Treasure of the Sun (29 page)

She trailed along in his wake until his fit of pique wore itself out. When he dropped back to her side, she said, "I wasn't returning to Boston."

He pulled up his horse so abruptly the animal almost sat down. "What?"

"I wasn't returning to Boston," she repeated obligingly. "I was going to take the ship down to Los Angeles, find a position in one of the houses there-"

Pointing his finger right at her, he insisted, "I don't want to hear another word. When I think I would have gone all the way to your family's home ... " He shook his head as if he couldn't stand it.

"It's all for the best," she said with bracing good humor. She pointed to the sun, dipping low on the horizon. "Where will we spend the night?"

"The Cardona hacienda is nearby. We'll stop there." Her shoulders slumped, but she agreed.

"Don't you like the Cardonas?" he asked anxiously. "They're an older couple, I know, and dull, but they're good friends of my father's."

"It's not that." She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. "But they'll toast our marriage. The meal will be long, and after last night-"

"You're tired. Of course, I'll tell them-"

"What? That we're newlyweds and want to retire early?"

"Ah." He stroked his mustache to conceal a grin. "I see your concern." He looked her over. "Come. I'll tell them we must rise with the chickens, else we'll not arrive home before dark."

"Before dark? We should be at de la Sola rancho by noon."

"I'll tell them you're a delicate woman who demands many rests."

"That's not much better," she pointed out.

"It will have to do."

Julio strode into Monterey's cantina. The hum of conversation halted as the drinkers surveyed the newcomer. Only four tables were occupied, and Julio returned the Spanish greetings from three of them. No one invited him to sit with them; it was a reaction he was used to. The tiny windows kept the afternoon sun from beaming in too brightly, and he stared to identify the occupant of the fourth table. Satisfied, he pulled out a chair and sat. A man hunched over the bar in the darkest corner but he wasn’t the man Julio had come to see.

Lawrence Cyril Chamberlain lifted his sulky face from a glass of brandy. "No one asked you here. What do you want?"

Julio grinned at his rudeness. He settled against the high, hard back and said in English, "I want to help you. Isn't that what you want?"

"With what?"

"With whatever you need done." He leaned close toward Lawrence's face. "This morning, you were talking about your cousin Katherine, and how you'd pay anyone to capture her and put her on the ship to Boston."

Lawrence
's lip stuck out. "Yes, I did."

"Well, I'm a friend of Damian's. A good friend of Damian's."

"So?"

"I could help you."

"If you're such a friend of that Damian's, why would you help me?" Lawrence asked petulantly. "No one else would."

"Because I'm a poor friend of Damian's. Money," he rubbed his fingertips together, "is always welcome."

Lawrence
's voice rose incredulously. "You'd betray your friend for money?"

"Of course. What other reason is there?" Julio asked in surprise.

"Now that's a little more like it." Lawrence slapped his knee.

He winced, lifted his knuckles and examined them. He thrust his hand toward Julio. "Can you see that? Can you see what that animal did to me? He hit me."

Julio squinted to see the injuries that made Lawrence so indignant. "You hurt your hand hitting him back?"

"No," Lawrence said, impatient with such nonsense. "I hurt my hand breaking my fall."

Julio coughed in unaccountable distress, and a few coughs shook the other tables. Julio leaned close to Lawrence again. "Maybe we'd better lower our voices."

Lawrence
looked at the scroungy cantina patrons. "You mean, they speak English?"

"Perhaps. It's likely."

Lawrence
glanced sideways in a parody of caution. "Let's get this clear. You think you can deliver Katherine to me before the ship sails?"

"If not this ship, then the next ship."

"The sooner the better. I want to get out of this backwater."

Julio watched him with a steady gaze, and Lawrence hastily added, "Katherine will, too, once she's away."

"In return, I want money. Gold coin. Half now, half on delivery."

Squinching up his eyes, Lawrence said, "Do you think I'm a fool? You'll take the money and I'll never see you again."

"Fine." Julio rose. "Find someone else to do your dirty work."

Lawrence
caught Julio's sleeve. "Just a minute. Let's talk." When Julio left, he wore a pleasant smile and his pocket jingled. Lawrence stared at the door doubtfully.

From behind him, he heard a deep voice say, "I wonder if you'll ever see good from that money."

Rested, but not satisfied, Katherine rode into the yard of the de la Sola hacienda at noon and dismounted, handing the reins to a stable boy. Don Lucian stood on the porch, a twinkle in his eye. "So, Dona Katherina, you've decided to return to us after all."

She climbed the stairs with a twitch of her skirts and lifted her cheek for his kiss. "Si Papa, I did."

Don Lucian's arms enveloped her in a startled hug. "Papa? Papa? You call me 'Papa?' Damian!" he yelled at his son who stood on the ground below them. "Did you marry this girl?"

"Aren't you pleased?" Damian asked with mock innocence. "Of course I'm pleased. But the wedding! We didn't get to have a wedding. Your mother would spank you." Don Lucian kept his arm around Katherine as he moved to the bench on the porch. With his hand on her shoulder, he urged her to sit, then sat beside her. "Married. Ah, my highest hopes have been fulfilled. My son Damian finally had enough sense to hook the proud Dona Katherina." He slapped his hands on his knees. "I had despaired of the day."

"Nonsense." Katherine was brisk. "It wasn't despair that led you to bribe the ship's captain to stay in Monterey."

Don Lucian looked reproachfully down at Damian. "You didn't have to tell her that."

"I have no need to take responsibility for your sins. Mine are plentiful enough." Damian patted his pockets as though looking for something.

"Need a cigar, Don Damian?" Katherine's voice was sharp. Ignoring her, Damian leaned against the porch rail with an expression of disdain.

Don Lucian almost grinned. He recognized a first fight when he saw it. "Best to get it out of the way," he remarked into the atmosphere. He turned to Katherine. "You aren't going to hold a message to the captain against me, are you?"

"No," she admitted with reluctance.

He exuded jocularity. "I'm your father-in-law now, soon to be the grandfather of your children."

She leaped to her feet. "So I hear."

Fleeing into the house, she left an astonished Don Lucian staring after her. "What was that about?"

Damian mounted the steps, his boots ringing out. "We stopped at the Cardonas' last night."

"So?"

"Katherine was tired, and not for the reasons you think." His father laughed softly.

Damian stiffened. "Madre de Dios, Papa, don't let her hear you."

"Already you're under her thumb." Don Lucian put his hand over his mouth to stifle the sound of his mirth.

"To release her from our social obligations, I told the Cardonas we would have to leave early, that Katherine was so delicate she'd have to have frequent rests to arrive here by sunset. I forgot that they'd seen her working at the fiesta and wouldn't accept that. By the time we left this morning, it was clear they believed Katherine to be in the family way."

The sounds from behind Don Lucian's hand grew louder, and Damian eyed him with disgust.

"I tried to tell them the truth, but it just made it worse. They stopped short of sending their congratulations to the new grandfather, but only just. Katherine was furious with them."

"Did she show it?"

"Of course not."

"So she takes it out on you. Such are the tribulations of a husband."

"She's furious with me for not considering such a thing, but I never thought of it."

"Men don't, but new husbands might begin to." Don Lucian eyed him warningly. "Anyway, it's nothing but what everyone else will think, with a hasty courting and hurried wedding."

"Would you have done any different?"

"Not at all," Don Lucian denied. "Still, I think we must immediately plan a reception to introduce your bride formally to society."

"Not yet, Papa. Let me tell you all that has happened."

Surrounded by shrieking maids, Katherine stood in her attic room with her palms over her ears. When the tumult died down, she cautiously removed one hand and then the other. "If I had known you would shout at me--"

Leocadia patted her on her back. "You'll have to allow us our excitement. This is the best news we've had for many a long year."

"I'm glad you're glad. May you never have reason to regret it."

"Oh, no, Dona Katherina," one of the maids piped up, stroking a swollen stomach. "This hacienda needs a mistress to organize parties, and a woman to bring babies."

Entering the room, Damian flinched, but Katherine answered steadily, "I'll do my best to live up to your expectations. Leocadia, do you know where Tobias's trunk is stored?"

Shooing the maids out, Leocadia nodded at the door leading from Katherine's room to the storage area. "It's in the attic next to you."

"Thank you," Katherine said. "Gracias," Damian echoed.

Unable to restrain herself, Leocadia pinched his cheeks. "It's such a joy to see that little snot-nosed boy who followed me around the kitchen take a wife. Your mother would be so proud."

"Ouch." Shaking her off, he then hugged her. "You approve, Tia?"

"Si."

"How many children do you foresee?"

Leocadia eyed Katherine. "She's older and has lost many good childbearing years. Probably not more than a dozen." She pinched his face once more. "All healthy."

"Good heavens," Katherine whispered.

Leocadia shut the door behind her, and Damian shrugged sheepishly, a red mark on either cheek. "Some would say she's presumptuous, but she was my nurse, you understand, and my mother's companion."

"You don't have to explain to me," Katherine said without heat. She took a turn about the room. "But does she predict the number and health of the children correctly?"

"I hope so." As a distraction, he asked, "Shall we go see this trunk?"

"Yes, but it seems so ... so strange to think that Tobias would have left me a message I haven't seen yet. Almost a word from beyond the grave. I never used to be so superstitious." She squared her shoulders. "Of course, it's only a temporary aberration."

"That's my sensible girl." He opened the door to the attic which lay at right angles to hers, across a different part of the hacienda. The sun came in full through the clean, uncurtained windows. This was Leocadia's attic in Leocadia's house, and not a speck of dust dared rest on any surface.

"There it is." Katherine indicated the battered metal trunk against the wall. "It came all the way from Switzerland, then all the way around the Horn. After Tobias's death-" she took a breath "-a while after Tobias's death, I cleaned out his clothes. As I recall, that trunk contains nothing but some junk I didn't have the heart to throwaway."

He set the paraphernalia that topped the trunk on the floor.

"No letters?"

She helped him pull it out from the wall, noting there was no weight, only a rattling as the contents rolled around. "None." He stepped back as she knelt before it, ceding her the right to open it as she pleased. She loosened the straps that bound it together and flipped the corroded metal latch. A tightness in her chest held her rigid, held her in suspense. Lifting the lid as if she half expected an explosion, she gazed down at the contents for a long moment.

"There." She tossed back the cover and pointed. "See. There's his toolbox. There's the ribbon headdress, some old newspapers, a couple of rocks."