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Daniel dropped half the filling out of his burrito he was fumbling so much. The trouble was, Rafael couldn’t have been bothered to write. All the letters had been written by Daniel. But that was another truth that couldn’t be exposed.
Chapter Thirteen
My social commitments extend into May, and I couldn’t possibly travel before then. I have friends that will be traveling at that time, so I would prefer to travel with them rather than be completely alone.
Anna walked around the perimeter of the courtyard, her boots clicking on the flagstones of the walkway. She should go to bed, but she was restless. The day had ended with no sign of Rafael. At first she’d been relieved she didn’t have to face him after the kiss she’d shared with Daniel, but the longer he stayed away, the more doubt needled her.
She wanted to believe Daniel. His story made a certain amount of sense, but a few things seemed like square pegs shaved off and forced to fit in round holes. If she just had some proof...of something.
The more she thought, the more her thoughts swirled. Even circling the courtyard was starting to take on the semblance of water circling a drain.
She hesitated at Rafael’s door. Something was bothering her about his room, something beyond the fact that it was twice as big as Daniel’s. She knocked. After several seconds ticked by and she heard nothing, she tried the knob. Once again the door was locked, although she and Daniel had gone through it that morning.
Looking over her shoulder, she didn’t see anyone else in the courtyard. Mrs. Werner had retired. Anna had watched her go into her room and the light go out.
Juanita had gone to the kitchen after supper, and Anna hadn’t seen her since, but then the girl had been told to give her a wide berth. Daniel had muttered something about seeing to the animals and had left out the front door.
Reaching up, Anna slipped a hairpin from her bun. She bent it open and inserted it in the lock. After jiggling it around, she felt the lock give but not turn. The thin strip of metal twisted instead of pushing the tumbler. She pulled out a second pin and, after a fast look around, added it to her first. The lock clicked just as the door to the main room opened.
She jerked upright.
“Anna, he’s not here,” said Daniel from across the courtyard.
“That would be why he hasn’t answered my knock then.” Stepping in front of the door, she pulled out the bent hairpins and shoved them in her pocket. “Why is his door locked?”
“Maybe to keep nosy people out.” Daniel walked across the courtyard, the moon catching blue lights in his hair.
Her stomach fluttered as if she’d swallowed a sparrow. Surely he couldn’t have seen that she’d picked the lock. She resisted the urge to put her hands behind her back. “I was just seeing if he’d returned home. I’d like to speak with him.”
“I know.” Daniel drew to a stop in front of her, his face shadowed under the walkway’s covering.
The light coming out of the long room windows was enough to see by, but with his back to it, she couldn’t make out his expression. She heaved a deep breath. “But we came through this door this morning.”
“Did we?” murmured Daniel. His voice spoke of sin and temptation.
What was wrong with her? She was engaged to Rafael. She at least owed him loyalty until he made an appearance. “Yes, we did,” she said primly. “Who would have locked it if Rafael didn’t come back?”
“Juanita when she cleaned, perhaps.” He stepped closer. His voice lowered. “Does it matter?”
“It just seems...odd.”
“What seems odd is that you are not in bed.”
“Neither are you,” she pointed out.
“The work of a rancher is never done.”
“Especially since it all must fall to you while Rafael is off chasing robbers.”
Daniel reached toward her and caught a hank of hair that had fallen when she removed the pins. He rubbed it between his fingers. “Even in the moonlight it seems lit from a fire within.”
Her breath caught. He was near enough he could surely hear the pounding of her heart. Did he mean to kiss her again?
“If you are so curious, we can go through the other door.”
If he had meant to dissuade her by pretending he didn’t care if she looked, then he fell short.
“Excellent idea.” She strode toward the doors leading to the hallway.
He followed. He opened it for her, and she entered the interior hallway, which was black as pitch. Her heart thundered for a second, but Daniel lit a match.
The tiny flare of light was enough to spur her forward to the other door to Rafael’s room. She twisted the handle before Daniel could block her, and he gave her an amused look.
Before he caught the door to hold it open for her, she knew the room would be exactly as it had been that morning. Empty. “Light his lamp, please.”
“You can see no one is here.”
She swept the room. The shadows in the corners likely weren’t hiding anyone, but just as it had this morning, the room bothered her. “If you won’t light the lamp, you must not want me to see something.”
He sighed loudly, walked across the room, lit another match and bent to light the lamp on the table beside Rafael’s low bed.
“See. He isn’t hiding robbers or goats or naked women in his room.”
“Naked women?” She jerked back so hard the frame of the door bit her shoulder. Of all the things he could have said, that shocked her.
“Sorry, bad joke. I am with men too much.” His eyes flickered as he looked at her. There was an element of sheepishness but anger, too.
His actions were just as confusing to her as Rafael’s were. Was he with men too much or was he thinking of naked women—or more likely her naked? She was the last woman he’d kissed. Was he thinking of bedding her? A shudder ripped through her.
Then again, the anger she sensed kept her wary. Was it because she was knocking on her fiancé’s door instead of his? Did he think she was seeking to join Rafael in his bed?
Bed. Her thoughts jerked to Rafael’s bed. The bed was much lower than the others in the house, even the bottom bunks of their hands’ rooms. That just seemed off.
Her eyes on Daniel, she crossed the room and yanked back the blanket, exposing the bare rope supports of the bed frame.
Alarm flashed across Daniel’s face.
“Where is his mattress?” she demanded.
“Not on his bed,” Daniel said. His pulse raced. Coming up with another fabrication that explained why the mattress was gone made him feel as if his horse had decided to ride him. Improbable excuses swirled in his head, everything from Rafael had an accident like a little child, to he’d caught it on fire smoking in bed. Oddly they all featured Rafael as an irresponsible or immature figure.
“I can see that,” retorted Anna.
God, he was tired of lying to her. And as much as he’d like to make Rafael into a stupid fellow, the man was waiting in the wagon bed until the coast was clear. Only it wasn’t. He needed to get Anna out of Rafael’s room and into her own bed.
For a second when she left the doorway and stalked toward him, his fantasies had taken over. He’d hoped and wanted her to come to him, tilt her head up for a repeat of the kiss they’d shared that morning.
“All I know, Anna, is it isn’t here, and it is late. You and I have mattresses on our beds and we should be in one—them.” Lord, did he really just say that? He must be more tired than he realized.
She stared at him for a minute, then gave a slight shake of her head. “He took the wagon and the mattress because he found your cousins and the one I shot is badly hurt.”
“Oh, for Pete’s sake, Anna.” Actually, she was too damn close to the truth. “He probably took it so he didn’t have to sleep on the ground. Besides, the wagon is his to take or leave.”
She stepped closer, and a swelter of desire nearly knocked him off his feet. He drew in her scent, sweet, sun-kissed and so seductive. Her breasts would touch his chest if he leaned forward just a couple of inches, and the fallen strand of her hair caught the lamplight and promised fire.
“You’re lying.”
When he had first crossed the courtyard and seen her standing at Rafael’s door, he’d thought he’d scare her with a repeat of the kiss, but he’d forgotten she didn’t scare so easily. And now he wanted so much more than a kiss. He had a hard time remembering that Rafael and Juanita waited just outside.
He had to get her out of Rafael’s room and tucked in her own room, and in a way that would keep her locked inside, which meant he had to make her think it was dangerous for her to be wandering around. But the only thing that he could think of was kissing her.
“You know he found your cousins and is trying to hide them or take them to Mexico.” She poked him in the chest.
