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She shot me a narrow-eyed searching look.
“I told you why I left Derek!” she said sullenly. “I just couldn’t stand to live with him another minute, that’s all! So I just packed my bags and said I was coming to visit Pa, and once I arrived here, Pa couldn’t very well send me away because it would have caused talk if he had. And for a while he even seemed glad to see me. Until you came,” she added childishly. “Now, he’s starting to ignore me. Maybe he thinks I’m in the way, that I’m going to interfere!”
“I think you’re overdramatizing things,” I told her simply. “I’ve no intentions of interfering in your affairs, nor in becoming your stepfather’s third wife. He’s never discussed you with me, and I’m sure he doesn’t intend to.”
“That’s what you say!” she muttered sulkily, and then fell silent.
I was in no mood to indulge in further discussion with her, for I had enough to think of as it was, and I had already begun to yearn for the peace and tranquility of my own house. No one, and especially not Todd Shannon, was going to destroy that peace.
Flo rode with me for a considerable distance. She was quiet now, deep in thought.
When we had reached the top of a slight ridge, she pointed downward, telling me that I could not fail to find my way back now, and I thought I recognized certain landmarks from other rides I had taken with Mark.
“Are you sure you’d rather not come all the way with me?” I asked her politely. “Marta can give us breakfast, and I could ask Jules to ride with you as far as the ranch. Everybody keeps warning me it’s not safe to ride out alone.”
“For you, perhaps, but not for me! I know this country. I’ve ridden here since I was a child. And besides, I always carry a gun with me. See?”
She pulled up her skirt, revealing a small derringer strapped against her thigh. “So now you can see that I can take care of myself. I hope you can. Or are you afraid to go on alone?”
“Now that you’ve assured me how safe it is, why should I be?” I retorted, adding, “Thank you for bringing me this far.”
“I only did it to get you away from Pa!” What a child she was in some ways! Shrugging, I watched her whirl the mare around and touch her spurs to her side. She did not bother to look back.
Suddenly I found myself in no great hurry to be on my way. I was alone, this was my land. Why should I worry?
I sat on my horse, looking down the slope. There was no danger here. It suddenly seemed quite preposterous, and realizing this, I felt my spirits lift. It was time for me to cast off my feeling of letha
rgy and begin to learn more about my inheritance. I’d show Todd Shannon that I wasn’t helpless.
A small puff of breeze fanned loose tendrils of hair against my face, bringing with it the faint smell of dust and aromatic brush, and just as I was about to guide my mount forward, something—some tiny movement at the corner of my eye—made me turn my head. Had I really been afraid for a moment? It was only a thin strip of red material fluttering from a cactus spine. Some unwary ranch hand had ridden too close to that enormous, Y-shaped cactus and had snagged his shirt, or perhaps his neckerchief. Whoever it was certainly had loud tastes! The red was so bright that the tiny piece of material showed up plainly against the dull green of the cactus.
Idly, as I rode past, I reached forward and tugged at it, frowning again. He had to be a tall man, whoever he was, for I’d had to reach upward. And the material was silk. A red silk shirt? I couldn’t imagine a cowboy wearing either a silk neckerchief or a silk shirt. A woman, then? But who? And how had she managed to snag the material of her gown so high up?
In spite of the growing warmth of the day, I felt as if a chill wind had brushed me, and I was suddenly uneasy and anxious to be home. I pushed the little strip of cloth deep into the pocket of my borrowed riding skirt and tried to forget about it as I urged my horse forward.
If Jules and Marta were surprised to see me back so early, and alone, they hid it well enough, although Jules shook his head disapprovingly when I told him I hadn’t bothered with an escort.
Remembering my manners, I sat down and wrote a short, formal note to Todd Shannon, apologizing for leaving so abruptly. He would understand my real reasons of course, but I felt less guilty, now that the conventions had been observed. Jules would take the note himself, along with the horse I had borrowed. And Todd Shannon, with his guests to see to, could hardly come chasing after me, even if his pride allowed him to do so. He would be angry, but he would learn that I would do as I pleased.
I wouldn’t let Shannon spoil the rest of my day! I picked out two of my father’s journals and took them with me to the cool, book-lined room that had been his study, sitting in my favorite chair by the window that overlooked the patio. Marta, hovering nearby, asked me solicitously if I would care for something cool to drink.
“You’ve already overfed me with that wonderful breakfast,” I said, smiling at her. Then, as a thought struck me, I pulled the tiny scrap of red silk from the pocket of my skirt.
“Marta, do you have any idea who this could belong to? I found it fluttering from that big saguaro cactus, where the trail forks. You know the place, don’t you?”
I saw her face change, and grow quite pale. “Ah—Madre de Dios! After all these years! It was the signal they used…”
“Who? Marta, you’re not talking sense! For goodness’ sakes, you’ve done nothing but talk in riddles lately!” Her mouth was working, as she continued to stare at the piece of material I still held between my fingers. “He’s back then. Ah, did I not say so? I knew it. She is here. It was the signal they used, so long ago, when they thought it was safe for them to meet. Did I not warn him of the danger? ‘He’ll end up killing you,’ I said. ‘Stick to your own kind.’ But he wouldn’t listen. ‘We want each other,’ he told me. ‘One day, Marta, I’m going to take everything that Shannon calls his!’ And then he would tease me into giving him a piece of my old red petticoat, the one the patron gave me when Jules and I were married.”
I interrupted her sharply.
“Luke Cord! Is that who you mean? Look at me, Marta. I must know the truth. Do you mean that he left that piece of silk there as a signal to Flo Jeffords? That…”
Of course. Why need I ask? She had seen it, of course. That accounted for her sudden change of mood, her sudden decision to leave me. Silly, reckless Flo. But I blamed him even more. How dared he return and deliberately, defiantly, leave their old trysting signal on my land? Had she known all the time that he was back?
Marta was nodding, miserably.
“Si, señorita, there can be no other explanation. When she came back, I told Jules, ‘No good can come of this.’ She came here, asking if we had seen him. It was before you came. Jules and I, we both hoped…”
