Esteban's black eyes fixed on Yancy's face, he said bluntly, '*I have discovered where the snake came from, senor—at least, I am convinced that it is the same snake."
''WhereT' The word was shot out like a bullet.
"You know Guillermo, Maria's cousin Lupe's boy?" Esteban began quietly, and at Yancy's curt nod, he continued. "About two weeks ago, Guillermo and several other boys were out playing when they found the big snake—it was, as you will remember, very large, larger than any of them had ever seen before, and being boys, they captured it and brought it home with them in a bag."
"It was Guillermo's snake?" Yancy demanded incredulously, not believing for a second that any one of his people would have endangered Sara's life. ''Guillermo put the damn thing in Sara's bed?**
Esteban shook his head vehemently. ''Senorl To think such a thing! No! No! Guillermo would never harm you or your senora! Never!"
Yancy had the grace to look shamefaced. "I know— I should never even have allowed something like that to cross my mind—forgive me. Tell me what happened."
'T do not know exactly what happened, and the reason I did not immediately seek out Guillermo to see if he still had his snake was because, though I had heard of it from Maria the day he brought it home, I had forgotten about it. And not even thinking of Guillermo's snake, I made inquiries as you had ordered me to do and I could discover nothing. I talked to all the hacienda servants and some of the other people in the village, but no one had seen any of the three gringos leave the area of the village, and since I had forgotten about Guillermo's snake, I had nothing to report to you." Esteban sighed. "I was certain I had failed you, and then, just yesterday, when I returned to del Sol for some extra supplies for Paloma, I stopped by to see Lupe. Guillermo was there and looking rather downcast. I asked him what was wrong and he told me that his snake was gone—that someone had thrown off the lid to the pit and had either stolen his snake or let it go." Esteban's mouth twisted. "Forgive me, senor. I should not have forgotten about Guillermo's snake—I should have remembered it and seen for myself if the creature was still in the pit, but I did not." He glanced worriedly at Yancy. "I would have told you all this yesterday, but you were gone from the hacienda and I had to return to Paloma with the supplies. I am deeply sorry for the delay."
Yancy dismissed Esteban's apology. "Don't worry about it—you've done a very good job. Did you learn anything else?"
Esteban hunched a shoulder. "Not much, senor. I know that Guillermo discovered the snake missing the morning of your marriage to Senora Sara—^he remembers it well because he was so excited about all the wedding festivities."
Yancy looked thoughtful, the dangerous glitter in his eyes more pronounced. "Did you find out if the gringos knew about the snake?"
Esteban nodded. "They did, senor, all three of them." He hesitated and then added candidly, "Including Bartholomew and Tansy, Shortly after they arrived, everyone was given a tour of the village, and I asked Guillermo particularly if they had been shown his snake. He said that they all had seen the creature." He grinned for a second. "He said that the blond gringa screamed and jumped when he lifted the lid.'*
"Do Lupe and her family still live in the same house? The one right outside the hacienda gates?"
"5n" And finishing Yancy's thought, Esteban said, "It would have been a simple matter for any one of them to slip outside the hacienda walls and, after stunning the snake, to put it in a bag or a box and bring it back inside the hacienda. It would have taken only a few moments. ..."
"And from there just a few moments longer to put it in Sara's bed!"
Esteban nodded and said merely, ''Si, senor, just a few minutes."
Yancy swore virulently under his breath, and springing up from his chair, he took several agitated steps around the room. His back to Esteban, he said finally, "I cannot imagine anyone wanting Sara dead or even wanting to harm her, for that matter." He looked over
his shoulder at Esteban. "Do you have someone watching her here at Paloma?"
Esteban nodded. "A boy in the hacienda itself and two men outside the hacienda walls."
''Buenol At least here we don't have the Shelldrakes underfoot and I only have to worry about Hyrum!" Yancy said with satisfaction as he reseated himself.
Esteban looked extremely uneasy and Yancy's gaze narrowed. "What?" he asked sharply.
Esteban moved warily in his chair, and rubbing the back of his neck, he said nervously, "I did not want to be the one to tell you this, but the Shelldrakes are herer
With openmouthed awe and admiration, Esteban listened to the varied and inventive curses that rent the air when he had finished speaking. It was some time before Yancy ran out of invectives, but eventually even his fertile mind could think of no more vituperative comments about the Shelldrakes' parentage, their very being, or terrible, grisly fates to rain down upon them. When he started to repeat himself, he stopped. Wearily, he asked, "When did they arrive?"
"Just a half hour ago with all the others from del Sol. The blond gringa said that she was going to be bored at del Sol all by herself with no other white woman to talk to. She said she wanted to see Paloma again—she wanted to see if you had made as many changes here as at del Sol." Esteban grinned for just a moment. "She was not happy to discover that work is just starting at Paloma or that she would have to share a small and sparsely furnished room with her husband." His grin widened. "Tansy told her that if she didn't like her quarters, she could return to del Sol—that no one had invited her along! Tansy does not like her very much, does she?"
Yancy's mouth twisted ruefully. "I doubt that anyone actually likes Ann Shelldrake! Most people, myself
included, wouldn't mind if she joined her sister in hell!"
Returning to his room a few minutes later, Yancy still wasn't quite certain how he was going to handle the sudden intrusion of the Shelldrakes. He was so furious that his first instinct was to forcefully put Ann and Tom on a pair of horses and send them as far away from him as they could get, along with Hyrum Bumell, too, for that matter, but he didn't know if that would accomplish anything.
Tansy was with Sara and they were busily unpacking several of the trunks that had come with the new arrivals when he entered his room. Sara looked up from her task at the sound of the door opening, and the expression on her face told him that she had already heard the unpleasant news.
That his expression was equally clear was obvious when Sara wrinkled her nose at him and said, "You've heard about our guests?"
Yancy grimaced. "Yes, I've heard about our guests and I'm not certain which one I'd like to strangle first!"
Tansy chuckled. 'T wouldn't have no such trouble— that woman is just about the most overbearing, selfish, greedy, trouble-making, conniving creature I've ever seen!" She looked thoughtful. "Except, of course, for her sister! But I feel sorry for Mr. Tom—she rules him and he just doesn't seem to be able to do anything about it." She glanced at Yancy. "He didn't want to come—he was very embarrassed when she insisted and he tried to talk her out of it. I wouldn't be too hard on himV
"Are you going to send them back?" Sara asked hopefully, her big green eyes fixed on his face.
Thumbs hooked in his gun belt, legs apart, he regarded her, curious about the way she would handle the situation. "What do you want me to do?" he finally asked softly.
Sara made a face. "I want to send them back to del Sol immediately, but I don't think it's going to be that easy. I know that the journey here, however short, has probably tired Tom. And as Tansy just mentioned, he came reluctantly and is already feeling embarrassed about the situation—I wouldn't want to cause him more humiliation."
Yancy quirked an eyebrow. "You want them to stay?"
Sara shook her head. "No. At least not for very long." She looked unhappy. "Perhaps we can wait a day or two and then politely suggest that they would be far happier at del Sol."
Tansy snorted and, gathering up a few more items of Sara's clothing, laid them in a drawer in the bureau. Slammi
ng the drawer shut with far more force than necessary, she looked back at Sara. "You listen to me, missy! That wicked hussy is up to something! She's here for some reason of her own, and you can't tell me that it's just because she's so fond of you!"
Sara started to argue, but Yancy broke in, saying coolly, "I agree with Tansy. I think Ann is up to something and I think that until we find out what it is, we should allow them to stay longer than just a few days."
"How long?" Sara asked, clearly not liking the idea of being saddled with the Shelldrakes for very long.
"Only until I can figure out what schemes Ann might be fomenting." He hesitated and then said softly, "Sara, Paloma is your house—if you want them gone, we can throw them out this very minute."
Yancy's observation seemed to take Sara by surprise, and she suddenly grinned. "Yes, it is, isn't it, and we could, couldn't we?" Meeting Yancy's steady gaze, she grimaced wryly. "But we're not going to, are we?"
"It's your house."
She paused and then shrugged. "Oh, very well. They can stay for a while." A pleasant thought occurred to her
and she said happily, 'Til just have to console myself with the knowledge that I can have them leave anytime I want!"
Despite the intrusion of the Shelldrakes and the not-pr^c/5£'/>'-understood situation between herself and Yancy, Sara remained happy during the ensuing days. She loved her husband! She loved Paloma! And she was delighted with all the changes and improvements that were occurring right before her very eyes.
During the day she was everywhere—watching the new roof being put on one of the bams, observing the corrals near the hacienda being repaired, riding out to watch the bulls and mustangs being gathered, listening to Maria and Tansy as they cooked in the big old-fashioned kitchen and told tales of other trips and visits to Paloma. Everywhere Sara went, much to her delight and excitement, there was new life being constantly breathed into the old rancho. And then there was Yancy. .. .
She spent several hours each day in the saddle as she accompanied her darkly fascinating husband on his daily trips to the mustang- and cattle-gathering site to oversee the work of the vaqueros. Sometimes they would be gone nearly the entire day, riding back to the hacienda in the purple shadows of dusk. Some evenings, long after the Shelldrakes had mercifully retired for the night, they sat at the table where his parents had sat so many years before and conversed softly, not about anything important, just the rancho, the work that was being undertaken and what they hoped would be the outcome. Best of all, Sara admitted with a flush, were the nights . . . nights that were spent locked in Yancy's arms as she learned to give full rein to her own sensuality and began to plumb the fathomless depths of her husband's excitingly inventive, definitely addictive lovemaking.
Sara's heart was so full of love for him that a dozen times a day she almost blurted it out; a dozen times at
night when he brought her to shuddering ecstasy, she almost screamed it aloud, but the words "I love you" remained unspoken between them. Yancy never mentioned the word "love"; he never brought up the subject of why he had married her or gave any more hints about his true feelings for her, but Sara was oddly content.
She might not be an expert in matters of the heart, but she had a certain amount of that uncommon commodity, common sense. Common sense told her plainly that Yancy could not make such sweet, passionate love to her night after night; could not take such open pleasure in her company or send her those bone-melting glances with such exciting frequency; could not treat her with such heartwarming consideration, or tease her so unmercifully, if there was not a great depth of feeling behind his actions.
He had not told her that he loved her, but she sensed that it was only a matter of time. It'll happen, she told herself confidently. Soon.
There were very few clouds on Sara's horizon these days. Bartholomew and Tansy were happily adapting to life at Paloma, and even Ann and Tom Shelldrake seemed to be making an effort to be agreeable. Yancy had even relented and treated Hyrum with stiff cordiality, assigning one of the newly constructed houses in the village that was growing outside the hacienda walls for his own use when he was not at the cattle camp. To Sara's astonishment, Yancy had even gone so far as to invite the man to join them for the occasional meal at the hacienda. It was a wonderful time for her and she greeted each day with a smile and an excited sparkle in her eyes. By the time they had been at Paloma for five weeks, she was so thrilled by everything that was happening that she fairly floated about the place, a gleam in her eyes and a dreamy smile never very far away from her soft mouth.
July had been full of blistering heat, and when August began and the heat seared across the land with a vengeance, Yancy had dictated that he didn't want her riding out with him when he was going to be gone most of the day. He had promised that there were still some mornings that she could come with him, and he had lessened the blow further with a passionate kiss and had made certain that there were few days that he was away from sunup to sundown.
This particular Wednesday at the end of the second week of August happened to be one of those days, and after moping around the hacienda until late afternoon, Sara wandered over to the pleasant house where Bartholomew and Tansy were currently living. Like Yancy, Bartholomew was out working with the cattle and the mustangs, so when Sara peered around the open doorway, it was to find Tansy sitting in a comfortable wooden rocking chair enjoying a tall glass of lemonade.
The heat and humidity were intense this time of day, and after Tansy motioned her inside and indicated that she should sit in the softly cushioned chair near the rocker, she pressed a glass of lemonade on her. Sara wasn't at all loath to accept either. The two women sat in silence for a while, simply savoring the tart flavor of the lemonade and the blessed coolness inside the small house.
Thinking of all that they had shared together over the years, Sara remarked idly, "This is quite different from Magnolia Grove, isn't it?"
Rocking lazily. Tansy grinned and murmured, "My, my! Indeed it is! Bartholomew and I were saying just the other night that who would have guessed, only two months ago, that you'd be married to Master Yancy and that we'd all be here at Psdoma!" Tansy shook her dark head. "Life sure is strange, that's for sure!"
The two women reminisced for several moments, laughing sometimes at happy memories of Magnolia
Grove, other times sobering as they recalled some of the unpleasant times at the plantation—and there had been a lot of those. More unhappy times, Sara admitted sadly, than happy ones. Margaret's murder. The long, terrible years of the war. Sam's horrible wounds. Sam's death.
Sipping her lemonade, she tried to push aside the dark memories that crowded close, but she couldn't help wondering what her life would have been like if Margaret hadn't died. She moved restively and blurted out impulsively, "Do you ever wonder what would have happened if Margaret hadn't been murdered?"
Tansy took a long swallow of her lemonade. "Don't think about that woman at all! She deserved what she got! Imagine trying to get my Bartholomew sent to the fields!" Tansy took another drink of her lemonade and, her hazel eyes bright with anger, she said fiercely, "Except for that trouble-causing sister of hers, I never in my whole life met anyone who liked to stir up so much aggravation and heartache as that woman! And enjoyed every moment of it—^no matter who got hurt or how much pain she caused! I'm glad she's dead, and that sister of hers is no better! There are times that I wish someone would take a fine Spanish dagger and stab Ann to death, too! Just as they did Margaret!"
Sara froze, the air suddenly very cold against her skin. Her eyes slid away from Tansy's gaze. She felt sick and dizzy at the same time. Everyone knew that Margaret had been stabbed. Everyone. But not everyone had known that the weapon that had been used to kill Margaret all those years ago had been dijine Spanish dagger! A dagger that had belonged to Bartholomew and that would have been easily accessible to Tansy ... Tansy, who adored her husband.... Had she, Sara wondered uneasily, adored her husband enough to murder for him?
Sara didn't like either premise, but she realized that she was gradually, because of the great affection she bore them, eliminating suspects. Pretty soon, she thought glumly, I'll have convinced myself that it had to have been a wandering vagrant who just happened to pilfer Bartholomew's knife and just happened to find Margaret alone and just happened to have murdered her!
She sighed, her lovely face revealing her unhappy introspection, and just entering the courtyard, Yancy saw it and frowned. What the devil had happened? He had left a smiling, happy bride this morning, and he came home to a woman who looked absolutely miserable. If Ann Shelldrake had done anything to upset her. .. ! His mind full of unpleasant fates for the hapless Ann, he quickly crossed the courtyard and planted his big, lean body right in front of Sara.
"If you like, I'll stake her out for the Comanches to find," he growled by way of greeting.
Sara had been so involved with her own thoughts
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that she had neither seen nor heard his approach, and she jumped at his words. Tansy's statement was still uppermost in her mind, so she gazed at Yancy in some astonishment. "You want to stake out Tansy for the Comanches?" she asked bewilderedly.
''TansyV Yancy ejaculated, looking as bewildered as Sara. "Good God, no! But what has Tansy done to make you look so unhappy?"
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