Spellbound Trilogy: The Wind Casts No Shadow, Heart of the Jaguar, Shadows in the Mirror

by Jeanne Rose

  Iphigenia felt Monte's arms stiffen around her. A lump grew in her throat. Now he would condemn her as had everyone else she'd ever cared for.

  But all he said was, "You had a child? What happened to her?"

  Iphigenia licked her lips, willing her voice not to tremble. "My Aunt Gertrude -- not wanting scandal to be connected to the Wentworth name -- bribed some distant relatives to take her as far away from New York as was possible."

  "Relatives in West Texas," he said with certainty.

  She nodded. "On a ranch not too far from here."

  For a moment, Monte remained silent, making her continue to fear the worst. Then he said, "Well, why the hell didn't you tell me about this in the first place?" He loosened his hold on her so he could cup her shoulders and push her far enough away that he was looking into her face. "You didn't have to sneak around like some kind of criminal."

  Did that mean he accepted the situation? Hope bloomed in Iphigenia's heart.

  Stepping back from Monte, she rubbed her arms. "I was treated like a criminal in New York. My father banished me to my aunt's cottage in the Adirondacks so that I would not embarrass him before his friends or business aquaintances. He cut off my allowance so I had no funds to do otherwise." Her eyes prickled as she felt more tears start to form. She blinked at them. "My aunt gave my baby away, even knowing the doctor said I would never have another --"

  Monte frowned. "This isn't New York, Iphigenia. There's no shame in loving someone and bearing him a child."

  My God, he was accepting the situation. He accepted her!

  Dazed, touched, she had to request that he repeat himself when she realized he was asking a question.

  "Where's the baby's father?"

  "I could not tell you. Lamar Blake up and left the moment I told him I was carrying his child."

  "Bastard." Monte said even worse under his breath. "So you answered the advertisement for a wife to get you to West Texas, thinking you would have the opportunity to get your daughter back."

  She nodded, meeting his dark gaze, again thanking God he wasn't judging her.

  "Your people -- you didn't find them?"

  "Oh, I found them, all right. I thought they would be understanding when I came to claim Hope. Perhaps they would even be sad at losing her." Her chest tightened. If she didn't watch out, she would be sobbing again. She took a deep breath. "The truth is, the Fricketts didn't want Hope for anything other than the money Aunt Gertrude offered as a bribe." Remembering the fond way Naomi looked at the baby, she amended, "Or at least that's what Abner Frickett was interested in. And now he wants more. If I am to rescue Hope from that dismal existence, I first must find one thousand dollars to line his pockets."

  Monte's eyes went wide. "He wants to sell you your own child?"

  "Exactly."

  "Let me at the bastard -- I'll teach him a thing or two about being civilized!" He was already going for his horse. "How far is it? We'll have your baby back in no time."

  "No, Monte!" Iphigenia ran to catch his arm and stop him, feeling the warmth of him through his shirt, a warmth she'd despaired of sharing. "Aunt Gertrude had her solicitor prepare a document granting Abner legal guardianship. If you do anything so foolish as to take Hope, he will have you jailed." Something that would break her heart as surely as had the loss of her child. "Then what would happen to your own family and ranch?"

  The fight went out of him. "I don't know what would happen to the kids. Jonah Barkley would get his hands on the ranch for certain."

  "Your stepfather?"

  "He has some legal rights to the place." But Monte dismissed the subject with, "It's a long story." Then he took her in his arms.

  She felt her knees grow weak, now that she had the chance to lean against him.

  "Listen, I want you to know that if I had the money, I'd give it to you so you could get your daughter back." He stroked her shoulders, gazing down at her. "I may be land and cattle rich, but I'm cash poor. And with this curse business, I could lose everything."

  "You would give me the money if you had it?"

  "Any decent person would."

  If she hadn't already fallen in love with him, she would have offered him her heart and soul now.

  If only he would take them.

  "You are wrong about anyone being willing to give away money for the retrieval of a bastard child. Only a special person would be so generous -- a man of courage and strength and decency."

  Seeming embarrassed, he let go of her and turned away. Finally, he took up the reins and mounted his horse. "Guess we'd better get a move on. We got a good hour or two left until dark before we have to stop for the night."

  Making Iphigenia realize he thought she'd been returning to the ranch. Not knowing whether to be hopeful about that or not, she stared up him, tall in the saddle. "I wasn't planning on going back to the R&Y."

  "Oh, yeah? Then where do you think you're headed?" His brow furrowed. "New York?"

  "I have to catch the train that goes to El Paso. I have some jewelry, which I tried to sell in Fort Davis. My best offer was a hundred dollars. Perhaps in El Paso --"

  "You're not going traipsing around the country alone." And his tone brooked no argument. "We'll go back to the ranch and figure this thing out. Together."

  Together.

  The way he said the word stirred Iphigenia, touched her heart. Perhaps Monte did have some feelings for her, after all. And she didn't really want to do this alone. It seemed that even surrounded by people, she'd been alone all her life.

  She wanted to touch Monte, to make certain this wonderful man was real but she merely said, "All right."

  Patting Belinda's nose, she mounted the mare. Monte backtracked and she followed. To her embarrassment, she felt tears trying to surge forth again and fought to hold them back. But how could she not feel emotional?

  To distract herself as they rode along, she decided to try to forget about her own problems and make conversation. She remembered the reference to Jonah Barkley and how he'd get his hands on the land if something happened to Monte. She wasn't the only one with serious problems.

  "So tell me about Barkley's feud with you."

  For a moment, she didn't think Monte would open up to her. Then, with a big sigh, he admitted, "Barkley has some reason to think he deserves the land."

  "Tell me about it."

  They were riding into the sunset. The rugged vista around them glowed with a harsh beauty that sparked something inside of Iphigenia, drawing her in.

  "When she was just sixteen," Monte began, "Ma met this Comanche named Red Knife and fell in love with him. Grandpa Will would never have stood for her taking up with a redskin, so she up and ran away with him. 'Course old Will sent men after her. They dragged her back and he ignored the fact that she married Red Knife. Said some Injun ceremony didn't mean nothing in the white world. But he couldn't ignore her belly."

  "She was pregnant with you." No wonder he was more open and accepting than most people.

  "Grandpa Will didn't want shame brought upon the family, so he bribed his nearest neighbor Jonah Barkley to marry her and father me."

  "Your grandfather paid Barkley?" Just as Aunt Gertrude had paid Abner Frickett.

  "Not with cash money, but with promises of more land when he died."

  "The R&Y?"

  "So Barkley thought, though I don't think the old man ever intended him to get everything. Barkley married Ma, but he treated her rough, me rougher."

  "He beat you."

  Her own father had put her off with indifference, but Horace Wentworth had never raised a hand to her.

  "Whenever he had a mind to it. When I was ten, I'd had enough. I ran away, found Red Knife's camp. I rode with the Comanche for nearly five years, until Red Knife was killed. Didn't know what else to do so I came back to the R&Y, but Ma was already gone. She'd waited for me to come back ...then one day, she'd just up and run off."

  "She couldn't take Barkley's cruelty anymore, either."

&nbs
p; "Or she went looking for me," Monte said, sounding guilty.

  "You can't blame yourself. You were only a child and she loved you."

  "Anyhow, there was nothing left for me. Grandpa Will would hardly speak to me. And I knew that if Barkley tried raising a hand to me again, I would split him open and skin his hide. So I left again, joined the Confederate Army. But West Texas and the land were too strong to resist. After the war, I came home to stay and got a big surprise. Grandpa Will said I was brave to serve the Confederacy and actually welcomed me back like some kind of hero. He left me the best part of the ranch when he died. He willed Barkley land, too, as promised, but not the part with the creek that he expected."

  Hence Jonah Barkley's hatred of Monte. No matter that he hadn't gotten what he'd wanted, Iphigenia thought he'd gotten more than he deserved. As far as she was concerned, any man who raised a hand to a woman or child should be shot.

  "You never found out what happened to your mother?"

  "We got a letter saying she died."

  She heard the guilt again.

  And Monte kicked his horse and moved ahead of her, a lonely silhouette against the growing dusk of the desert.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  MONTE ACHED as he watched Iphigenia set up her bedroll near his as if nothing were wrong. Throughout dinner, she had been equally stoic, pretending her heart wasn't breaking, even when giving him a blow-by-blow account of her visit with the Fricketts. But he could hear the emotion in her voice, could sense her grief and longing lurking just beneath the surface. Whatever he had to do, he was going to see to it that she would have her baby in her arms, and soon.

  "You don't plan on keeping the fire going, do you?" she asked worriedly.

  "For a while."

  "Reuben told me it could be dangerous."

  Monte smiled at her. "I can be dangerous. I'd like to see some hombre ride up and try to pick a fight tonight." To try to mess with the woman he loved even more than when he'd set out to bring her back. "Come sit with me."

  He was on his own bedroll, his saddle propped behind him as a backrest. Iphigenia did as he asked but was careful to keep a bit of a distance between them. Monte was tempted to move closer, to put an arm around her and draw her to him, but he chose to bide his time.

  "The warmth does feel good and the light is comforting at night," Iphigenia admitted.

  "Being able to see is always comforting," Monte said, not meaning the fire. "I'm glad I finally know what's been on your chest."

  "Pardon me?"

  "What's been troubling you," he explained.

  "Oh. And what about you?"

  "Me? You mean this curse business?" More and more he was believing in it himself. "Actually, I've been thinking about scaring up a medicine man, though that may take some time, considering the government has moved the Comanche to Oklahoma Territory."

  "If you do find one, will he be able to rid you of your ghost, as well?"

  He gave her a sharp look. "You make it sound personal."

  "Isn't it?"

  Monte felt certain she knew more about Xosi than he'd ever told her. "You've seen her."

  "The other night," Iphigenia admitted. "She is very beautiful."

  "Was," he corrected. "She's dead. Xosi's haunting me is part of the curse."

  For he was now certain that, even though the terrible things that had been happening had been executed by a human hand, the events were somehow tied up with what happened in Mexico. And that meant with Xosi.

  "How are the two connected?"

  "I told you about going into Mexico to get back our men taken for that madman, Montgomery. Xosi and her brother Tezco were the bandits responsible for the actual abduction. They went along with the madman's schemes for the money. They thought Montgomery would find the lost treasure he told them about, and they would steal it. They didn't realize people would be sacrificed to the Aztec gods along the way."

  "You mentioned that before," Iphigenia said. "That Montgomery thought he was the incarnation of Quetzalcoatl. Do you believe that?"

  Monte didn't have to think about it. "I would swear that ancient death spirits breathed through him and his followers, yes." Though he could see the doubt written across Iphigenia's beautiful aristocratic face. "And in trying to trick Montgomery, Xosi brought his wrath down on her -- a wrath that still haunts her in the grave."

  She seemed startled at that, and quickly asked, "Then Xosi was not killed here in West Texas?"

  "No. Why would you assume that?"

  "Ghosts do not usually travel," Iphigenia said thoughtfully, her brow furrowing. "What on earth happened?"

  He sensed in her a war between disbelief and acceptance. He didn't blame her. Despite the Comanche mysticism he'd been raised with, he'd felt something of the same himself.

  "Xosi and I shared her last living night together."

  Monte felt weird telling her, but then she'd admitted to having a lover, the father of her child. Both were in their pasts, after all.

  "I convinced Xosi that since Montgomery was fascinated by her, she could do something to help us all," he went on. "We were planning an escape the next day. She seduced him, then foolishly decided she could control him. In the morning, Xosi -- rather than the man assigned to the task -- took the place of the woman to be sacrificed. My half-sister, Louisa," he added. "I'm sure Xosi didn't think Montgomery would kill her. She must have had some plan for that damned gold wheel on the altar. An Aztec calendar of sorts, the wheel of time."

  "So Montgomery cut out her heart?"

  "And placed it in the wheel's center. That's when the rumbles started getting louder. Terrible earthquakes swallowed that damned site whole."

  "And you think that the sacrifice and the earthquakes were connected, that there was a connection between the two?"

  "Maybe you just had to be there."

  He could see her trying to accept the concept as she said, "And you feel guilty over Xosi's death because you suggested she distract Montgomery. But you didn't tell her to put herself in such danger."

  "I feel guilty because I had the drop on Montgomery. I could have shot him, stopped him from killing Xosi. Only I didn't." He paused, recalling that awful moment all over again. "I hesitated too long. Montgomery had been an officer in the Confederate Army. He saved my life." And then Monte had watched him go mad, cut out the Union officer's beating heart. "There's too much unexplained, including the fate that brought me to Montgomery and united me with a half-sister I didn't know. You wouldn't believe all the details that dove-tailed. I would have to be plain stupid not to believe higher forces were at work."

  Iphigenia looked thoughtful. "I suppose it would be hard to deny," she finally admitted. "Even if it does test one's entire belief system. But what about Xosi? Ghosts usually haunt the place where they died. How did she get here?"

  "I suspect she came along with the mirror."

  "A mirror?"

  "The mirror pendant that Xosi always wore. It hung on a silver chain and looked just like a little hand mirror. She gave it to me the night before she died, claimed to see things in it she couldn't explain. She said the mirror was magical, and through it, a part of her would always be with me. I guess she was right. She musta come back with me."

  Against his will. Possibly against Xosi's will, as well. The woman had merely been selfish, not evil. She should be resting in peace.

  "Now if only I could find the damned thing," he muttered, "Maybe I could figure out how to set her free."

  "You lost it?"

  "I left the trinket in a drawer of my desk, but it's not there now. Someone stole it."

  Iphigenia didn't hesitate. "Ginnie."

  Though Monte wasn't exactly surprised, he asked, "You've seen her with it?"

  "No, but she's the one who told me about Xosi. And other things have been missing, from Carmen's kitchen knife which was with Ginnie's things, to my mother's music box."

  "She stole from you?"

  "I caught her in my room a few days ago. She
practically ran Cassie down getting out of there. I suspect that's when she took the music box."

  Monte swore a blue streak. "When I get home ..."

  Iphigenia moved closer, put a hand on his arm. "Monte, Ginnie needs your understanding."

  "She needs to be pinned up by her ears."

  "She misses her mother as much as Cassie does, but she acts differently."

  Acts differently. Monte didn't like the sound of that.

  "She'd better not be responsible for what's been going on around the ranch," he muttered.

  For if Ginnie had the mirror, she had control over Xosi.

  Or was it the other way around?

  Monte had a cold feeling inside. Either way, his daughter was somehow involved.

  IPHIGENIA THOUGHT of herself as a practical woman, one not given to flights of fancy. Her beliefs in the way the universe worked had been instilled in her as a child and she had never doubted them. But listening to Monte, she couldn't deny the power of his story. The possibilities. She'd always believed a person's spirit could be trapped in the perpetual present. But Xosi broke the rules. She hadn't died on the R&Y as Iphigenia had first assumed.

  And if one rule were broken ...

  "You don't think Xosi was somehow responsible for Norbert's death, do you?"

  Monte shook his head. "A flesh and blood person killed him." He added, "But that person could have been influenced by Xosi."

  From his grim expression, she realized who he meant. "Ginnie?" Remembering the snake incident, Iphigenia shuddered. Even so, she didn't think the girl had tried to kill her, merely to scare her. "I don't think Ginnie could go so far as murder."

  "I hope you're right. I don't know what to believe."

  Iphigenia's heart went out to Monte. He shouldn't have to doubt his own daughter.

  She moved closer and settled her back against the saddle as he had. Laying her head on his shoulder seemed like the most natural act in the world. And when he wrapped an arm around her, she shuddered with longing. He needed her for the moment, even though he didn't love her. She closed her eyes and dared to allow herself to pretend.