“What do you plan to do about the ranch when you leave?”
Broc’s question brought Rafe out of his abstraction. “If Maria proves as trustworthy as you think, I’ll leave Luis in her care. The lawyer can handle everything else.”
“I thought you had to sign for every expenditure.”
“Maybe he can send the papers to me, or I can come out once a year.” If it had been just Dolores, he’d have said to hell with her and the ranch. He had the right to throw away his inheritance, but he didn’t have to right to throw away Luis’s as well.
“I don’t know anything about wills, but if your father intended to write that will in such a way that you had to be here, I don’t think you’re going to get away with once-a-year visits.”
Rafe took a swallow of the wine. He really liked it. He would have to talk to Miguel about increasing the size of the vineyard. With the gold fields mostly played out, the market for beef was decreasing. However, with railroads able to carry produce to markets quickly, nuts, fruits, vegetables, wines, grains, and a dozen other crops would more than offset the loss of profit from the beef side of their business. He’d have to spend more time riding over the ranch and talking with Miguel before he decided what changes to make. The biggest need of all was a comprehensive irrigation system, but he refused to let himself get involved in ranch problems.
“What are you going to do tomorrow?”
“I’m not certain, but it will involve spending some time with Luis. I thought I would start by seeing if he knows how to ride.”
Broc raised an eyebrow. “Maybe I’d better do it. Luis seems to like you, but you’re a scary man even when you’re in a good mood.”
“Carlos isn’t frightened of me,” Rafe replied, citing Cade’s two-year-old son.
“He’s too little to have enough sense to be scared of you. Besides, you become human when you’re around him.”
“I’m always human.”
“Haven’t you wondered why Nate always works with Ivor even though he went through the war with you?” Broc asked, mentioning two of their fellow Night Riders.
“Are you telling me Cade pairs you with me because nobody else wants to work with me?”
“When was the last time you worked with anybody but me or Cade?” Broc swallowed the last of his brandy and set the snifter aside. “You’re an angry man, but you’ve been angry so long, you don’t see it any longer. Nobody says anything about it because criticism makes you worse. Pilar has given up doing anything except encouraging you to play with Carlos. It’s the only chink any of us have found in the wall you’ve built around yourself.”
How was he supposed to work with Nate? The man was only twenty-three. He’d never been out of Arkansas or off the family farm until the war. He wasn’t interested in anything but cows and possum hunting. Ivor’s family had lost their Polish estates through a war or some political shenanigans. All he could talk about was Poland. Thirty minutes in Ivor’s company, and he was ready to buy his damned estates and send him back to Poland.
“The only reason Cade and I put up with you is because we don’t care if you don’t talk for hours.”
Okay, so he wasn’t congenial. Even when he was living at home, he’d preferred to work with Miguel than to run around with boys his age. “If you think all this honesty is going to cause me to change, I’m sorry to disappoint you.”
“What ever it takes to change you is right here.” Broc’s index finger pointed down at the floor. “This is where it all went wrong, so this is the only place that can change it.”
“My father is dead, and I’ve lost my innocence—paltry possession that it was—so how can anything be changed?”
“You’ve got the home you love, a ranch and work that excites you, a brother to get to know, and a woman who attracts you. I’d say that’s enough to start with.”
“When did you turn into a romantic?”
Broc laughed. “We all have the potential to be happy. We just have to have the courage to try.”
Rafe drank the rest of his wine and set down the glass. “It’s a good thing you don’t talk like that all the time. People would swear you were coming down with a fever.”
Broc laughed as he got to his feet. “Act like you don’t care if it makes you feel better, but somewhere inside is the boy who got hurt so badly that he went into hiding because he couldn’t stand to be hurt again. I know he’s there because I see him every time you play with Carlos. You just have to find a way to let him out. Now I’m going to bed. If I’m not up in time for breakfast, don’t wake me.”
Rafe didn’t move from his position by the fireplace. He didn’t believe the part about his younger self being inside him, still trying to get out. He’d spent ten years trying to forget everything about his life in California. Over time his home had become so thoroughly identified with Dolores, he couldn’t imagine living on Rancho los Alamitos again. After the war, he’d been happy to settle down on Cade’s ranch.
Now he wondered if he’d been fooling himself. Could it be that his refusal to think about the ranch was a way to cover up his desire to return? That might be true, but it couldn’t change the actions of the two people he’d once loved the most. He couldn’t think of the ranch without thinking of his father. And if he could manage to get past that, Dolores was there as a constant reminder of everything that had gone wrong.
Growing up, he’d never been conscious of being rich. He’d considered going to school a waste of time when he could be working on the ranch. In the years since, he hadn’t wanted anything beyond a place to sleep, enough food to stave off hunger, and a job to give him something to do. You had to want power or possessions to want to be rich. Or have someone you wanted to give things to. Without those, money was only a responsibility. All he had to worry about now was himself, and that was fine with him.
He moved away from the fireplace and started to undress. It would seem strange to sleep in his father’s room. He wasn’t sure why he’d insisted on this room. He just knew he couldn’t have slept anywhere else. Was it a subconscious statement that he was stepping into his father’s shoes? He didn’t think so, but he’d spent years refusing to think about why he did things. He didn’t really believe all of Broc’s nonsense, but while he was here, he might as well exorcize some of the demons that had plagued him for so long.
He knew he wasn’t happy, and he was getting tired of his own dissatisfaction. Not because it made other people uncomfortable. He was jealous of the happiness that Cade and Pilar had found with each other. It wasn’t so much that they were happily married or that they had a healthy toddler and a newborn infant. It was everything in general. Cade was so happy with his life, nothing bothered him. Pilar couldn’t do enough for all of them. And that was on top of taking care of the house hold and putting up with a grandmother who would tax the patience of a saint.
Broc was right about one thing: If he was to make his peace with the past, he had to do it here. And he suspected he couldn’t do it without Maria’s help.
The collapse of the gazebo puzzled him. He was certain it wasn’t an accident, but he couldn’t see why anyone would want to harm Maria. If someone had meant to harm her, the gazebo was a poor choice. It was more likely to be blown down by a storm than collapse on a clear, sunny day. The damage could have been a simple act of vandalism, but his gut said otherwise. Something was wrong here, and he meant to find out what it was.
“I told you to forget about Maria. Rafe is the one we have to worry about.”
“I could have gotten them both.”
“But you didn’t get either.” He uttered a string of curses. “We’re running out of time. Get Rafe. I’ll worry about Maria later.”
His early-morning inspection removed any doubt from Rafe’s mind that the gazebo’s collapse was an accident. He couldn’t tell when the footprints he found had been made, but they were recent, possibly as recent as last night. Thinking that someone might have been watching him and Maria caused a frisson of alarm to r
un along his spine. Since the end of the war, he had stopped looking over his shoulder for unseen danger. He couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to harm Maria or anyone else at the ranch, but he couldn’t leave until she was safe. He would have felt that way even if he hadn’t been attracted to her.
It amused Rafe to see Maria’s surprise when she entered the breakfast room to find he was down before her. She was dressed simply in a white blouse with a ruffled collar and a gathered skirt, with her hair pulled back in ringlets that fell to her shoulders, but she looked elegant. Luis followed in her wake, looking bright-eyed but unsure of his welcome.
“Cows get up with the sun,” Rafe told her. “Cowhands have to go by their schedule, not the other way around.” The coffee wasn’t as good as in Texas, but Rosana had laid out a breakfast of gargantuan proportions.
Maria seated herself. Luis took the seat next to her. “Where is Broc?” she asked.
“Luxuriating in my featherbed. I have orders not to wake him.”
“You didn’t have to. The damned cockerels did it for you.” Broc stumbled into the breakfast room and focused a sleepy eye on Maria. “Why do you need so many chickens?”
“Because people like to eat eggs.”
“That’s what Pilar always says. Her place is overrun with them. That’s why I don’t mind sleeping out with the cows. They aren’t so proud of getting up at such a god-awful hour that they have to crow about it.”
Maria’s smiling response was exactly what Broc had no doubt expected. Luis forgot his nervousness long enough to giggle. Normally Rafe would have found Broc’s banter entertaining, but this morning his friend’s chatter didn’t amuse him. His mood deteriorated even further when he realized he was irritated that Broc had made Maria smile, something he’d never done.
Maria served Luis, then herself, from platters of eggs, pork, and fried potatoes. “What do you have in mind for today?”
“I’m taking Luis riding. I’m going to pack into one morning everything he should have learned by now.”
Maria looked hardly less dismayed than the boy. “Do you think that’s wise?”
Rafe didn’t like the way Luis looked to Maria as if he expected her to protect him. “I won’t know until I see how much he can do. Do you ride a lot?” he asked the boy.
Luis didn’t meet Rafe’s gaze. “Not often,” he mumbled into his plate.
“How often is not often?”
Maria answered for the boy. “Not at all since last summer. There was no one to take him.”
“Don’t you ride?” he asked Maria.
“I have no need. Whenever I feel the need for exercise, I take a short walk along the road to town.”
“You’ve got some fine riding stock in the stable.” Broc had helped himself from most of the dishes on the table. “But I didn’t see Luis’s pony.”
“He doesn’t have a horse,” Maria explained.
Rafe could understand his father’s withdrawal from the house hold to avoid Dolores, but he had bought a new pony for Rafe every year until he was big enough to ride a regular horse.
“Wouldn’t it be better to wait for the riding lessons until you can purchase a suitable mount?” Maria asked.
“The pony I brought is for Luis. I’m sure one of my old saddles will suit him.”
Luis’s eyes grew wide. “Is it really mine?”
Rafe smiled. “Who did you think it was for?”
“I never had a pony. I won’t know how to take care of it.”
“Someone in the stable will do that,” Maria said.
“A boy should know how to take care of his own horse. Take care of your horse, and it’ll take care of you.”
Luis didn’t appear to know whether to be pleased he had his own pony or worried he would be expected to take care of it. Rafe decided that even if Maria were the most wonderful woman in the world, Luis needed a male role model. There were some things a woman didn’t know about being a man.
Rafe could tell Maria wasn’t happy with the idea because she ate almost no breakfast. He didn’t know how much Luis normally ate, but it didn’t seem like enough. He didn’t take it as a good sign that the boy could be thrown off his feed so easily. A man ought to have the courage to face challenges, maybe even be excited by them. He blamed his father for ignoring the boy.
“Where would you like to ride?” Broc asked Luis.
“I don’t know.” The boy answered so softly, Rafe could barely hear him from across the table.
“There must be some place you like to visit.”
Luis shook his head.
When he was Luis’s age, Rafe had liked riding out to see the mares with their new foals, but most of his favorite places had been in the foothills east of their ranch. He’d found sunny meadows, one spooky cave, cracks in the rocks where he could hide, and several places that offered spectacular views of the valley below.
“I don’t encourage Luis to wander far from the house.” Maria’s tone was mild, but Rafe sensed disapproval. “We’ve had several reports of cougars in the mountains east of the ranch.”
He remembered the occasional loss of livestock to a bear or one of the big cats, but that had always resulted in a hunt for the offending animal. Those hunts had provided some of the most exciting moments of Rafe’s teenage years. He decided not to mention them to Maria.
“I’m sure Rafe can show you a lot of interesting places,” Broc said to the boy. “I had my own favorites growing up in Tennessee. I remember one particular swimming hole. It was just a deep place in the creek, but it was shaded by a bunch of trees. It was a treat to go swimming there on a hot August afternoon.”
“Luis doesn’t know how to swim,” Maria told Broc.
“Why not?” Rafe asked.
“There’s no one to take him.”
When Rafe had once asked his mother why women didn’t swim, she’d told him that no proper female would expose her body in such a manner. Since he had been seven at the time and girls still looked pretty much like boys, it had taken him a few years before he understood what she meant. “There are dozens of men and boys on the ranch who would have been glad to go with him and teach him all he needed to know.”
“I’m sure there were, and still are, but I haven’t had much opportunity to get to know the younger children on the ranch, certainly not enough to entrust them with Luis’s safety.”
No wonder the boy acted like he was afraid of his own shadow. Rafe supposed he couldn’t blame him. It was unfair that he’d been brought up in a way that would make him uncomfortable in the presence of other men. “I’ll have Miguel ask around. I’m sure he can find several boys mature enough to be responsible for Luis.”
Maria looked as if she wanted to say something but she bit into a pear instead.
“Don’t you have contact with the families on the ranch?”
“My duties in the house don’t leave me much time.”
“How do you know when people are sick?”
“Rosana keeps me informed of anyone needing help.”
“What does Dolores do?”
Maria took another bite of the pear. That proved to be a tactical error because it gave Luis an opportunity to answer for her.
“Mama says anybody who works on the ranch is beneath us, and that I’ll end up being low class if I have anything to do with them. That’s why I can’t play with the other boys.”
If Rafe had had any doubt that Luis might not have understood his mother correctly, Maria’s blush would have banished it.
“No one is low class because he works for a living, just as no one is better who doesn’t have to. Do you think I’m low class because I work for someone else?”
Luis blushed and dropped his gaze. “No.”
Broc folded his napkin and pushed his chair back. “I think we’ve all had enough breakfast. It’s time to teach Luis how to ride.”
Maria turned to Rafe. “You’ll have to teach me, too. I’m going with you.”
Chapter Six
&nbs
p; It took only a glance at the horse being led from the barn for Maria to decide she had let her irritation with Rafe cause her to make a foolish decision. How could she ride an animal so big she couldn’t see over its back? She wasn’t aware she’d turned to Rafe, her expression apparently asking a question, until he spoke.
“The stable boy assures me this is the gentlest horse in the barn.”
Broc surveyed the horse with disfavor. “It looks asleep.”
The horse in question threw its head to one side, knocking its groom off balance. Not the behavior, in Maria’s mind, of a gentle, sleepy horse. Luis’s pony watched her out of huge brown eyes, its body motionless except for twitching muscles and a swishing tail to ward off insects. “Where’s your horse?”
Her question was answered when two horses were led from the barn, one a huge black stallion that pranced rather than walked, grabbing at the lead shank with its teeth.
“I wanted the black, but Rafe claimed him by right of ownership.” Broc scowled at the dark bay that followed. “I get the runt.”
The bay was only a couple of inches shorter than the black. He lifted his handler off the ground when he reared.
“At least he has spirit,” Broc added.
Maria didn’t see why men wanted to ride animals capable of lifting them off the ground. What was wrong with walking? Or driving a buggy? She looked to see if Luis was feeling the same way. A brightness in his eyes, a tautness in his body, indicated excitement rather than fear.
Of course, he would be excited. He was a boy, and every boy wanted to grow up to be a man like Rafe. She wanted to caution Luis not to place too much importance on his first ride, but any failure would assume enormous importance to a boy who wanted to be like his brother.
Someone Like You (Night Riders) Page 6
