Meet Me Under The Ombu Tree (19 page)

‘They can’t be very good shots in Chile then, or that damn rabbit must run like lightning,’ he said and laughed loudly. ‘A rabbit who runs like lightning, well I’ll be damned.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘In Ireland the rabbits are fat and slow, too many carrots, easy targets. I’d like to try my hand at shooting yer fast rabbit.’ At that point Sofia couldn’t hold her laughter in another minute. She opened her mouth and laughed until the tears squeezed out and caught in her eyelashes.

‘Grandpa, she’s talking about rapids - you know, those fast-running rivers that people throw themselves down in rubber boats. Not rabbits!’ she gasped and when everyone else understood the joke they too laughed. Eva giggled and blushed. When she glanced shyly at Santi she saw that he was looking at her.

After lunch Anna suggested that Sofia and Maria take Eva off to the pool to lie in the sun. Sofia and Maria accompanied her to her room to unpack her things first. The girl was pleased with her room. It was large and light, with two tall open windows that looked out over the orchard of apple and plum trees. The scent of jasmine and gardenia floated up on the heat and filled the air with their heady perfume. There were twin beds covered in blue and white floral throws scented with lavender and a delicate wooden dressing table for her to lay out her brushes and cologne. She also had an adjoining bathroom with a deep enamel bath with chrome attachments imported all the way from Paris.

This is such a pretty room,’ she sighed, opening her suitcase.

‘I love your accent,’ enthused Maria. ‘I love how the Chileans speak Spanish, it’s very delicate, don’t you think, Sofia?’ Her cousin nodded impassively.

Thank you, Maria,’ Eva replied. ‘You know, this is the first time I’ve been to the
pampas.
I’ve been to Buenos Aires many times, but never to an
estancia.
It’s really beautiful here.’

‘How do you like our cousins?’ asked Sofia, lying back on one of the beds and crossing one brown foot over the other.

They are all charming,’ she responded innocently.

‘No, I mean how do you
like
them? They all fancied you - you can have your pick.’

‘Sofia, you are too sweet. I don’t think they do fancy me, I’m just new, that’s all. As far as fancying them, I’ve barely had time to look at them.’

‘Well, they’ve had time to look at you,’ she said, watching Eva steadily.

‘Sofia, leave her alone, poor girl, she’s only just arrived,’ Maria interrupted. ‘Now, hurry and put on your swimsuit, I’m dying of heat in here.’

Up at the pool the boys were already lying in the sun like a pride of male lions, waiting for Eva to appear in her swimsuit. With their eyes squinting into the light they watched the trees with shallow breaths and hot bodies. They didn’t have to wait long. They hissed a few lewd comments to each other as the girls approached and then pretended to be disinterested, talking to each other about polo. Eva self-consciously dropped her shorts and wriggled out of her T-shirt, revealing the body of a woman with large round breasts, flat stomach, full hips and smooth, brown skin. She felt their stares stripping her of her modesty and fingered her costume with a trembling hand to make sure that it was still there. Sofia threw her clothes onto the ground and walked over to the sunbeds with her duck’s walk, bottom out and tummy in, her feet pointing outwards. Santi lay on the sunbed next to hers, watching Eva quietly with the patient arrogance of a man who knows that the woman of his desire will come to him eventually. Sofia noticed his expression and stuck out her lower lip resentfully.

‘Do you need some oil rubbed on your back?’ shouted Agustin from the water.

‘Not with your cold wet hands,’ laughed Eva, feeling more confident now she had made friends with the girls.

‘Don’t trust Agustin,’ Fernando said. ‘If you need oil rubbing on your back,
I’m
the most reliable.’ They all laughed.

‘I’m fine, thank you.’

‘Here, take my sunbed, Eva,’ said Santi, getting up. Sofia noticed Maria had taken the other one.

‘No, really. ..’ she began.

‘I’m too hot here anyway,’ he insisted. ‘There are only three. I’ll bring some more up from the pool house later.’

‘Well, if you’re sure,’ she said, spreading her towel neatly over the sunbed and lying down. Santi sat on the paving stones beside her and chatted to her as

if they had known each other for a long time. He had an easy way with women which drew them into his confidence. Unlike the others, he won their trust. Sofia felt jealousy rise from her stomach like bile. Placing her sunglasses over her eyes she lay back in the sunshine and tried to ignore them.

Fernando watched his brother chatting up the new blonde and hoped she wouldn’t fancy him. What was it about Santi that made all the girls go for him? He hoped she would notice his limp and that it would put her off. If he were a girl it would put him off, he thought sourly to himself. He decided to wait in the pool. She’s bound to get hot at some stage and go for a swim, he thought, and then I’ll be ready for her.

Rafael had lost interest and fallen asleep in the shade with a magazine over his sunburnt face. Agustin had dived a few times, he was good at diving, and performed the odd somersault. She had smiled at him. He had impressed her, no doubt. But now she was being monopolised by Santi, keen to get in there too, so Agustin told himself he’d simply have to wait his moment like Fernando and swim about like a shark until she decided to put her toe in. Angel, Niquito and Sebastian had sized up the competition and realized that there was no point getting into the arena; they had no chance. So they sloped off to knock a tennis ball around on the hot court that shimmered like a furnace behind the wire fencing.

When the heat became too much, Eva encouraged Sofia and Maria to take a swim with her; the sharks were too threatening to brave the water alone. When Eva stood up, it was as if an icy wind had blown through the languid confines of the pool waking everyone up from their siestas. Suddenly Agustin was diving again, Fernando was roaring up and down doing front crawl, Sebastian, Niquito and Angel came back to cool down from their game of tennis, and Santi sat on the edge with his feet in the water. Only Rafael continued to snore from his shade, the pages of the magazine flying about on his breath. Sofia sulked in the corner while Maria and Eva tried to swim lengths in the rough, choppy water.

‘What’s the matter with you?’ Santi asked, dropping into the water and swimming up to join Sofia in her miserable corner.

‘Nothing,’ she replied defensively.

‘I know you,’ he said and smiled.

‘No, you don’t.’

‘Oh, I think I do. You’re jealous you’re not getting any attention.’ His green

eyes sparkled at her in amusement. ‘I’ve been watching you all day.’

‘Don’t be silly. I’m not feeling well.’

‘Chofi. You’re a liar and a brat, but you’ll always be my favourite cousin.’

‘Thanks,’ she said, feeling a little happier.

‘You can’t always be the centre of attention. Give someone else a chance.’

‘Look, that’s not it. I really don’t feel very well. It’s the heat. I might go and lie in the shade for a while,’ she said halfheartedly, hoping that he’d go with her.

‘Please yourself,’ he replied, turning to watch Eva swimming gracefully like a swan amidst a commotion of playful ducks.

That night the three girls decided to sleep all together. Soledad moved a camp bed into Eva’s room and told Sofia that as she was the hostess she had to sleep in it. Typical, she thought resentfully, and I didn’t want to share in the first place. But as they chatted away in the pale blue light of the moon that entered through the large open windows with the sweet earthy scents of the dewy
pampa,
her mood lifted and she began to like Eva in spite of herself.

‘As I was walking back to the house, Agustin jumped out from behind a tree

and threw me against it,’ Eva giggled. ‘It was
so
embarrassing.’

‘I don’t believe it!’ Sofia exclaimed, amazed at her brother’s shamelessness. ‘What did he do?’

‘He pushed me up against the bark and told me he was in love with me.’

‘They all are!’ laughed Maria. ‘Watch out, soon there won’t be a safe tree in the whole of Santa Catalina.’

‘Did he kiss you?’ Sofia asked hopefully, but she knew Eva would never fancy the outlandish Agustin.

‘He tried.’

‘Oh God, how embarrassing,’ sighed Sofia.

‘Then when we were playing tennis he’d only hand me a ball after kissing it first.’

‘Oh dear.’

‘Sofia, I shouldn’t be telling you this, he’s your brother.’

‘Unfortunately. Maria’s brothers are a better pair than mine.’

‘Yes, Santi is very attractive,’ said Eva, her clear eyes shining with the fever that had captivated her young body.

‘Santi?’ Sofia’s heart stopped.

‘Yes, Santi.’

The one with the limp - tall, fair?’

‘Yes, the one with the limp,’ she repeated. ‘He’s handsome yet sweet and his limp just makes him more endearing.’

Sofia wanted to cry.
You can't fancy Santi, not my Santi!
she screamed inside her head. Then more coolly she made a decision. She had to think of a plan, she had to think of a way of preventing a romance that would surely flare up unless she smothered it right now, in these early stages. She had to stop this beautiful temptress from digging her long pink fingernails into Santi. Shame, I was just beginning to like her, she thought dismissively.

Sofia spent the following three days making sure that she became Eva’s best friend and confidante. Her mother had praised her for being such a good hostess and for her valiant effort to make their young guest feel welcome. They went everywhere together and Sofia didn’t need to spy on her when she was with Santi because, having won Eva’s confidence, she told her everything voluntarily.

Suddenly the boys began to make a fuss of Sofia too; they saw her as their ticket to getting close to Eva. Sofia enjoyed the attention. No longer in the shadow, she played her part with bravado. But Eva wasn’t interested in Agustin, Fernando or any of the others; she was hopelessly attracted to Santi. Every move that he made she recounted to Sofia. He had taken her riding across the plains. Sofia had refused to go, making up a weak excuse about having to help her grandfather rearrange his room. He had then asked her to be his partner in tennis. Eva had confessed she went weak whenever she saw him, but so far Santi had said nothing that might suggest he felt anything more than friendship.

‘Don’t worry,’ said Sofia. ‘Santi’s my cousin, I’m closer to him than anyone. He tells me everything - things he doesn’t tell Maria. I’ll find out for you, subtly of course, then let you know. If you want me to do this, don’t tell Maria, she can’t keep a secret,’ she lied.

‘All right, but be careful. I don’t want to look a fool.’

‘You won’t look a fool,’ Sofia assured her happily.

Later she engineered it so that she was alone with Santi. He was practising his golf swing on the land in front of his house. Sofia left Maria and Eva talking on the terrace with her aunts and mother and strolled over to him with her mission.

‘Good swing, Santi,’ she said as he hit the ball high into the air.

‘Thanks, Chofi.’

‘You’ve been very kind to Eva, taking her riding, showing her the farm.’

‘She’s a sweet girl,’ he said, placing a new ball onto the grass.

‘She’s more than that. She’s adorable and beautiful. In fact, I don’t think I’ve seen anyone more beautiful than her, ever.’

‘She’s certainly beautiful,’ he said absentmindedly, concentrating more on his swing than on the conversation with his duplicitous cousin.

‘You know who she really fancies?’ she said quietly, choosing her words with the care of a snake sliding through the long grass in pursuit of its prey.

‘Who?’ he replied, bringing down his club and looking at her steadily.

‘Agustin.’

‘Agustin?’ he scoffed.

‘Yes.’

‘You’re joking, aren’t you?’

‘Why? He’s very attractive - he’s a dark horse.’

‘Sofia, I don’t believe you,’ he said and smirked, shaking his head impatiently.

‘Well, he kissed her the other night. She doesn’t want anyone to know.’

‘He kissed her. Sure!’

‘I promise - just don’t mention it, she’ll kill me. We’re such good friends now I don’t want to ruin it. But you know me, I can’t keep anything from you.’

‘Thanks for that, Chofi,’ he said sarcastically. Then drawing his club up behind his shoulder he brought it down furiously and missed the ball.
^l
Mierda!’

‘Santi, you missed! That’s not like you. What’s the matter? You don’t fancy her, do you?’ she said and tried to hide her smile by playing with a stray piece

of hair across her lips.

‘Of course not. Now go away, you’re distracting me,’ he said, dismissing her.

‘Okay. See you later.’ She walked off with her arrogant duck’s gait, smiling to herself with glee.