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Daniel moved through the room around a long table that seemed as if it were cut from one piece of wood, but much bigger than was possible. Anna stared at the table, not knowing what to do and trying hard not to twist her hands. “Is he badly hurt?”
“No, no,” answered Mrs. Werner. “Just sleeping.”
“Won’t you wake him? Wouldn’t he want to know I am here?” Anna asked. How could he sleep knowing she was arriving today? Did her fiancé feel none of the strange anticipation that was rattling through her?
“Better to let him sleep,” said Daniel.
How would he know that? She looked between Daniel and his mother. “This isn’t right. What are you hiding from me?”
Mrs. Werner spoke in Spanish. A chill ran through Anna, spinning her back to the shouts of the robber. She shook off the odd connection. This was California, and it had been part of Mexico until recently. Probably a lot of the locals spoke Spanish. And not that anyone had said, but Daniel, with his near-black hair and coffee-colored eyes, was at least part Mexican. His mother, with her darker skin and round face, looked completely Mexican.
Daniel frowned. “I’ll take your trunk to your room and see if Rafael can be woken.”
“Thank you,” Anna said tightly.
He went out through the open door opposite where they had entered, which seemed to lead outside. How was that possible? The house looked so much bigger from the outside. Either that or she’d lost all sense of space. She felt a little as if she’d entered one of those crazy tilted houses at a fair. The ones where they could make water run uphill.
Mrs. Werner bustled up to her, her dark skirts rustling. She wrapped an arm around Anna’s shoulders and steered her toward the table. “You sit here. I will feed you.”
Anna fought the urge to fling off the woman’s arm. She didn’t want to eat or sit. She wanted to meet her future husband. “I’m really not hungry, thank you.”
“Sit. Tell me—how was your trip?”
“Long.” She stared at the door Daniel had gone through. How could it have led outside?
Her stomach knotted. Well, she wasn’t just going to wait around forever. She’d been traveling for months. If Rafael was here, she didn’t see any reason she couldn’t meet him now. She got up and stalked toward the door.
Mrs. Werner moved in front of her and put her hands on her hips as if Anna were being rude. “Daniel will tell Rafael to come eat with you, if he is awake. You sit now.”
She sat in the chair she was led to because it didn’t seem she had much choice in the matter. In the low light of tin lamps, she stared at the unending grain of the table. Even that was impossible and made her feel off-kilter.
Mrs. Werner shouted in Spanish, and Anna nearly jumped out of her skin. A few seconds later a girl on the verge of womanhood entered through the open door. The smell of beef and maize wafted through with her. The girl carried several plates, looking as if she might drop them at any time. “This is Juanita. She helps out.”
“How do you do, Juanita?” Anna resisted the urge to spring to her feet and take dishes from the overburdened girl. A genteel lady would be used to being waited upon.
As Juanita moved to set the plates on the table, a big brown glob plopped right on Anna’s chest and slid into her lap, ruining her second-best dress.
Back in Connecticut Olivia had helped her turn the seams and they’d boiled it in borax for hours to rejuvenate the white. Still in places the material was damnably thin and the ruffles along the bottom covered hems that had frayed and worn through. Her hopes were wearing just as thin.
Now with it stained and the green silk filthy, she had little left to wear except a few work dresses. Even those weren’t clean. She’d worn them over the long stage trip and washdays hadn’t been in the schedule.
Mrs. Werner berated the girl in rapid-fire Spanish, while Juanita stared at the floor, her shoulders up around her ears. At least Anna rather suspected she was being berated. Anna just wanted the crazy, disappointing day to end. “That’s enough. It was just an accident.”
Mrs. Werner started. Her eyes narrowed.
Anna started to shake. She had no idea what a woman of breeding would do in this situation, but she was in no mood for any more ugliness. “It has been a long day. I believe I will retire. Juanita, will you show me my room and help me out of my gown?”
Perhaps if she rinsed out the stain soon enough, it wouldn’t set. She had less hope for the green silk. Blood was always difficult to get out.
“She doesn’t speak much English,” said Mrs. Werner.
Anna was torn. She really didn’t want to leave the girl alone with Mrs. Werner.
“Then translate for me.” Anna glanced toward the open door, wondering what was keeping Daniel. She had visions of him going through her trunk, unpacking her unmentionables. Heat washed through her. From mortification, she assured herself.
“You need to eat,” Mrs. Werner insisted.
The girl lifted her gaze from the floor and stared at Anna with dark accusation as if it were Anna’s fault Mrs. Werner was angry with her.
Anna’s stomach churned, protesting. She wasn’t exactly sure of the food that had been set down before her. Long yellowish things with a sort of brown gravy and a plate stacked with round flat bread. “Excuse me, please.”
Really what she wanted was a nice roasted potato dripping with butter or a hot slice of soda bread. Neither of which were likely to appear. Nor apparently was her fiancé.
If neither Mrs. Werner nor Juanita would show her to her room, then she’d find it herself, or find Daniel to guide her. Why had he disappeared for so long? How long did it take to put her trunk and carpetbag in her room and rouse Rafael? Or was Rafael not willing to meet her?
She headed for the door that Daniel had gone through. Juanita darted out ahead of her. For a second, Anna suspected the girl would push her back in to eat whatever it was that had been set down in front of her.
“I show you room.”
“Thank you, Juanita.” But mostly she was speaking to the girl’s back as she darted ahead along the covered walkway that encircled an open center of the building. Anna stared at the stars over the wall ahead of her. Juanita went to the corner, turned right, following the interior of the building, then opened the first door. Beyond the girl, Anna’s trunk sat at the foot of a narrow bed.
“You come to marry Rafael, sí?” asked Juanita.
“Yes.”
Juanita glared. “Fool—foolish are you. The ranch belongs not to him.”
What? “Who does it belong to?”
“Go home.”
Go home? She didn’t have a home to go to.
The girl darted off. Anna stood stock-still for a second. What on earth was Juanita trying to tell her? Rafael didn’t own the ranch. She’d pinned everything on coming here to marry a man who would take care of her, make sure she had regular meals, a man who owned his own land. Her legs muscles tightened as her stomach burned.
Her shoulders stiff, she returned to the main room. “Mrs. Werner, Juanita says the ranch doesn’t belong to Rafael. Is that so?”
“No, no, she did not say that.”
“Yes, she did.”
“I tell you her English is very poor. She say it wrong.” Mrs. Werner waved her hands wildly and looked away. “Of course the ranch belongs to Rafael. You do not worry. Juanita is a silly child who thinks Rafael will marry her when she grows up. You forget what she say.”
The reassurance didn’t settle her one bit. This was not how she had expected her arrival to be. No, she needed to meet Rafael and have him straighten this out. The sooner the better. Otherwise she wouldn’t be able to sleep a wink.
* * *
“I have to get back, or Miss O’Malley will wonder what is taking me so long.” Daniel had put Anna’s trunk in the room next to his and hurried across the courtyard to Rafael’s room. He hadn’t been certain from their mother’s look how his brother was faring, and he was relieved to discover Rafael in pain but completely lucid. They had to get through the next few days without Anna realizing he’d been shot.
“You need to meet her,” Daniel said. “You’ll have to pretend you’re well long enough to say hello.”
The bandage starkly white against his skin, Rafael groaned and rolled to the side. “Can’t.”
“She is already confused by me fetching her instead of you.” Daniel pulled his brother’s legs off the side of the bed. He’d get Rafe sitting, then get him dressed and standing.
Rafael grunted a protest.
“Just hold it together long enough to say hello.” Daniel tugged on his brother’s arm until Rafael was halfway upright.
Rafael ran a hand through hair that was matted and sticking up on one side. Had he been thrashing around?
“You look like hell.” Daniel scrutinized his brother. His stomach fell. Rafe wouldn’t fool anybody looking like he did. “Do you really think it wise for Ma to give out that you have a shoulder injury?”
The corners of Rafael’s mouth turned up for the barest second as if he’d meant to smile. “Got to give a reason...couldn’t track...the horse thieves.”
Daniel’s shoulders slumped. His brother had a reputation as a great tracker to protect. He, on the other hand, was going to have to “fail” to follow the tracks tomorrow to save them from discovery. “Wonderful. I can’t fake a fall to explain why I won’t be able to track the stagecoach robbers.”
“Not a robbery.”
“If you didn’t want people to think it a robbery, you shouldn’t have covered up your face, stopped the stage in a pinch point and pointed my rifle at the driver. If all you really wanted was to see your bride, you could have hailed them in an open spot and asked for her by name. And you dragged me into this mess. We’ll be lucky if we aren’t hanged.”
“Sorry,” muttered Rafael, which was unlike the sarcastic “You’re welcome” he usually would have shot back.
Daniel snatched a shirt out of Rafe’s wardrobe. “Try and get yourself together well enough to greet her. You can pretend to be groggy. Ma said she gave you something to sleep.”
“Wish she had.” Rafael rolled back onto the bed. His shoulder hit the pillows behind him, and he groaned. “She took away my whiskey.”
But not before he’d indulged, Daniel noted.
If Anna figured out they were the men who’d held up the stagecoach, she might very well go to the sheriff and turn them in. Speaking of her, he should probably go back to the main room, but he needed to tell Rafe that she didn’t want him to know she’d shot a man. “Rafe, she—”
A sharp rap on the door raised the hairs on the back of his neck.
“Mr. Werner, are you in there?”
Damn. Anna. Sounds didn’t carry through the thick adobe walls, but Rafael’s window to the courtyard was open to allow a cross breeze. What had she heard?
Rafael shooed him toward the door. “She can’t see...this,” he hissed, pointing at the bandage.
Daniel tossed the shirt in Rafe’s direction as he went to the door.
Anna stood on the other side, a shawl draped over her chest although the evening was warm. “Is your brother in there?” she demanded.
“Yes, I was just checking on him.” Daniel reached to take her elbow and guide her back to the main room. “You can’t have eaten already.”
Anna wrenched her arm away and darted toward the open door. “I want to see him.”
Daniel caught her around the waist and pulled her back before she could get past him. Squirming against him, she was like a kitten with claws. Heat, need and want slammed him hard. It had to be the feel of a woman against him, nothing more. He lifted and planted her in the courtyard and pulled the door shut behind him. “He’s sleeping.”
Anna scrambled away and swung around to face him. “No. He’s not. I heard you both talking. Why are you trying to hide him from me?”
“What did you hear?” Daniel asked sharply.
Anna’s eyes narrowed, and she stepped closer. “Something about whiskey. Is he some kind of drunkard? Is that why you and your mother won’t let me near him?”
Daniel let out a slow breath. If she thought Rafael a drinker, that was far better than thinking he had been the stagecoach shooter. “I’m afraid he’s not fit company—”
“I’ll have you know I’ve seen drunk men before.” She poked him in the chest. “And I’d like to see him.”
Her breasts rose and fell rapidly. Words deserted him with a heavy rush. He stared, knowing he was going to have to say something, but the swirling thoughts in his head were nothing he could have said out loud.
She flipped open the shawl. “Is this what you’re looking at? The second dress I’ve had ruined today.”
It took him a second to realize she was talking about the brown blotch in the center of her chest. His gaze was more drawn to her curves. Her breasts would fit perfectly in his hands. His palms even itched. No, this isn’t right.
“I’ve come clear across the country. I’ve had a very bad day. I want to meet your brother. Now.”
He dragged his gaze up to her pursed lips, only that was worse. He wanted to claim them and soothe the anger from her. “Anna.”
“What?” she retorted, then squinted at him.
He didn’t have the right to call her by her first name. “Miss O’Malley, it would be better if you saw him in the morning.” Surely Rafael could manage to be up long enough to meet her. “You are tired. He is—” Daniel struggled for the right words “—not up to meeting you tonight. Everything will be better in the morning.”
She stared up at him. Her skin glowed under the light of the moon. She was so fair. Her lips parted, and he wanted to close the distance between them, reassure her, distract her, taste her.
No. He didn’t. She was completely the wrong sort of woman for him. After dealing with Madre all his life, he wanted a biddable woman, one who wouldn’t fight him at every turn.
“Does he drink, then?” she asked in a low voice.
“We all drink,” said Daniel, folding his arms. Lying to her made his head hurt, but he hadn’t actually lied, and Rafael did occasionally drink more than he ought to.
“He isn’t really hurt at all, is he?” Her expression fell. “That was just to keep me from seeing him in the state he’s in. That’s why you had to get me.” She wrapped the shawl tighter around her shoulders. “I knew this was too good to be true.”
The urge to hold her, comfort her, returned full force, but comforting her was a dangerous thing. He’d reacted too strongly when she’d thrown herself into his arms in Stockton. And the way he’d been thinking about her made touching her again foolhardy. He tightened his hold across his chest just to be sure he didn’t brush the hair back from her temple. Didn’t trace a finger along her smooth cheek. Didn’t kiss her.
“My brother is a good man, he just...” Daniel floundered. Occasionally loses himself. He didn’t understand Rafael’s recent reckless streak. Ever since he’d returned from a hearing in Sacramento about getting the title issued for his land, he’d been acting odd.
Anna’s chin tilted up, and she pinned him with her gaze as if to say she wouldn’t tolerate any falsehoods.
“He’s a hard worker—the hardest worker I know. And after my father died, he taught me everything.”
“Your father?”
Daniel’s skin heated. “We had different fathers.”
Her fingers twisted the edge of her shawl. “Is he at all like you?”
“I try to be like him,” answered Daniel with painful honesty. Except on days like today when Rafael behaved like an idiot.
His loco behavior had started about three years ago, around the time of the hearing. Was his foolhardiness just because of that hearing? Granted, he shared Rafael’s fear that the request for the land title could be denied. The treaty between Mexico and the United States was supposed to honor the established land grants, but the United States was forcing the rancheros to prove ownership.
Two of their neighbors, men who spoke little English and whose families had been on the land for decades, had lost their claims, while an Anglo man who’d become a Mexican citizen to get his land grant and then switched his allegiance to the United States when California was ceded by Mexico had his title in a matter of months, unlike the years it was taking everyone else. It appeared that whites were much more likely to receive a patent for their land than Spanish were. But Daniel didn’t understand why Rafael was acting as though their case was hopeless. Not all the claims were denied. Besides, if it was hopeless, why bother marrying an Anglo bride to improve the odds?
Anna watched him silently for a moment; then her chin firmed and jutted up. “I’d still like to meet him. I’d rather know what I shall have to deal with. And I’d say he’s likely to be worse in the morning.”
With a small toss of her head, she started to step around him. Daniel caught her shoulders and pinned her against a post to the covered walkway. “You would see him at his worst, yet you don’t want him to know that you shot a man?”
The moonlight caressed her face. His breath was sucked from his body. Her eyes glittered. She didn’t look down or away as another woman might in her place. He tried to remember he hated such boldness in a woman, but, damn, his blood thickened.
“A thief and would-be murderer,” she corrected him firmly.
His brother wasn’t a murderer or a thief, but Daniel struggled to keep the objection to himself. So far she hadn’t recognized him. Didn’t suspect anything beyond Rafael being a drunkard.
“And I just think it best if he hears it from me.” Her features had a mulish cast. “When I am ready to tell him.”
She had a point. He cocked his head, studying her. “Fair enough, but don’t wait too long or he will hear it from someone else.”
She shuddered ever so slightly. Perhaps she had been frightened. He lightly massaged her shoulders and cursed himself for an idiot. He told himself to drop his hands, step back, but he couldn’t. Wanting to soothe her and reassure her, he stepped closer and lowered his voice. “He’s a good man—you’ll see. He won’t hold it against you that you defended yourself against a man you believed was intent on harm.”
“He was intent on harm,” she insisted. “Someone had to stop him. The rifle fell right by Selina, and she knew that I had fired a gun before.” Another tremble ran through her. “I had to shoot.”
No, she hadn’t needed to shoot, because in another three or four seconds he would have dragged Rafe away, but Daniel couldn’t say that.
“He was looking right at Selina and me,” she whispered. “There were two of them and—” her pause spoke loudly of fears a lady couldn’t voice “—two of us.”
Damn Rafael. Daniel’s stomach turned. She’d likely thought she and her friend were about to be kidnapped and then raped.
“It’s all right,” he murmured. “Don’t think about it. You are safe here.”
The less she thought about it, the less likely she would be to connect them to what happened.
“This is a very lawless place,” she said.
“No. Not usually. And I promise I will make certain those criminals will never be seen again.”
“How?” she demanded.
Because if Rafael had a wild idea like that ever again, Daniel would hog-tie him. But he had to reassure her in a way that made sense. “I’ll track them tomorrow. I’ll make sure they never come near here again. You’re part of our household now, and I always protect my own.”
She turned her head sideways, and her chin quivered. Santa Maria, she wasn’t about to cry, was she? She turned back toward him and placed her hand on his chest. “Thank you, Mr. Werner.”
His heart thudded. Could she feel it racing under her palm? His fingers tightened on her shoulders as he looked at her mouth, the slight bow of her upper lip, the cherry pink of her lower.
He should say something, but words flitted out of his brain before they were fully formed. Then he was leaning toward her, knowing he was going to taste those lips, knowing it was wrong yet not knowing how to stop.
“Whash all thish noishe?” slurred Rafael.
Daniel froze. Tension screamed through his muscles as he looked over his shoulder. Rafael leaned against the door frame.
Daniel sucked in a deep breath and then said, “It appears you will meet my brother, after all.”
Chapter Five
Even with such a large herd the land is often empty, so my brother experiments with grapes and other fruits that grow well in this temperate clime. But I should not bore you with descriptions of our work and will tell you about the mountains and hills.
Anna stared at the man behind Daniel. Rafael. Her intended. Not even the tiniest flicker in her belly occurred. Nothing like the flutters she had experienced when Daniel pulled up in Stockton.
Daniel stepped to the side. Her husband-to-be lolled against the recessed wall of his doorway as if he wouldn’t remain on his feet otherwise. She stared at him feeling as numb and empty as her coin purse.
Well, it wasn’t as if she had anywhere else to go. Besides, he owned a great deal of land, the hired girl’s cryptic warning aside. She’d just have to make the best of it. She took a step forward. “I’m glad to finally meet you.”
He gave a nod that nearly toppled him over.
Giving him an opening to explain or apologize, she said, “I expected you to pick me up in Stockton. I thought that was the plan.”
“No,” said Rafael.
“I would have thought...” She would have thought he would have wanted to see her, been just a wee bit eager, but, no, he’d stayed home and gotten drunk. Her mouth tightened.
“Thought what?” prompted Daniel.
Some drunks were mean. Would Rafael be one of those? “You’re not what I expected from your letters.”
Rafael flashed a smile, but it never reached his narrowed eyes before it was gone. “And you’re more...spirited than I knew.” He pushed away from the wall, then weaved before plunking back against it with a grunt. His brow knit. “Hear you...shot a man.”
She gasped. Cold water thrown in her face wouldn’t have shocked her more. She turned toward Daniel. He had the grace to look away. He’d not only ignored her request but hadn’t warned her he’d already told Rafael first when he’d brought it up.
“Did you even wait five minutes before telling?”
He couldn’t have.
“Guess not,” Daniel said. He glared at his brother even as he moved closer to him.
Of course his loyalty was to his brother, but after he’d just told her he protected his own and she was part of that circle, his betrayal was a punch to the gut.
Well, that was how it was to be, then. She stiffened her shoulders and looked back at her future husband.
Rafael looked on the verge of being ill.
“I hope you’re not a mean drunk.”
“Of course he isn’t.” Daniel leaped to his brother’s defense. Like her own brothers, they might be angry with each other, but they would defend each other to the death if any outsider stood against them.
Rafael squinted at her. She supposed he was waiting for some justification from her. If she planned to make this work, she couldn’t just smack him for being drunk or making spirited sound like a defect.
“The men in the stagecoach were missing their shots,” she explained. “I had to do something.”
“No need...to shoot...anymore. I’m a crack shot.” Rafe puffed as if the words had required a great deal of effort. How much had the man drunk? “And Danny alwaysh hi’s his targets, don’t you?”
“Usually,” muttered Daniel.
“I’ll protect...you.” Rafael lifted the hand he’d braced against the wall and waved it expansively. “No one will get...you...here.”
His knees buckled, and he scrabbled at the wall.
Scowling, Daniel caught his brother. “I need to put him back to bed.”
“Yes, do that,” said Anna. “I find I am tired, too.”
She spun back and headed to the room with her trunk. Halfway there she pivoted. Both the brothers stared at her, while Daniel appeared to bear Rafael’s weight.