Until the Day Breaks (California Rising Book 1)

by Paula Scott

  It was then that he ended the kiss. “I understand,” he said, his eyes bright with emotion. “It is you who does not understand love, pequeña.” With that, he left her standing there alone under the magnolia tree.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  The music of guitars and violins filled the sala. The Indians played their instruments with gusto. Tio Pedro and Tia Josefa soon took to the dance floor, following the tradition of the oldest generation beginning the baile. They performed the stately contradanza while everyone sat on benches watching. All other furniture had been removed from the room. To Roman, all this was as much a part of his life as breathing. He usually enjoyed the fandangos, especially the beautiful Spanish folk dances and the dancing games that would come later in the evening, but tonight all he could think about was Rachel and Steven.

  The two sat together for dinner. They interacted with such ease and affection Roman could hardly swallow his roast beef and beans. Steven had led everyone in a prayer before eating. Even now, that prayer rang in Roman’s ears. Such a grateful, humble man was Steven, even though he’d lost his novia after sailing across an ocean to find her. He and Rachel talked quietly about her grandparents and the goings-on back home. Roman overheard them discussing the death of Steven’s mother, and Rachel put her hand on his arm to comfort him.

  Roman couldn’t take watching them any longer and turned his attention to Maria and the ship captain. Never had he seen his sister so animated, so beguiling, so beautiful. Maria hung on Captain Mason’s every word. Drinking in his tales of trading in the Orient and sailing seas all over the world. She laughed and drank wine with the Americano, encouraging him to taste the spicy peppers and refilling his wine glass again and again. It was all Roman could do not to leap across the table and knock all the gringo’s perfect white teeth out so he could no longer smile at Maria. Now there would be dancing. He didn’t know how long he could stomach the Yankees in his home.

  After Tio and Tia had performed a series of dances to entertain their guests, Roman’s sweat-drenched uncle came to him and said he and Maria should begin the waltzes. Isabella had glued herself to Rachel’s side. His little sister had done a fine job of keeping Steven from Rachel since dinner. Roman noted neither Steven nor Rachel drank any wine, so he had merely sipped from his glass during the meal. He’d never liked wine much anyway. His father’s drinking was enough to last him a lifetime. Roman only drank on rare occasions to drown his feelings, like the day he’d signed the betrothal papers.

  Now he escorted his sister in a waltz around the floor as he’d done so many times before. He and Maria could dance in their sleep together. For years, the padres had forbid waltzing in California due to the intimacy of the dance, but Roman could not remember those days. That was before his time. After he and Maria performed a series of waltzes, Tio, a glass of brandy in hand, came forward and told Roman and Maria to find other partners and get everyone out on the floor.

  Maria didn’t waste any time pulling Captain Mason to his feet.

  Roman walked over to Rachel. “May I have the pleasure of your company for the next waltz?”

  She wore a beautiful lavender gown that revealed her smooth, creamy neck and shoulders. Her hair was arranged in a manner that tempted him to touch the curls beside her blushing cheeks. “I have never danced with a man,” she admitted.

  Isabella sat beside her, tapping her small slippered foot to the music. “You must dance with him,” Isabella commanded. “Everyone dances in California.”

  Rachel playfully tweaked Isabella’s ear as she stood up to accompany Roman.

  Tia Josefa had coaxed Steven out onto the floor. With Rachel leaving her, Isabella jumped up and pulled one of the young sailors out onto the dance floor too. Servant girls quickly invited the remaining sailors to dance. It wasn’t long before the whole room swirled with dancers.

  Rachel finally accepted the hand Roman held out to her as he put his other hand on her waist. “Just follow me.” He cinched her up close. “Are you ready?” Pleasure he’d never felt before with another dancer poured through him as he swept Rachel around the room, gracefully propelling their twirling bodies past the others. Sailors stumbled along. Servant girls laughed, doing their best to teach the Americanos how to dance.

  Roman only had eyes for Rachel, hardly noticing the other dancers. She followed his lead, hesitantly at first, but after several turns around the room, she began to dance with him as if they’d always been paired together. She looked as happy as he felt leading her through the intricate steps. It took a while for him to notice Captain Mason sweeping Maria around the room too. Obviously, the ship captain knew how to waltz. In the Yankee’s arms, Maria glowed with beauty. Isabella appeared far too grown-up as well in the gangly arms of a youthful blond sailor.

  Roman tried to hold on to the pleasure he’d first felt holding Rachel in his arms, but watching Maria and Isabella in the arms of the Americanos quickly quelled his contentment. And soon he grew angry. Americanos had no business in California. His sisters seemed to have lost their senses in the Yankees’ arms. What would come next? Yankee beds for his sisters?

  He led Rachel back to her seat and took command of the baile, ordering the musicians to begin the games. He separated the men from the women and got everyone back to the benches so his sisters were no longer in the arms of the men. He then coaxed Tio and Tia into performing the game El Borrego, where a man and a woman pretended a mock battle with a butting ram. The couple sang along with the musicians. During the chorus, Tio shook a red kerchief side to side while Tia swept her skirts back and forth in a teasing manner, resembling a bullfight.

  Again and again, his aunt and uncle pretended to butt one another’s kerchief and skirts in a comical way throughout the song. The Americanos laughed, especially the sailors who had consumed too much wine at dinner and now appeared to be getting drunk on Tio’s brandy. Several sailors fell off the benches, they laughed so hard.

  After Tio and Tia’s entertainment, Maria took to the floor by herself, performing a series of graceful dance moves before approaching Captain Mason. The dashing Yankee sat on a bench beside Steven, watching Maria like a schoolboy. She executed a variety of pirouettes and other enchanting steps in front of the captain. He seemed charmed but confused as to what he should do.

  Isabella raced over and placed Captain Mason’s hat upon his head, whispering instructions. Maria danced a little longer for his pleasure before stealing his hat and rushing away with it.

  Isabella took her turn on the floor while Roman made sure Captain Mason did not linger with Maria when the ship captain redeemed his hat with money given as a gift to Maria in return for the hat. Usually, a mere peso paid for a hat, but Roman could tell by the startled look on Maria’s face that Captain Mason had placed far more than a peso in her hand. Money was hard to come by in California. This was so like the Yankees to have coins in their pocket when Californios did not.

  Isabella chose the youngest sailor, the blond boy, to dance for. He too must have paid far too much money because Isabella squealed in delight when the boy redeemed his hat from her.

  Roman ended the hat game and moved on to the popular pin waltz, hoping to keep his sisters away from the gringos.

  Of course, Isabella and Maria chose all the Americanos as well as several of the servant girls and even Rachel to participate in this game. Those playing the game with his sisters seated themselves in a circle in the middle of the dance floor.

  Roman stood back against the wall, keeping watch. He was in no mood to take part in the festivities now. Fury burned through him over his sisters’ silly behavior with the gringos. Maria designated herself “it” in the game and went to another room as Isabella hid the pin on Steven’s person. The musicians took note of where the pin was placed on the young minister. In his shoe. Steven was a good sport about it, even teasing Isabella, which seemed to win him Isabella’s favor.

  Maria then came back into the room and began waltzing around the circle as Isabella hurried to her
place between Rachel and the blond sailor she appeared so taken with.

  While dancing, Maria began feeling her body from head to toe—this was part of the game. The musicians were to change their tempo when she placed her hand on her body where the pin was on Steven’s body. Maria went from person to person, moving on when the musicians played music that did not change.

  Maria danced for a very long time in front of Captain Mason and appeared quite disappointed, giving Isabella a sharp look when the music did not rise to the occasion.

  Isabella grinned, and Maria finally moved on, granting Isabella a small kick in the shin as she passed by. Isabella kicked her back, flaring Maria’s skirts to reveal expensive black stockings. The sailors roared with laughter. Roman could barely harness his rising temper.

  When Maria danced in front of Steven, the music played faster. His sister began her search for the pin by feeling her own body until the music rose when she neared her feet. Steven, his face red as a beet, then handed Maria the pin, apparently quite relieved to have survived the game.

  Isabella snatched the pin from Maria and pushed Rachel from the room. Roman would have stopped the game right then, but Tia approached and asked him to go find Tio’s stash of brandy. “Dump the remainder of it,” she told him. “Your uncle is drunk, and so are the Americanos.”

  Tio would think he’d finished the brandy himself and finally stop drinking. Roman had done this many times for his aunt and had no trouble finding his uncle’s hidden store. The brandy was nearly gone already, but he took what little remained and poured it under a rosebush.

  Upon returning to the sala, the pin waltz game was well underway. Rachel danced shyly around the circle, but after a while, encouraged by Isabella, she relaxed and her dancing became full of grace and charm.

  The musicians did not seem to want Rachel’s dancing to end, for they did not change their volume for some time, letting Rachel circle the seated ones several times before the Indians finally played louder when she passed Steven and Captain Mason, who were seated side by side.

  Smiling, Rachel danced around and came back to the two men, where she danced with such ease in front of them that jealousy overwhelmed Roman. He didn’t know which man held the pin on his person, and obviously neither did Rachel because she danced back and forth between the two men until it was clear by the volume of the music who held the pin.

  Initially, he was relieved it wasn’t Steven. Captain Mason grinned roguishly as Rachel danced in front of him. How could she look so lovely and innocent and alluring all at the same time?

  The ship captain did not pull the pin out immediately and hand it to Rachel as Steven had with Maria as soon as the pin was discovered on his person. Instead, the captain let Rachel dance until there was no doubt in anyone’s mind where the pin was hidden. In the breast pocket of the captain’s fancy blue blouse.

  Roman decided if the ship captain with all those fine white teeth laid one finger on Rachel, he would pay the devil for it.

  Tio tried to stop him from pushing away from the wall, but Roman stepped around his inebriated uncle and strode right up behind Rachel as she danced in front of the captain.

  The smiling Yankee removed the pin from his pocket and stood up, reaching out to hand the pin to her. Before she could take it, Roman swung her behind him and plowed his fist into the gringo’s grinning face.

  A bench full of men tumbled over. Several sailors landed on the floor. Roman and the captain crashed over the bench as well.

  The music abruptly stopped.

  The room broke out in chaos. Servant girls screamed. Benches flew out of the way, tossed aside by scrambling sailors. Steven scooped up Isabella to protect her from the fray. Tio Pedro hollered like a wild man. Tia Josefa wailed. And in some sane corner of his mind, Roman heard Rachel pleading with him to stop, but he couldn’t stop. He was going to kill the Yankee.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  It only took a moment for Dominic Mason to realize Roman Vasquez intended him serious harm. Dominic was on his back, the Spaniard punching his face, his stomach, his kidneys. Fortunately, Vasquez exuded a small amount of dignity in not boxing below the belt, but a blow to his jaw stunned Dominic. He regretted the amount of wine he’d consumed. He couldn’t seem to gain his bearings under the attack. When another blow sent searing pain to his ribs, he realized if he didn’t sober up in a hurry, he might not survive.

  The sudden brawl baffled him.

  Feasting, dancing, pretty Spanish girls, a redhead that captivated him, and now this madman trying to kill him.

  He used all his strength to flip the Spaniard off of him. The enraged Vasquez dove back at him. Dominic flipped him again, this time springing to his feet before the Spaniard could pounce on him.

  A boxing match ensued with Dominic finally landing several satisfying blows to the Spaniard’s face. Both men bled now. Dominic from his nose and mouth. Vasquez from a badly split eyebrow. Blood spattered the floor between them.

  A woman screamed for them to stop. Dominic would have gladly accommodated her pleas if only the Spaniard would stop. But on his feet, with some distance between them, Dominic was in his element now, having boxed since he was a boy on the Boston docks.

  It didn’t take long to soften the Spaniard up with a series of well-aimed punches. Vasquez now bled from his nose and mouth too, along with that serious cut on his eyebrow. Satisfaction coursed through him. Apparently, the Spaniard realized he couldn’t win this way and finally stopped Dominic’s bruising fists by kicking his feet out from under him. Once more, they tangled on the floor like wrestlers.

  The two men were nearly the same size, though Dominic outweighed the Spaniard by about ten pounds. That ten pounds of muscle helped him flip his attacker onto his back. He was about to get the upper hand when a wild woman sprang on him. Maria screamed and scratched and even clamped her teeth into Dominic, startling the two men enough to stop their fighting.

  Steven attempted to pull Maria off Dominic. The girl, like her brother, was out of her mind with uncontrolled fury. When she dove into the fray, Doña Josefa screamed. Dominic waved Steven away from the fight. Steven let go of Maria and leaned down to help Roman, who was badly bleeding.

  Dominic tried his best to restrain Maria without hurting her. He may as well have been attempting to tame a tiger. The girl’s ferocity amazed him. Pinning her to the floor was not easy. He used his big body to hold the slim girl beneath him until she came to her senses.

  “Easy,” he told her. “Take it easy, Maria. I don’t want to hurt you or your brother. I’m just trying to protect myself here.”

  Her red hair had lost every pin. It tumbled long and lush around her, tangling across her face. He considered brushing the hair off her cheeks, but he didn’t dare. The girl would probably bite his hand off if he touched her.

  “Do you understand that I have no intention of hurting anyone here?”

  She responded in Spanish. He had no idea what she said, but she certainly was cursing him. They had conversed at dinner in perfect English, and while they waltzed, they had spoken to one another in English too. He didn’t understand why she wouldn’t speak English now.

  “I’m sorry. I don’t speak Spanish. You’re going to have to use English, girl.”

  She cursed again in her native language. As soon as he released her, she sprang to her feet and ran out of the room.

  It hadn’t taken long for his sailors to sober up under the bloody circumstances. They crowded around him like boys seeking his guidance.

  Steven spoke with Vasquez in a corner of the room. The Spaniard had his head bowed and was using his shirt to stop the blood spilling from his face.

  “What was she saying?” Dominic asked one of his sailors who spoke Spanish.

  Jamie, his favorite deckhand, tried not to smile. “That you will surely go to hell.”

  “Is that all? She attacked me.”

  “She’s probably never been beneath a man before.” Jamie offered him a handkerchief for his ble
eding nose.

  “Just like that brother of hers. She got more than she bargained for in that brawl,” said another chuckling sailor.

  “You box just like my cousin from Ireland. Not a man in Boston has beaten him yet in the ring,” Jamie said proudly.

  Dominic placed his hand on Jamie’s shoulder as a father would quiet a son. “All right, boys. That’s enough. Let’s get this place cleaned up.”

  The music kicked in, and Dominic was surprised to see Don Pedro and Doña Josefa begin a graceful waltz. Don Pedro waved to the musicians to play louder, and the Indians did so.

  Roman Vasquez left the room with Steven.

  Rachel held Isabella’s hand and walked her from the room, both of them crying. Dominic and his sailors watched the older couple dance with dignity across the sala’s blood-spattered floor. Maria did not return. Neither did Roman and Steven or Rachel and Isabella.

  After waltzing with nobody joining in, Don Pedro called an end to the fandango. He invited everyone to a picnic the following day, explaining feats of horsemanship would be displayed for their entertainment, and then everyone said a subdued goodnight.

  Dominic couldn’t wait to get away to his room. He’d been raised in a good Christian family but had wandered away from that narrow road. In his business of running a clipper ship, he spent long periods of time at sea with ungodly men. Meeting Steven on this voyage had affected him tremendously. They’d become fast friends. He deeply admired Steven’s devotion to God. It was just like Steven to aid the Spaniard. He still wasn’t sure what had caused the fight, though he suspected he’d gotten a little too close to the women, particularly Steven’s ex-fiancée, now set to marry the Spaniard.

  Wasn’t this a fine mess? Steven spending months on the ocean and days on horseback searching for his fiancée, only to find her betrothed to that hotheaded Spaniard.

  Discouraged and bruised, Dominic lay on the bed fully clothed, staring up at the beamed ceiling. He didn’t douse the candle burning beside the bed. The last thing he wanted was to be in darkness. A spiritual darkness had settled over him. Darkness he felt like a physical presence. He thought of his mother. More than once, he’d awakened to find her praying beside his bed when he was a boy. Even after he was grown, sometimes he’d find his mother on her knees beside his bed in his room.