San Antonio Rose (Historical Romance) (24 page)

Emerada wandered aimlessly around the small
space afforded by the cone-shaped tent where
she had been staying since the battle ended the
day before. She had no intention of leaving
until Santa Anna had been found.

Domingo was quietly watching her as she
threw up her hands in disgust.

"Domingo, can you tell me what good Houston accomplished in defeating Santa Anna's
army but letting the dictator slip through his
hands?"

He shrugged. "A man accustomed to every
comfort cannot hide for long, Emerada."

The sound of cheering erupted, and Emerada rushed outside to see what had caused the
jubilee. Men were darting about, clapping each other on the back, obviously happy about
something.

"What has happened?" she asked one of the
men closest to her.

"Haven't you heard, ma'am? They've caught
Santa Anna! He was dressed like a peasant and
was hiding in the swamp. Our men brought
him back as a prisoner, not knowing who he
was. Santa Anna must've felt he'd made fools of
us even though he was in our custody."

"How did they discover his identity?"

"It happened when they were putting him
with the other prisoners, ma'am. His own men
recognized him and commenced to bow and
scrape, calling out `Presidente.' Wish I could've
seen that devil's face when he was taken
straightaway to Houston."

Emerada walked hurriedly toward Houston's
tent. This was the day she'd waited for. Now
was the time to ask Houston to honor his debt
to her.

When she was within fifty yards of her goal,
a guard, tall and slender, with shoulder-length
hair and an apologetic look on his face, pointed
his rifle in front of her, not threateningly, just to
get her attention. "No one goes past this point,
ma'am," he told her. "Houston's interrogating
the Mexican president."

She shoved his gun aside and walked past
him. "If you are going to stop me, senor, you
will have to shoot me in the back."

The frantic guard hurried after her. "But,
ma'am, I have my orders."

She paid no attention to him. Her gaze was on
the men who were crowded around Houston's
headquarters. She elbowed her way through
and pushed the guard aside at the entrance.

Houston lay upon a cot, his foot bandaged
and elevated on a folded blanket. He smiled at
Emerada as she approached him.

"Well, Senorita de la Rosa, it seems Texas
owes you a great debt."

"I have no time for your accolades, Houston.
Where is Santa Anna? I want to see him."

Houston rose up on his elbow. "Now, Emerada, you know I can't let you see him. Ask anything else of me, but not that."

She went down on her knees to him, not to
beg, but so that she would be on his eye level. "I
told you I would help you in your war, Houston, and I have kept my word, have I not?"

He nodded. "You did, Emerada. For all I
know, we might have lost the war but for the
information you supplied us. We would have
many dead, and possibly would have been
beaten soundly if you hadn't kept Santa Anna
occupied so we could surprise him."

"You cannot know what it cost me to keep
him occupied." She lowered her gaze and gathered her courage before looking back at him.
"If you are a man of your word, Houston, I
have come to collect my debt."

"And what would that be?"

"I want to be alone with Santa Anna for five
minutes. That is all I ask."

"You want to kill him, don't you, Emerada?"

"I will kill him, Houston-make no mistake
about that!"

He shook his head and laid his hand gently
on her shoulder. "You know I can't allow that
to happen."

"Then you will not keep your word?" She
looked at him with contempt. "I sometimes
thought you a coward, Houston, and at times
I thought you a little pompous, but I never
thought you dishonorable. I always believed
you were a man of your word."

Sam Houston was silent for a moment. "Take
her to Santa Anna, Ian. But see she doesn't
harm him. I have given my word that he can go
free, and I will keep my word."

Emerada had not known that Ian was in the
tent with them. When she felt his hand on her
shoulder, she shook it off and stood on her
own. "General Houston, have you lost your
mind? You allowed your own men to die at the
Alamo, and yet you let their murderer go free.
What kind of justice is that? Do you not know
that if you allow Santa Anna his freedom, he
will be back? You will only have to fight him
again, and next time he may win!"

"War makes strange demands on us, Emerada."

"You will honor your word to the man who murdered your countrymen, but you will not
keep your word to me. I spit on your honor,
Houston."

Without a backward look, she left the tent
and took a big gulp of air when she was outside. She turned to Ian, who had followed her.

"So this is what we can expect from the man
we both served, the man we trusted to free
Tejas?" Angry tears welled in her eyes and ran
down her cheeks before she brushed them
away angrily. "Take me to the dictator. I want
him to know what a fool he was to trust mejust like I was a fool to trust Houston."

"You're wrong, Emerada. General Houston
instructed me to take you to see Santa Anna.
But I have to remain with you the whole time.
And I can't allow you to harm him in any way."

She looked upward. "Then everything I have
done has been for nothing."

He gazed into the distance, his eyes narrowing. "What did you do to keep him distracted?"

She jabbed her finger into his chest. "You do
not want to know."

Ian and Houston were the only ones who
knew the part Emerada had played in bringing
about the downfall of Santa Anna, and he realized that she was feeling betrayed.

He guided her toward the tent where Santa
Anna was being held. "Emerada, you aren't the
only one who thinks Santa Anna deserves to be
executed. But Houston feels that the Mexican
president will be punished severely by his own government for signing away Texas. We are
free, Emerada, and that's what this war was all
about. It wasn't about personal hurts or even
revenge. It was about freedom!"

She paused and glared at him. "That might
mean something to you, but not to me. I want
Santa Anna's death!"

Ian wanted to kill the dictator himself because Emerada must have been forced to give
in to his lustful urges to keep him distracted. It
hadn't escaped his notice that she had avoided
looking directly into his eyes. It must mean
that Santa Anna had made love to her. "Santa
Anna must have left his tent in a hurry when
we attacked," Ian said, changing the subject.
"When he was found, he was wearing red
leather slippers."

"When the firing started, you never saw such
a coward. He was out and gone before I could
stop him."

Ian nodded to a tent that was under heavy
guard. "He's there. It would seem Santa Anna
has many vices, among which is an opium
habit. He asked Houston for his opium box,
which had been confiscated along with his
other belongings."

"And Houston gave it to him?"

"He did."

Ian saw her shoulders straighten and her
chin quiver. "You do not have to come with me,
Ian."

"Oh, but I do, Emerada. I don't trust you to
be alone with him."

"As you wish." She moved forward, and
when the guards would have stopped her, Ian
nodded for them to let her pass. But he stayed
right next to her.

Santa Anna was sitting at a writing desk
when they entered. On seeing Emerada, he
smiled and put down the pen. "Emerada! My
dear, who would have thought you would come
to me in my time of need, just as you did the
night of the battle?" He stepped toward her and
reached for her hands. She did not pull away.

"How did you know I needed you?"

Ian watched as she stiffened and pulled her
hands out of his grasp. "You are a fool, Antonio! You still do not know what happened that
night, do you?"

"Si." He gripped her hand and raised it to his
lips. "You knew that I was on the eve of my
darkest hour and you came to comfort me."

Ian wanted to rip the Mexican general's heart
out, but he knew he could not take his eyes off
Emerada or she would do just that.

She shoved Santa Anna away. "I did not go to
comfort you, fool. I was there to distract you so
General Houston could sneak up on you."

Santa Anna's face drained of color, and he
dropped down on a stool. "I see it all now. That
is why you convinced me I did not need double
guards."

"It was easy to make you believe anything I
wanted you to," she said. Hatred curled
through her mind and dominated her
thoughts. "And now you are a beaten man with
nowhere to go. You lost Tejas to the Americans,
and that will not make you a popular man in
Mexico."

Santa Anna buried his face in his hands. "I
thought you cared for me. When you-" He
glanced up at Ian. "Many things are clear now.
It was you who persuaded me not to shoot that
man because you were working with him and
Houston. What a fool I was."

"None of that is important," Emerada said,
moving closer to him, her hand going to her
waist, where she had hidden her dagger. "Do
you really want to know why I helped bring
about your downfall, Senor Presidente?"

His eyes were dark and searching. "What
have I ever done to you but love you-yes, I
could have loved you more than any other
woman I have ever known. Why did you do this
to me?"

She wanted to strike him, to smash his face,
to make it so he wouldn't be able to seduce innocent young girls so easily. She took a deep
breath and asked in a steady voice, "Do you remember Felipe de la Rosa and his three sons,
who lived on Talavera Ranch?"

Santa Anna nodded. "I always recall the
names of traitors. They housed Stephen Austin, whom I imprisoned. I should have had him put
to death, as I did the de la Rosa family."

Before Ian realized what she was going to
do, Emerada whipped out her dagger and
pressed it against Santa Anna's throat. "You
demon from hell, on your feet!"

Santa Anna stood up slowly, licking his lips
in fear.

"I never told you my full name, did I, Senor
Presidente?" She pressed so hard on the dagger
that a drop of blood ran down the blade. "My
name is Emerada de la Rosa, and you had my
father and brothers murdered. They never did
anything disloyal to you, but I have. I have deceived you at every turn, and I have helped
bring you to your present state."

"Don't do it, Emerada," Ian cautioned, slowly
moving closer to her. "He's not worth it. Think
about it."

"Stand back, Ian, or I promise you, I'll spill
every drop of blood he has in his body. Why
should he live when better men than he have
died for his glory?"

Emerada looked into Santa Anna's eyes,
which were glazed with terror. "Can you think
of any reason that I should let you live?"

He nodded. "I am sorry about your family.
Had I known they were-"

"I do not want to hear anything you have to
say, dictator."

"Emerada," Ian said, as he moved ever closer to her. "I don't believe you are capable of killing
anyone-not even him."

She turned to Ian, and he saw hatred burning
in the depths of her eyes. "I could kill this man,
and the world would be a better place for it."

Ian knew that if he moved any closer she
might just drive the dagger into Santa Anna's
throat. He decided to trust his instinct; if he
was wrong, Houston could have his head afterward. "Go ahead, Emerada, kill him. If you really believe it will bring you peace of mind,
drive the knife into his throat. If you think your
father and brothers would expect it of you and
would be proud of such a deed, do it!"

"Are you crazed, Colonel McCain?" Santa
Anna said, his gaze never leaving Emerada's.
"Have you forgotten that I spared your life?"

"Do not speak to him, Antonio," Emerada
warned. "Speak to me. I am the one who holds
your life at the tip of my blade."

"What do you want from me?" he asked, his
glance now darting to Ian for help. "Say what
you want, and I will do it."

"You had your soldiers burn Talavera-what
I want to know is..." She faltered for a moment, trying to put her worst fears into words.
"Did my family burn in the house? Did you
have them burned... alive?"

"No, no, beautiful one. They died mercifully.
I'm sure they did."

The knife in her hand wavered. "You do not
even know how they died, do you? You or dered their deaths, but you did not even bother
to ask the men who murdered them how it
happened."

"I do not burn people," he said, his voice
trembling with fear.

"What about the defenders of the Alamo?"
she reminded him.

"They were already dead when I had their
bodies burned." His eyes went again to Ian.
"For God's sake, Ravens Claw, help me!"

"Are you going to kill him," Ian asked casually, "or are you going to talk him to death?"

Emerada's eyes bore into Santa Anna's, and the dagger in her hand wavered. She saw sweat
appear on the dictator's face. She wanted to
drive the knife into him, but when the moment
came, she cried out and dropped the knife.

"I cannot do it!" She shook her head. "I lived
for this day, and I cannot kill him."

She covered her face with her trembling
hands and turned away, while Santa Anna
dropped to his knees because he could no
longer stand.

Ian slipped his arms around her, and she
looked at him, stunned. "Why could I not kill
him?"

"If you had, you would be no better than he
is. I believe your family can rest in peace now.
You have done many brave deeds, Emerada,
but the most heroic of them all was what you
did just now. You could have killed him, and
yet you spared his life."

She pushed Ian away and ran outside, calling for Domingo.