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‘It’s all right,’ Lucyat her twin’s desperation and her uncharacteristic honesty

‘It will be if you go to Guate a lot, especially when I haven’t exactly been honest about sos,’ Cindy continued tautly ‘But I really do need your help with this, Lucy…and if you can do this one thing for me, I swear I’ll be your best friend for ever!’

‘Cindy, I—’ Enveloped in a huge, grateful hug, Lucy was touched to the heart, because her sister was rarely demonstrative

The twins had been separated by their divorcing parents at the age of seven and had spent the following fifteen years apart Only recently had Lucy had the chance to get to know her sister again, and that had not been an easy task Until now Cindy had hidden behind a reserve foreign to Lucy’s more open nature, and their lifestyles and interests were so different that it had been a challenge to find shared ground on which to bridge those years of estrangement

But now, for the first tiain and asked for her help The idea that she could be needed by her infinitely lamorous and successful sister astonished Lucy, but it made her feel proud as well Once the quieter, more dependent twin, Lucy had been devastated when her bossier, livelier sister had disappeared from her life She had never lost that inner ache of loneliness and loss, and Cindy’s appeal for her help, Cindy’s need for her, touched a deep chord of sys threatening at the back of her erness to offer all the assistance within her power

Cindy drew back and surveyed her tith the critical eye of a woman who had worked as both a reat deal of interest in her own appearance

Ironically, few identical twins could have looked more different Lucy never used make-up and tied her defiantly curly caramel-blonde hair back at the nape of her neck Her blue denith, her check shirt sensible and her shoes flat and comfortable

‘I sent Fidelio a photo ofto haveyou into roan

Lucy just stood there, slightly dazed, suddenly not quite sure she could have agreed to do such an outrageous thing as pretend to be her sister instead of herself Her homely self Now that they were both adults, she si like her twin Cindy had the perfect groo of a model and confidently revealed far ure Her blonde htened and lightened Not one inch of Cindy was less than perfect, Lucy conceded, hurriedly curving her bitten nails into the centre of her pal in her stomach

Outside the shabby bar, which was little more than a shack with a tin roof, a wizened little man in a poncho tied up his horse to the roadside post available and stoh-looking cowboys standing by the bar and within ten seconds he was gaping at Lucy with the rest of thener suit and precarious high heels, she was a sight such as was rarely seen at this remote outpost in the Guatemalan Petén

The hu a cru brow, Lucy studied the scarred table in mute physical misery Cindy had insisted that she would need to dress to ihout her stay But Lucy felt horribly uncomfortable and conspicuous in her borrowed finery Furthermore the wretched shoes pinched her toes and nipped her heels like instruments of torture

Yesterday she had flown into Guateht to Flores, where she had spent the night at a small hotel She had expected to be taken froreeted with the e that she would be picked up at the crossroads at San Angelita Once her ancient rattling cab had turned off the hway the landscape had become steadily more arid, and the road had swiftly declined into a rutted dirt track That incredibly long and dusty journey had finally brought her to a ras in the middle of a dustbowl overshadowed by what looked very uidebook, probably was Exhaustion and a deep, desperate desire for a bath now gripped Lucy, not toattack of cold feet

Suppose Fidelio realised that she wasn’t Cindy? Suppose she said or did so that exposed their deception? It would be si if her masquerade was uncovered A sick old man certainly didn’t require any further distress But ould have been the alternative? Lucy asked herself unhappily Cindy wouldn’t have co aithout a single relative to comfort him filled Lucy with helpless compassion

Belatedly registering that the noisy clump of men at the bar had fallen silent, Lucy looked up A very tall hetti western in the role of cold-blooded killer, now stood just inside the doorway, spurred and booted feet set slightly astride Intilance from beneath the dusty brim of the black hat that shadowed his lean, hard-boned features, Lucy gulped and hurriedly endeavoured to curl her five foot tall body into an even less noticeable hunch behind the table

The bared out frolass to the new arrival A doffing of hats and a lowit in a long, thirsty gulp, thecatlike fluidity and jingling spurs across to the far corner where Lucy sat

‘Lucinda Paez?’ he drawled

Lucy focused wide-eyed on the leather belt with glea silver inserts that encircled his lean hips Then, not liking theover her, she thrust her chair back and hurriedly scraht Even in her four-inch heels, it didn’t help much He had dwarfed the other men at the bar He had to be six foot three, and the crown of her head barely reached his shoulder Wondering if she was going to need her Spanish phrase book to ressive jawline and sed hard ‘You’re here to collect me?’ she queried weakly ‘I didn’t hear a car’

‘That could be because I arrived on a horse’

For a split second his slish took her by surprise, and then an uneasy laugh escaped her He could only be cracking a joke You didn’t turn up on horseback to collect a person with luggage Tilting her golden head back, and fighting her natural shyness with all her etically, ‘Could you show me some identification, please?’

‘I’m afraid I have none to offer I am Joaquin Francisco Del Castillo, and I am not accustomed to doubt on that point’

Lucy tried and failed to s on that staggeringly arrogant assurance He had thrown his head high as if she had insulted hiid ‘Well, Señor…er…Del Castillo, I ae men—’

‘Es verdad? You picked up Mario in a Los Angeles bar and shared his bed the sae does not lead me to believe that you are a particularly cautious worow

ling accent roughening the vowel sounds

Lucy was nailed to the spot, still focusing on that firm male beautifullyagain in shock She just could not believe that he had said so colour slowly crawled up her throat ‘How dare you?’ she whispered in a shaken undertone ‘That is a complete untruth!’

‘Mario and I grew up together You are wasting your ti on an act for …or are you staying here?’

‘I’ any place with you! They can send someone else out from the ranch,’ Lucy informed him with restraint, from between clenched teeth

‘There is no one else, señora’ And, with that clipped retort, Joaquin Del Castillo simply turned on his heel and strode back outside, coht back, wide shoulders and fluid e

Still aith sheer paralysed shock at being treated with so shattering a lack of respect, Lucy stayed where she was Thebetween the ht have understood enough English to follohat Joaquin Del Castillo had slung at her Her cheeks aflaled back outside with it

Joaquin Del Castillo aiting for her

‘You are the most rude, foul- hieain unless it is absolutely necessary’

‘You can’t bring that case’ Before she could even guess his intention he had swept it up in one lean brown hand, planted it down in the dust and sprung it open

‘What are you doing?’ Lucy gasped, her frigid air of desperate dignity fracturing fast