by Helen Conrad
She hated the question, hated the thought, but she had to know it all. Even if it made her own crusade a little less black-and-white.
“Of course.” He reached out to cover her hand with his own and she stared down at it, but she didn’t draw away. “My father’s burning ambition was to get back Rancho Verde, from the time he was a little boy. And he succeeded.”
The maid was placing a spinach salad in front of Shawnee, but she hardly noticed. Her mind was full this new information.
“That doesn’t excuse the methods he used,” she told him, her voice choked. “That doesn’t excuse the way he involved my grandfather in phony investments that fell through. The way he lent him money to invest again, then took his deed to the ranch to cover the loans when those investments went bad, too.”
David stared back into her fierce gaze for a long moment, then shrugged, taking his hand away from hers. “Your grandfather was a grown man,” he told her, his voice almost curt. “He should have been able to take care of himself.”
There, it was out. She felt a long sigh flow through her body and she let it go with a feeling of relief. Funny, but instead of making her angry, what David said filled her with satisfaction. Somewhere back in a little corner of her mind, maybe she’d always wondered if it were true, if the Santiagos had really stolen Rancho Verde. Now it was confirmed. Granpa Jim had been telling the truth all these years.
“Spoken like a true Santiago,” she said calmly, and picked up her fork to attack her salad.
The meal was every bit as good as David had promised and Shawnee enjoyed it with the hungry relish of a field worker. She was at Rancho Verde and that thought was exhilarating. She felt as though the life-blood of the place was flowing through her, as though she were somehow in touch with all the Carringtons who’d lived here before. All those stories she’d heard for so many years—they all formed the background of her life. Now she finally felt in touch with them. This was where Carringtons had lived and loved and built the Destiny Bay Valley into what it was today. Her heritage.
When the meal was over, she talked David into leaving the coffee for later and taking her on another exploration. She wanted to see the kitchen and the bedrooms and everything else there was to see.
“I don’t think you’d be interested in the library,” he told her, smiling despite himself at her eager interest in exploring it all. “The walls are covered with pictures of the Santiago and Diaz families.”
“Where is it?” She wanted to take in every bit of Rancho Verde and carry it away with her.
The library was a large, gloomy room, made too dark by huge, heavy curtains hanging from the ceiling. There were no pictures of Carringtons, but then, why would there be out on the walls? They weren’t at her grandfather’s house either. So maybe they were still stored here, somewhere.
Still, this was fascinating. She met Sebastian Diaz and Maria Diaz Santiago and all the other progenitors of the family she was supposed to hate. Dan Santiago, David’s father, looked stern and unlovable, staring down off the wall at his son.
“Was he a hard father?” she asked, almost whispering, because that was what the room made her feel she should do.
“He liked to pretend he was.” She could hear reluctant affection in David’s voice. “He was always saying things like, ‘You’ve got to break a boy the way you do a colt. Never show him your weak spots’.”
She smiled at the gruff voice he assumed when he quoted his father. “And did he break you?” She thought she already knew the answer to that, but she wanted to hear what he had to say on the subject.
David’s laugh was low and soft. “I wouldn’t call it ‘break’. ‘Tame’ might be more like it.” He walked over to stand directly under his father’s portrait and the humor drained from his eyes. Tamed wasn’t even the right word. What did you call it when you made it impossible for your son to follow his own dreams? When you found ways to force him to come home and take up yours instead? His father had always had plans for Rancho Verde, and if he couldn’t live to fulfill them, he made damn sure his son took up the responsibility. Whether he wanted to or not.
But yeah, he’d loved his father. Idolized him in some ways. And that was what made it so hard to go against him in the end. Still, she didn’t want to know all that. He turned and managed a perfectly natural smile.
“His trouble was that his weak spots always showed, no matter how hard he tried to hide them. He loved his kids. I hope I’m as good a father when I have children of my own.”
She nodded. She couldn’t help but hear the affection in his voice. She hesitated, then decided to ask what she wanted to know, even knowing she was making a mistake before the words were out. But she couldn’t stop herself with anything short of a gag across the mouth. “Is that in the offing?”
He turned back as though surprised. “What?”
Now she would have to go on with this transparent question. “Having children. Are you planning on anything soon?”
It had occurred to her that men like David seldom wandered around without a female somewhere in the wings. Lisa said he’d never married, but that didn’t mean he never would. And it didn’t mean there wasn’t someone special right now.
“Not that I know of.” He started toward her, his steps slow and deliberate, his eyes gleaming. “Are you offering … . any suggestions?”
It was on the tip of her tongue to say something scathing, but as he came towards her, she lost the words. He looked so handsome in the dim light, his dark hair falling in a casual wave across his forehead, his eyes bright and bold. He belonged in this gallery of Spanish conquerors. Was he going to claim victory over her, too? Her heart beat like a caged bird at the thought of it.
He stopped before her and took her chin in his hand, tilting it up as though he wanted to search for something in her face. “I’m going to kiss you right in front of all my ancestors,” he announced gravely, then proceeded to do what he’d warned her of.
She closed her eyes as the tingle began, the smooth magic that his lips worked on hers, and she kissed him back, enjoying him as he was enjoying her. But somewhere deep inside she knew that all this kissing was going to have to stop. There just wasn’t any future in it.
This was the man who held Rancho Verde, the man who was threatening to evict her grandfather from his home again. But this was also the man whose laughing eyes warmed her heart and whose gentle touch lit fire where none had ever blazed before. She knew her reactions to him were confused and dangerous, but she wasn’t ready to sort them out just yet.
His hand cupped her cheek, moving slowly, sensuously across her skin, while his kiss deepened, reminding her of the peril that lay implicit in the excitement he was creating. She opened her eyes a little and found herself staring into Dan Santiago’s disapproving frown.
David might be ready to kiss her in front of his ancestors, but his ancestors weren’t ready at all. She pulled away, putting up both hands to ward David off.
“Your people don’t like me,” she said, turning to look at the rest of them, one by one. Then a thought came flashing through her mind. “But where are my people?”
“Your people?” David looked annoyed, but she couldn’t tell if that was because she’d resisted his embrace, or because he didn’t know what she was talking about.
“My people. The Carringtons. Where are their portraits?”
David’s face hardened. “I don’t know. I suppose your grandfather took them with him when he left.”
“No.” She shook her head with certainty, moving around the room as though looking for a secret hiding-place. “No, he told me about them, where each one was hung. And I know they aren’t with him now.” She glanced about the room. “They must still be here somewhere.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. What would we want with your family’s pictures?” He seemed to think she was accusing him of stealing them.
But Shawnee was hardly paying attention. “Do you have a storage room around here somewhere?” she aske
d, completely caught up in the excitement of the search. “Maybe an attic where you keep the paintings you don’t hang?”
“There’s a store room upstairs,” he admitted grudgingly.
“Let’s go!” Her eyes shone with hope. She reached out and took David’s hand in her own. “Let’s look. Please? It would be so much fun to find them.”
Annoyance dimmed and resignation filled his eyes. “What makes you think you’ll find them here?”
She shrugged grandly. “Where else could they be?” She backed towards the door, almost dancing, and pulling him along with her. “Come on, let’s hurry!”
He looked down at her, shaking his head, a crooked smile trying to turn the corners of his mouth. “I think I liked you better when you were naked and wet,” he said with a touch of irony. “At least then I felt that I had some control.”
But he led her up the huge, curving staircase, to the first floor. As they reached the top, something small and furry caught her eye.
“What is that?” she asked, looking down the hall to where the champagne-colored hair spread out across the burgundy carpet.
David chuckled. “That is Hank,” he said. “Come on over and meet him.”
She followed him up to the mound of fur which didn’t move at their approach. “Is Hank alive?” she asked.
“Sure.” He leaned down and stroked one end of the fur and suddenly a little black nose rose towards him, and then two small, bugged eyes opened sleepily. Hank seemed to be a very furry Pekingese. “Hank is alive, but just barely. His main ambition in life is to get into my bedroom. He loves to sleep on my bed.” He grinned. “And Allison hates him to. So they have a running battle, and he spends most of his days curled up outside my bedroom door.”
Shawnee petted Hank, but he was back to sleep by then and made no move to react to the stranger in his domain. It seemed odd seeing David with this small, eccentric creature. The more she knew of David, the more she had to admit she liked him.
They left Hank to his waiting sleep and went down the hall to a high-ceilinged storeroom. The only light came in through two small high windows giving the room a ghostly look. Cardboard boxes were piled beside cast-off furniture and cabin trunks, but along the side of the room, Shawnee saw the paintings stacked like pieces of firewood.
“Here we go, these have got to be them.” She pushed her way happily through the accumulated junk of the years and began rummaging through the paintings, picking each up and setting it against the wall in its turn.
David followed more slowly, as though he were reluctant to admit he was involved. He left the pictures to her while he picked up objects at random, anything that met his eye.
“Look at this.” He placed a huge leghorn hat on her head. “You look good in any century, don’t you?”
She couldn’t hold back a smile and she posed for a moment, making a silly pout. “I need one of those huge dresses that sweep the floor.” She made a turn as though to let her imaginary dress flow behind her, and as she came around, he twisted a dusty feather boa around her neck.
“Now you’re ready for a night on the town,” he said, grinning at the picture she made.
“Next time I need a Halloween costume, I’ll know where to come.” She shed the hat and boa and went back to looking through the paintings. “Seascapes, moonshadows, fruit on a table. There aren’t any people in here at all!”
“Any lost Rembrandts?” he asked as he pulled out a big black box and began poking into the contents. “Any forgotten Picassos?”
“Not in this bunch.” She put the last one against the wall and turned back to David with a disgusted moan. “They’re not here.”
He nodded with no sympathy whatsoever. “I won’t say I told you so,” he announced smugly, “but I told you so.”
She was too disappointed to pay any attention to his ribbing. She’d been so sure . . . Gazing quickly around the room, she lost all hope. There was no other place for the portraits to be hiding. They must have been thrown out when the place went to the Santiagos. Unless there was somewhere else they might be hiding.
Suddenly she noticed David looking at something with a particularly idiotic smile on his face.
Curiosity aroused, she came up behind him. “What’s that?”
“Nothing.” He hastily pushed the objects he’d been looking at back into the black box. “Given up on your ancestors, have you?”
“No.” She reached right by him and pulled the objects back again. In her hand she found three cartoon characters cut from wood, the kind one often saw on the walls of children’s nurseries. They were chubby little pigs, each in a different colored hat.
Forgetting her disappointment, she laughed out loud. “And who are these delightful creatures? Friends of yours?”
To her glee, a rosy hue was beginning to creep across David’s cheeks. Could that possibly be a real, honest-to-goodness blush? She wanted to throw her arms around his neck.
“They were in my room when I was a kid,” he mumbled, trying to get her to put them back in the box. “That’s all. No big deal”
She could see him as a little boy, lying in his bed and gazing up at the pigs on his wall. The laugh bubbling up in her throat almost escaped again, but she managed to hold it back, “What are their names?” she coaxed. “Come on. You can tell me.”
“Come on, Shawnee.” He tried to frown with adult authority, but when he looked back at the little pigs, he couldn’t keep it up. He hesitated, then said tentatively, “You really want to know?”
She nodded, biting her lip.
He looked at her suspiciously. “Okay.” He pointed to the pig in the green hat. “That’s Curly. See his tail? And the one in red is Sleepy.”
That seemed appropriate. His little round eyes were tightly shut.
“And this little guy—” David took the last one out in his hand and held it up to the light. From the look on his face, Shawnee guessed that this had been his favorite of all. The pig was round as a balloon. A little yellow hat sat on top of his head and a sad tear dropped from his eye. “This is Spitball.”
The laughter died in her throat. “Spitball?” she asked incredulously. It hardly fitted with Curly and Sleepy. “Why Spitball?”
He grinned with sly triumph as he handed it back to her. “Because I used him for target practice, that’s why. What a dumb question.”
She searched his expressionless face, trying to decide if he’d been putting her on when he acted sentimental over old toys, or if he was putting her on now, pretending otherwise. He held her gaze, not giving an inch.
“Spitball,” she murmured in disgust, and put the pigs away. And gazed around the room for more treasure.
“Oh, David, look!” A stack of photographs in silver frames turned out to be all of David. David graduating from high school, David playing football, David riding a beautiful Palomino in the Founder’s Day Parade.
“Handsome devil,” David noted admiringly.
“Well, the devil part is accurate anyway,” she responded.
“You think so?” Suddenly he was much too close again, his breath sweet against her skin, his hand tangling in her hair. “And here I thought I’d been so angelic today.”
He had, too. She could feel that he was holding back, indulging her, and she felt a rush of gratitude. “It’s not what you do that brands you,” she said a bit breathlessly. “It’s what you’re thinking.”
“What? Don’t tell me you can read minds?” He was going to kiss her again if she let him. His fingers tightened in her hair. “What’s going on in mine ought to be censored,” he murmured, moving closer.
She stared up at him, knowing how easy it would be to respond in kind. But she’d vowed to cut this out. It was time to act on her convictions. Instead of staying in his power and waiting like a deer in a clearing, she gathered all her strength and pulled away.
“We’ve got to look for my people!” she exclaimed as an excuse, turning away nervously. She walked into the far end of the room and
found something promising. “Come here quick. Look what I’ve found!”
He followed, smiling at her enthusiasm. “An old gramophone. I remember that from my grandmother’s house.”
It was huge, with the big horn rising over the turntable.
“And look at all these old 78s.” She began sifting through them, exclaiming over old singing stars. “Edith Piaf. I remember my grandfather listening to her sing when I was a kid.” She slipped the heavy record out of its torn jacket. “Here, start the crank and we’ll have a listen.”
She put the disc on the turntable, then looked up at David. “Well, if you won’t crank,” she said tartly, “I will.” She reached for the handle, but David’s hand on her arm stopped her,
“I wouldn’t bother,” he said drily. “A little electricity works so much better.” He held out the plug before pushing it into the wall socket.
He smirked, trying to turn it into a point for his side, but she wasn’t about to let him. “Now I know why women need men,” she said with a grin. “They’re just so logical.”
David was about to make a retort, but the music began to fill the room and the sound of the extraordinary voice drew them both to stand, mesmerized, in front of the gramophone.
The language of the song was French and Shawnee couldn’t understand a word of it, but she didn’t need a translation. It was all there in the voice, every tear, every heartache. Lovers torn or lured away, love unrequited, hope lost, war and death and longing for something one could never have. Shawnee felt a lump welling up in her throat.
When David slipped his arms around her from behind, she leaned back against him, needing him while she listened. His lips were warm against her neck and she arched it, letting him explore at will. His arms tightened around her. But when the song was over and he turned her towards him, he found tears in her eyes.
“What is it?” he asked with real concern. One finger traced the wet trail along her cheek. “What’s wrong?”
She shrugged helplessly and tried to smile. “I don’t know,” she said, telling the truth and wishing she could control her emotions a little better. He was going to think she was an idiot. But there was something in that music and in that voice that sent her sentiments into a tailspin. The turmoil of her last few years, with her parents dying in a plane crash, her escape to Northern California pretty much bombing out, her fight to save Miki, her return to find her grandfather in such sad shape—it all seemed to be in the music. If she didn’t watch out, she would be crying buckets right here in front of the Santiagos, and that would be the last straw.