Surrender by Moonlight

  "I am surprised," he murmured, capturing her hand and bowing over it, "that she allows you to move about in this crowd unchaperoned . . . particularly in that dress."

  His voice, too low for either of her two gallants to hear, reached her clearly. She bit her lip and tried to withdraw her hand but he held it firmly. "You don't like my dress?" she demanded, keeping her voice low.

  "I think it is ravishing . . . what there is of it. Tell me, does your stepfather approve of it or has he seen it?"

  She flushed. "Yes, to both questions."

  He raised his brows and looked disbelieving. "You surprise me. I wouldn't have thought he'd let you out the door in it. Yes, it is indeed exquisite and, on an older woman, shall we say, I would unhesitatingly approve of it."

  "And not for me?" she asked, her voice dangerously soft.

  "You are a little young, aren't you, to expose your . . . ah, charms so flagrantly?"

  "When you have enough charms to display, Don Dimitri, you are no longer too young to display them!" she shot back, her eyes flashing angrily.

  Dimitri laughed. "Touché! That piece of wisdom is impossible to argue with! And you do, I admit, have ample charms! I withdraw my objections!"

  Leonor glared at him. "You," she said loftily, "have no right to object to anything I do or wear!"

  "Another challenge, Leonor? I wouldn't advise it!"

  "I don't want your advice! The last piece of advice you gave me was to find a husband to practice on!"

  "Which should be very easy for you, in that dress! What man could refuse such a vision of loveliness?"

  "You!" she answered daringly.

  He chuckled. "Yes, you're correct there! But I can't think of any other man who would! Well, if you're not going to avail yourself of this opportunity to shop for a husband, you might as well make yourself useful . . . to me. Come," he said, tucking her hand into the crook of his arm. "Gentlemen," he said raising his voice, "you'll forgive me if I borrow Senorita Leonor for a short while. I will return her to you later."

  The two gentlemen demurred but Dimitri paid no attention and led her across the grassy plaza. She was tempted to struggle to free her hand but decided it would be undignified to do so. "Where are you taking me?"

  "Do you see that lady over there in black lace?"

  "I see her."

  "Do you know her?"

  Leonor grudgingly admitted she did. "Why?"

  "Because you are going to introduce me to her."

  Leonor stopped and Dimitri turned to look at her.

  "What's the matter?"

  Leonor's voice was decidedly chilly as she said, "Give me one good reason why I should introduce you to her!"

  "Are you jealous? I want to meet the lady."

  Leonor scowled up at him. "No, I'm not jealous! I do not care at all what you do."

  "Then introduce me to her."

  When he had led Leonor up to the waiting senorita, he bowed and turned to Leonor. She had little choice but to smile and say, "Senorita Fernan, let me present Don Dimitri Varanov. Don Dimitri, this is Senorita Fernan, our mayor's daughter."

  Dimitri bowed low over the lady's hand. "I am charmed, senorita. How delightful it is that my cousin knows you and could introduce me. I was quite in despair of how to make your acquaintance."

  Senorita Carlota smiled at him. Her ruby lips, definitely roughed, thought the furious Leonor, parted to show perfect white teeth. A dimple flickered in her cheek and it was all Leonor could do not stamp her foot in rage.

  "I have heard of you, Don Dimitri," Carlota said in her low, throaty voice. "We have hoped to meet you at one of our celebrations. Senorita Leonor," she continued, turning to look at the fuming girl, "how lovely you look! What a sweet dress!"

  "Thank you, Senorita Carlota," Leonor said, her hand clenched dangerously tight around her fan. "I have often admired yours. It is quite ravishing."

  Carlota's eyes narrowed for an instant and then she laughed. "You have the most delightful cousin, Don Dimitri. I had not realized that the de Corderras were related to the de Reyes," she murmured, casting her black, seductive gaze on him.

  Dimitri, fully appreciative of the flexing of claws between the two, smiled at her. "Leonor, thank you for taking the time to introduce me. I promised her gallants," he explained to Carlota, "that I would not keep her and see, here they come to remind me of that." As the two young men reached Leonor, he took Carlota's arm. "Perhaps you will show me around the plaza, while I explain to you how my family is related to Leonor's?"

  Helpless to do anything, Leonor watched Dimitri whisk the woman away. When she turned back to her own two gallants, there was a glint in her eye that would have made Dimitri, had he seen it, pause and reconsider the wisdom of his action.

  Chapter Twelve

  Leonor had skillfully avoided both her stepfather and her mother for all of the afternoon. She had flirted outrageously with her two gallants and yet had managed to keep an eye on Dimitri's and Carlota's progress around the plaza. They had talked, walked, watched the dancing and Leonor, infuriated by the sight of his gallantry toward Carlota, had renewed her efforts in the enslavement of her entourage. She was outraged that he would dare demand that she introduce him to a woman he clearly intended to seduce. She, the woman he had treated so shabbily! Her rage kept her from giving serious thought to the consequences of exercising her wiles on Sebastian and Luis. Without doubt, she had encouraged them to the point that they would be urging their fathers to call on Don Gilberto and make offers for her. But she was too furious to care.

  She would have been gratified if she had known that Dimitri, while he paid charming court to the luscious and available Carlota, had also kept surveillance on her movements and had missed few of her activities. He wanted nothing more than to drag her behind the nearest building and beat her until she cried for mercy. Since that was not possible, he contented himself by storing up the scathing things he intended to say to her at the first opportunity. She was behaving outrageously and he was determined to put a stop to it. It was clear to him that she had recently discovered her womanhood and was hell bent on exploring it and testing it to the limit. Look at her now, he thought, murmuring an agreement to whatever it was Carlota was saying. She was laughing bewitchingly up at that young man, what was his name? Sebastian? And tapping him coyly on the cheek with her fan. The young man, yes, Sebastian was his name, Dimitri thought, was gazing adoringly down at her and even at a distance, Dimitri could feel the passion and fire in that glance.

  Definitely, someone had to control her before she created a scandal and disgraced her family's good name. Neither her stepfather nor her mother was in evidence so he was the obvious choice. With only a small pang of regret, he made his apologies and extricated himself from the puzzled Carlota and strode purposefully across the plaza toward Leonor.

  A hard hand caught her elbow and she found herself being removed, with less than his usual diplomacy, from her gallants and half-led and half-dragged some distance away. Then he turned to face her. ''I could beat you," he said in a savage tone. "I will, too, if this doesn't cease immediately! Do you have any idea what your father would say if he had seen you making such a spectacle of yourself?"

  Her face pale with fury, Leonor tried to pull away from him and could not break the grip he had on her arm. "Release me instantly, Don Dimitri!"

  "You will listen to me!"

  "I will not!" she hissed, trying to keep her voice down. "You are making a scene!"

  Startled, he looked around and saw that no one was paying them any attention. "I'm not," he warned, "but I will if you don't stand still and listen to me."

  "You have no right to lecture me! You are not my father!"

  "If I were—" he began grimly.

  "But you are not. I—" She broke off as someone ran up and called her name.

  "Senorita Leonor!"

  "What?" she snapped furiously, turning to see Paquita plucking at her arm. Then she saw the white, frightened look on the maid's face
and she instantly lost her anger and caught Paquita's hand in hers. "Paquita, what is the matter?"

  "Oh, Senorita, thank God I found you and the senor! I didn't know what to do," she stammered, tears in her eyes.

  "Tell us what is wrong," Dimitri said soothingly, letting go of Leonor's arm and concentrating on the hysterical maid. "We can't help you if you don't tell us."

  "They have arrested Andres!"

  "Arrested Andres?" Leonor exclaimed, shocked. "But why?"

  "The mayor ordered him arrested," the girl said with a sob. "He and two other men. The lieutenant took them in charge and s-said they were brawling but Andres was not! He and another man were arguing but not fighting! Then the lieutenant arrived and the other man pushed Andres and Andres fell down. He g-got up and—" She sniffed, looking pitifully from one to the other. "And he didn't hit the man! He would have," she admitted, "but the lieutenant's men seized him and they dragged him off, and two more of your men, Don Dimitri, and have them in jail!''

  "Were they charged with brawling?" Dimitri asked.

  "Si, they were and the mayor said—" she began to weep again. "He ordered them to be whipped! The lieutenant is holding them and any minute now they will take them out behind the commandant's office and whip them! Oh, sir, they didn't do anything! Please help them!"

  "Show me where they are holding them," Dimitri said grimly. "Leonor, go find your mother and stay with her. I'll deal with this. They are my men."

  "I'll come with Paquita," she said, ignoring the order.

  He started to argue but Paquita, still holding firmly to Leonor, had hurried off across the plaza toward the white-washed building that served as the mayor's office, military commandant's post and jail.

  When they entered the building, they were confronted by a young sergeant. "Can I help you, sir?"

  "I want to see either the mayor or the lieutenant."

  The sergeant hesitated. "Lieutenant Pereda is busy, sir, and the mayor—"

  At that moment the bald, dumpy man Dimitri had seen earlier with Carlota came out of an inner office. Dimitri moved to intercept him. "Senor Fernan?"

  "Yes?"

  "I am Baron Varanov. I understand that you have three of my men charged with brawling?"

  The mayor blinked up at the angry man facing him. "Ah, three of your men? I did not understand that they were from your estate, senor. Townspeople, I think. You've made some mistake."

  "A mistake has been made," Dimitri said softly, "but I didn't make it. I would like to see the three men and identify them. If they are my men, I will know them. Now, if you please," he added.

  The mayor considered. He had ordered the three men arrested on Don Carlos's order but now he reconsidered the situation. He had not asked why Don Carlos wanted them arrested. Nor had anyone told him that the men belonged to the Baron Varanov, of whom he had already heard enough to wish to avoid a confrontation such as this. He glanced at the sergeant. "Tell Lieutenant Pereda to bring the three men here."

  The sergeant coughed. "They are already outside, your excellency."

  "Where?" demanded Dimitri, his eyes flashing dangerously.

  "B-behind the building."

  Ignoring the mayor's protests, Dimitri, followed by Leonor and Paquita, stalked through the building and threw open the back door. There, in a clearing behind the building, were his three men. Stripped to the waist and white-faced, they were each tied to a post driven into the ground and the lieutenant was motioning to a corporal holding a whip to begin. Paquita gasped at the sight and burst into tears and Leonor felt the familiar sickness at the thought of such brutality and turned away, her arm around Paquita.

  "Hold!" Dimitri said crisply.

  The lieutenant turned and gaped at him and the corporal waited, obeying the command in that voice.

  "Sir, you interrupt—"

  "I'll do more than interrupt, Lieutenant Pereda, if you touch those men. I am Baron Varanov and those are three of my men. Why are they being whipped?"

  "Sir, they were brawling in the tavern and the mayor heard their case and ordered a whipping as punishment. We do not allow brawling here."

  "They were not brawling."

  "Sir, they were! This man," he indicated Andres, "struck another man—"

  "I understand that he was himself struck or pushed but did not touch the other man. You," he said to the corporal. "Were you there when the brawl was going on?"

  "Ah, yes sir."

  "Then go inside and fetch the mayor and you return with him. We'll clear this matter up here and now."

  The lieutenant tried to protest but the corporal, coiling his whip, disappeared into the building, to return shortly with the mayor.

  Dimitri, his eyes ice blue, met the mayor's furious gaze and held it until the mayor, shifting his weight uneasily, looked away. "This corporal says that he was there when the so-called brawl occurred. Corporal, were you asked by the mayor what you had seen?"

  "No, sir."

  "And did you see this man," Dimitri pointed to Andres, "or either of the other men actually hit anyone?"

  "No, sir."

  "You saw them arguing? Then the man he was arguing with pushed him down? When he got up he moved toward the man but you seized him?"

  The corporal, watching Dimitri with a fascinated eye, admitted, "Jacinto and I seized him."

  "Why were you there? Had you been given orders to go arrest these three men?"

  "Yes, sir. We were told by the mayor that a fight was in progress at the tavern and to arrest the men."

  "But you didn't actually see a fight?"

  "No, sir."

  Dimitri turned to the mayor. "Well? There is no evidence at all that any of my men were involved in a brawl. It is not against the law for two men to argue! Bring forward a witness who says he saw these three men brawling and I will withdraw my objections to this punishment."

  The mayor was very red in the face. "Lieutenant, you said they were brawling!" he said, attempting to shift the blame.

  But the lieutenant was too quick-witted to allow that to happen. "No, sir, I didn't. I said that one of Don Carlos's men came and said that three men were brawling at the tavern. You were there and you ordered me to go and arrest them. I did so. Don Carlos's man went with me and pointed them out."

  The mayor, looking even more angry, gestured at the bound men. "Untie them. Senor, it appears that a mistake has indeed been made here. You have our apologies."

  Dimitri nodded, his eyes hard. "Mayor Fernan, I take exception to having my men disciplined by any other than myself. If there should be trouble in the future with any of my men, please see that I am notified and I will deal with them. You may be sure they will receive the punishment that they deserve."

  With a curt nod, the mayor stormed back into the building and, after a moment's hesitation, the lieutenant followed him. The corporal, eyeing Dimitri with considerable respect, untied the three men and then seized his own chance to escape before the angry gentleman turned his attention to him!

  "What have you to say, Andres?" Dimitri demanded.

  Andres rubbed his wrists and, picking up his shirt, shrugged ruefully. "I was arguing politics with another man when the soldiers arrived. You know the rest."

  Dimitri gave him a long, hard look. "In the future, confine your conversation to less heated topics, Andres. Such a position as you seem to be taking is dangerous to one's health hereabouts."

  Andres' head snapped up and his gaze met and held Dimitri's. They both knew they were talking about more than an argument in a tavern. How had he known, Andres wondered. "A man must do as he thinks right."

  "And a wise man makes sure his course is the right one before he endangers himself and his friends! Your cause may be just, Andres; I can't deny that it has its points, but violence has never been the answer and it isn't now. Remember that. You'll lose a great deal more than you'll gain. You'll alienate friends and turn them into foes. This is not the time for that kind of stupid blindness. Consider well your methods and wha
t you are about."

  "As usual, sir, your advice is sound. I will consider it carefully."

  Paquita ended the discussion by rushing over and throwing herself into Andres' arms. His embrace tightened and he stroked her shining dark hair. After a moment he led her around the building toward the plaza. Leonor eyed Dimitri. She was still furiously angry with him but it had been tempered by his swift action and the aid he had given Paquita and Andres. But it appeared he did not intend to continue the argument.

  Instead, he bowed coldly. "If you will accompany me, senorita, I will escort you back to your mother. I find that the enjoyment of this fiesta has worn thin and I think I will take my men and return home before any more of them can get into trouble."