Promised by Post. Katy Madison
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went out through the open door opposite where they had entered, which seemed to lead outside. How was that possible? The house looked so much bigger from the outside. Either that or she’d lost all sense of space. She felt a little as if she’d entered one of those crazy tilted houses at a fair. The ones where they could make water run uphill.
Mrs. Werner bustled up to her, her dark skirts rustling. She wrapped an arm around Anna’s shoulders and steered her toward the table. “You sit here. I will feed you.”
Anna fought the urge to fling off the woman’s arm. She didn’t want to eat or sit. She wanted to meet her future husband. “I’m really not hungry, thank you.”
“Sit. Tell me—how was your trip?”
“Long.” She stared at the door Daniel had gone through. How could it have led outside?
Her stomach knotted. Well, she wasn’t just going to wait around forever. She’d been traveling for months. If Rafael was here, she didn’t see any reason she couldn’t meet him now. She got up and stalked toward the door.
Mrs. Werner moved in front of her and put her hands on her hips as if Anna were being rude. “Daniel will tell Rafael to come eat with you, if he is awake. You sit now.”
She sat in the chair she was led to because it didn’t seem she had much choice in the matter. In the low light of tin lamps, she stared at the unending grain of the table. Even that was impossible and made her feel off-kilter.
Mrs. Werner shouted in Spanish, and Anna nearly jumped out of her skin. A few seconds later a girl on the verge of womanhood entered through the open door. The smell of beef and maize wafted through with her. The girl carried several plates, looking as if she might drop them at any time. “This is Juanita. She helps out.”
“How do you do, Juanita?” Anna resisted the urge to spring to her feet and take dishes from the overburdened girl. A genteel lady would be used to being waited upon.
As Juanita moved to set the plates on the table, a big brown glob plopped right on Anna’s chest and slid into her lap, ruining her second-best dress.
Back in Connecticut Olivia had helped her turn the seams and they’d boiled it in borax for hours to rejuvenate the white. Still in places the material was damnably thin and the ruffles along the bottom covered hems that had frayed and worn through. Her hopes were wearing just as thin.
Now with it stained and the green silk filthy, she had little left to wear except a few work dresses. Even those weren’t clean. She’d worn them over the long stage trip and washdays hadn’t been in the schedule.
Mrs. Werner berated the girl in rapid-fire Spanish, while Juanita stared at the floor, her shoulders up around her ears. At least Anna rather suspected she was being berated. Anna just wanted the crazy, disappointing day to end. “That’s enough. It was just an accident.”
Mrs. Werner started. Her eyes narrowed.
Anna started to shake. She had no idea what a woman of breeding would do in this situation, but she was in no mood for any more ugliness. “It has been a long day. I believe I will retire. Juanita, will you show me my room and help me out of my gown?”
Perhaps if she rinsed out the stain soon enough, it wouldn’t set. She had less hope for the green silk. Blood was always difficult to get out.
“She doesn’t speak much English,” said Mrs. Werner.
Anna was torn. She really didn’t want to leave the girl alone with Mrs. Werner.
“Then translate for me.” Anna glanced toward the open door, wondering what was keeping Daniel. She had visions of him going through her trunk, unpacking her unmentionables. Heat washed through her. From mortification, she assured herself.
“You need to eat,” Mrs. Werner insisted.
The girl lifted her gaze from the floor and stared at Anna with dark accusation as if it were Anna’s fault Mrs. Werner was angry with her.
Anna’s stomach churned, protesting. She wasn’t exactly sure of the food that had been set down before her. Long yellowish things with a sort of brown gravy and a plate stacked with round flat bread. “Excuse me, please.”
Really what she wanted was a nice roasted potato dripping with butter or a hot slice of soda bread. Neither of which were likely to appear. Nor apparently was her fiancé.
If neither Mrs. Werner nor Juanita would show her to her room, then she’d find it herself, or find Daniel to guide her. Why had he disappeared for so long? How long did it take to put her trunk and carpetbag in her room and rouse Rafael? Or was Rafael not willing to meet her?
She headed for the door that Daniel had gone through. Juanita darted out ahead of her. For a second, Anna suspected the girl would push her back in to eat whatever it was that had been set down in front of her.
“I show you room.”
“Thank you, Juanita.” But mostly she was speaking to the girl’s back as she darted ahead along the covered walkway that encircled an open center of the building. Anna stared at the stars over the wall ahead of her. Juanita went to the corner, turned right, following the interior of the building, then opened the first door. Beyond the girl, Anna’s trunk sat at the foot of a narrow bed.
“You come to marry Rafael, sí?” asked Juanita.
“Yes.”
Juanita glared. “Fool—foolish are you. The ranch belongs not to him.”
What? “Who does it belong to?”
“Go home.”
Go home? She didn’t have a home to go to.
The girl darted off. Anna stood stock-still for a second. What on earth was Juanita trying to tell her? Rafael didn’t own the ranch. She’d pinned everything on coming here to marry a man who would take care of her, make sure she had regular meals, a man who owned his own land. Her legs muscles tightened as her stomach burned.
Her shoulders stiff, she returned to the main room. “Mrs. Werner, Juanita says the ranch doesn’t belong to Rafael. Is that so?”
“No, no, she did not say that.”
“Yes, she did.”
“I tell you her English is very poor. She say it wrong.” Mrs. Werner waved her hands wildly and looked away. “Of course the ranch belongs to Rafael. You do not worry. Juanita is a silly child who thinks Rafael will marry her when she grows up. You forget what she say.”
The reassurance didn’t settle her one bit. This was not how she had expected her arrival to be. No, she needed to meet Rafael and have him straighten this out. The sooner the better. Otherwise she wouldn’t be able to sleep a wink.
* * *
“I have to get back, or Miss O’Malley will wonder what is taking me so long.” Daniel had put Anna’s trunk in the room next to his and hurried across the courtyard to Rafael’s room. He hadn’t been certain from their mother’s look how his brother was faring, and he was relieved to discover Rafael in pain but completely lucid. They had to get through the next few days without Anna realizing he’d been shot.
“You need to meet her,” Daniel said. “You’ll have to pretend you’re well long enough to say hello.”
The bandage starkly white against his skin, Rafael groaned and rolled to the side. “Can’t.”
“She is already confused by me fetching her instead of you.” Daniel pulled his brother’s legs off the side of the bed. He’d get Rafe sitting, then get him dressed and standing.
Rafael grunted a protest.
“Just hold it together long enough to say hello.” Daniel tugged on his brother’s arm until Rafael was halfway upright.
Rafael ran a hand through hair that was matted and sticking up on one side. Had he been