Someone Like You (Night Riders) (13 page)

Laveau nodded to Maria. “You’re most gracious.” He ignored Luis and turned to Rafe. “I’m sure we’ll see each other again. Give Broc my best wishes for a speedy recovery.”

Rafe said nothing because anything he wanted to say would have made the situation worse. Laveau seemed to understand and be amused by Rafe’s self-imposed silence.

“No final words to speed me on my way?”

Rafe didn’t move.

Laveau sighed dramatically. “He never was much of a talker.”

“How can you be so rude?” Dolores demanded when Laveau was barely through the doorway. “He said you were friends during the war.”

Rafe felt a sudden desire for a large whiskey, but getting drunk would solve nothing. “I’ve made two big mistakes in my judgment of people. You were one. Laveau was the other.”

“Everyone in Cíbola thinks he’s wonderful. You can’t believe the jealous looks I get because he has a preference for me.”

Rafe was tired of Laveau and tired of Dolores. “Laveau betrayed our troop to the Union soldiers. He compounded his treachery by stealing money from one of his fellow soldiers.”

His words had no effect on Dolores. “You’d say anything about him if you thought it would hurt me. Do you still love me that much?”

Rafe found it impossible to plumb the depths of Dolores’s powers of self-deception. Hadn’t she heard a word he’d said, seen the revulsion in his eyes when he looked at her?

“I don’t love you, Dolores. I got over that when I found you in my—” He remembered Luis was still in the room. “—when you decided to marry my father. What I said about Laveau is the truth.”

Dolores stomped her foot. “Everybody in Cíbola thinks Laveau is a perfect gentleman.”

“Everybody in Cíbola wasn’t sleeping in the apple orchard that night in the Shenandoah Valley. Everybody in Cíbola didn’t have to bury their friends the next morning.” He still felt the grief of those losses. “Laveau killed the man standing guard and rode out before the attack.”

“I don’t know why you’d lie about a man who was your friend, but I don’t believe you. I’m going to my room,” she announced to Maria. “I won’t be home for dinner tomorrow. Tell Juan I’ll need someone to drive me into town after lunch.” She left without saying a word to Luis.

“Can she drive a buggy?” Rafe asked Maria.

“I think so.”

“I’ll see she gets one.” If Dolores could drive herself to and from town, Luis and Maria would be spared having to deal with the kind of men who attached themselves to widows like Dolores.

“Why did he do it?” Luis asked.

Rafe turned to Luis. “He wanted to be on the winning side. His family had lost some land, and he believed the Union Army would get it back for him.”

“Did they?”

“No. Nobody on either side liked traitors.”

“Did you know all those people who died?”

Maria was visibly upset at the direction of the conversation. “Luis, I don’t think these are suitable questions for you to ask.”

“He already knows too much to stop now.” Rafe understood Maria’s concern, but Luis’s birth was the result of lies and treachery. He would have to learn things that would hurt him far more than hearing about the duplicity of strangers. “Yes, I knew them. We rode, ate, and slept together. It was like losing my family.” For a second time.

“It’s time for you to go to bed.”

Luis tried to protest, but Maria was firm.

“If you want to have enough energy to ride with me tomorrow, you have to get your rest,” Rafe put in.

Now that Rafe had given Luis a good reason for going to bed, the boy said good night, allowed Maria to kiss him, then left the room. Maria turned to Rafe, a worried look in her eyes.

“Do you think it’s wise to ride tomorrow?”

“Are you worried someone will shoot at us again?”

“Yes, it makes me nervous.”

“I’m not going to let the shooting confine me to the house. I’m not a coward.”

“No one thinks you are, but the rest of us haven’t gone through a war. We’re not used to having people shoot at us day and night.”

Rafe knew he shouldn’t smile, but her eyes flashed when she got irritated. It made her look even more attractive. “I never got used to being shot at, but sometimes it’s necessary to take care of my responsibilities.”

“But you don’t intend to take care of them. You’re going back to Texas and leaving us at the mercy of that lawyer.”

The outburst was unexpected. Maria usually seemed so calm, so controlled. Did this agitation mean she was changing her mind about him?

“I won’t leave you and Luis in such a risky situation.”

“But you won’t know if something dangerous happens, will you? Texas is a long way off.”

He could tell she was upset, but he wasn’t sure he understood why. He reached for her hand. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

Maria jerked her hand from his grasp. “I wish you’d never seen that notice. I thought we could go on for years by ourselves until Luis grew up. I don’t know why Mr. di Viere sent it, but I wish he hadn’t.”

“I don’t know why, either, but I’m sure it was for no good reason.”

“You don’t like Dolores, or me, either, for that matter, because you think I’m like my sister, and you don’t think I’ve done a good job bringing up Luis. Now you’ve got Luis determined to be just like you. Do you know he galloped his pony back to the ranch this morning? That brings me to Broc getting shot and my having to help you take the bullet out of his shoulder. You may be used to cutting into your friends, with blood everywhere, but I’m not. And all of this has happened in little more than one day.”

Rafe tried not to laugh, but he couldn’t help it. The more vulnerable Maria appeared, the more unlike her sister she seemed, and the more he was attracted to her. He took her hand again. She tried to tug it away, but not as vigorously as before. He didn’t let go.

“I’m sorry I’ve upset your life so badly. I never meant to do so.”

“I don’t suppose you did, but you
did
upset it, and you’ve kept on upsetting it, so your apology doesn’t do much good.”

She really was charming. There wasn’t any challenge she wouldn’t tackle, no person she wouldn’t confront, yet she also had an endearing quality of vulnerability that made him want to protect her.

“And now you’ve brought that terrible man down on us. And don’t pretend it’s not your fault that he’s here making Dolores think he’s some sort of paragon.”

Rafe was certain he was the reason for Laveau’s presence in Cíbola. He just didn’t know yet what the man hoped to gain. “You believe what I said about him?”

She looked directly into his eyes. “I can see the memory still gives you pain.”

He hadn’t expected that remark. He didn’t think she was insensitive, but he was certain she thought he was. “I’m sorry about Laveau. I don’t know what he’s doing here, but he’s as evil as his sister is good.”

“I can’t blame you. Dolores was the one who brought him here.” Maria eased her hand from Rafe’s grasp. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to go upstairs.”

“It’s not terribly late.”

“I have to make sure Luis is in bed. I’m certain I’ll get a visit from Dolores as soon as I go to my room. Before I can do that, I have to go over tomorrow’s house hold chores with Rosana.”

“You have too much to do.”

“You’re the first person to think so.”

“Your sister doesn’t know how fortunate she is to have you.”

“She does take me for granted sometimes, but that’s partly my fault. I was so grateful when she brought me to live here, I felt I couldn’t do enough for her.”

“Was your life so bad?”

“It was worse, but I don’t intend to tell you because I don’t want you to feel sorry for me. Now I really must go. Juan will close up after you.”

He could close up on his own, but he wanted to talk to Juan. It was time he learned more about Maria de la Guerra. It was time to throw out all his preconceived notions and start over again. Broc was right. He was interested in her.

Maria sighed when Dolores entered her room without knocking. She was tired, frustrated, confused, and angry at Dolores for bringing Laveau di Viere to the house. She couldn’t have expected Dolores to guess the man’s connection with Rafe or
to have known about his treachery, but it was just like Dolores to bring home a man most women wouldn’t want their son or their younger sister to meet.

Not waiting to be invited in, Dolores settled herself on Maria’s daybed. “What were you and Rafe talking about for so long?”

Maria sat before her mirror and began to take her hair down in preparation for bed. “Nothing important. We can’t seem to agree on anything.”

“It had to be something. Rafe was never much of a talker.”

“You know him better than I do.”

“That was ten years ago.”

“I doubt he’s changed much.” Yet he must have. She couldn’t imagine Dolores falling in love with a man of Rafe’s serious disposition.

“He’s completely changed.” Dolores waved her hand as though pushing aside any remnant of the past. “He used to be so in love with me, he would do anything to get me to marry him.”

“He doesn’t want to marry you now.” She hoped Dolores wasn’t going to ask her to help rekindle Rafe’s old feelings for her. It was impossible, but she wouldn’t have participated in such a scheme in any case.

Dolores shrugged. “I could get him to change his mind, but I’ve decided I don’t want to marry him. He’s turned into his father.
You
ought to marry him.”

Maria removed the last pin from her hair and turned to face her sister. “Setting aside my feelings as well as his, how could you suggest that I marry the man who raped you?”

Dolores studied her hands. “He was young and upset.”

Maria picked up a brush and began to work the tangles out of her hair. “Nothing can excuse an act of such brutality.”

Dolores met her sister’s gaze. “He wouldn’t do anything like that again. He’s much too dull.”

Maria gave her hair a hundred strokes each night. She began counting.
One, two, three…
“It wouldn’t matter if he
got down on his knees and begged your forgiveness. I still wouldn’t marry him even if I loved him. In fact, I find it hard not to dislike him.” No, that wasn’t the truth. She
tried
to dislike him. She thought she
ought
to dislike him, but she couldn’t.

“I think you
do
like him. I know he likes you.”

It upset her that Dolores could see she couldn’t control her feelings when it came to Rafe.
Nineteen, twenty, twenty-one…
“You’re imagining things. Neither one of us likes the other.”

Dolores didn’t look ruffled by her sister’s denial. “You understand how to take care of a house, how to teach Luis, how to deal with servants. I understand men, women, and their feelings for each other. If Rafe didn’t like you, he wouldn’t spend so much time talking to you.”

Twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty…
“He had to talk to me about Luis.”

“And you wouldn’t have gone riding with him?”

“I went to look after Luis.”

“You’re afraid of horses.”

“I’m not afraid of them. I just haven’t had much occasion to ride. I think I could learn to like it. I never realized the ranch was so beautiful.”

Dolores sat forward. “You think the ranch is beautiful? Rafe is crazy about it.”

Forty-one, forty-two, forty-three…
“I think the
setting
is beautiful. I don’t get excited by acres and acres of crops.” She knew nothing about the seasons, planting, irrigating, harvesting, or marketing, but she wondered whether it would interest her. She’d have to learn if she expected to help Luis manage the ranch. Would Rafe stay long enough to teach her?

Dolores settled back. “One plant looks like another.”

Fifty-three, fifty-four, fifty-five…
“I doubt Rafe or Miguel would agree. The difference in plants is what makes the ranch successful.”

“See, you already know more than I do.”

That wouldn’t be hard. Maria doubted Dolores could tell an apple tree from a grapevine. “I have all I can do to take care of Luis and manage the house hold.”

“I could do that.”

Sixty-eight, sixty-nine, seventy—Ouch!
She was pulling her hair too hard. “You know nothing about managing the house. You know even less about Luis’s lessons.”

Dolores sat up again. “You ought to get Rafe to help you with Luis.”

Eighty-two, eighty-three, eighty-four…
The last thing she needed was another reason to spend time with Rafe. “If he really is going back to Texas, he has other things to do with his time.”

“You can’t let him go back to Texas.”

Ninety-one, ninety-two, ninety-three…
“And how am I supposed to stop him?”

“Make him fall in love with you.”

“Don’t be absurd. No one can make another person fall in love. Besides, you’d hate living in the same house with him.”

“Maybe he’d give me a bigger allowance to get rid of me.”

Ninety-nine, one hundred
. She should have known Dolores wouldn’t propose any scheme that didn’t benefit her. Maria laid her brush aside and got up to take off her dress. “I’m not going to talk about this anymore. It’s too far-fetched to consider.”

“But our situation is desperate.”

N
o, it’s not,” Maria told Dolores. “You can live on your allowance if you’re careful. Once Luis comes into his inheritance, neither one of us will have to be concerned with Rafe Jerry ever again.”

Why didn’t that thought give Maria comfort? Rafe’s arrival had destroyed the tenor of their lives. She ought to long for the days before his arrival. Instead, she found herself dreading the day he would return to Texas.

“You’ve got to be worried about him. Our lives depend on him.”

Maria stepped out of her dress and laid it across the bed. “We managed before he arrived. We’ll manage after he leaves.”

“I don’t want to
just manage
. I’m tired of having too little money. I want to have fun while I’m still young.”

The whole time she was growing up, their parents had told Dolores her beauty would win her a rich husband who would do anything he could to please her. That promise had not been fulfilled and Dolores was determined to have what she felt was
owed
her.