Rudy scampered down, but stuck close to his father's leg, eyeing Glee with friendly shyness.
"Mama." Alex's mother was small and attractive despite her age. She greeted Alex warmly and smiled at Glee in welcome.
"Alejandro! We were terrified for you! Manuel came back from Boston all alone, saying that you were lost!" She hugged him close. "Oh, my son! I am so relieved to have you home!"
"Mama," Alex repeated affectionately, towering over his tiny mother. "It's a long, long story. But I am well."
When his mother released him, he turned to the younger woman nearby. "Connie," Alex said, hugging his plump sister and her babe-in-arms, too. "Which one is this, Carlos or Carmen?"
"Um," she said, checking the front of the baby's diaper. "Carlos."
They laughed. "You should be ashamed, giving us such worry! This had better be some story!" she admonished.
"You'll find it hard to believe," he assured her.
Alex turned to his other sister, a tiny, beautiful woman with perfect clothing and hair, and hugged her warmly. "Theresa, you are still here? Mama, you'll have to work harder to get her married off before she's an old maid!"
Theresa waved his concerns away with an elegant hand and a pirate's smile. "You have yet to bring home the perfect man for me, Alejandro! Could you find none in all your adventures?"
Alex snorted and held out his hand to his youngest brother. "Jaime. Dios! But you're getting tall! You must be riding with the vaqueros now."
Jaime blushed around his smile.
Alex looked behind the group, then back to his mother. "Where is Manuel?"
"Just in Pleasant Valley. He'll be home for supper, and won't he be surprised to see you! He has been tearing his hair out trying to think of where you could be and how to find you."
"There was nothing he could have done," Alex quickly assured his mother. "I will explain more later. But now, everyone," Alex announced. "I want you to meet Glee M-"
"We know, you scoundrel! Don Vasquez has been here two days!" His mother scolded. "How could you rush off and get married? It's going to be difficult to explain to the guests why all the invitations were wrong."
"It wasn't-"
"Hush, Alejandro," she went on, escorting Glee into the cool dim interior of the hacienda. "I want to meet my new daughter-in-law. Gracias, my dear, for that lovely scarf," Donna Lucia enthused, taking Glee's hand in hers.
Alex frowned mightily and Glee cringed, mouthing I was angry to him, as his mother turned away.
"You're most welcome, Donna Lucia."
"Call me Mama.”
"Uh…" Glee said uncomfortably.
Alex, his body rigid with fury but smiling for his mother, stepped in. "Mama, we've had a hard ride. Let me show Glee to my room where she can freshen up a bit."
His mother was immediately contrite. "Of course! Where were my manners!" She smiled and patted Glee's hand. "We will get to know all about each other over supper, chica."
Rudy was right behind them as they entered the master suite. Alex's suite. Furnished with finely rubbed oak and soft Spanish linen, it was masculine right down to the richly woven burgundy rugs on the floor. "Ah, mi hijo," Alex said, hunkering down to be eye-to-eye with his son. "Have you built any new frog traps with Jaime lately?"
Rudy's eyes were alight. "Yes! And we caught some! And lizards, too!"
"Have any I could see?"
Rudy nodded vigorously. "I'll go get 'em!"
"No, no. I'll come out and take a look. But this lady and I need to have a little talk right now."
Rudy looked up at Glee. "Is she my new mother?"
Glee's heart skipped a beat. She hadn't even considered how this was all going to affect Alex's little boy. In throwing herself at Alex, she'd been wedging into his family. And now, through her foolish anger she'd driven that wedge far, far deeper than she'd ever considered.
"Do you want a new mother, Rudy?" Alex said, skirting the issue.
"I dunno. But grandma said that you'd be bringing a new mother home."
"Ah, I see."
"Is she nice?"
Alex smiled. "She's usually nice, but sometimes she gets into trouble."
"Oh. Well, give 'er a spankin' and she'll be better." He looked up at Glee who was blushing brightly. "That's what happens to me when I'm bad."
Alex chuckled and tousled the boy's head. "Excellent advice, mi hijo. Now go get your frog and lizard traps ready for me to see. I'll be there in a minute."
"Si, Papa!"
Alex closed the door after the boy and looked at Glee with a deep, dark frown. "Tell me about the scarf."
Glee backed up against a tall oak bedpost, devoid of bed curtains or other such fripperies. "I was angry with you, Alex. You should have told me about your engagement!"
"So you did what you could to sabotage my plans."
"I didn't want you to make a huge mistake."
"¡Párelo!" he exploded. "Just stop it! I am not fooled. You thought by ruining my chances of marrying Linnet you'd marry me yourself!"
He was right and she felt like an idiot. Worse, a manipulative, traitorous idiot. "Oh, Alex, I didn't think-"
"That's right! You did not think!" He pushed his hair back from his forehead. "My word is ruined by this."
Hot tears gathered in her eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm terribly sorry."
He stalked to her and took her by the shoulders, narrowing his hot golden eyes down at her. "Rudy is right, I should spank you for being so horrible!"
She squirmed to break his hold. "Alex-"
He let her go abruptly. "But I am too angry, right now! I do not wish to add to my sins."
"What are you going to do?"
"You will stay here. You will stay out of trouble, or por Dios, I will throttle you!"
She nodded miserably.
"I am going to speak to Linnet and her father. Perhaps I can repair the damage you have done." He slammed the door behind him as he left.
Glee's heart was broken, but she had no one to blame but herself. She'd ruined any chance she might have had to have a marriage and family with one utterly stupid act. Surely Alex would have realized that she was the right woman to marry if she hadn’t been so vicious. She’d made a complicated situation all the more complicated. Unfortunately, there was no going back, and nothing she could possibly say that hadn't been said already. She was sorry. So very sorry.
But, in the morning, she'd remove herself from Alex's life just as she should have done weeks ago. One of the vaqueros could take her to the stage depot in Pleasant Valley; she needn't bother Alex any further. Monterey was a day's stage ride from there. One day, and about a million miles away.
Ahmak, ahmak, ahmak! Nitwit! she cursed herself. If only she'd stuck to her goal of writing her father's book with no interruptions, no entanglements. But then what? She'd been a fool to think that would be enough. The future loomed large and lonely before her, and she cried all the harder.
When called to supper, Glee made an excuse so that she wouldn't have to face Alex's sweet family again. If the little maid who came to the door noticed her red, puffy eyes, she said nothing. But Glee was so thoroughly ashamed that she fervently hoped she'd be able to sneak out in the morning before the family rose.
30 - December 16, 1852
He’d spent a pleasant interlude with his son, but then Alex saddled up and rode into Pleasant Valley.
It was early evening when he got to the Soledad's house. His stomach churned as he stood at the door. He didn’t actually know what he was going to do, except try to mend his honor by being honest with Linnet. The idea of marrying her was incredibly distasteful, for, despite her difficult behavior, Glee was the woman he wanted. Perhaps he could convince Linnet that being his second choice was beneath her and she’d let him out of their commitment honorably.
"Don Alejandro!" called out Linnet’s father as he wiped his mouth on a table napkin and opened the portal. "We had heard that you were missing!"
"My apologies, Don Diego," A
lex said, removing his hat. "I was gone on business longer than I anticipated, but I am back, and well. However, there is a most urgent matter I need to discuss with you."
"Come in! Come in! Let's go to the parlor, son, and you can tell me what's on your mind."
Seated in the small, slightly threadbare but clean parlor, Alex tried to explain the problem. "I do not think, sir, that I am worthy of your daughter."
The elderly Californio smiled tightly. "Now, Alejandro, this is no time to get cold feet. You have been away long. Once you visit with Linnet again, you will see that you have made a wise decision."
"Linnet!" the small man shouted.
A young maid came scurrying in and curtsied hesitantly. "Señorita Linnet isn't here, Don Diego."
"Where is she?" the patrón demanded. "I thought she was feeling unwell!"
The maid went scarlet. "She… I…" The woman burst into tears. "Don't be cross with me, please! I couldn't stop her. I tried!"
Thoroughly embarrassed and furious, Diego Soledad shook the little woman. "Stop it! Where is she?"
"Teaneck Pond, Patrón, with Richard Carrington," she sobbed.
"Pah!" he pushed the maid away. "Go away, Renata."
She curtsied and rushed out of the room.
Garcia flashed a guilty look at Alex. "Linnet has a mind of her own, I'm afraid. She will surely come to heel once she is married and has a few babies to chase."
Alex was frowning. What was Soledad hiding? "Richard Carrington?"
"Pay no attention to that. What would that silly maid know?"
Alex rose. "She seemed to know quite a bit, sir." He put his hat on. "I'll go to Teaneck Pond and retrieve Linnet. But then, sir, we must discuss this further."
"No. No! I will go, Alejandro."
"What the hell is going on here?" Alex stormed.
A full-figured brunette came sauntering into the room. "Alex! You've been gone so long! I missed you!" She hurried over to him with a smile, but he held her away from him when she would have hugged him. She looked from Alex to her father and back again. "What is wrong?"
Her father scowled at her. "I fear, Linnet, that I've caught you in another lie."
Alex frowned but said nothing. Another lie?
"Father! What a thing to say! And in front of Alejandro, too!" She flounced down into a chair petulantly. "What are you accusing me of now?"
"I thought you were ill this evening, Linnet," Don Diego said softly, a thread of steel in his voice.
She sat up a little straighter and had the grace to blush. "I am feeling better now."
Don Diego rose and stood over his daughter, hands fisted at his sides. "Do not lie to me!"
She cringed and looked down at her lap. "I am sorry, Papa. I went for a walk."
"Around Teaneck Pond with Richard Carrington?" he shouted. "No more lies, Linnet!"
She gasped. "Who told you that?"
"Ah!" Diego groaned with frustration and fury. "I forbade you from seeing that worthless gambler, Linnet! And yet you persist! You sneak and lie!"
Linnet began to sob.
Alex was embarrassed to witness the Soledads’ shame.
"I apologize for my daughter, Alejandro. When you were first calling upon her, I caught her sneaking out to see Richard Carrington at night. He is a gambler with nothing to offer her. She swore nothing had happened between the two of them, and I—fool that I am—believed her." His dark eyes narrowed on his daughter. "But you have been seeing him all along, haven't you, Linnet?"
She flushed and came off the chair to kneel before her father. "Forgive me, Papa! I love Richard, but he is poor. I do not wish to live like this, with patched dresses, and ugly, old things the rest of my life! Alejandro has everything. Everything! It's so unfair. Why can I not have fine things, too?"
The older man pushed her away. "Look what you have wrought, niña! You have ruined our good name, and with this son of my old friend!"
"Please, Papa!" She sobbed louder.
"You disgust me, daughter."
Don Diego looked from his nearly hysterical daughter to Alex and back again. "I confess, Don Alejandro, I am at a loss as to how to settle this matter. Certainly, this is not why you came here."
"No, Don. I came here to tell you that I am in love with another woman. I felt that my behavior made me unworthy of your innocent daughter." He shook his head at his own gullibility; he had never seen a hint of her perfidy before.
Linnet screamed and threw herself at Alex. He caught her hands before she could take her sharp nails to his face. "So, it is true!" she shrieked. "It is all over Pleasant Valley! You have brought a new wife home when you knew we were betrothed!"
"No, Linnet!" Alex said sharply. "I have no wife. I was a cad to fall in love with this other woman, but love cannot be helped. It is as powerful as the sunrise or sunset, and as implacable as the tide. I’m sure you realize that with your Richard Carrington.” He backed Linnet into a chair and forced her to sit as she wailed and sobbed with frustration and shame. "Don Diego," Alex said tightly. "Under the circumstances…"
Soledad met Alex's gaze with his own miserable one. "I wish you good fortune, Don Alejandro. I will do what I can to dispel any ugly gossip that arises out of this unfortunate situation."
"Gracias, Don." Alex suppressed his sigh of relief out of politeness. "I apologize, Don Diego, that Linnet's mendacity was ever revealed, but please do not be too hard on her. Love is like a swollen river, fresh but powerful enough to take you away." He glanced at the sobbing girl, pity the only emotion he felt toward her. "Buenos noches, Linnet." As he left, he heard a slap and Linnet shriek in response.
"I will send you to my cousin in Mexico," Garcia shouted. "He will see that you behave!"
"Nooo, Papa!"
* * * *
Alex encountered his younger brother Manuel as he returned to the hacienda late that night. Everyone else was asleep. Manuel greeted him warmly, glad to see that Alex was whole and hale.
"¡Hermano! What happened to you? I searched every corner of Boston trying to find you."
"Pour us some brandy, Manuel," Alex said softly, closing the door to the study. "I have quite a story to tell you."
The dim room was lined with thousands of leather-bound books on polished oak shelves that reached to the ceiling. His expensive mahogany desk was exactly as he'd left it so many months before, clear of all but blotter, lamp, and pen-and-ink. The hearth was warm, and the two brothers sat in dark leather wing-back chairs before it.
Alex began his story with his abduction from the port and ended with his recent visit to Linnet Soledad’s home. "So here I am. You must have seen Glee at supper."
"No, actually. She begged off." Manuel smiled. "Too bad, too. I'd have loved to see her with her clothes on."
Alex frowned. "She mentioned meeting you at some party. You realize, of course, that was the last time you'll ever see her like that."
Manuel's dark eyebrows arched. "Oh, so you're keeping her?"
Alex sighed and shrugged. "Have I a choice? I love her."
"Quite a handful, hermano," Manuel said, shaking his head.
"A little tiger," Alex replied with a knowing grin. He sipped his brandy. "But I do worry about giving her children. She is slender. And after Magdalena-"
"Do not be a fool." Alex's glare didn't shut him up. "Look at Mama! She's tiny, and yet she gave birth to six babies. If you are still blaming yourself for Magdalena's death, hermano, you are estúpido."
Only Manuel could get away with berating Alex so thoroughly, but Alex didn't like it and his narrowed gaze showed it. "I see that it has been too long since I thrashed the impudence out of you, little brother."
Manuel smiled devilishly.
"But, you are right. It is time I left past hurts behind."
"Finally you are showing some sense—ouch!”
Alex kicked his brother's shin with the toe of his boot, too weary and content to get up and punch him as he deserved.
* * * *
He we
nt to Rudy's room and kissed the sweetly sleeping boy on the forehead, then moved softly down the hall to his own room.
Glee was there, curled up in a tufted leather chair in a corner near the western window. Her glorious hair spilled over the arm. Her silk nightdress was pulled up and one of her long legs was thrown out of a blanket she'd pulled off the bed. His body stirred just looking at her illuminated in the moonlight.
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