Seventeen
“Well, there is your ranch, amigo. Safe and sound,” Antonie said quietly.
She had sensed Royal’s and his family’s growing tension as they had neared the ranch. Although all their neighbors had assured the Bancrofts that they would keep an eye on things, the ranch had been left mostly defenseless for months. The victory of getting the cattle sold would have been severely diminished if they had come back to find only ashes.
“Let’s just hope that everyone in it is, too,” Royal murmured as he spurred his horse down the small rise where they had stopped.
A grinning Old Pete greeted them as they reined in before the house and quickly made Maria’s boys, Sancho and Carlos, see to the horses and the gear. Royal and the rest of the party had barely stepped inside the house when Maria and Rosa rushed to greet them.
“Darling!” called an elegant female voice. “I am so glad to see you back safe and sound. How lucky it was that I chose to stop by today.”
Lucky was not the word Antonie would have chosen as she leaned against the stairpost and watched Marilyn rush into a startled Royal’s arms. The only thing that kept her jealousy in check was the look of helpless embarrassment Royal sent her even as Marilyn kissed him. His swiftness in ending the embrace also pleased her. She had no idea of what, if anything, Royal had decided to do about Marilyn, but she was glad to see that he was at least trying not to play both sides of the fence.
“You’ve been coming here?” Royal asked as he disentangled himself from Marilyn’s embrace.
“Of course, darling. I told you I would watch out for everything.”
Antonie choked back a laugh when Maria rolled her eyes heavenward.
“Now,” Marilyn continued blithely, “I can assure you that your homecoming will run smoothly. We can talk while Maria and that girl heat the water for your bath. There’s so much that happened while you were gone.”
“Couldn’t it wait? Look, why don’t you go home and—”
“Nonsense, dear. I can help.”
Seeing that it was going to take him a while to extract himself from Marilyn, Royal looked at Antonie. “Why don’t you go and have your bath, Antonie?”
“Are you saying that I stink, amigo?”
“You smell about as good as I do.”
“Ai yi yi. You’d best heat enough water for three baths, Maria,” Antonie said, and laughing at the mock glare Royal sent her, dashed up the stairs.
Even as she entered her room, she heard the others hurriedly deserting Royal. Antonie thought sadly that, if Royal did wed Marilyn, the house would lose a great deal of its friendliness. Royal would find that his family would begin to drift away, and she knew that that would hurt him. She shook away that distressing thought and started to get ready for the bath she knew would soon arrive.
Watching Maria closely as the woman filled the tub, Antonie wondered just how often Marilyn had come around. Marilyn did seem to act as if she had free rein over Royal’s home, and Maria had to find it an ordeal to constantly swallow the woman’s attitudes and the deriding of all the work Maria did.
“I don’t think Royal would fire you if you just told that woman to shut her mouth,” Antonie said quietly.
“I am not sure if he would or not,” Maria replied, “but there would be some trouble and it is not worth it.”
Slipping into the water with a sigh of pleasure, Antonie looked at Maria, who was gathering up her dirty clothes. “Is there a good doctor in the area?”
“You are ill?” Maria asked fretfully.
“I am not sure.”
“How can you not be sure?”
“It comes and goes.”
“Oh? You tell me. I have seen a lot of sickness and do a little doctoring. Maybe it is a thing I have seen.”
“Well, I would prefer talking to you. The doctor is a man, eh?” Maria nodded. “This is a female trouble I think.”
“Ah, sí, sí. You do not want to talk to a man about such things.” Maria sat on the bed. “You tell me. It hurts bad? You bleed too much maybe?”
“Right now I do not bleed at all. I did not think on that until the ride home. I was worried about the other things, but then I remembered that I did not bleed once on the drive. Then I think these things are all connected, sí?”
“What other things?”
“I am so tired. A lot am I tired. Always I wake up quick and alert, but no more. It is so hard to get out of bed.” Antonie shook her head. “And if I get up too quick I feel sick, and my head, how it swims. It takes time to go away.” Worried by the odd look on Maria’s face, Antonie asked nervously, “I have heard that a growth can stop a woman’s flow. Do you think I have one of these?”
“Oh, a growth,” Maria choked out and then started to laugh. “Por Dios, a growth, eh?”
“Maria? Maria, this is not funny. What is wrong with me?”
“Wait, wait,” Maria gasped, struggling to stop laughing.
“I was not finished. I think it is bad,” Antonie said weakly as Maria started to calm down. “My stomach moves. It wiggles.” She was dismayed when that only caused Maria to start laughing again. “I could be dying and you laugh.”
“Oh, chica, forgive me,” Maria said as she moved to the side of the tub and briefly hugged Antonie, but she still shook with an occasional chuckle. “Stand up, chica. Sí, sí. Not so slim here now, eh?” she murmured as she put her hands on Antonie’s waist. “Ah,” she sighed as she rested her hand on Antonie’s stomach. “There is the wiggle. Sí, a strong one.”
As she sank back down into the water, Antonie asked shakily, “You know what is wrong with me?”
“Sí. You are with child.”
“A baby?”
“Sí. The patrón’s baby.”
“The baby wiggles?”
“A strong child.”
Antonie was stunned. Placing her hand over her stomach, she felt the movement from the outside as well as the inside. A baby had been the last thing she had thought of but, as the knowledge took hold, a deep sense of joy flooded her.
“A baby.”
“Sí, chica. How is it you could not know?”
“No one told me about babies. Juan got a woman to tell me about bleeding, but not until I had started and thought I was dying. She did not tell me much, although she did say it had to do with babies. She wanted to get away from us, I think. She was frightened. Otherwise, no one told me anything. I was raised by men.”
“Sí. They would not think to tell you. Now, I am wondering when we will see this baby. When did your bleeding stop?”
“Why, when I got here,” Antonie said in some surprise. “At least, I think so. The last time I can remember clearly was when I took care of Juan after the rangers shot him. I was bleeding then. Since then? No, I do not think so.”
“Ah, so soon. It was after then that you got with child. Maybe even the first time you lie with the patrón. Six months, maybe less, maybe a little more.” Maria shrugged.
“But I am not very fat. Ladies with child get fat.”
“Some. Some do not. Soon it will show. Maybe only a little, maybe a lot. A first baby does not always round the belly too quick, eh? Slide up. Rosa has just set more hot water outside the door, and I think your bath cools.”
By the time Maria had added the extra hot water, Antonie had come to a decision. “Maria?”
“Sí?”
“You are to say nada.”
“Sí, nada. It is for you to tell the patrón.”
“Or not.”
“Not tell the patrón?” Maria gasped. “You must tell him about his own baby.”
“It is my baby too.”
“Sí, so you will marry.”
“Will we?”
“He wants that woman no more.”
“He does not want her for now.” She smiled crookedly when Maria’s expression changed from stubbornness to concern. “Even if he decides he does not want to wed her, that does not mean that he wants to wed me. I must think about this, study this problem. It is not simple. No, not simple. So, say nada to anyone, Maria.”
Maria finally nodded in agreement, but Antonie knew that it was a reluctant concession. When she left, Antonie relaxed in the hot water, slowly closing her eyes. Although she was happy about the baby, she ruefully admitted that she did not need yet another thing to worry about and, depending on how things worked out with her and Royal, a child could be a very large worry indeed. There were now new decisions to make and several new possible futures to contemplate.
A cool draft touched her shoulders and she gradually opened her eyes. The dark look on Royal’s face changed quickly when his gaze came to rest on her. She briefly wondered what had annoyed him as her body immediately responded to the desire that brightened his eyes. Stretching languorously in the tub, she smiled an invitation and laughed gently when he began to hurriedly shed his clothes.
* * *
Antonie lifted her head from Royal’s chest to glance down the bed toward the tub. “There is a lot of water on the floor,” she murmured.
He playfully nuzzled her neck, making her giggle, then lightly slapped her backside before gently pushing her aside and sitting up. “And all my clean clothes are in the other room.”
Her modesty returned, now that her passion was momentarily sated. Antonie clutched the sheet to her breasts as she sat up. “There is a spare towel. Wrap that around you. I will mop up this mess.”
After giving her a brief kiss, he rose and fetched the towel. “I’m torn between staying here and starving.”
“I will help you decide. I am hungry.”
Laughing quietly, he started out of the room. “Then you’d better get dressed quick. I reckon dinner’s being served right now.”
As Antonie entered the dining room she realized that neither of them had mentioned Marilyn. She was relieved to see that the woman was gone. When Justin made a comment about Marilyn, Royal’s answer was vaguely curt. He then skillfully and rapidly changed the subject. Although Antonie was not particularly eager to discuss the woman, she was curious about what had put Royal into such an odd mood. She decided that, as soon as they returned to their room, she would ask.
Maria was thrilled to hear about Oro’s and Patricia’s marriage plans and the evening was spent planning the wedding. Antonie noticed that Royal was careful to go over the guest list person by person, and that he pressed Maria for an explanation each time she seemed at all cautious and hesitant. It was clear to Antonie that Royal wanted to try and avoid any chance of unpleasantness at his sister’s wedding. She was not sure he would be able to, however, for some of the worst bigots were his closest neighbors and had been the Bancrofts’ friends for years. In trying to avoid the chance of a shadow touching Patricia’s wedding day, Royal could easily offend some of the more important people in the area.
“Invite them,” Oro said quietly. When Royal had rejected the Collinses, another prominent family.
“Oro, you know what they’re like.” Royal sighed and shook his head.
“Sí. Mexicans are dirt and breeds are even worse. De nada.”
“They could get pretty nasty.”
“No, they probably will get pretty nasty. That does not trouble me. If you do not invite them, that could be trouble for you, eh? So, ask them. If they do not come, the insult is theirs, not yours. This is better.”
After a moment of deep thought, Royal nodded. He silently hoped that the Collinses would not come, but at least everyone would know that he had delivered no insult to the family, that he had not excluded them from an important family occasion. If they did choose to come as did others with similar prejudices, Royal just hoped that they had the common decency and good manners to keep those prejudices silent. Patricia would eventually have to face those attitudes, but not on her wedding day.
Inwardly, he shook his head, afraid that Patricia did not truly understand the trouble she was courting. It was going to take a lot of strength and a lot of love to survive the darts of far too many bigots and there could be far worse than nasty words flung at the couple. With that in mind, he kept Patricia with him when everyone began to drift off to bed.
When they were finally alone, he began carefully, “Pattie, about this marriage . . .”
“You can’t change your mind now,” she protested. “I’m marrying Oro.”
“I’m not changing my mind. Calm down.”
“You’re thinking of changing mine though, aren’t you?”
“Only if you want it changed. Just listen for a minute.”
“Okay, I reckon I can listen.”
“I like Oro. He’s a good man. I also don’t believe in holding a man’s blood, religion, or relatives against him. I’m one of few though, honey. In that one slim man there’s Mexican, Indian, and a bandido heritage. That’s three separate things that can rouse up a hell of a lot of hatred.”
“Well, not many know who his father was,” Patricia said with defiance in her voice.
“True, and the few that do know won’t yap about it. It’s there though, and it could easily come out, become widely known. There’s never been a chance to hide the Mexican and Yaqui mix.”
“Everybody’s talked about it, Royal. Tomás, Antonie, Maria, and Oro. They’ve all told me about the prejudices.”
He gently grasped her by the shoulders. “They told you, but do you really understand? Once you marry him this family might be the only ones who’ll speak to you. There’ll be a lot of people snubbing you, pretending they don’t see you, that you’re beneath their notice. There’ll be nasty remarks. Some folks’ll think you are a whore for marrying him. Three cowhands thought Antonie could be treated as one just because she wore a Mexican dress. Those pretty manners you’re so used to won’t be around anymore.
“And Oro may be treated worse. Oh, some of it’ll come from petty jealousy. The men who were after you won’t like it at all, because he’s supposed to be beneath them, yet you chose to marry him, so what the hell does that make them? There might be fights, maybe even a shoot-out or two. People are going to hate him even more for crossing the line that they drew.”
Even though he could see the tears swimming in her eyes, he hardened himself to them and pressed on. “What about your children? They’ll hear it, too. There’ll be folks who won’t let them near their kids. They’ll have to suffer the hate, too.
“You’d better like that piece of land you’ve got, because you might not leave it much. It’ll probably be the only real safe and peaceful place you can find, save this house, and that just might be because it abuts this place. There won’t be any invitations anymore.”
“I don’t care. I love Oro and our children will love him and be loved.”
“It had better be a strong love, darling. It’s going to take a lot of beating.”
“It’s strong. It survived Oro being nasty to me, nearly vicious. It survived him going to the saloons and coming home stinking of those girls. It survived Antonie and my thinking they were lovers. I think it can survive the pettiness of people who aren’t worth knowing anyhow. I’ll have Maria, Rosa, and the permanent hands like Old Pete. I’ll have Oro’s family—Antonie and Tomás. I’ll have my brothers. I’ll have Oro and the family we’ll build. That’s more than enough for anybody.”
He hugged her and kissed her cheek. “All right, honey. The whole family will be behind you and that’s no small thing. Even with the troubles we’ve been having, we’re no small power around here.”
* * *
Antonie watched Royal closely when he slipped into her room. He looked worried yet oddly satisfied. Even though it was a family matter, she could not restrain her curiosity. In a way, it was her business, too, for Oro was her family.
“You had a talk with Patricia about Oro?” she asked as he slid into bed and pulled her into his arms.
“In a way. I tried to tell her about prejudice. It seems she’s heard it before.”
“Sí. We have all talked to her.”
“So she said. Well, I talked some more. I tried to make her see how it will be. The snubbings, the isolation, the insults. I told her how it could all be directed toward her children. Told her how Oro might well be in fights. I even said she might find that we’re the only ones who’ll have anything to do with her, and that that patch of land might be the only place she’ll see, well, besides here.”
“Did she listen?”
“Yes, but she didn’t falter.”
“Did you want her to?”
“Hell, I don’t know. I like Oro. I want Patricia to be happy. Yet, it’s going to be hard, real hard.”
“Sí. Now she will taste the hate.”
“I know and I’m afraid of what it’ll do to her,” Royal said with sadness.
“A lot of people taste the hate and it does not change the good that is inside them. Look at Maria.”
“True but then Maria’s never been the belle of the town. If she married a man like Oro, her whole life wouldn’t change.”
“So Patricia makes a new life. Her life becomes Oro, the land, and their family. She will be loved. Oro knows what is to come. He will watch and protect her and he will soothe the hurts with love. It will not be easy, but I do not think it will break her.”
“She said she’d be all right, that she’d have Oro, his family, her family, and the folks here. She said that’d be enough, that the ones who turned away or turned nasty were not worth knowing anyways.”
“Ah, she has seen the truth. She will be fine. And,” she smiled, “she will have pretty babies. Maria says so. It made Maria very sad to think Patricia and Oro could not be married.”
“I can’t help being a little insulted that you all thought it had to be hidden from me.”
“She is your only sister, querido, the only daughter of a rich Anglo rancher. Even Maria did not feel sure about it.”
“Yes, and maybe some of that’s my own fault,” Royal agreed reluctantly. “I’ve turned a deaf ear to Marilyn’s nastiness, let the woman treat Maria badly. I’m going to put a stop to that.”
“I told Maria to tell Marilyn to shut her mouth,” Antonie confessed.
“Good idea.”
“But Maria was unsure. She was afraid you would fire her.”
“Fire Maria? That’s absurd. Her father and my father worked together to build this place. Her family’s as much a part of the ranch as the Bancrofts are. Hell, she’s family. You don’t fire family,” Royal said in growing anger.
“You tell her that. She will be glad to know. She wants to tell Marilyn to shut her mouth and get out of her kitchen. If she is sure you won’t fire her, then she might not care if it causes a little bit of trouble. It must be hard to have that woman come into the kitchen to tell poor Maria she is not doing right what she does so well.”
“And Marilyn does just that. I never noticed just how much she acts as if she owns this place. It hit me squarely when we arrived to find her here. It’s also making things awkward.”
“Awkward?”
“Yes. I started to wonder about her and everybody’s expectations when we started keeping company.”
“Wonder what?” she asked in a low voice as she began to move her hands over his lean body.
“Whether I was getting pushed into a corner that I was going to wish I’d have the sense to get out of.” He tightened his hold on her. “But I don’t want to talk about that now.”
“No? What do you want to talk about?”
“About how you’re going to ravish me until I collapse from exhaustion.”
As she slid her fingers up his thigh and trailed them tantalizingly over his groin, she murmured, “I do not think I know how to ravish a man.”
“Well, you just give it a try and I’ll let you know how you’re doing.”
At first Antonie played the game warily, shy and unsure about her ability to be the one in full control of their lovemaking. The other times she had been aggressive were when their emotions had run high. His approval and evident delight erased that uncertainty. She grew daring, trying things she had imagined in the midst of her erotic daydreams. When he tried to equalize their positions, she deterred him. She found her passion stirred more than sufficiently by making love to him. For as long as she could, she held them both at the razor’s edge of completion. As she collapsed in his arms, she wondered if he could possibly feel more sated and wrung out than she did.
It was a long time before Royal regained his power of speech. He had never known a passion like what he had found with her. Even his toes tingled, he thought, a slow grin forming on his lips. She was the best he had ever known and he became surer each time he held her that he would be the greatest of fools if he let her go.
“Not bad,” he said, drawing out each word.
Antonie lifted her head from its comfortable resting place on his chest to frown at him. “Only not bad?”
“Well, let’s put it this way, in a couple of weeks you can try again.”
“A couple of weeks?”
“Yes, I oughta be recovered enough to live through it by then.”
Laughing gently, she curled up in his arms, getting comfortable, ready to fall asleep. “You should be more careful about making such challenges, mi vida.”
“Ah, I see. Well, it was a hard ride here and the next few days will be busy, eh?”
“Very busy. A wedding takes a lot of planning.”
When a few minutes had passed and he said nothing else, Antonie lifted her head to look at him. She smiled softly when she saw that he had fallen asleep. Sympathy filled her as she saw how the worry lines did not fully leave his face even when it was relaxed in sleep. Instead of coming home from the hell of the war to find peace, he had come home to another fight. She knew it was no longer her promise to Juan that drove her to help Royal see an end to the troubles that plagued him.
That end would have to come soon, she thought wryly, as the baby in her womb moved. Soon the child would force her to step back from the battle, could even force her to leave. She was rather surprised that Royal had not suspected her condition, but he could well be as ignorant as she had been. He was also weighed down with so many troubles that he had no time to notice that anything lurked on the horizon. He had been unaware of the truth about Patricia and Oro, and he could easily be blinded to the signs that indicated he would soon be a father.
She sighed and settled herself comfortably again, closing her eyes. A decision was going to have to be made soon. Maria had said that the child would soon round her belly and even a distracted Royal would notice that. Antonie did not want her few choices to be decided by the confrontation that would result if Royal did guess her condition.
Of course the perfect solution would be if Royal decided he wanted her for a wife before he knew she carried his child, but Antonie knew that little in life was perfect. In what little time remained, she had to get a clear idea of how Royal felt about her. If all he felt for her was a fever of the body and a sense of duty, she would return to Mexico.