Chapter Twenty
His beautiful wife lay sleeping, her pretty face framed by the burnished cloud of her hair. Her cheeks looked pale and her eyes were slightly puffed, as if she had been crying. A small hand was fisted beneath her chin and her petite figure curled into itself, making her look like a helpless child.
He moved closer to the bed, watching the way her chest rose and fell with each of her shallow breaths.
Leaning forward, his hands framed her face, his long fingers soaking up the warmth in her cheeks.
A heavy knot gathered in his chest as he bent his head and kissed her, a soft, gentle kiss that made her lips curve slightly upward.
His tongue brushed the corner of her mouth in a gentle caress, then swept over her bottom lip, and she began to awaken. He smiled as her eyes slowly opened.
“Ramon…” she whispered sluggishly, “what are you…?” Then she sat bolt upright in the bed.
“Ramon! My God, how did you escape? Uncle Fletcher said they were going to hang you!” She glanced frantically toward the door.
“Dear Lord, you shouldn’t be here. If he finds you here he’ll kill you.
You have to get away!” She swung her legs to the side of the bed and stood up, but Ramon simply caught her against him.
“Easy, Cara, give me a chance to explain.” Big twin pools of green stared into his face, and her cheeks looked even paler than they had when he had first come into the room. She made a soft little sound in her throat and her arms went around his neck. Ramon crushed her tightly against him.
“I was so worried,” she said, trembling in his embrace.
“When my uncle rode in this afternoon, he said they had finally found the stronghold. He said they had captured El Dragón and four of his men, and that Captain Harry Love and Sheriff Layton were taking them to jail in San Juan. He said they were going to hang them three days from now in the square in front of the church.”
“You did not mention my name?”
“No, of course not. I didn’t want them to know I knew who you were.”
He relaxed a little. He hadn’t considered that Carly might inadvertently tell them who he was. Inwardly he scoffed. Angel still had plenty of time for that.
“Tell me what happened,” she said.
Ramon sighed wearily. “The Indian trackers the vigilantes hired discovered the back way into Llano Mirada.”
“Dear God. What happened to the others, to Pedro and Florentia, the women and the children?”
A muscle bunched in his jaw. “Nearly a dozen men were killed. Many of the others were wounded, I am not sure which ones. All of the women and children got safely away. They arrested Pedro and three of the vaqueros from Llano Mirada.”
“What about you? How did you escape?”
“I was not there. By the time I arrived, the fighting was ended. I uncovered the story in bits and pieces from the men I found hiding in the woods. My cousin Angel is the man the gringos believe is El Dragón.”
“Y-your cousin?”
“Si. So far he has let them continue to believe it. Why, I am not sure. I suppose it is fortunate for me that things happened as they did. After I left you that night, I was headed for Llano Mirada. I had some . . unfinished business … with my cousin I wished to attend.”
“You were going after Angel because of me?”
“You thought that once I knew the truth I would let him live?”
“Dear God, Ramon, you can’t just kill him.”
“I could kill him with my bare hands for what he tried to do to you. And for what losing you has done to me.”
She searched his face for long, breathless moments, then she came up on tiptoe, tightening her hold on his neck, and he dragged her fiercely against him, burying his face in her hair. It smelled of cinnamon and roses.
“I had to see you,” he said. “I will be riding out tonight, meeting the men at a place called Arroyo Aguaje. In three days time, the night before the hanging, we will ride into San Juan and set the vaqueros free.”
She drew away from him, stared worriedly into his face. “You can’t do that. Surely they’ll be waiting.”
“I do not think so. They believe the men have scattered, that their leader is in jail. Besides, it does not matter. Pedro and the others are going to hang. I cannot let that happen. With the help of my men, I believe I can free them.”
Carly bit her lip, her eyes wide and searching. “I don’t want you to go. I’m afraid for you, Ramon.”
A corner of his mouth curved up. “Does that mean that you are ready to come home?”
Carly let go of him, took a step away. “How … how are your mother and aunt?” she evaded, uncertainty clear on her face.
He sighed with frustration. “My mother has been ill, but she is fine now. Tia is as she always is, a steady rock for all of us to cling to. Both of them have nagged me without end to stop acting foolish and bring my wife home. In the end, as usual, they were right.”
Her eyes searched his face. “What if I came back and they discovered what happened the night Andreas was killed, that I was the one who sounded the alarm by ringing the bell? Can you imagine the pain it would cause them? How do you think they would feel about me then?”
“They would feel as I do. That what you did was no different from what Two Hawks had to do when he fought the men who attacked his village. You did only what any of us would have done if our home had been threatened. And they do know, Cara. Tia told me they have known since the night of the fandango.”
“They knew?”
“Si. Even I did not know they had heard the story though perhaps I should have guessed. Tia worried in some way that was part of the reason you did not return with me from Monterey. I did not tell her it was my cruelty, my prejudice that was keeping you away.”
Her head came up, golden lamplight shining on her fiery auburn hair. His body stirred at the shapely curves outlined beneath her thin white nightgown.
“You speak of the past so lightly,” she said.
“But it is more important than that. Have you considered that if I came back, sooner or later, there would be children? Mixed blood children, Ramon, part Anglo, part Spanish. How would you feel about that? Would you love them less because their mother was a gringa?”
He moved toward her, gently gripped her shoulders.
“Madre de Dios, I cannot believe I have done this to you—made you doubt the very heart of me. Do you really believe I would not love our children? Santo de Christo, I cannot imagine a sweeter, more beautiful child than a little girl like her mother. Or a son with your courage and strength.”
A sheen of tears appeared in her eyes. She blinked and pushed them away. “I’m not courageous, I’m a coward. I’m frightened that if I come back I might lose you again, and if I did, I wouldn’t be able to bear it.”
He pulled her back into his arms, kissed her eyes, her nose, pressed a soft kiss on her mouth.
“You will not lose me. I have made mistakes, but I am not a stupid man. I will not make those same mistakes again. I love you. If you will come home, I will prove how much every day for the rest of our lives.”
The wetness reappeared. A single tear slid down her cheek. “I need time, Ramon. I keep hearing those things you said, those terrible names you called me. I keep thinking—”
“Do not say it. I know the kind of man I am. I know that I can be ruthless, at times I can even be cruel. I have learned to be as I am, but it is not truly my way.” He raked his hands through his hair, his muscles taut with frustration mixed with rising desire.
“I am not saying I am an easy man to live with. I know I have a very bad temper and I can be arrogant at times.”
A corner of her mouth curved faintly. “Yes, you can be quite arrogant at times.”
“Am I really so bad, Cara?”
She looked into his eyes, seemed to probe deeply inside him. “You’re obstinate and overbearing. You’re demanding and nearly insatiable in bed. And you’re the most wonderful man I’ve ever known.”
“Cara…” His heart expanded with love for her.
He wanted to carry her over to the bed, to take her as he had the last time he had been there.
He wanted to bury himself in her tight, damp heat, to feel her trembling beneath him.
He wanted to claim her, possess her, make her admit that she was his.
Instead he ignored the pulsing in his loins and forced his mind to think of the reason he had come.
“I will be back for you as soon as I have freed the men. When I do, I will not let you refuse me, even if I have to carry you away.”
She cupped his cheek in her palm and he felt the trembling of her hand. “Be careful, Ramon. I wouldn’t want to live if you were killed.”
He drew her against him and kissed her with savage force, thrusting his tongue into her mouth, claiming her as his. She belonged to him and he wanted her to know it. “I will come back for you,” he said in a voice gone rough, “I swear it.”
He wished he could stay, but his men were depending on him.
He shouldn’t even have come, but he’d had to see her one last time.
The plan he intended was bold and dangerous.
The odds were greatly against him. Yet his friends’ lives depended upon him, and he meant to save them if he could.
He kissed her again, quick and hard, then crossed the room, went over the sill, and slipped quietly to the ground.
In minutes he had disappeared into the darkness.
If he rode hard, he would reach the cave at Arroyo Aguajes by midday tomorrow. The others were there, he knew, word had come through one of his vaqueros. Just as a message had arrived from Alejandro de Estrada, telling him his efforts in finding the old church records had all been in vain.
After examining the documents, the Land Commission refused to alter their findings. They would not reopen the case. There was no legal way, Don Alejandro’s missive said, the de la Guerras could win back Rancho del Robles.