Chapter Fourteen #4
He stared down at the ground but didn’t seem to see it. “The soldiers … the militia … they came to the village. At first we were only surprised that they were able to find us, since we were so deep in the mountains. Then they started shooting at us.”
Carly’s heart clenched, twisted hard inside her. When the boy looked up at her, a sheen of moisture reflected in his tar-black eyes.
“First they aimed at the men,” he said, “killing any they could see, then they started on the others … the women, even old One Horse and the children. We ran into the woods, but they came after us. I fought with one—killed him with his own knife. I drove it into his skinny chest and I am glad.” His hard expression slid away, turning bleak and forlorn.
“But Lena is dead … and many of the others.”
“Dear Lord,” Carly whispered.
“I did not know what to do. I wandered through the mountains for a while … then I came here.”
“Oh, Two Hawks, I’m so sorry.” She reached for his hand, which was cold and limp, without the slightest spark of life.
“You did right in coming here,” Ramon said, walking up beside her. “You are welcome to stay for as long as you wish.”
The boy did not answer, just swallowed hard and nodded. If he was surprised to find Carly at Las Almas, he didn’t show it. But then his sister had always believed Caralee was Don Ramon’s woman.
Ramon surveyed the boy’s clothes, his battered face and dazed expression. “You will have to work, of course. You can bunk in with the vaqueros.” With those words, the first hint of life came into the young boy’s eyes.
Two Hawks looked up at Ramon. “I will work hard. You will see. Two Hawks will take nothing he has not earned.”
Ramon clamped a hand on the youth’s thin shoulder and gave it a gentle, reassuring squeeze.
“I will make certain you earn your keep. There will be tallow to make into candles, hoeing and weeding to be done in the garden, hogs to butcher … but perhaps later on,” he said, knowing exactly what would lift the boy’s broken spirits, “Mariano can find time to teach you something of the horses.”
The man was Ramon’s segundo now that Pedro had returned to the stronghold. “You would like that, no? To learn the ways of the vaquero?”
Two Hawks’s expression changed, shone with a glimmer of hope. “Si, Don Ramon. I would like that very much.”
“In the meantime,” Carly said, “you can come with me.” She forced a bolstering smile, her heart aching at the loss of the friend she had made in the village and the pain the young boy suffered.
“You’ll need something to wear and I’ll find you something to eat.
” With a glance at Ramon, she led him off toward the outdoor kitchen, certain Blue Blanket would have enough left from breakfast to feed him while she searched out proper clothes.
Along with the food, she also hoped Blue might be of some comfort. That Two Hawks was a Yocuts while Blue was a Mutsen seemed of little importance. The tragedies their people shared made them one as nothing else could.
Leaving the boy in the old woman’s care, she went about her tasks, then returned with the clothes and waited while he went down to the stream to bathe and change.
She smiled as he came walking toward her.
Though the clothes were a little too large for his thin frame, he looked like a different person.
Dressed in buckskin breeches and a white muslin shirt, a pair of scuffed leather boots on his feet, he had washed his coal black hair and bound it behind his neck with a thin leather thong.
“I am ready to work,” he said simply.
“You’ve been through a terrible ordeal, Two Hawks. Why don’t you rest for a while? You can start work in the morning.”
His shoulders sagged and the corners of his mouth sagged down. He forced his head up at Ramon’s approach.
“There is work to do in the corral,” Ramon said.
“Mariano is waiting to show you.” He was the vaquero who had spoken up for her the day she’d heard the men talking about the don’s unwanted marriage.
Carly had a soft spot in her heart for the big rugged man.
Still, the boy was young, and he was grieving.
“I think he should rest,” Carly said. “I told him to—”
“That is your wish, muchacho?” Her husband’s gaze swung to the boy, who looked at him and smiled, the first Carly had seen.
“I wish to work, senor.”
Ramon simply nodded. “Go then. There is much to do. When you have finished, I will take you to meet Bajito. I think perhaps the two of you will get along.”
“Bajito?”
“Si, but not until later. Now go.”
The boy raced off with a spring in his step, his swatch of long black hair bobbing against his back. Carly gazed up at Ramon and realized he had been right.
“He needed to work,” he said with a shrug of his wide shoulders. “It will help him to forget.”
“Yes … and Bajito will be good for him, too. I’m glad you came when you did.”
But she was always glad to see Ramon. Lately he had seemed equally glad to see her. It made her heart swell with love and hope, yet there was always a part of him that he held back. He didn’t love her, but he cared for her.
It was as much as she ever would have had with Vincent.
Somehow with Ramon it wasn’t enough.