BOOK 3

'He has offered for you^ Isabella, and he is our neighbour. When you marry him, our family holdings will be joined. Your children will inherit a great deal of land.'

*I don't have any children. And we don't need any more land.' Isabella heard her voice rising in panic. Her father had an obsession with expanding his estates. In his youth, he had been a middle-class salesman, but over the years he had gradually built up his holdings until now he was a very wealthy man—a man the country's leading families could no longer ignore. He didn't need more land, but he thought he did. He said it was to provide security for his wife and six daughters, but Isabella knew that he was the one who needed to feel secure.

'You will have children with Jose,' Diego explained, as if he were talking to a child who thought babies were mailed special delivery from the baby factory.

'Ugh! But I can't bear him near me. Father, please. I don't love him. I don't even like him—'

'Enough.' Diego held up his hand. 'L