Still, as her gaze drifted around the room, it was a shock to Ginny to see Jim Bishop in attendance, and she had the inescapable feeling that Rafael Luna had known he would be there.
“Is this my answer?” she murmured just before Bishop reached her side, and heard Luna laugh softly.
“General Luna,” Bishop acknowledged with his usual imperturbable smile, “and, of course, it is always pleasant to see you again, Mrs. Morgan. Or should I call you Señora Alvarado?”
Relief flooded her, and she was almost giddy with it as she greeted Bishop, edging away from Luna, who let her go without a murmur. There was a slightly hysterical edge to her laughter as she said, “Mr. Bishop! Perhaps I should not be so surprised to see you here, but I am. You have met General Luna, I see, and you must know President Díaz. Why, it sounds as if I’m babbling, when I am only glad to see you again….”
“May I speak with you privately? I am certain that the general will not mind, will you?”
Jim Bishop gave her his colorless smile, nodded to Rafael Luna and steered Ginny to an alcove half-hidden by a huge potted palm.
“I am glad to see you safe,” he said before she could speak, “for everyone has been worried about you. You are well, are you not?”
“No, but now is not the time or the place to confide to you all the details, except that you must rescue me from Rafael Luna!”
“Yes, I rather thought you looked unhappy.” He gave a discreet cough. “It was reported that you were in his company willingly. I had to be certain, you understand. You’ll not have to go with him, I’ll see to it.”
Ginny grasped his arm, her tone urgent. “Steve is in a prison somewhere! You must find him. General Luna may know where he is. Oh, you have to find him, Mr. Bishop, before Luna gets to him. He hates Steve, and wants to kill him!”
“I don’t think we’ll have to worry about that. No, don’t look at me that way, and please, if you will, keep your voice down. It has come to my attention that Steve has already freed himself, and should soon be in Mexico City.”
Her knees began to quiver, and the hand she had put on his arm trembled as she said, “He is safe?”
“As safe as a man like him can ever be.”
“Why, Mr. Bishop, is that humor I hear?” She smiled, nearly giddy with relief. A trace of a smile touched Bishop’s thin lips, slightly warming his gray eyes as he regarded her.
“That is a most interesting gown, Mrs. Morgan.”
“Yes.” The swift glance she shot Luna was filled with loathing. “It was suggested I wear it this evening.”
Bishop merely nodded, not asking any embarrassing questions, and Ginny wondered if he had known about Luna all along. It would be just like him, to wait until the time was convenient for his own plans before he interfered!
“I think it would be wise if you were to leave very soon,” Bishop said. “I will have one of my most trusted men escort you home.”
“Oh, yes, I would like to leave as soon as possible,” she said in a low voice, “but there is the matter of General Luna…. If he decides that I cannot, he is not above creating an embarrassing scene and making trouble.”
“I will see to all the details, and deal with General Luna myself—unless it becomes unnecessary.” Bishop’s attention was suddenly directed over her shoulder, and she knew him well enough now to recognize his abruptly altered tone as a clear sign of perturbation.
Ginny, half-afraid that Rafael had come up behind her, set her chin in a defiant slant and turned, steeling herself for a public confrontation that would only be humiliating. It was the final degradation, but it would be behind her and she would be free of him!
Luna stood behind her, elegant and saturnine, his handsome face a mask to hide his cruelty. But he was not facing her and Bishop, his back turned to them as he looked toward the front of the room. His frame vibrated with an intensity that was so thick it was almost palpable. She recoiled slightly, fear coursing through her veins though she knew he could not hurt her here, not in front of Bishop and the crowded palace.
Yet her heart pounded painfully against her rib cage, and she felt Bishop stiffen beside her as Luna took a step to one side, his hand sliding beneath the edge of his black coat as if to draw a weapon. Ginny had the wild thought that Luna meant to force her to go with him after all, that she would not escape him…
“No!” she hissed between her teeth, and felt rather than saw Bishop’s swift glance at her. “I will not allow him to take me again!”
The walls seemed to shrink around her and the world closed in. The cacophony of noise escalated and receded in a blur of indecipherable noise and words so that she was only vaguely aware of Bishop reaching out for her, of his restraining hand on her arm. She shook it off, the urge to flee so strong and intense that she felt like a wild animal backed into a cage. Ginny moved swiftly to one side.
“Señora Alvarado,” Bishop said in a warning tone, and she gave him a blindly panicked glance. His eyes were colorless, his tone unruffled, but the warning punctured her brief panic and she paused.
And then, somehow, she knew. Steve Morgan was there in the president’s palace.
31
It was, Steve thought with a trace of irony, a reminder of all the other times he’d found his wife on the arm of another man. But that she was here tonight with Rafael Luna was infuriating—and dangerous. Damn Ginny!
When he arrived, he had seen them across the room, a group of men leering at Ginny while Luna caressed her. She had not
