It was as much as she ever would have had with Vincent.
Somehow with Ramon it wasn’t enough.
CHAPTERFIFTEEN
Carly watched Ramon walk away, wondering at his thoughts, thinking about how much she had come to love him. He’d been good with the boy, but then she had seen him with children before. How would he feel about the children she might bear him? Would he love them as much as if they were born of pure Spanish blood?
It was an unsettling thought, one that haunted her as she worked beside his mother and aunt that afternoon. They were melting the last of the steer fat into tallow, finishing with the final remnants of slaughtered beef. It was hard, sweaty work, but at last they were done, and Carly left them, meandering down to where the stream emerged from the trees. She sat down on a big granite boulder, picked up a handful of shiny black pebbles and began tossing them into the creek.
That was where Ramon found her, staring off into the water, her thoughts more troubled as the day wore on.
He sat down on the rock beside her. “What are you thinking, Cara, that has made you so forlorn?”
She looked up at him. “I was thinking of Two Hawks and Lena. How could such a terrible thing have happened? Why would the soldiers want to kill them?”
Ramon leaned back, propping his shoulders against the trunk of an alder tree. “I spoke to the boy about it. He says two of the young men from the village went raiding. They stole half a dozen horses from a rancho at the base of the San Juan Grade. The man who owns the place was shot, wounded in the shoulder,and the militia was called in to help him. Unfortunately, they trailed the young men back to the village.”
“His people must have needed those horses very badly. I saw only a few when we were in their camp.”
A corner of Ramon’s mouth curved up. “That,querida,is because they eat them.”
“What!”
He nodded. “For many years, horses have been the main source of food in the Yocuts’s diet. In the old days, tens of thousands of wild horses roamed these hills and the great valley beyond. It is where most of our own horses come from.”
“They actually… eat them?”
“Si.They also eat gophers—they roast them hair, fleas, and all. Grasshoppers are a delicacy eaten in the spring. They boil big fat grub worms, and eat the larvae of wasps. They roast lizards, snakes, moles—”
“All right!” she said, cutting him off. “I can see their diet is far… broader than our own.” She swallowed down the queasiness that had risen in her throat.
“You are lucky we brought our own food with us to the village.”
“And I wanted to go to one of their feasts,” she mumbled, making Ramon chuckle softly.
“They are different than we are. That is why there is so much prejudice against them. And they can be vicious at times. They fought with deadly skill against the early rancheros, murdered a number, and occasionally still raid and kill.”
“But shooting women and children… it just isn’t right.”
“No,chica,it is not right. I am sorry about Lena but I am glad Two Hawks is safe.”
So was Carly. If the boy reached his potential, if he worked hard and learned what he could from Ramon and the vaqueros, he would grow into a strong, intelligent man.
“It was kind of you to help him,” Carly said.
Ramon just smiled. “Perhaps I did it just to please you.”
She shook her head, moving a tendril of hair at her cheek that had come loose from her braid. “I don’t think so. I think you would help anyone who asked you. It’s just the way you are.”
Ramon said nothing but his dark eyes glinted with pleasure that she would think so. He took her hand and they started walking back toward the house.
“I was speaking to your mother this afternoon,” she said, broaching a subject Ramon had not mentioned. “She told me you’re leaving in a couple of days… that you have business in Monterey.” She prayed it was nothing to do with El Dragón.
“Si,that is so.” A moment of unease flickered in his eyes, and Carly’s chest went tight.
“How long will you be gone?”
“A little less than a week.” His gaze came up to her face. “I thought perhaps… you might wish to join me.”
