Carly glanced down, saw that Angel had exposed one of her breasts, and her face flushed crimson. With hands that shook, she hastily pulled her nightgown into place.
“Ramon, please… you can’t possibly believe that what he told you is the truth. I don’t even know how he got in here.”
“But you do know who he is? You met him as he says, downstairs in the dining room?”
“I-I spoke to him only briefly. I didn’t invite him here—how can you possibly believe I would?”
“I am not blind, Cara, as you seem determined to believe. I saw you with him, remember? He was kissing you, caressing your beautiful breasts.” He reached over and jerked the sheet off, leaving her sitting disheveled in the bed, her body trembling, her nightgown riding up to the middle of her thighs.
“Get dressed,” he said roughly. “We are leaving.”
She started to shake even harder. Tears stung her eyes, began to clog her throat. It was only beginning to hit her, what had occurred, and she still couldn’t make herself believe it. “We c-can’t leave now. You’ve been riding all night. You have to get some s-sleep.”
He grabbed her arm and yanked her up from the bed. “Do what I tell you!” Black rage pumped through him. It was there in every hard line of his face. His eyes were as dark as the paths leading to hell. “I promised you once I would never hurt you again. At this moment, it is a difficult promise to keep.” He let go of her then and she reeled backward till she fell across the bed.
“Do as I say. Pack your things and prepare to leave.”
Carly just stared at him. Her wrists still throbbed where Angel had trapped them. Her lips were bruised from thepressure of his hard, dry lips. Her throat ached with tears and her heart hurt so badly she thought it must surely break in two.
“Why? Why is it so easy for you to believe him and so hard for you to believe me?”
Ramon didn’t answer, just grabbed a handful of her clothes from the wardrobe and tossed them at her on the bed. “Get dressed, my littleputa.I should never have brought you here in the first place. I should have known the temptation would be too much for agringalike you.”
Agringalike me, Carly thought, fresh pain knifing through her. An Anglo woman, a woman whose word could never stand against that of a de la Guerra. She blinked and hot salty tears began to roll down her cheeks. “You and Angel… I thought you were as different as the sun and the moon. Perhaps you are not so different as I believed.”
Ramon said nothing. Just turned away as she dressed in her riding habit and shakily plaited her hair into a long, thick braid. Leaving several goldrealson the dresser in payment for their room, he hauled her out into the hallway and down the back stairs. She waited in the alley, the cold air slicing through her, while he went to the stable for their horses.
The white mare was saddled and ready, but he was leading Rey del Sol, the stallion obviously weary from the grueling ride Ramon had just made. Instead his big Spanish saddle rested atop a big bay gelding.
“Wh-what about the mule?” Carly asked.
“I traded it for the saddle horse. Rey needs time to recover his strength, and we will be traveling lighter this time.” He smiled bitterly. “I find I am eager to be home.” His hands bit into her waist as he lifted her up, set her down hard on the sidesaddle. He said nothing as he swung himself up in his heavy silver-trimmed saddle, nothing as they rode out through the empty dirt streets, nothing as they started into the hills.
He pushed hard all morning, stopped to water the horses, then they rode on. Carly didn’t eat and neither did Ramon. She could only imagine how exhausted he must be. By nightfall, she felt that same exhaustion herself, coupled with the sickening knowledge that in a single long night in Monterey, she had lost her husband forever.
She tried not to cry, but in the long hours of darkness, she couldn’t stop the tears from falling. She had loved him so much. She would have done anything for him. Anything. She had foolishly believed that someday he might love her in return.
Instead he had called her his whore, believed her guilty of sleeping with his cousin. Angel might be a de la Guerra, might be pure Castilian Spanish, but Carly wouldn’t spit on a man like Angel. In fact, if she’d had a gun in her room last night, she probably would have shot him.
And what of Ramon? She had come to admire him. Now she saw what she hadn’t seen before. The prejudice he loathed in the Anglos, his hatred of people who persecuted those who were different, was as strong in Ramon as it was in the men he opposed. It made her heartsick to think it, to know she could never come up to his expectations, never gain his trust because her heritage wasn’t the same as his.
She had known it. He had made it clear from the start, but she hadn’t really believed it. She hadn’t allowed herself to believe it because she loved him too much.
Lying on her bedroll, Carly curled into a tight ball of misery and buried her head in her arms. Her body shook with the tears that poured from her eyes and soaked into her blanket. She didn’t care if Ramon heard her crying. She didn’t care about anything anymore. She only knew her life was over, that her heart was broken, that the love she felt for him had begun to seep out of her like water through a piece of broken glass.
She cried until her tears were spent, then lay there staring at the stars. She didn’t really see them. Her pain was too deep, her heart too full of despair. Before the sun came up, she crossed the clearing to where the horses had been hobbled, saddled her mare, tied her bedroll on behind, climbed up on a rock, and levered herself into the sidesaddle.
She would have ridden off if Ramon hadn’t stepped forward and caught her horse’s bridle.
“Where do you think you are going?”
She smiled at him bitterly. “Back where I came from. I won’t say home because I no longer have one. I’m returning to Rancho del Robles. If my uncle won’t have me, I’ll go somewhere else. I don’t need you to show me the way.”
A muscle jerked in his cheek. “Nevertheless, you will travel with me,” he said tersely. “If del Robles is your wish, I will see that you get there.” His mouth curved grimly. “Perhaps things have worked out exactly as you planned all along. If you can find a way, you can have your annulment, as you wished from the start. I am sure there are any number of men willing to pleasure you as I have, some of them in ways far beyond what I had only begun to teach you.”
Her hand lashed out, slapped him hard across the face. For a moment she thought he might drag her down from the horse, the rage in his face was so great. Then it was gone, replaced by a look of sadness and utter despair. Against her will, she found herself drawn to that look, wanting desperately to ease it away.
“I didn’t do the things your cousin said. I know you don’t believe me, but it’s the truth.”