ he demanded abruptly.
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    â€˜I’m sorry, Superintendent, but it seems as if we are dealing with a runaway not a kidnapping situation,’ Raul told the detective who had been listening to the conversation.
    â€˜You know this Miss Rose? Is she genuine?’
    Raul nodded. Human nature being what it was, the profound relief he had experienced when he had realised that the children had not been snatched had been replaced by a hostility for the woman to whom they had run. A woman who incredibly had had the audacity to instruct him on the finer points of raising children.
    â€˜Genuine? Extremely doubtful. She was my brother’s mistress. I do not know her personally.’
    â€˜She was your brother’s partner, but it didn’t occur to you that the children might have gone to her?’
    Raul, who considered this a fair question, accepted the mild underlying note of criticism in the other man’s voice with an expressive shrug.
    â€˜They were not together when Javier died; she is not the staying kind.’
    Hearing the contemptuous bite in Raul’s voice, it occurred to the detective that, for someone who claimed not to be acquainted with the woman in question, Raul Carreras appeared to have formed a very definite opinion of the woman’s character.
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    The time stretched and so did Nell’s patience—to breaking-point.
    â€˜Miss Rose, are you still there?’
    The yawn Nell had been trying to stifle escaped.
    â€˜I’m sorry if I’m keeping you awake, but I was just convincing the police that we are not dealing with a kidnapper.’
    Nell’s jaw snapped shut. ‘Kidnapper?’ she yelped. ‘Me?’ she added in a weak whisper. ‘You’re joking, right ?’
    â€˜Wrong, I am not joking.’
    â€˜But why on earth would you assume the children had been kidnapped?’
    â€˜What would you have assumed, Miss Rose, if you had looked in on them at two in the morning and found them gone from their beds with no explanation?’
    At the other end of the phone Nell could not see Raul’s eyes darken as he relived the moment he had discovered the children were missing. When, suspicions roused by the inanimate lump in Antonio’s bed, he had pulled the covers back and found pillows artistically arranged beneath the quilt, he’d sprung into action. A rapid search of Katerina’s room had revealed a second empty bed and he had ordered a search of the house.
    While he’d been doing things he had been able to keep the sick feelings of