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to be controlling her
life from there on out, and she didn't like the prospect at all!

Chapter Four

    "Believe
me, my dears, I thought
all this over very carefully before I contacted your
cousin," Aimee Chausson went on. "After all, this is a big step for
Miguel to take, too—to leave his life of ease and plenty in
Madrid to come here to what must seem like a very primitive land to him
and take on the burden of a failing plantation and two mischievous
young girls. I'm sure he hesitated considerably , before deciding to
accept my pleas to come to New Orleans."
    From where she still knelt beside her grandmother, Monique
cast a quizzical look up at the tall, silent figure standing beside the
large upholstered chair, and Vidal couldn't help but catch the martial
look in her eyes.
    "I confess I've accepted this chore that Dona Aimee has
thrust on me with some reservations," he admitted, deciding to speak at
last. "Frankly, the idea doesn't appeal to me any more than it does to
you and your sister. But, in all conscience, I could hardly refuse,
once I knew the predicament you were in, knowing that I was the only
person in the family to whom your grandmother—our
grandmother—could turn to in her hour of need."
    He came forward as he spoke and, setting his empty glass
down on the serving table, sat on the couch once more, while he
continued in a well-modulated voice, his perfect French only tinged
with the dulcet tones of his native Castilian. "I think you should know
that I really feel much more a part of your family than you might
imagine under the circumstances," he explained, his eyes softening as
he looked down at his distraught cousins, who seemed so small and
unhappy at their grandmother's knee. "You see, my mother died giving me
birth, so your Aunt Isabella really filled a very important niche in my
life. When my father remarried, I was only seven or eight years old,
and until that time my mother's family, the de la Fuentes of Cadiz, had
been rather inadequately trying to care for me. I'll never forget that
first day I arrived at my father's villa… how my stepmother
took me in her arms and welcomed me 'home'… that was the way
she put it, and that was the way she made me feel it was from that
moment on. I soon came to look on her as my real mother, for we
couldn't have been closer had she given me birth from her own womb. So
you see, although we may not be blood cousins, I assure you I feel a
true bond with my stepmother and her family and will try to fulfill my
obligations to you to the best of my ability, as I know she would have
wanted me to do, and as I myself would like to do in memory of the
woman who did so much for me."
    For a moment the ring of sincerity in his voice disarmed
Monique, and some of the hostility in her eyes melted.
    "But… but Le Rêve has been getting along well
enough all this time with the overseer who has been running it since
before Father died," she ventured, a little more defensively now than
belligerently. "He should know what to do, shouldn't he?"
    Vidal smiled patiently from the sofa. "My dear child, no
matter how good an overseer your man might be, he is still only hired
help and needs someone to make the important decisions for him," he
reminded her. "From what I understand, your plantation, which is called
Le Rêve—The Dream, is that right?—is really more of
a nightmare for you these days, now that the place has lost its indigo
crops for two years running and is in danger of losing another one this
year."
    "But what experience have you had in such matters?" asked
Monique challengingly. "I didn't know they had plantations like ours in
Madrid."
    "Don't be impertinent!" scolded her grandmother, nudging
the softly rounded little arm resting on her knee.
    "No, senora," interrupted Vidal. "Don't be annoyed with
her. The girl is intelligent and does well to ask questions. After all,
I have been appointed to look after her affairs. She has a right to
know the facts."
    He turned again