When she saw Teresa slip through the door, Laura hurriedly edged her way around the dance floor towards the exit. She hoped Teresa was aiming for her own bed, but she had to be sure. Straining to see which direction Teresa took, Laura ran headlong into a guest at the door. Mumbling her apologies, she moved aside to let him pass.
"Don't you ever watch where you're going?" Daniel's voice intruded into her weary mind.
Laura scowled up at him, but his features were mellow in the soft light and there was no malice in his tone, only amusement.
"What are you doing here?" she snapped, although it occurred to her that if he was here, at least he couldn't follow Teresa anywhere. As long as she had an eye on the whereabouts of one or the other, it didn't matter which.
Daniel quirked an eyebrow. "That's not very gracious of you, considering I came looking especially for you and brought you a drink."
"Looking for me?" Too tired to play games with him, her tone was cynical. "Or Teresa?"
Daniel's brows knitted together in puzzlement. "Teresa? Why on earth would I be looking for Teresa?"
Laura's laugh was harsh, causing a couple of nearby guests to glance round at them. She lowered her voice. "Oh, come on, Daniel. I saw what you were up to this afternoon. What I'd like to know is how you could even consider such a thing!"
"Whoa there, back up a minute. What thing? What are you talking about?"
Laura ignored the loud warning bells telling her that his bewilderment seemed genuine. She'd spent all afternoon and evening working herself into a frenzy about what she'd seen and convincing herself she was right about her conclusions. Now she was only irritated by his insistence on playing innocent.
"The key!" she snapped. "I saw you hand her your room key! I'm aware you have your faults, but to entice a young teenage girl to your room! Because that's all she is, Daniel—a teenager. Are you aware she's only seventeen? Or doesn't her age matter to you?"
Daniel's eyes narrowed dangerously, the blue slits piercing. "Is that what you think? That I would do something like that?"
"It's not hard to think it if I saw it," she insisted, her conviction already waning in the face of the pure, dark anger in his eyes.
He took a deep breath, as though he was trying hard to control his temper. "What you saw, Laura, was me handing Teresa a key I found on the ground in the car park. One of the guests must have dropped it when they went out for the day. I would have come back down to give it to you, but I was already late, and we hadn't exactly been getting along. Teresa happened to be passing." His voice was biting. "Had I realised you would be spying on me and dreaming up a bunch of wild allegations, I would have made the effort to hand it straight to you and saved myself a whole lot of grief."
Laura stood open-mouthed as Daniel's words sank in. She had no doubt he was genuine. No one could act the righteous fury coming from him in waves. She'd made a terrible mistake, and a fool of herself into the bargain. What was happening to her? At school, she needed to keep an open mind to all accusations and assumptions, yet somehow she seemed to have lost all sense of proportion with Daniel.
"So you didn't come here looking for Teresa tonight?"
"Would I bring alcohol to a tender teenager? Oh, sorry, I forgot. You obviously consider me capable of far worse than that."
For the first time, Laura registered the two glasses of wine he was holding. "Daniel, I'm sorry," she said with genuine apology. "I've been so tired lately. I've not been sleeping well and I'm not thinking straight. That's no excuse, of course. I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. It's just that I know Teresa has a crush on you and when I saw you hand her the key . . ." Her voice trailed away, acutely embarrassed. "Teresa means a lot to me. She's sheltered here and naïve for her age. I'm sorry. Truly."
To her relief, Daniel's expression softened a fraction, and there was a long moment as he seemed to weigh up what he wanted to say. "I'm not happy that you could even think that of me," he finally said. "But you're tired. We're both tired." He closed his eyes briefly, as if to prove the point. "I can see how it might have seemed. And I guess trying to protect family is as good a motive as any." He gazed at her long and hard. "Just don't do it again," he ordered gruffly.
When Laura nodded, he held up the glasses he was still holding. "Would you like your wine now? You look as though you need it."
She frowned. "Where did you get those, anyway? You're not even supposed to be in here."
Daniel inclined his head to the back of the room where Maria stood, pretending not to watch them. "Senhora Silva managed to understand my Spanish." He raised a glass in Maria's direction, and she waved back and winked.
Laura sighed in exasperation. "You're both incorrigible! And I'm afraid
