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several stops on the way. Nicola wondered whether she was expected to remain obediently in the car on each occasion, but the first time Ramon glanced at his watch and said briefly, 'I shall be not longer than twenty minutes,' which seemed to indicate that she was to be left to her own devices.
    And yet that was not altogether true, as she discovered when she left the car and stretched her cramped limbs. Ramon had disappeared inside some large official-looking building, and the car was parked between this and a large ornate church.
    Nicola strolled towards it and found Lopez behind her. She gave him a cool smile and said that he could remain in the car.
    'This is a very small town,' she added ironically. 'I shall not get lost.'
    But Lopez was civil yet determined. It was the Señor's wish that he should accompany her, he said, and his tone made it clear that that was that. She was a little disconcerted, to say the least. No watchdog had been considered  necessary yesterday,  so  why today? She visited the church, first tying a scarf over her head as she guessed Teresita would do, then wandered round the streets, examining pottery and fabrics on roadside stalls, and looking in shop windows full of leather goods, but conscious all the time of Lopez' silent presence at her shoulder.
    And when the twenty minutes were up, he reminded her politely that they were keeping the Señor waiting.
    That, she found to her annoyance, was to be the pattern of the day. The swift and silent drive along the highway, while Ramon read documents and made notes on them, then the brief stopover and the saunter round the neighbouring streets.
    At last, exasperated, she said to Ramon, as the car moved off once again, 'Is it on Don Luis' instructions that I'm being taken round the streets like a prisoner under guard?'
    He glanced at her. 'I thought you were not interested in his instructions.'
    'Am I expected to be?' she demanded. For months on end he behaves as if I don't exist, and then on his command I must go here and there, do this and that. What else can he expect but my hostility—and resentment?’ she added for good measure, sowing the seeds to provide an explanation for her disappearance in Monterrey.
    For a moment he was silent, then his mouth slanted cynically. 'I think you will find that he expects a great deal more than either of those.'
    'Then he's going to be be bitterly disappointed,' Nicola snapped. 'Now please call off your sentry!'
    She wasn't just acting. She meant it. Having Lopez following her everywhere was going to cause endless difficulties when she eventually made her bid for freedom.
    'Don Luis wishes you to be adequately protected,’ the even voice said.
    'Does he?' she asked bitterly. 'Then perhaps he should be informed that I'm in far less danger wandering round the towns than I am in this car, Don Ramon!'
    He looked at her with open mockery. 'Then why don't you tell him so when you meet him? I am sure he would be fascinated.'
    She hunched a shoulder irritably, and turned to stare out of the window, hearing him laugh softly.
    'I am glad your travel sickness has not troubled you today,' he said after a pause. 'Perhaps before the trip is over I may also he able to persuade you to remove your glasses.'
    Still with her back turned, she said calmly, 'That is quite impossible.'
    'We shall see,' he said softly, and she turned and looked at him sharply, only to find he was once more immersed in his papers.
    They ate lunch in a hilltop restaurant overlooking a lake. Nicola ate fish, probably caught from the same lake, she thought, and incredibly fresh and delicately flavoured. Ramon ate little, but he drank wine, staring broodingly into the depths of his glass.
    She had expected that he would instruct Lopez to stop at a motel again before the siesta hour, but he did not do so. Instead the car sped on through the heat-shimmered landscape, and eventually, lulled by the motion, Nicola dozed.
    She awoke eventually with a slight