part0034

Roman sent Dominic’s bear hide to the stables with the vaqueros. The hide would be cured by the Indians trained in tanning hides. Roman, Steven, and Dominic walked to the hacienda in high spirits, only to discover Sarita’s arrival an hour earlier had placed everyone in an uproar.

Tio Pedro was threatening to ride north to kill Joshua Tyler. Pedro could not understand why Sarita’s husband would join the rebels in the Sacramento Valley when he was a Mexican citizen married to a Californian wife. Upon her arrival, Sarita had cried and carried on about being abandoned by her traitorous gringo husband.

As soon as Roman arrived, she flew into his arms, pressing her ample curves against him even though he smelled like a dead bear. “My husband has left me! He has joined the rebels in the north,” she said, then fell into a fit of sobbing.

Roman set her away from him. When she continued to weep, clutching at his shirtfront, he took her back into his arms. “Please, Sarita, stop all this weeping.”

Rachel stood between Isabella and Maria, staring at him with wide, wounded eyes. He stared back at her as he held Sarita. He tried to reassure Rachel with his eyes, but she turned away, refusing to look at him. He realized in that moment that Sarita’s presence at Rancho de los Robles was the worst possible thing that could happen to them aside from war.

“I will escort you to your father’s rancho,” he told Sarita. “We will leave at first light in the morning.”

“But Tia Josefa has welcomed me here,” Sarita said tearfully. “I need you to take care of me. You know how cowardly my father is. He cannot protect me from the gringos when they come to conquer us.”

“Did your husband give you permission to leave Rancho El Rio Lobo in his absence?” Roman set her away from him again.

“What are you saying? You hate the Americanos! Surely, you do not expect me to remain married to my Yankee husband now that he has become an enemy to California?”

“Calm down, Sarita. We are not at war with the United States yet. I talked to General Castro just days ago. The general is more concerned about his feud with Governor Pico than war with the Americanos.”

“Didn’t Castro tell you he has ordered all Americanos not married to Californios to leave California at once? Why is she still here?” Sarita spun around to give Rachel an accusing glare.

Steven and Dominic quietly made their way to Rachel’s side in a protective manner.

“What are those Yanquios doing here?” Sarita glared at the men.

“They are my amigos.” Roman had had enough. “Sarita, you are overwrought. Come, I will see you to your room so you can gather your composure and get some rest.”

She clasped Roman’s elbow, rubbing her cleavage against his arm. “I knew you would take care of me, querido .”

Isabella rushed up and squeezed herself between them. “I will see Sarita to her room!”

Sarita glared at the girl. She wouldn’t let go of Roman’s arm.“I prefer Roman show me to my room.”

“You’re coming with me!” Isabella gritted her little, white teeth and grabbed Sarita’s arm, attempting to yank her away from Roman’s side.

Startled by Isabella’s strength, Sarita lost her balance. Both she and Isabella would have tumbled to the floor if Roman hadn’t wrapped his arms around the two of them.

Maria stepped forward and inserted herself between her brother and the stunned Sarita. “We will take our cousin to her quarters.” With a determined hip, Maria shoved Roman away from Sarita.

“I do not want to go with you!” Sarita tried to pull her arms from the girls’ grasp, but Maria and Isabella wouldn’t let go of her. “Roman, help me,” she demanded.

Tia Josefa intervened. “Remember how sweetly you girls played together when you were young? Be good to each other mi hijas. ”

“I want Roman to take me to my quarters!” Sarita’s voice turned shrill as she struggled to escape Maria and Isabella.

“Maria and I will see you to your room, won’t we, Mama?” Isabella demanded.

“Come, chicas. ” Tia Josefa motioned for Sarita, Isabella, and Maria to follow her from the sala . She also waved Rachel over to join them. “Let us leave the gentlemen to clean themselves up. I would say their bear hunt was successful judging by the smell of them.”

In the tussle with Isabella and Maria, Sarita’s ample bosom had been liberated from its satin confinement. Roman stared at all that intriguing flesh hanging over her gown, and then his eyes collided with Rachel’s. She had followed Tia Josefa’s order to join the women and now stood beside Sarita, staring back at him. The hurt in her confused blue eyes pierced his heart. What did she expect of him? Wouldn’t any man look at Sarita’s dishevelment right now?

He glanced at Steven and Dominic for reassurance, but both men stared at the floor as Isabella and Maria dragged Sarita from the room.

The voice wasn’t audible, but deep inside his soul, the rebuke pierced him. Where on earth had it come from? Was God speaking to him? Conviction that he was a sinful man tore through Roman.

He looked to Rachel, but she was following the women from the sala.

Utterly shaken, he walked over to Dominic and Steven. They looked up from the floor after the women departed the room.

“I feel in need of a bath,” he told them, abandoning any attempt at small talk. “Would you join me in the creek, amigos?”

“Now that sounds like what each of us needs right now,” Dominic agreed.

“A bath would help us all.” Steven smiled reassuringly.

Roman longed to ask Steven what it sounded like when God spoke to a man. He couldn’t get that thought out of his head: I offer you an honorable wife and you ogle a harlot instead. What he felt deep in his soul was fear. A sudden and very real fear of the Almighty had overtaken him.

Down at the creek, he got his chance alone with Steven when Dominic departed for the hacienda after they had all shaved and bathed. “See you amigos at the house,” said Dom as he finished dressing and strode quickly toward the hacienda.

“How does a man hear from God?” Roman asked Steven as soon as Dominic was out of earshot.

Sitting on a rock beside the water, drying his feet with a towel, Steven looked pleased by the question. “Reading the Bible is the best way I know to hear from God.”

“Are there other ways to hear God speak to a man?” What had he heard in the sala after he’d stared at Sarita’s nakedness?

“Well,” Steven said thoughtfully, “Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, heard from God in a dream. So did Jacob and Daniel and other men from biblical times. They all had dreams where God spoke to them.”

“Are the Bible and dreams the only ways God speaks?” Roman pressed.

“No.” Steven grew even more thoughtful. “God can speak to a man in other ways. Through nature. Through suffering. And God gives all men a conscience. That little voice inside your head that makes you feel sorrow over your sins. It sounds like your own voice, but this is really the guidance of the Holy Spirit.”

Roman leaned forward where he sat on his own rock, pulling on his boots. “That little voice is not so little sometimes.”

Steven smiled that gentle smile of his. “God has sharpened your conscience to hear his voice. What has the Lord said to you, my friend?”

Roman did not want to tell Steven what he’d heard. He recalled the wounded look in Rachel’s eyes and the feel of Sarita’s breasts pressed against his forearm. What surprised him was that he no longer desired Sarita with all her ample charms and her flashing black eyes that promised the fulfillment of a man’s dark desires. He far preferred his sweet, slender Rachel with her eyes full of light. But what surprised him most at the moment was his great longing to know God.

“The Lord always confirms his commands. If you have heard from God, our Lord will make what he has said clear to you through other ways,” Steven counseled.

Roman pondered this. “So the voice of God will come again?” he asked hopefully, strapping on his rusty spurs.

“Maybe. Or God may speak to you differently. Perhaps through a person or a situation or the Bible.” Obviously, the Bible was very important to Steven, like it was to Rachel.

“How will I know this is God speaking to me?”

“May I say a prayer for you to be able to hear what God is saying to you before we return to the hacienda?” Steven finished putting on his own boots and looked at him expectantly.