She eyed him with some speculation, following him back toward the stall he’d just come from. Carly’s breath caught as he opened the door and led out the most beautiful palomino mare she had ever seen.
“For you, senora, from your husband, Don Ramon. Mariano brought her here only this morning.”
A hard ache swelled in her throat. Ramon had done this for her. Ramon. “She’s beautiful, Jose. The most beautiful horse I’ve ever seen.”
“She is Andalusian,” he said. “Don Diego, Don Ramon’s father, used to raise them by the hundreds when he lived at Rancho del Robles. They were sold when the rancho went to sale. Don Ramon bought back a few. His stallion, Rey del Sol, was among them.”
‘I knew about Rey, but not the mare. I’ve never seen her before.”
“It was to be a surprise. A wedding present, Mariano said. The don has been raising her somewhere in the mountains. One of the vaqueros has been training her for you.”
Pedro Sanchez, most likely. Perhaps at Llano Mirada. “She’s beautiful,” Carly said again, stroking the mare’s velvet nose. “What’s her name?”
“Sunflower.”
Carly blinked hard. Still, the tears collected behind her eyes and several spilled over onto her cheeks.
“Mariano said the don meant to give her to you himself, but yesterday he changed his mind. He said this way, no matter what happened, you would always remember him.”
Carly bit hard on her lip. Dear God, he wanted her to have the mare in case he was killed in San Juan. She had to get out of there before she started crying in earnest. “Saddle her for me, will you, Jose?”
He smiled. “Si,senora.”
Carly brushed the wetness from her cheeks and waited outside while her sidesaddle was placed on the prancing golden mare with the snowy mane and tail. She looked exactly like Rey del Sol, only smaller, more petite. It occurred to her suddenly that shehadseen the horse before, that this was the mare she had seen in the meadow, mating with Rey del Sol. Even now, the little mare must be carrying the stallion’s colt.
It was a gift without measure, a gift that could come only from love.
Thinking of Ramon, of how much she loved him and how worried she was for his safety, Carly climbed up on the mounting block and settled herself in her sidesaddle atop the little mare. She rode all morning, appreciating the horse’s perfect gait, the way the animal obeyed her commands without question. Unconsciously, she made her way deeper into the hills and eventually wound up at the pool where she and Ramon had made love.
As worried for him as she was, she found herself smiling. When he came for her again, she would go with him and gladly. She loved him and he loved her. She had never really been a coward—only for just a short time. And she would risk anything for the love of a man like Ramon.
She dismounted from the mare and let the horse drink from the mirror-smooth surface of the pool, nostrils flaring, muzzle sinking deeply. Stroking the horse’s sleek golden neck, she ignored the terrible barb of fear that Ramon would be killed in San Juan and never return to take her home.
***
Miranda Aguilar knocked on the door to thecocinaat Rancho del Robles, and buxom Rita Salazar pulled it open.
“Dios mio!”Rita’s black eyes misted with tears. “Mi hija,where have you been?”
Miranda hugged the mother she hadn’t seen in the last three years. “Many places, Mama. I did not know that you were here.”
Rita slid a stout arm around her daughter’s slender waist, urging her into the kitchen, and they sat down on a bench in front of a roughhewn table.
“I only came to del Robles a few months ago,” Rita said. “Before that I was in San Miguel. Your father is dead. That is why I left Monterey, where we had been working.”
“I am sorry, Mama, I did not know.” Miranda swallowed and glanced away. “I tried to find you, but Inocente was never in one place long enough. You were right about him, Mama. I never should have married him. He was a hard man, often he was cruel. Sometimes he even beat me. I was not sorry when he was killed.”
“Pobrecita,”her mother crooned, smoothing the thick black hair away from her daughter’s pretty face.
“His family was nice, though. I went to visit them at a rancho called El Tejon at the end of the great central valley. They wanted me to stay, but I decided not to. I learned you were here from one of the vaqueros. That is why I returned to Llano Mirada, the place where Inocente took me before he was killed. That is where I met El Dragón.” Miranda didn’t mention she had slept with Ramon de la Guerra, or with Ruiz Dominguez, after Ramon had gone.
Rita crossed herself. “Senor Austin and the others, they have finally captured the outlaws.”
“Si,I was there. I am lucky I escaped.”
“Por Dios,how did you get away?”
Miranda sighed heavily. The journey from Arroyo Aguajes was a long one, but she’d felt she had to come. She wasn’t sure when she would see her mother again.
