Renegade Love (Rancheros) (2 page)

Alejandro’s hand flew to his chest, his heart skipping several beats and his breath catching. He could not lose his son a second time. He would be devastated not to mention his dear wife Valerianna’s reaction. It was unthinkable. He shook his head slowly, his expression sad. “Your mother and I love you and would be heartbroken if you were to leave us. We want only what is best for you.”

“What is
best
,” Esteban emphasized, “is to
leave
me be.”

Don Alejandro simply nodded in response and watched with little interest as the carriage turned onto Cesare property. His generous wealth laid spread around him. Vineyards of fresh grapes, orchards abundant with fruit, livestock enough to feed the entire valley, yet it all seemed unimportant at the moment. The only thing that concerned him was his son.

“Rosalita Mendez is a sweet
nina
and talented.”

Esteban stiffened considerably, and it brought a pleased smile to Alejandro’s lips. He had finally touched an emotional chord in his son, or perhaps Rosalita had.

“She was so very delighted and grateful when I presented her with drawing charcoals and papers that she insisted on drawing a portrait of me. Your mother contended that Rosalita had captured my true nature, especially around the eyes.”

Alejandro stopped, disappointed that he wasn’t holding his son’s attention. He recalled what best stirred a man’s interest in a woman. And smiled as he said, “Many of the young men fancy Rosalita.”

That did it.

Esteban turned with a snap to glare at his father. His voice remained controlled but his tone was hard. “And does she enjoy their favors?”

Alejandro refused to allow his son’s caustic remark to disturb him. “She is a good girl and keeps them at a respectable distance.”

“She wears a gentle smile,” Esteban said although Alejandro felt certain it was more a spoken thought not meant to be shared.

“She is gentle and kind, truly a good woman,” Alejandro assured and tempted fate further with his next words. “Would you like to meet her?’

Esteban remained silent as the carriage pulled into the circular entrance of the courtyard of the Cesare hacienda and stopped beside the fountain spurting water to the heaven.

He stepped down out of the carriage and with deliberate slowness turned back around to catch his father’s hopeful look with his potent one. “She fears me. I can see it in her eyes, and she has good reason to,” —Esteban raised his hand to stop his father from interrupting— “
good reason
, Father.”

Esteban loosened the black slim tie at his throat and opened his shirt down to his waist, as if shedding the image of Don Cesare’s respectable son and returning to who he had been forced to become... a wild, merciless renegade. And his words proved it. “The moment I laid eyes on her I wanted her. My blood fired with uncontrollable lust, my groin throbbed and I thought of nothing more than stripping her naked and taking her like a wild stallion would take a mare.”

Alejandro paled considerably.

“I see that you needed reminding of what I have become. Keep the
gentle nina
away from me or she will suffer badly.” Esteban turned and walked away grumbling.

Alejandro barely caught the last of his son’s words—
she deserves better
— and that gave him a ray of hope.

He would contact Roberto Curro, Rosalita’s guardian, immediately. He was certain that the man would be most cooperative. It was well known that Roberto was more interested in coin than people. That was the only reason Roberto and his wife Lola had taken the twelve year old girl in seven years ago. Rosalita’s parents had passed away when fever had struck the town. There were whispered rumors that a padre from a nearby mission had paid Roberto to take the child in and care for her.

Alejandro would offer a substantial amount for Rosalita. One that Roberto surely would not refuse, although he might demand more. But Alejandro was willing to pay a king’s ransom to buy his son a wife, especially one his son had found some interest in. He shuddered recalling his son’s sinful words from moments before. Esteban was not the barbarian he painted himself to be. Somewhere inside him was the respectful and caring son that he had raised and perhaps Rosalita could help set him free.

He shook his head absentmindedly as he finally climbed down out of the carriage. Esteban would not hurt Rosalita. Never would he surrender to such wicked thoughts.
Never.

“Rosalita will make Esteban a good wife,” Alejandro murmured, as if saying it aloud would make it so. “She will help heal him.”

Alejandro walked toward the door, his step a little lighter, but he stopped suddenly just before entering the house and crossed himself. “Please,
Madre Dios
, let it be so.”

Rosa was frightened. Usually, she kept fear at bay. The last time she could recall the bone-chilling feeling was when she had been twelve and had watched her parents’ plain wooden coffins being lowered slowly into the ground to rest atop each other. She hadn’t known what would become of her then. Her small hand had clung tenaciously to Teresa, her mother’s best friend. Her eyes had been swollen from crying. Fear had caused her to shiver uncontrollably. There was no one left to take care of her... no one left to love her.

That same helpless emotion now attacked her full force. It started as a small tingle of alarm as soon as she had spied Don Alejandro’s elegant carriage in front of the adobe ranch house where she lived with Roberto and Lola Curro.

Rosa managed to convince herself that Don Alejandro was merely here to do business with Roberto, perhaps arranging the purchase of a horse. But when she attempted to enter the three room house Lola had quickly ushered her away with a strong shove, informing her that Roberto was discussing an extremely important matter with Don Alejandro and she was to wait outside until summoned.

Every minute that crawled by escalated Rosa’s concerns. She stood braced against the cool adobe wall in the back of the house, hoping to catch at least snatches of conversation. She heard only whispers, and the hushed, secretive voices sounded even more foreboding to her ears.

“What are you doing lolling about,” Lola barked, moving her heavy bulk slowly through the open doorway.

Rosa moved away in haste from the woman. Too often she had felt the sting of her large hand as well as her harsh words of criticism.

Lola shook her head, her eyes narrowed with disgust. “Lazy that’s what you are. You never work hard enough. You—” She stopped abruptly and smiled while wiping at an egg stain, left from the morning meal, on her white blouse.

It was a strange almost dismissive gesture as though in brushing off the offending stain, she was brushing away Rosa.

Rosa shivered to the tips of her small toes.

In a more gentle tone than Rosa thought possible, Lola ordered her to prepare green beans for supper, then wash up and change into her church clothes and wait in the cookhouse until summoned.

“Be quick about it,” Lola snapped in her usual waspish tongue. “I’ll make sure you work hard, as you should, until the very
end
.”

Lola turned in haste bumping her ample shoulder against the door frame, and cursed it and Rosa, as she entered the house.

Rosa had had a mind to ask until the end of what. But she would have only received a slap to the head for being inquisitive. So she had reluctantly, though wisely, held her tongue. Besides, she had a sinking feeling that she truly wouldn’t want to know.

It was an hour later that Rosa was summoned by a smug Lola to the front room that was kept strictly for business visitors.

Don Alejandro’s generous smile did little to alleviate her apprehension. And Roberto’s gruff voice and manner only added to her nervousness.

“Come over here,
nina
. Now!” Roberto ordered sternly.

Rosa obeyed without question, fearful of the leather strap he often used on her without compunction. Several fading bruises on her arms and hips attested to the fact. She approached him slowly and stopped a safe distance from his reach.

“She may be small, but she’s strong,” Roberto boasted.

“And lazy,” Lola added, “it’s a heavy hand you’ll need with her.”

Rosa, for an instant felt a fleeting sense of relief, thinking that Don Alejandro was purchasing her services for his hacienda, but Roberto’s next words quickly squashed that hope.

“Her husband will decide how heavier a hand he will use on her. And she will obey him as she does me. She is trained well, Don Alejandro.”

Don Alejandro nodded, well aware that Roberto intended for this arrangement to succeed. Alejandro had no intentions of losing Rosa as a bride-to-be for his son. He would have paid any price Roberto had asked. He had actually thought Roberto had settled for far too little for the sweet-natured, young girl.

Don Alejandro turned his attention to Rosa and smiled, hoping to ease her obvious apprehension. “I’m certain that Rosa will do fine, though I would like to discuss the arrangement with her.”

“That’s not necessary,” Roberto argued and shifted his weight uneasily in the wooden chair. “She will do as she is told. She has no say in the matter.”

Don Alejandro’s posture grew rigid. He was an imposing figure with his silver hair and intense dark eyes. “I wish for Rosa to understand the circumstances and the arrangement.”

Roberto was no fool and was already spending, in his head, the large sum of money he was getting for the puny, useless girl. “As you wish, Don Alejandro.”

Alejandro crossed his arms and relaxed back in the chair, then nodded for Roberto to proceed.

“Rosa,” Roberto said his tone stern. “I have arranged a most generous marriage for you. In two weeks, you will wed Don Alejandro’s son Esteban.”

Rosa stood in shocked silence. She had remained quiet, as proper, listening to their exchange and assuming the worse, and she had been right. Marinda’s words drifted back to haunt her.

You have looked upon evil and now you will pay.

She recalled Esteban’s dark, brooding eyes that had felt as if they reached down deep into her soul and tainted it. How could she marry such a man? The villagers whispered his name, they feared him so. The women blessed themselves and hid their daughters when he was near. She could not marry this man—this heartless soul—she couldn’t.

Her words stuck in her dry throat and when she finally managed to speak, her voice sounded odd to her own ears. “Two weeks? But there will not be enough time for the banns to be read in the church.”

Don Alejandro stood and slipped his arm around her, so worried was he that she would faint. All color had drained from her lovely face and her hands trembled even though she held them folded together. He directed her to a chair beside his and sat her down before sitting himself. “I have arranged everything with the church, and my wife is already busy planning the wedding festivities.”

Rosa looked with desperation into the older man’s eyes. She wanted to scream out her refusal to wed Esteban Cesare. But it would do little good. Roberto held the power to sign her over into marriage to whomever he wished, and there was no one who would pay near as handsomely for her as Don Alejandro.

Alejandro patted Rosa’s folded hands. “You will be happy at the hacienda. Life will be easy there for you.”

Rosa nodded slowly, knowing with each reluctant nod her fate was sealed. Don Alejandro had not said she’d be happy with his son, only that she’d be happy at the hacienda and that thought sent a shiver of fear through her.

“Roberto,” Don Alejandro said, turning to the large man. “You and your wife will bring Rosa to the hacienda this evening for supper.”

“It will be my pleasure,” Roberto said with a huge grin and a puffed out chest.

Rosa shuddered and Alejandro once again patted her hands, but offered no words of comfort. What words could he offer her? He had no idea how Esteban would treat her, and he prayed most fervently that his decision to arrange this marriage had been the right one.

~~~

“You what?” Esteban yelled at his father.

“I’ve arranged a marriage between you and Rosalita Mendez,” Alejandro repeated calmly, although his heart raced at an alarming rate.

Esteban paced in front of his father’s wide desk, glad that it separated them from each other, for he had an uncontrollable urge to reach out and strangle him. “I have told you repeatedly that I would not marry—and yet—you arrange a marriage against my wishes?”

“I do not need your permission,” Alejandro reminded him.

Esteban stopped pacing. “I take orders from no man, Father.”

Alejandro lowered his head a fraction in defeat, though he had no intentions to surrender. He rubbed at his forehead, hoping to ease the throbbing pain, and his voice muffled as he spoke, “You have a duty, my son. You must marry and produce an heir so the Cesare name and land will continue to prosper.”

It was partially the truth, though what Alejandro prayed for most was that Rosa would help restore Esteban to his old self, erase his hurtful past and that they would share a happy life together. His son deserved it after all the suffering he had been made to endure.

Esteban braced his hands flat upon the desk and leaned forward toward his father. “Believe me, Father, when I tell you that no good would come of this marriage. You do the innocent girl an injustice by forcing her upon me.”

“Rosa seems pleased with the arrangement,” Alejandro lied and silently offered a quick prayer of contrition.

Esteban stood straight. “Why?”

Alejandro scrunched his brow confused. “What do you mean?”

“Why should she agree to marry me in only two weeks? Does she need a husband?”

Alejandro caught his son’s insinuation immediately. “Rosa is a good girl as I have told you. There is no need for her to marry quickly. Why I doubt she has ever been kissed.”

Esteban found his blood racing at the idea of one so innocent. To taste such purity would be a mistake. It would only leave an insatiable appetite for more and once started he would not stop, and then—she would be innocent no more—and by the time he was done... she would be full of sin.