The Reaper 0f The Rio Sangre: Special Edition HBH Version (Half Breed Haven Book 10)

by A. M. Van Dorn

"Speaking of which," Lijuan began, rolling her eyes. "I have to admit it was a good idea you had, golden girl, to have the reward money sent to us, so you could distribute it as you did. That cut out any middleman dipping into that money. The families who lost their men desperately needed that cash," Lijuan said in admiration. Cassandra shrugged

  “Thank you, I …” They were interrupted by the sound of two women arguing next to the food table. Looking over, they could see Mrs. Chow, the old Chinese cook having words with their father’s new assistant and friend Marisol San Cristobel.

  “What do you suppose that is all about?” Honor said curiously.

  “I can tell you. When Mrs. Chow gets her dander up, she shouts in Chinese. I don’t believe she knows she is doing it,” Lijuan said.

  “What’s it about?” Cassandra asked.

  “Mrs. Chow is denying the charge Marisol made about her drafting the party planner to help in the kitchen. She’s gone missing,” Lijuan told them.

  “That cute little filly from Mexico City?” Cassandra asked with a smile, already seeing where this was going.

  “That’s the one,” Lijuan said matching her grin as did Honor. They looked at each other and busted out laughing, saying the same name.

  “Catalina!”

  As if she was conjured by the three sisters saying her name, Catalina swept into the festive barn with Isabella at her side. Catalina was as dressed up as her sisters in the bright white, red, and green colors of her Mexican heritage. Across the room, Marisol quickly saw Isabella, spun around from a still-sputtering Mrs. Chow, and made a beeline for her.

  "Where have you been? There is a problem with the bunting over where the musicians will be playing. Please, we must hurry and fix it." Marisol announced to the planner. Cassandra looked over at the stage and the bunting seemed okay to her. The band was setting up and tuning their instruments. Catalina winked at Isabella and the woman smiled in return before hurrying off to help Marisol with the bunting. Mrs. Chow shook her head in disgust and stormed out of the barn. Catalina turned and saw her three sisters staring at her with their hands on their hips. She came over to them smiling.

  “What, do you like my dress?” she asked innocently. Cassandra was sure she knew exactly why they were staring at her.

  “Were you leading that nice young lady astray?” Honor asked putting an arm around her shoulder. Catalina looked at Honor and then the others in false surprise.

  “It depends, Honor Elizabeth, if you mean sharin’ two of the most excitin’ hours either one of us might have ever had, then you betcha!” she said grinning.

  "She is lovely. I'll give you that," Cassandra admitted.

  "It always amazes me how you always find likeminded women, not to mention that they always give in to your charms," Lijuan said.

  "Well, Lijuan, you know how it is: A Wilde always gets her man or woman … one way or another," Catalina told them gaily.

  “This Wilde has got the only woman that he will ever need,” said a voice behind them, and they turned to see their brother, Dutch. He was wearing the formal dress uniform of a cavalry captain in the United States Army, and his love Bright Feather was in her fancy dress of brown and green. Walking up behind them was Blue River looking uncomfortable in a suit and bolo tie. Lijuan lit up and practically jumped into Dutch’s arms for a hug.

  “David! I thought you weren’t going to be able to make it,” she said, obviously happy to see him, still refusing to call him anything but his given name.

  “Didn’t you say your duties had increased while Lt. Vellaneau was off to another fort?” she finished. Dutch smiled and released her, then lifted her chin with his thumb to look at him.

  “First off, you certainly live up to the beautiful part of your Chinese name, my little Beautiful and Graceful One,” he said before glancing at his other sisters. “You all do! Second, fortunately, Col. Caine saw fit to get by without me for a night, so I could come and participate in this grand event with you,” Dutch said.

  "Yes, the Colonel justified it as Dutch could be the official representative of the U.S. Army for the Judge's party. Since all the leading citizens of Alamieda are here, it works out. So, we got dressed up and -"

  "Thank you so much for the compliment, David," Lijuan said, almost gushing as she cut Bright Feather off. "I think we girls can agree he looks quite dashing!" she complimented him.

  “Indeed, he does!” Honor added cheerfully. Cassandra noticed Blue River fidgeting with his stiff collar. She put an arm around him smiling.

  “And so does our baby brother. In all these years, I think this is the first time I have ever seen you in that suit,” she told him.

  “Gotta be new! His last one sure took a beatin’ during that mess up by Devil’s Canyon,” Catalina chimed in.

  “The Judge bought me the first one, just in case I ever needed one. He was kind enough to see that I got a replacement after, as Catalina said, that business with the Grand Western trestle.”

  Lijuan slipped in between Blue River and Dutch and reached up to lay a hand on each one of their shoulders.

  “I think we can all agree this family has had its fill of railroad trestles for one lifetime!” the siblings all seemed to laugh at once recalling the recent events that at the time were harrowing, but now that they had survived the danger, they were quite happy to be able to find amusement in them.

  “Anyway, it seemed like tonight was a good night to put it use. Oh, who is that?” he asked gesturing towards Isabella.

  "That is Isabella Gutierrez. Marisol hired her from Mexico City. She is a renowned decorator for all the Quinceañera parties that Mexican families like to throw for their teenage daughters," Honor recited, wrapping her arms around her brother from behind. "I am sorry to say, little brother that she is spoken for. You are too late it seems," she tittered at him over his shoulder.

  “Hey, remember my Quinceañera?” Catalina asked the group at large.

  “Like we could forget that. You disappeared from your own party with that Valdez girl. Lucky for us we were able to cover for you with Father,” Lijuan answered with a laugh.

  “Hey, Cassie, I never asked how you knew to find us down at the shed where we keep the canoes for Rock River?” Catalina wondered.

  “Where do you think I used to go to make out with our blacksmith’s son?” Cassandra asked.

  “And me with the foreman’s oldest boy,” Honor added.

  “And me and …” She stopped and looked horrified for a moment as a frantic look passed between Dutch and Cassandra, unnoticed by the other Wildes.

  “You were sayin’?” Catalina asked as Lijuan made a herculean effort to regain her composure.

  “Me and the housekeeper’s son … I forget his name now. He wasn’t even a good kisser,” Lijuan answered quickly.

  “Excuse us, will you? I want to get my love a drink,” Dutch said, looping his arm with Bright Feather’s and escorting her towards the table with the refreshments. As Catalina, Honor, and Blue River moved aside to let them pass, Cassandra shot Lijuan a look that caused the tough as nails woman to hang her head in a private embarrassment.

  “So, Cattie? Honor says I am too late … you and the decorator?” Blue River asked his sister good-humoredly.

  "Guilty as charged!" she grinned enthusiastically. Next, to her, Cassandra saw her father and Marisol approaching.

  "Excuse me, young lady, but I am the only one around here with authority to pronounce anyone guilty or innocent!" the Judge said as they stepped up. Honor Elizabeth leaned over and kissed her father on the cheek.

  “Daddy, this is going to be a fantastic evening. It was brilliant of you to hold it in the new barn,” she complimented him.

  “We can’t have the good people of Alamieda sniffin’ manure all night in an old barn. Why do we have these parties every year, Papacito?” Catalina asked.

  “Well, Peppercorn, no one hates a dog and pony show more than I do, but it is the name of the game in politics. I am a circuit judge and would be requ
ired to hold functions like this even if we weren’t one of the biggest landholders in the area. Between those two realities, certain things are expected,” he told them all.

  “I for one cannot wait for this party to begin. I think it will be a grand time, Daddy!” Honor returned. The judge smiled and glanced down at Marisol at his side.

  “We should certainly thank Marisol for stepping forward to handle the arrangements. It goes far beyond the normal scope of her duties as my clerk,” He said fondly.

  “Please, you have done so much for me, this is the least I can do,” Marisol responded. Her Mexican accent did nothing disguise her obvious affection for the judge. “Were it not for you, I would be rotting in a Mexican prison paying for the crimes that diablo of a brother of mine committed,” she finished.

  “I for one am very grateful that you could step in for me. Daddy, forgive me for not being able to plan the party for you this year,” Honor said.

  “I quite understand why you could not. I know that you have been busy in Alamieda and Crabwell Junction, taking those lessons on telegraph operations. Not to mention the last adventure you girls went on. I swear if I didn’t have gray hair already, you would have given it to me then,” he said, mentioning a trip they made earlier in the month.

  “It’s more like silver, Pop!” Cassandra chuckled as she reached up and tousled it.

  "Don't look now, but it appears as if your first guests are arriving," Bright Feather said gesturing towards the entrance. Cassandra looked over, and sure enough, several men and their wives were walking into the lavishly decorated place. She usually didn't care one way or another about decorations, but once again the barn did look magical this night, she thought with pleasure.

  Annabelle Detweiller and her father Augustus had come to the annual party as something they had to do for their profession. Now they were standing in one corner looking around somewhat ill at ease and were entirely out of their element of holding sway down at their bank. Despite that very bank bearing the name of the father/daughter team, they ultimately answered to the board of directors. The bank was once under the Detweiller family's control until a time long before when Augustus made an error that lost them controlling interest. It was a shame that they didn't speak about because the bank had been built by generations of their ancestors.

  Since that day, the Detweillers had been at the whim of the board, and that same group of men had recently decided they had to pull up stakes and move to Alamieda to run the recently purchased Rock River Bank. They were used to being the proverbial biggest fish in a little pond. Here in Alamieda, though, there were others with power equal to their own and that included the family hosting the night’s festivities.

  Now that they had taken up residence in the curiously located town they were not quite sure how to get fit into it just yet. They had to admit that it was a lovely area with strikingly beautiful, but dense, rugged mountains. There were wide spreads of pasture that were home to numerous cattle ranges. The nearby Los Mochis Flat desert was rumored to be often deadly. It was without a doubt much different from city life living in such a rough and tumble western town filled with cowboys, gamblers, and madams and their working girls.

  Fortunately, they found themselves on a more equal footing with cattle barons such as Gordon Dunlevy, Mathias Pratt, Rooster McCarthy, and of course their host for the evening, Justice William Henry Wilde, owner of this vast five-hundred-square-mile ranch.

  The Detweillers had learned it was an annual tradition for the local upper crust, so they, of course, accepted the invitation, though Annabelle, the bank’s vice-president, had briefly considered trying to finagle a way out attending. But she had given up. She really hadn’t wanted to be there, because she had heard the frankly incredible stories that not only was the family made up of every stripe of color under the sun, the women were said to be walking contradictions to normalcy.

  From what gossip she had picked up, the family had unquestionable morals when it came to upholding justice in the frequently lawless territory. That alone would have made Annabelle dislike the Wilde women because in her mind the law had a grey area to it. It was a belief she had picked up from her father. Sometimes the ends did justify the means. Then there was the matter of their behavior when it didn't concern law and order.

  "The Wilde women had loose morals when it came to the opposite sex. Every rumor she heard about them suggested sexual aggression that flew in the face of what it meant to be a proper lady. Derisively, she wondered what kind of world her father had brought her to that those masquerading as being among the pillars of the community were a pack of half breed sluts. So far, she had only met one of them, the Mexican girl Catalina, and that encounter a few minutes ago had left her quite flustered.

  Her eyes swept the room seeing Honor Elizabeth and Lijuan. The other two half-breeds weren't easy to miss as they were Asian and colored, not to mention the Indian with the piercing blue eyes she had seen earlier. Supposedly the older two children were white, but since they didn't stand out, she hadn't identified them.

  “We need to be mingling more, Annabelle,” her father said as they held their position by a stack of hay bales that had been brightly decorated with bunting for a good few minutes now, ever since Annabelle had come back in from the outdoors.

  She had slipped away to sneak a cigarette, and that was when she had a run-in with this Catalina Wilde. Her eyes flickered about nervously trying to spot Catalina, but she didn’t see her. The barn was crowded, the dance floor full. She could be anywhere.

  "Yes, Father. I suppose we should." Still, she made no effort to move.

  ***

  Mingling was also on the mind of Cassandra Wilde, knowing she was expected to socialize with the guests and be a good hostess. She had noticed a rotund man with a pretty young woman who had a long shock of red hair draped over her shoulder in a braid. She sipped her punch and decided she should present herself to them. They looked uncomfortable, and since she didn't recognize them, she thought they were probably the new father/daughter team of bankers that had recently come to town. It would be an appropriate time to introduce herself and maybe introduce them around. She headed in their direction, from behind them. When she heard the woman speak, the words that came out of her mouth stopped Cassandra in her tracks.

  "Come now, sweetheart. We should start fraternizing more as I said."

  “Father, how long do we have to stay here?” the woman asked the man.

  “What is wrong, my dear?” he responded concerned.

  “While you were talking to the mayor, I met that horrid Mexican girl. What kind of people are in this town?” the lady said in an exasperated voice. Cassandra frowned. Had Catalina been flirting with this redhead? She wouldn’t put it past her, despite the fact she had already bedded the party planner from Mexico City.

  "Keep your voice down!" he responded, utterly oblivious to the fact he had raised his own voice.

  “Yes, Father,” the woman answered meekly, but then she seemed to rally. “I have heard stories about her that are scandalous. About dalliances with members of her own gender. That’s something you would never see me engaging in for certain!” she said in a rushed and forceful voice. “She should be ashamed of herself ifs she’s been carrying on like that if it’s true!” she finished.

  The sudden shift in the woman's demeanor surprised Cassandra, but she set that aside from having made a decision and stepped up next to her.

  “Ain’t that the truth?!” Cassandra said to the bankers. They were startled, but Annabelle smiled to find a kindred spirit, at least someone, she thought was one.

  “It surely is. What a collection this family is!” Annabelle told Cassandra.

  "We don't even know them. Now is not the time to be passing judgment, little lady," the father said, obviously not wanting to make a wrong impression being so new to town.

  “No, she’s right. I know the disgraceful bunch. Can’t believe I had to come here and make nice with them,” Cassandra told the two
with a hidden smirk of disdain for them.

  “It is almost unthinkable, isn’t it? A Chinese, a Mexican, and a colored girl all living side by side with the rest of the family. I’ve never seen anything like it. How is it even possible? One can only imagine what debauchery this judge must have engaged in as a younger man … to have this … this menagerie!” Annabelle said firmly.

  Cassandra had to fight to keep her smile and breathing even. She wanted to keep this going a bit longer before she lowered the boom. She was momentarily distracted when she saw a young colored boy from town enter the barn and cross to Honor, handing her something. Her sister looked perplexed and shocked at whatever she saw on the note. Cassandra turned back to the two guests.

  “You know who I feel sorry for? It’s the white sister. Imagine her having to introduce that strange assortment of women as her kin!” Cassandra said, baiting the woman further.

  “Oh, dear, you are right. It must be mortifying. Oh, how I pity her.” Annabelle saw Honor start to walk them. “Mercy, here comes that negro girl in our direction. I hope she is not planning on introducing herself. I wouldn’t know what to say to her, especially if she’s anything like that Mexican girl!” Annabelle admitted in distress. Cassandra noticed the grave look on her sister’s face and decided to end the charade.

  "How about, it is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Honor Elizabeth!" Cassandra said and threw her cup of punch in the woman's face, shocking the pair as Annabelle's cup dropped from her hand to shatter on the floor. "Excuse me, but it looks like my sister needs me, and you can save your pity!” Cassandra told the bigoted woman and went to intercept Honor Elizabeth, taking her arm and walking out of the barn with her.

  At that moment a tall, blond man with sparkling blue eyes appeared from out of nowhere and produced a handkerchief for Annabelle, like a gentleman.

  “Killian Kincaid, Esquire, at your service. May I?” he said offering the cloth. Annabelle was still stunned as she accepted it and wiped her face.

  “Thank you, who was that hussy?” she asked angrily.