The Infamous Miss Rodriguez: A Ciudad Real Novella Read Online Free PDF Page A

Graciela—dread. She might not have been well versed in the intricacies of romance but surely a girl shouldn’t feel dread when facing her betrothed?
    “I’ll look over the papers with my man of business,” he was saying, “but I don’t know if I can do much until after the wedding. Mother’s sparing no expense on the festivities— she’ll drive me to ruin if I’m not careful.”
    Alvaro and Aunt Elba chuckled. As far as Graciela knew, Alvaro’s family’s fortune was so large that the thought of a single person driving him to ruin was as ridiculous as it was impossible.
    Otherwise, she might have tried her hand at it.
    “I’m grateful to your mother for taking on the responsibility,” Aunt Elba said. “Putting together a wedding in three weeks is certainly beyond my capabilities.”
    Graciela hated the obsequious tone in Aunt Elba’s voice. She had been running Graciela’s grandfather’s factory for almost eight years—that took more capabilities than arranging for flowers and musicians. She knew it, and Aunt Elba knew it, but Alvaro nodded along as if agreeing. “She’s happy to, but I shouldn’t like her to overextend herself. I was hoping to persuade you to host the dinner party for the Board.”
    “I’d be happy to, Alvaro. It’s the least I could do after all the trouble your mother’s going to. I’m sure Graciela would enjoy helping me with the details. That would allow me to carve out some time to take a meeting with your man and clarify some of the points of my proposal—”
    “Next month, perhaps,” Alvaro said, and the casual dismissal made Graciela’s hand curl into a first. She glanced at Aunt Elba, but if she shared Graciela’s anger, she did not show it as she sipped her cafe con leche .
    Graciela felt a grim sort of satisfaction to see her aunt’s efforts thwarted, even though it only meant that she would be even more insistent that Graciela go through with the wedding. Graciela was planning to thwart that effort as well.
    Silently, Graciela slid into her seat at the table. Alvaro turned to her, apparently finished with the conversation.
    “Have you many things to do today, darling?” Alvaro said, with an indulgent smile that made Graciela’s fingers tighten around her porcelain cup.
    “To the shoemaker’s, to have him change the strap on my new shoes. I sent my maid last week but she got it all wrong and now it’ll have to be redone.”
    Alvaro frowned and looked at Aunt Elba. “Don’t let her go until I’ve a moment to accompany her.”
    “That really isn’t necessary,” Graciela began to protest, but Alvaro interrupted her.
    “I’d rather you don’t call on tradespeople on your own.”
    Graciela felt her face growing hotter and her breath coming faster, as it tended to when in her betrothed’s company. In a minute, she’d be panting like a charging bull. “If this is about what happened last month at the butcher’s, I can assure you—”
    “Not at all,” Alvaro said, exchanging another glance with Aunt Elba. It was the same look that had gone between them when they’d heard that Graciela had threatened the butcher’s brother with dismemberment because he’d shortchanged her on pork chops.
    She hadn’t, actually, but she had been sharp with the man. He’d been filling in for his brother, who’d gone out of town to his wife’s mother’s funeral, and though he may have been a perfectly competent temporary butcher, he was not a nice man. First he’d overcharged her, then he’d implied she could pay for the order with something other than money. In his defense, he’d been quite drunk, and in Graciela’s defense, she hadn’t struck him upside the head with her parasol like she’d wanted to.
    A friend of Alvaro’s mother had come inside just as Graciela was telling the butcher’s brother to stuff his pork chops someplace no pork chops should ever be stuffed and in recounting what had happened, had embroidered the story somewhat until it seemed