“Ramon…” she whispered sluggishly, “what are you…?” Then she sat bolt upright in the bed. “Ramon! My God, how did you escape? Uncle Fletcher said they were going to hang you!” She glanced frantically toward the door. “Dear Lord, you shouldn’t be here. If he finds you here he’ll kill you. You have to get away!” She swung her legs to the side of the bed and stood up, but Ramon simply caught her against him.
“Easy, Cara, give me a chance to explain.” Big twin pools of green stared into his face, and her cheeks looked even paler than they had when he had first come into the room. She made a soft little sound in her throat and her arms went around his neck. Ramon crushed her tightly against him.
“I was so worried,” she said, trembling in his embrace. “When my uncle rode in this afternoon, he said they had finally found the stronghold. He said they had captured El Dragón and four of his men, and that Captain Harry Love and Sheriff Layton were taking them to jail in San Juan. He said they were going to hang them three days from now in the square in front of the church.”
“You did not mention my name?”
“No, of course not. I didn’t want them to know I knew who you were.”
He relaxed a little. He hadn’t considered that Carly might inadvertently tell them who he was. Inwardly he scoffed. Angel still had plenty of time for that.
“Tell me what happened,” she said.
Ramon sighed wearily. “The Indian trackers the vigilantes hired discovered the back way into Llano Mirada.”
“Dear God. What happened to the others, to Pedro and Florentia, the women and the children?”
A muscle bunched in his jaw. “Nearly a dozen men were killed. Many of the others were wounded, I am not sure which ones. All of the women and children got safely away. They arrested Pedro and three of the vaqueros from Llano Mirada.”
“What about you? How did you escape?”
“I was not there. By the time I arrived, the fighting was ended. I uncovered the story in bits and pieces from the men I found hiding in the woods. My cousin Angel is the man thegringosbelieve is El Dragón.”
“Y-your cousin?”
“Si.So far he has let them continue to believe it. Why, I am not sure. I suppose it is fortunate for me that things happened as they did. After I left you that night, I was headed for Llano Mirada. I had some . . unfinished business… with my cousin I wished to attend.”
“You were going after Angel because of me?”
“You thought that once I knew the truth I would let him live?”
“Dear God, Ramon, you can’t just kill him.”
“I could kill him with my bare hands for what he tried to do to you. And for what losing you has done to me.”
She searched his face for long, breathless moments, then she came up on tiptoe, tightening her hold on his neck, and he dragged her fiercely against him, burying his face in her hair. It smelled of cinnamon and roses.
“I had to see you,” he said. “I will be riding out tonight, meeting the men at a place called Arroyo Aguaje. In three days time, the night before the hanging, we will ride into San Juan and set the vaqueros free.”
She drew away from him, stared worriedly into his face. “You can’t do that. Surely they’ll be waiting.”
“I do not think so. They believe the men have scattered, that their leader is in jail. Besides, it does not matter. Pedro and the others are going to hang. I cannot let that happen. With the help of my men, I believe I can free them.”
Carly bit her lip, her eyes wide and searching. “I don’t want you to go. I’m afraid for you, Ramon.”
A corner of his mouth curved up. “Does that mean that you are ready to come home?”
Carly let go of him, took a step away. “How… how are your mother and aunt?” she evaded, uncertainty clear on her face.
He sighed with frustration. “My mother has been ill, but she is fine now. Tia is as she always is, a steady rock for all of us to cling to. Both of them have nagged me without end to stop acting foolish and bring my wife home. In the end, as usual, they were right.”
Her eyes searched his face. “What if I came back and they discovered what happened the night Andreas was killed, that I was the one who sounded the alarm by ringing the bell? Can youimagine the pain it would cause them? How do you think they would feel about me then?”
“They would feel as I do. That what you did was no different from what Two Hawks had to do when he fought the men who attacked his village. You did only what any of us would have done if our home had been threatened. And they do know, Cara. Tia told me they have known since the night of thefandango.”
“They knew?”
“Si.Even I did not know they had heard the story though perhaps I should have guessed. Tia worried in some way that was part of the reason you did not return with me from Monterey. I did not tell her it was my cruelty, my prejudice that was keeping you away.”
