“I said we need to talk.”
She smiled absently. “Of course, whatever you say.”
He led her down the hall to his study, then firmly closed the door.
Carly turned to face him. “What is it, Uncle Fletcher?”
“To put it simply, my dear—it’s that bastard, El Dragón. He hit the San Felipe stage, took two thousand dollars in payroll money headed for the New Idria mine.”
Carly wet her lips. For the past three weeks, she’d felt nothing. Allowed herself to feel nothing. Now her heart started to pound and a ringing began in her ears.
“D-did they catch him?”
“No. The whoreson got away. They’ve formed a vigilante party. I’m taking some of the men. We’ll be joining them later this afternoon.” His eyes searched her face. “I was hoping there might be something you could tell us that would help.”
Her fingers curled into the skirt of her fashionable plum silk day dress. “If I knew anything at all, I would tell you. Surely you know that.”
“I wish I could believe it, Caralee.” He came forward and took her hands, which had suddenly gone cold. “I know your loyalties must be torn. After all, Don Ramon—”
“Don Ramon? What—what does Ramon have to do with this?”
“I was hoping you could tell me.”
Her head came up, but inside she was shaking. “Ramon has nothing at all to do with the Spanish Dragon. He’s very well respected. You know that as well as I do.”
“The man is out for vengeance, Caralee. He believes I stole his lands. I wouldn’t be surprised if he ordered your abduction just to get back at me.”
Dear God.It was far too close to the truth. “Did you?” she asked. “Did you steal his lands?”
“Don’t be absurd. I bought them from a man named Thomas Garrison.”
The name she had seen on the deed. “Where did Garrison get them?”
Her uncle cleared his throat. “Why he… he bought them when they came up for sale. Diego de la Guerra couldn’t prove his claim. The Lands Commission confiscated the property and ordered it sold. It was all very legal, I assure you.”
She sagged down into a chair, weakened by a towering sense of relief. “I’m sorry, Uncle Fletcher. This whole thing just has me so upset.”
“I understand, my dear. I shouldn’t have pressed you. I only hoped… ah, well, perhaps this time we’ll be successful. We’ve hired the same Indian scouts we used to track those two renegades back to their village in the high country. They’re the best I’ve ever seen.”
The blood slowly drained from her face. “You—you don’t mean you were with the militia when… when they went into the Yocuts’s village?”
“The guard needed their ranks reinforced. This country has to be protected—of course I went along.”
She slowly came to her feet, then gripped the back of the chair next to hers to keep her legs from shaking. “You helped them wipe out an entire Indian village? You killed innocent women and children?”
“There was no other choice, my dear. They had to be dealt with—they’re murderers, the lot of them.”
“Tell me it isn’t the truth. Tell me you wouldn’t be a party to something as awful as that.”
Her uncle’s jaw went taut. His hands reached out to grip her shoulders. “You don’t understand this country, Caralee. It’s kill or be killed. The strongest over the weakest. Those Indians had to be stopped and so does this bandit, El Dragón. Only when we find him, death won’t come as easy as it did for those poor, dumb savages.”
Carly jerked free of his hold, her body shaking all over. “Ramon de la Guerra isn’t in any way connected with the Spanish Dragon. Now if you’ll excuse me…” She brushed past him, her full skirts rustling against his pant legs as she walked out the door and closed it loudly behind her. She was trembling as she entered her bedroom and leaned against the wall, squeezing her eyes closed at the thought of her uncle killing Lena and the others in the village.
She didn’t come out of her room when her uncle rode off to join the vigilantes, didn’t come out for supper, just picked at the tray of food Candelaria brought her to eat.
Late the next morning after a night of restless sleep, she drew on a rust-colored riding habit and her button-up ankle-high boots, and headed out the door. She needed to get away from the house, away from thoughts of her uncle, and uncertainties about what might happen to Ramon.
Heading to the barn, she asked the tall, lean vaquero named Jose to saddle her a horse. She hadn’t ridden since her return to the rancho, now she couldn’t imagine how she had spent so much time indoors.