They had left their horses at the livery stable and were headed to the hotel. If Billy could be believed, Dolores had taken a room there.
The town had changed considerably in the ten years Rafe had been gone. The single street running east to west had been extended to five with nearly that many crossing north to south. Wood-frame buildings stood side by side with those of brick, and there was even one of rough stone. Signs above a bakery, billiard hall, dentist’s office, loan agent, even ladies’ intimate apparel indicated that the town was serving the needs of a larger community. An Episcopal church, a newspaper office, and a theater advertising a dance troop from San Francisco attested to a wider scope of interests than before.
“What are you going to do to Dolores?” Maria asked Rafe as they walked along the boardwalk.
“I can’t do anything to her. It’s not a crime to cry on a suggestible young man’s shoulder. The sheriff didn’t say so, but I could tell that in the eyes of the law—at least in his eyes—I’m more at fault than Dolores or Billy.”
Broc’s snort of indignation wasn’t elegant. “As often as Dolores is in Cíbola, he ought to know what she’s like.”
“My father and I lived in the same house with her for two years, and neither of us knew what she was like.” Despite his dislike of Dolores, Rafe regretted his words. He turned to Maria. “Sorry. I know she’s your sister.”
Maria didn’t meet Rafe’s gaze. “I should be the one apologizing. I’ve spent so many years being thankful she invited me to live at Rancho los Alamitos, I refused to see what she was really like. I should have known she’d do something like try to kidnap Luis. She doesn’t want him. She wants more money. But she knows you’d give Luis a big allowance. If he was living with her, she could use his allowance for herself.”
“She told you all of this?” Broc couldn’t conceal his amazement.
Maria nodded.
Broc shook his head. “And you still defend her?”
“Not anymore, but I am still grateful for the opportunity she gave me.”
“Don’t be,” Rafe said. “You worked for everything you got. You were no better than a paid servant. You were so grateful you would do virtually anything she wanted.”
Rafe regretted the words as soon as they were out of his mouth. No one likes to know their love has been wasted, their loyalty abused, their trust violated. He didn’t know if it was harder when it happened with a sister or a lover, but it was painful either way.
The hotel came into view. It was one of the new brick buildings that helped give Cíbola the appearance of prosperity. The cool, dark interior of the lobby was a welcome change from the heat and bright sunshine of the morning. Dark mahogany furniture, velvet curtains, and thick rugs gave the lobby an appearance of opulence unusual in Cíbola.
Rafe stepped up to the desk. “I’d like the room number for Mrs. Dolores Jerry.”
The clerk, a nondescript man probably somewhere in his forties, favored Rafe with a speculative gaze. “What is your business with Mrs. Jerry?”
Rafe stifled a desire to return a sharp reply. “I don’t see that’s any of your concern.”
The clerk cleared his throat deferentially. “It’s a policy of the hotel to guard our guests’ privacy. Unless you’re a relative, I can’t give out that information.”
Rafe had never had occasion to announce to anyone that Dolores was his stepmother. He was sure the words would stick in his throat. He was relieved when Maria stepped forward.
“I’m Maria de la Guerra. Mrs. Jerry is my sister. We’re here to give her some news about her son.”
“Mrs. Jerry isn’t in just now. I don’t know where she has gone. I expect she will return soon. Lunch is already being served in the dining room.”
Rafe met Maria’s gaze and they came to an unspoken agreement. “We’ll wait.”
They settled in a corner of the lobby with a view of the entrance. Broc drummed his fingers impatiently. Maria perused a few pages of a romantic tale of the West. Rafe was nearing the end of an article in the weekly newspaper about the expansion of the Southern Pacific Railroad into northern California when a familiar laugh brought his head up.
Dolores, accompanied by Laveau, had just walked into the hotel. Her laugh was cut off by a gasp when she saw the group seated in the corner of the lobby. For a moment she lost color, but then she regained control.
“What are you doing here?” She addressed her question to Maria. “Nothing has happened to Luis, has it?”
She should have been an actress, Rafe thought. With her beauty and ability to believe anything she wanted, she would have been a sensation.
“Luis is fine, but he’s upset that Billy Cassius tried to kidnap him this morning.”
“Who’s Billy Cassius?” Had he not known otherwise, Rafe could have believed Dolores had never heard of the man.
“If I remember correctly,” Laveau intervened, “he’s the young man who was so entranced by your tale of a devoted mother who had been forcefully separated from her cherished son.”
Rafe was fully aware of Laveau’s ability to play both sides of the fence, but he couldn’t understand why he was undercutting Dolores’s position.
Dolores uttered one of those tinkling laughs Rafe so disliked. “How am I supposed to remember one besotted young man out of so many?” she asked Laveau.
“You aren’t, my sweet. That’s left for those of us who are beset with jealousy because we have to share your attention.”
Dolores playfully slapped Laveau on the arm. “You know you’re the only man I really care about.”
“You’d be safer bedding down with a nest of angry rattlesnakes,” Broc told her.
Dolores ignored him. “What did this man do?” she asked Maria.
“He was trying to drag Luis off his pony when Rafe got to him.”
She turned on Rafe. “You’re not a fit guardian if you can’t protect him from drunken young men.”
Rafe couldn’t repress a smile. “I thought you didn’t remember Billy.”
“All young men end up getting drunk when I won’t go off with them,” Dolores said dismissively.
“I warned you not to talk to him,” Laveau said. “I knew he was the type to do something foolish.”
“That’s probably why she talked to him,” Broc said.
“Did you ask him to kidnap Luis?” Maria asked.
“No, I didn’t.”
“That’s not exactly true, my love,” Laveau said. “Though you didn’t use the word kidnap, you did say you’d be forever in his debt if he returned your child to your bosom.”
Dolores’s feigned dismay was masterful. “Surely I didn’t say that.”
Laveau looked sympathetic. “You’d had a few drinks by that time.”
Dolores turned to Rafe. “Well, I wish this Billy what ever-his-name-is person had kidnapped Luis. You have no right to keep him from me. I’m considering taking you to court to get him back.”
“I wouldn’t advise it. There’s too much evidence of your neglect, of your near total lack of interest in him.”
“Maria will tell you that I’m devoted to the boy.”
Maria locked gazes with her sister. “The boy is named Luis. Since I’ve had sole responsibility for him almost from the moment he was born, I’ll be happy to tell a judge exactly how devoted you are to a child you never ask to see, not even when he’s sick.”
Dolores stared at her sister in disbelief. “After all I’ve done for you, how can you say that?”
“Because I can’t continue to ignore the truth. You don’t care about me or Luis. You care only about how you can use us to your advantage.”
“That’s not true. I love you both.”
“When I found out you’d lied about the rape, I knew I had to stop defending you. When you talked Billy into attempting to kidnap Luis, I knew I couldn’t keep quiet any longer.”
“Luis should be with me. I’m his mother.”
Rafe didn’t wait for Maria to answer her sist
er. “As far as I’m concerned, you abrogated any such right when you talked Billy into trying to kidnap Luis. Since I can’t trust you not to make another attempt that might result in harm to him, I’m forbidding you to return to the ranch today or any other day.”
Dolores clutched at Laveau’s arm.
“I’ll see that the rest of your belongings are packed up and brought to you as soon as possible.”
“Rancho los Alamitos is my home,” Dolores declared. “Warren should have left it to me.”
“Maybe he should have, but he didn’t. I’ll ask Rosana to pack your belongings and have Juan bring them to you.”
“I forbid you to let that woman touch anything of mine,” Dolores declared. “She hates me.”
“Margarita and I will put together your things,” Maria offered.
“You can’t do this,” Dolores wailed. “I don’t have a permanent place to stay.”
“We found out today that you have a room here in the hotel.”
“I can’t afford a room on the miserable allowance you give me. That’s Laveau’s room.”
Rafe turned to Laveau. “I hope you have a lot of space. Her gowns alone will fill a large room.”
“I’ll be happy to reserve all the space she needs.”
The change in Dolores was instantaneous. From an outraged virago, she became a smiling seductress. “I’ll need a full suite, not just another room.”
“Certainly, my sweet.”
Rafe didn’t know what Laveau’s game might be, but he wanted to set him straight. “I don’t know what you’re doing in California, but be assured a second kidnapping plot will not succeed.”
Laveau’s cheerful demeanor was undented. “I tried to talk Dolores out of that scheme. I hope I don’t appear to be unfeeling, but I have an unfortunate dislike of children.”
Rafe extended his hand and helped Maria to her feet. “I’m going to the lawyer’s office now. I’ll set up the terms under which you’ll receive your allowance. He’ll send it to you for your approval.”
“I won’t approve anything you send me.”
“Fine. That will make things easier.”
Broc left quickly. Rafe was ready to follow him but Maria lingered.
“You had so much. Why did you throw it away?” she asked her sister.
“What did I have besides an old husband who wanted nothing to do with me, and a house full of servants who hated me?”
Rafe reached out to Maria. “It’s too late. She doesn’t understand what you’re talking about.”
“She’s not to set foot on Rancho los Alamitos land,” Rafe told the lawyer. “Her allowance is to be paid on the first of the month with no advances under any circumstances.”
Maria was uncomfortable listening to Rafe’s strictures. She kept telling herself that her silence didn’t mean she’d stopped loving Dolores or worrying about her. It meant that she had reluctantly accepted it was best that Dolores not have another chance to hurt Luis.
“All of her clothes, jewelry, and some furniture will be packed up and sent to her as soon as she has a place to live.”
“What about visits with the boy?” the lawyer asked.
“She won’t be allowed to see Luis.”
“She’s got to see Luis,” Maria said. “She’s his mother. She needs to see her child.”
“I don’t care about Dolores’s needs. Luis will be better off without her.”
“Maybe better off but not happier. He loves me and he idolizes you, but neither of us is his mother or father. Those are two roles that don’t allow for substitution.”
“I agree with Maria,” Broc said. “Find some place that’s safe, make sure she’s not alone with him, and let her see him for an hour once a week.”
“It’ll be more like once a month once she realizes he’s no use to her,” Rafe growled.
“What ever.” Losing interest in the conversation, Broc turned his attention to two attractive women walking down the street outside the lawyer’s office.
“The meetings will prevent her from claiming that you’re keeping him from her to damage their relationship and denying her rights as a mother,” the lawyer pointed out.
“I’ll stay with Luis whenever they’re together,” Maria offered. “Require her to see Luis for only a few hours and only when I am present.” She could see his resistance collapsing and waited. He would make an unpleasant decision if he had to.
Rafe turned to the lawyer. “Set up the visits as Maria suggested. If anybody is with Dolores, they have to wait outside. I’ll send one of the men with Maria to be sure there are no more kidnapping attempts.”
Maria thought his strictures were unnecessary, but she didn’t object. “I think it would be a good idea for you to give me a specific amount of money for Luis so you can track exactly how much I’ve spent on him and where it has gone.”
“Why?” Rafe asked. “I don’t think you’ll steal from him or deprive him of anything.”
Rafe’s obvious surprise pleased her. “It was different when Warren was alive and even afterward when Dolores was still living at the ranch. Now it’s just Luis. I’d feel more comfortable if I had a specific amount for running the house and a specific amount for Luis. That way it would be easier for you and Mr. Fielder to see where the money goes.”
“Okay. What about a salary for you?”
She’d never thought of being paid. “I don’t need a salary. Dolores gives me her clothes when she’s tired of them. Everything else is taken care of out of the house hold money.”
“Taking care of the house and Luis is a big job and a serious responsibility. Anybody I might hire to do that would expect a substantial salary. There’s no reason you shouldn’t get exactly what I would have to pay a stranger. More, in fact, because you’re much more than a stranger to Luis.”
Maria was so overcome with emotion, she couldn’t speak. Not even Warren had thanked her. Most of the time she felt more like a servant with privileges than a poor relation. She’d always tried to do a good job for Dolores and Luis. After she got to know Warren, she’d grown fond of him as well. They had become her family. It hadn’t occurred to her to ask for pay for taking care of her family. That Rafe thought she deserved it was one of the nicest things that had ever happened to her.
“How much do you want to be paid?” Rafe asked her.
“Not much. I have nothing to spend money on.”
The figure they settled on was so large, Maria felt like an heiress. She also felt uneasy about her relationship with Rafe. Now she would be an employee like Rosana and Juan. Would she be obliged to do what he said just because he paid her salary, or would he still listen to her when she disagreed with him?
She was tempted to tell Rafe she didn’t want a salary, but for the first time in her life, she would have money of her own. She would have some mea sure of control over her life. Her future wouldn’t be entirely dependent on the whim of someone else.
“Are you ready to go?”
Maria hadn’t realized Rafe and Mr. Fielder had finished their business. Embarrassed, she got to her feet. “Where’s Broc?”
“He got bored so he went to see about the horses. Broc could charm a wolf out of its teeth, but he hates being inactive.”
“What are you going to tell the boy?”
Maria and Rafe turned back at the lawyer’s question.
“The truth,” Rafe answered.
The man paced back and forth in the confines of the small room, a thin smile on his face. Rafe had driven Dolores from the ranch, and she had retaliated by broadcasting her mistreatment to anyone who would listen. When she’d got that young fool drunk enough to try to kidnap her son, she’d made herself the obvious suspect should anything happen to Rafe.
The man rubbed his hands together in anticipation. Something was going to happen to Rafe. He just hadn’t decided what it was going to be.
Chapter Sixteen
Rafe and Maria were sitting with Luis in his room. His lower lip quivered when he
turned to Rafe. “Mama wanted that man to hurt me, didn’t she?”
Maria yearned to say something that would take that hurt and fear from his eyes, but he’d asked Rafe, the person who had most reason to give him the bitter truth.
“Nobody wants to hurt you,” Rafe told Luis. “Especially not your mother.”
“But she asked that man to take me away from you.”
Maria marveled that Luis hadn’t said take me away from here or take me away from Maria. He’d said take me away from you. In his mind, Rafe was the one to turn to when there was trouble or danger.
She shouldn’t be surprised. She felt the same.
“Billy was a little drunk. When he heard her say how much she missed you and wanted to see you, he decided to kidnap you and take you to her.”
Luis looked like he was digesting that information.
“I know it was frightening, but it just shows how much your mother loves you. She would never have been so upset if she didn’t love you very much.”
Maria knew Rafe wouldn’t say anything to hurt Luis, but it did surprise her that he would make Dolores’s actions sound like those of a grieving mother. She’d been racking her brain for a way to keep Luis from knowing Dolores wanted him only as a way to get more money.
“Will I get to see her?”
“Yes, she’ll visit you once a week at the ranch,” Maria said.
She had mixed feelings about these visits. She felt Dolores should be able to see her son just as she felt Luis ought to be able to see his mother. But she worried that Dolores would have no idea what to do with Luis when they were together. She had ignored Luis when he was a baby, when he cried, wanted to be fed, or needed a fresh diaper. She was no better able to understand him now that he was older.
“When can I see her?” Luis asked.
Someone Like You (Night Riders) Page 17