He had the grace to redden. ‘I may have spoken hastily. Catalina has given me a full account of your evening, including the fact that she pressured you into buying that erotic dress.’

‘It’s not erotic,’ she said quickly, drawing the edges of the grey woolly together.

‘If it wasn’t erotic, you wouldn’t be wearing that thing over it.’

‘I’m surprised you believed Catalina,’ Maggie said, hastily changing tack. ‘Surely you know that under my influence she tells lies?’

‘She’s told lies since she was a little girl,’ Sebastian admitted wryly. ‘You have nothing to do with it. Besides, I always know when she’s lying, and this time she wasn’t.’

‘When did she tell you all this?’

‘In the cab, half an hour ago.’

‘Oh, that’s what she was saying. I was half asleep and just heard her voice distantly. And, of course, your replies. I could tell you were simply fascinated.’

He gave her a black look. ‘It’s true I don’t take easily to the prattling of children,’ he said defensively.

‘Well, you’d better get used to it, if you’re going to marry her.’

‘Can we stick to the matter in hand?’

‘That’s easy. You say, “Come to Spain”; I say, “No way.” End of conversation. What do you want me for, anyway?’

‘I’m Catalina’s guardian as well as her fiancé. From tomorrow she will be living in my house. She must have a chaperone.’

‘In this day and age?’

‘Spain is not England. Our belief in propriety may seem a little old-fashioned to you, but it’s important to us. I hope that you’ll change your mind, for her sake. She’ll need a female companion in the last weeks before our marriage.’

Something constrained in his manner caught Maggie’s attention and a suspicion crept into her mind. ‘I see what it is,’ she said. ‘Propriety, my foot! You want me to keep her occupied so that you won’t have to listen to her chattering.’