Treasure of the Sun (27 page)

Control failed. Grabbing the collar of the fine green coat, Damian lifted the dandy to his toes. "Let me spell it out. I stand beside Katherine." He held the young man there, nose to nose, until Lawrence wilted inside his clothes. Letting him go, Damian dusted his fingers under Lawrence's nose, adding, "My good man.”

"Very well." Lawrence straightened his vest. "We need to negotiate. Is there a place where we can have privacy?" He swept his gaze around the town in disdain, but his dignity was blemished as he pulled his top hat lower. The brim rested on his large, freckled ears.

"It shouldn't blow of now," Damian commented. Lawrence looked at him sharply, and Damian gestured towards the alcalde’s home. "That would be the best place for us to, er, negotiate."

He put his hand under Katherine's arm and led her back to the place they'd just left, the place where they'd been married. Lawrence stalked along beside them, but well of to the side, as if contact would contaminate him.

"Where did you come from, Lawrence?" Katherine asked.

"From that ship." He pointed toward the harbor and she turned to look. The top of the mast was visible beyond the presidio, beside the mast of the vessel she would have taken back to Los Angeles.

That vessel was moving out to sea with leisurely majesty. Her sharp pinch on Damian's arm made him yelp, and she said with keen curiosity, "When did you find time to send a message to the captain to leave?"

There wasn't a good answer, Damian knew. Not one thing he said would appease her pique, so he shrugged and told the truth. "I told Senora Zollman that the captain could set forth at his will."

She stuck out her chin. "The next ship I try to board will be captained by a man not influenced by bribes."

"The next ship you try to board-" Damian began. Lawrence’s smirk stopped him. Airing their disagreements before Lawrence destroyed the appearance of a unified front, and he could see by Katherine's pained look she knew it, too. He tapped at the alcalde's door and entered on the welcoming call.

The alcalde and his wife looked up in astonishment to see the newlyweds returning.

"If you've come for an annulment, I must tell you it's too soon," Alcalde Diaz joked in Spanish.

"Not an annulment, Alcalde," Damian said, also in Spanish.

"Permission for a murder. This is one of my wife's relatives, and a troublemaker to boot."

They laughed, and Senora Diaz asked, "Have all Dona Katherine's relatives come to live with you?"

"Not yet." Damian sighed in mock relief.

Alcalde Diaz agreed, "Ah, yes, at least the rest of your in-laws are far away. You could be blessed with a large family of-" His wife raised a hand to him.

"-lovely in-laws. My dear, what did you think I would say?" His wife scolded and Katherine held the door of the parlor, still decorated with the flowers of her wedding. Her offended cousin, who suspected they were all laughing at him, stalked ahead of her.

"I don't know why these people can't speak English," he fussed.

"Because they're in Mexican territory?" Katherine suggested.

"Because they were raised speaking Spanish? Perhaps you'll learn some of the language while you're here."

"Oh, please." He lifted a bilious green pocket handkerchief to his nose. ''It's easy for you. You always spoke all those queer foreign languages anyway. I had trouble learning enough Latin to pass my law courses. I hope I won't be here long."

"Did you plan to sail back on the ship you came in on?" she queried, seating herself on one of the fragile parlor chairs.

"We can sail on it." He kept one eye on Damian, who had taken up a station beside the door with his arms crossed over his chest.

She waved Lawrence into another chair just beside a delicate pedestal graced by a Grecian vase. "Why would I want to return to Boston?"

"Why would you want to return to Boston?" Lawrence's voice rose as he repeated the question, making it sound like the most ludicrous one he'd ever heard. "Why would you want to stay here? This is the outpost of nowhere." He twitched a glance at her protector, but Damian refused to show expression. Lawrence spoke rapidly, hoping to confuse their impassive guard. "There's no learning here, no beauty, no civilization. It's filled with foreigners who babble rudely in some language no normal person could understand. They tell me this burg is the capital, and there aren't even paved streets. There aren't even streets. There probably aren't even lawyers."

This seemed the worst offence, yet Katherine dropped her head and chuckled.

"Oh, Katherine." Lawrence leaned forward and caught her hands. "Have you lost all sense of justice? Don't you see that if there were lawyers in this godforsaken hamlet, that hooligan over there would never have dared to lay hands on me? On me -Lawrence Cyril Chamberlain."

"I've never lost my sense of justice, Lawrence." She wrested her hands free. "But what the law has to do with justice, I have yet to understand." While Lawrence digested that, she asked, "Why have you come? It's a long sea voyage to undertake, and when I left Boston Uncle Rutherford and Aunt Narcissa made it clear I was never to return. Why are you here?"

"Ah. Well. That." Lawrence sat up straight, rearranged his cuffs, and recited in rapid detail. "'The Chamberlain family cannot ignore their Christian duty, regardless of the ingratitude and deception that Katherine has visited on us. Katherine is, after all, the daughter of Father's only brother, and our ward. The Chamberlain family knows that she's undoubtedly run into trouble.' And you have, haven't you?" He beamed at her as if she'd fulfilled a marvelous prophesy, then switched back to his garbled accusations. " 'Katherine can no longer ignore the debt she owes us, and she'll return gratefully to live in our home for the rest of her days.' There!" He relaxed against the back support, put his elbows on the arms of the chair, and steepled his fingers.

Unimpressed, Katherine applauded. "A job well done, Lawrence. Who told you to say all that?"

"It was Mother, of course." He beamed at her. "She always had a way with words, even better than Father, I sometimes think."

"Oh, she did," Katherine agreed. "I'll never forget her way with words." Standing, she brushed her skirt. "You've said your piece now. Will you return to the ship?"

Leaping to his feet, relieved to find his mission so easily accomplished, Lawrence asked, "You'll gather your things, then, and come at once?"

"Not at all. I have no intention of returning with you, but if you like, I'll write a note to my uncle and aunt informing them that their little boy did his duty."

Damian stood at the ready, sure that her insolence would make Lawrence erupt into physical violence. But she knew her cousin. He huffed like a steam engine and took a turn around his chair. He came to stand in front of her, but watched Damian. "Cousin, cousin. You don't understand. You're forgiven. We'll welcome you back into the bosom of our family, just like before."

Evidently something-the expression on her face, his own memory-made him add, "Better than before. We--my sisters and brothers-discussed this. We're older now. We won't all beat you. We'll let you have your own room, on the same floor as my sisters. We're saving you a room. You won't have to stay in that hot little closet. Mother's anxious for you to return, so she had some new clothes made up for you." Uncertain, his gaze swept the jewel-colored dress Damian had presented as a wedding present. "Father's complaining that there's no one who borrows his books anymore. Can you believe he's actually complaining about that?" He rushed on before she could answer. "We've got enough servants now. You won't have to help in the kitchen."

"Do you have enough law clerks, so I don't have to help in the law offices any more?" she asked with asperity.

He shifted uncomfortably. "Of course you don't have to help in the law offices. But you always liked that. Remember? You always found the precedents faster than I could, recited the laws better than I could, and worked up the cases better than I could. You'd want to help in the law offices." He glanced at her incredulous smile and gulped. "Wouldn't you?"

"Never. I will never bilk another immigrant out of another hard-earned penny as long as I live. I have nightmares about the ones I've already ruined."

"Oh, that's just your father talking," he scoffed.

Pleasure brought a light to her face. "I hope so. Lawrence, this has been a valiant effort on your part, but I'm afraid it's useless. Here I am. Here I remain."

He shifted from one foot to the other. "All right. I didn't want to do it, but let's speak plainly. You have no way to support yourself. As the head of the Chamberlain family in California, I must insist that you break off the liaison with this--" he jerked his head towards Damian "-this Mexican."

"I'm afraid that's not possible."

"Not possible? What you're doing is an abomination to God and man. In polite society, you'd be scorned. Stoned! You'd be stoned." He lifted one finger into the air like a statue of righhteousness. "What will happen when your looks fade? Mother always said you had a cheap kind of beauty, but she also said that blonds age early. Soon this man will drive you from his home and you'll be cast out, bearing a child, no doubt."

"Lawrence." She laid her hand on his upraised arm. "We're married."

Freezing in mid-flight, he stared at her with distaste. "That's impossible."

She waited for the truth to take hold.

"You can't be married. You haven't been widowed for a whole year."

She nodded at him. "I am married."

"You can't be married. What will the family say?"

"That's certainly a consideration."

"Exactly." Noticing her faint air of amusement, he chuckled nervously. "You're joking."

"Not at all. I am married."

"To him?" Pointing, he indicated Damian. Lawrence scrambled for a foothold in the shifting situation. "Well, you can't have been married for long. Could you?"

"We were married this morning," she informed him.

A vast relief made him drop back into his chair. ''There's no problem, then. We'll just get it annulled."

Damian's eyes met Katherine's, and the memory of the alcalde's warning brought simultaneous bursts of laughter.

"Well! Well," Lawrence sputtered.

Katherine laid a calming hand on his knee. "I'm sorry, cousin, but you can't understand."

"I understand you've had no wedding night," he said indignantly. Her hand fell away from his leg. He insisted, "Have you?"

Damian was disgusted to see Katherine drop her head and blush.

Lawrence
leaped up, more upset than he'd ever been by her supposed prostitution. "Oh, that's wonderful. That makes it almost impossible to annul this marriage."

Deciding it was time to step in, Damian said, "Nobody's going to annul my marriage."

"It wasn't approved by Father. Isn't there any respect for familial duty here?" Lawrence asked.

Too much, Damian thought. If this stuffy twerp didn't return to Boston on the next ship, the laws of Californio hospitality stood firmly on his side. As a relative, Lawrence could live at the de la Sola home forever, if he desired. Damian pledged, "I will take care of your cousin to the best of my ability, always."

"Oh, that's it." Red-faced, his freckles stood out. "You've found out how rich the Chamberlain family is. You're going to ask for money. You're nothing but an adventurer."

Relaxing back against the door, Damian struggled with a grin that infuriated Lawrence.

Katherine didn't take the insult to the de la Solas with such blase detachment. "Lawrence, you don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, don't l?" Lawrence waggled his finger before her face.

"This man's an adventurer. Why else would he want you?"

No longer amused, Damian stepped away from the door.

"Watch what you say to my wife."

Caught in a full flight of fancy, Lawrence hadn't the sense to be worried. "I wouldn't be surprised, cousin, if you didn't plan this. A chance to benefit from your connection with the Chamberlain family. You would drag this . . . this parvenu back to Boston with you and blackmail us into keeping him a secret."

"Lawrence, you're treading on thin ice." Katherine clenched her fist. Her scowl would have had Mr. Smith stroking his Adam's apple."  

''It's true, then," Lawrence complained. Every dire thing that Mother ever predicted about you has come true. You’ve married a worthless ne'er-do-well, and look." He pointed to the scarf she'd tied around her throat. "He's already tried to strangle you. Despite Mother's best efforts to nurture you, you've sunk to the depths of your parents."