The Valquez Bride. Melanie Milburne

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.

      To bring about justice.

      So what if he had to marry the enemy’s daughter to do it? It wasn’t as if he were really marrying her. It would be a civil ceremony. He would not stand in a church and make promises he had no intention of keeping. He would continue to live his life the way he wanted to live it.

      Teddy Marlstone would get what she wanted at the end.

      So would he.

      ‘It’s only for six months,’ he said. ‘After that, I’ll have the marriage annulled. By then we’ll both have what we want.’ Too easy.

      ‘What’s she like?’

      Alejandro frowned as he thought of Teddy’s marked limp. Had that had something to do with her father’s machinations? Clark Marlstone was marrying her off because she was maimed? That was despicable but then it was just the sort of thing a man like that would do. What sort of relationship had she had with her father? Had she been close to him? All he knew about her family background was her parents had divorced when she was young and her father had been given custody after a protracted battle in the courts. Her mother had died of an accidental prescription drug overdose a few months later, which might or might not have been suicide.

      ‘She has a limp.’

      ‘Let’s hope her looks make up for that. Is she hot?’

      Trust his younger brother to be so shallow. Luiz was a serial model dater. If a woman hadn’t been on a catwalk he wasn’t interested. Alejandro thought he was a little picky over his partners but Luiz took it to a whole new level. No woman with a university degree need apply. Luiz didn’t want intelligent conversation. He didn’t stay with a woman long enough to engage her in one. He changed partners as quickly as he changed horses in a polo match. Not that he could talk.

      ‘She has the sort of looks that grow on you.’

      ‘So why would her old man set her up like this?’

      ‘Her father is playing games from beyond the grave,’ Alejandro said. ‘He knew how much I wanted that land, and he also knew I did nothing to quell the rumours about him acquiring it less than honourably. In fact, I actively fuelled them. And since it’s common knowledge I would never consider marriage again, this is his way of paying me back.’

      ‘What’s she like?’

      Alejandro pictured that small defiant figure with her piercing gaze and tightly set mouth. Her strength of will was admirable. Not many people stood up to him. Not many people had the courage to do so. Her intransigence fascinated him because he couldn’t