Paloma and the Horse Traders (19 page)

Graciela took charge of the sheet, wrapping it
around Claudio’s neck and knotting it firmly. There would be no
room for the most elusive louse to make a getaway. He made little
strangling noises, which small Claudio imitated, staggering into
the onion row and collapsing on the dried-up pea vines. In another
moment he was digging around the yellowed vines. Seeing two other
spoons in the row, Paloma knew it was time for a reckoning before
Sancha started to wonder out loud what was happening to the family
silver, and whether or not that trickster Señor Coyote was whisking
them away.

“
He looks just like his
father.”

Paloma smiled at her brother. “Then he will be
a lucky man someday. Graciela, is it tight enough? I won’t have my
brother escaping, not after all these years.”

She meant it as a joke, but her tears came
anyway. Seeing them, Claudio reached for her hand and she clutched
it.

“
Where else would I possibly want to
go?” he asked quietly. He turned her hand over and kissed
it.

Soledad watched, her eyes narrowing. Paloma
looked at her, wondering about her daughter’s bright mind and what
went through it. “What, little one?”

“
Does Papa
know
about this
man?”

“
He does,” she said seriously, as
her brother laughed, “and he will not mind. Soli, Claudio is
my
brother, like little Claudio is your brother.” She
pointed to her son, busy creating a network of
acequias
in
the bean row now. “Someday maybe Claudito will kiss your
hand.”

Soli made a face. “I will have to wash
it.”

“
You might change your mind,”
Claudio said. He looked back at Graciela. “Graciela, whack this
bramble bush.”

Paloma took a seat on a stool that her
thoughtful husband must have placed there. She watched as
Graciela’s capable hands gathered her brother’s hair, clean but
tangled, into her hand, and with a sure stroke, began to cut
through the mass. It fell away in bunches.

Soledad laughed when the wind took Claudio’s
hair and blew it around the garden. “Mama! In the spring, the birds
will make nests!” she exclaimed.

And life goes on
, she thought, watching
the hair fly, seeing it through her daughter’s eyes.
In the
spring there will be another baby as Marco and I continue to build
our own nest in this hard valley
. God’s goodness to her filled
her heart. Thank heavens Claudito demanded her attention just then,
with the need for water to pour into his network of
acequias
.

When she came back to the garden from the
kitchen with a pitcher of water, Graciela had evened off Claudio’s
hair, brown, now that all the grease and dirt were gone. Paloma
added water to her son’s little canals, then stood beside Graciela.
She ran that fine-toothed comb through her brother’s hair, catching
what lice remained.

“
Once a week, a bath,” she told
Claudio.

“
Are you serious?”

“
Never more so, Brother,” Paloma
assured him. “Now hold still for your beard.”

Claudio put his hand up. “I sort of like my
beard,” he began, his voice tentative.

“
You can ‘sort of like’ a lot less
of it,” Paloma said firmly. “Graciela, trim it close. If we like
it, we might let it stay.”

He frowned at Paloma. “There was a time when
you did what I wanted,” he said.

“
I am not eleven,” she replied and
glared back.

They stared at each other. His lips started to
twitch first, at least what she could see of his lips under his
sprout of beard. She started to laugh.

Graciela gaped at them both as they laughed.
Little Claudio left his miniature irrigation ditches among the bean
vines. Wide-eyed, Soledad looked from one adult to the other. “I’m
going to find Papa,” she said in her most Paloma-like voice, which
made Paloma double over helplessly in mirth.

“
Are we in trouble now?” Claudio
managed to gasp out, as Soledad started for the horse barn, every
inch of her charged with purpose, from the set of her shoulders to
the resolute swaying of her little dress.

“
We are and it’s your fault,” Paloma
said. “Hmm, perhaps I have been threatening her with Papa a little
too much. She sounded so much like me!”

“
Aha! Definitely your fault,”
Claudio said promptly, nothing but merriment in his eyes now. The
tired look, the haunted gaze was gone, at least for a moment, as
they laughed in the kitchen garden and Graciela just shook her
head.

“
Let’s wait a minute, and see if
‘Papa’ comes,” Paloma said, when Graciela raised her arms to begin
the next phase of Claudio’s rehabilitation.

He came, taking his time, and already with a
grin on his face. He carried Soledad, who appeared to be telling
Papa what she thought. Toshua followed behind. Amused, Paloma
thought it quite remarkable just how many servants suddenly seemed
to have business near the garden.

His grin a wide smile by now, Marco carried
Soli into the kitchen garden and spoke to her. “My dearest, you say
they were scolding each other and laughing?”

Soledad nodded her head
emphatically.

“
Being really silly?” he
asked.

Soli took her father’s face in her hands.
“Papa, Mama never acts like that.”

“
Good thing Soli is asleep late at
night and doesn’t hear,” he whispered in Paloma’s ear.

“
Hush!” she whispered back, her face
hot, but not before Claudio’s shoulders started to
shake.

“
I told you it was your fault,” her
brother said, which made Marco laugh out loud.

Soledad sighed and looked from one to the
other. “You are not helping, Papa,” she said, with all the
solemnity of
dos a
ños y medio
.

“
No, I am not,” Marco said. He
kissed her cheek and set her down. “Mama and her brother like to
tease each other. Don’t you tease little Claudio now and
then?”

“
Yes, but that is different,” Soli
insisted.

“
How?”

Paloma could see that the complexities of the
argument were nearly beyond her daughter—nearly, but not
quite.

Soledad drew herself up, folded her hands
carefully in front of her waist and declared with great dignity,
“
We
are little.
They
are not.”

“
You have me there, Soli,” Claudio
said, as Paloma turned her head into Marco’s shoulder and laughed.
“Let’s make your mother go inside and behave herself.”

Soledad nodded. “Who will cut your beard? It
has to go.” She lowered her voice. “Mama is right about
that.”

Even Toshua smiled. “I could take my knife to
him,” he told Soledad.

“
You might frighten him. It must be
Graciela,” the child said.

Paloma looked at Graciela, who had been
watching the whole exchange with wide-eyed wonder. It touched her
heart to see the slave grow suddenly serious. A wistful look came
into her eyes. Paloma touched her arm.

“
Graciela? It appears I have been
banished to the house. I am relying on you.”

The slave nodded. Tears pooled in her eyes and
Paloma understood what she could not say.

“
Take us as we are,” Marco said
simply. He clapped his hands together. “Soli, you had better help
Claudito with that … that muddy road?”

“
Acequia
, Papa,” Claudio said
patiently. “We need more water.”

“
And that is the truth of life here,
son,” Marco said. “Sancha has water for you in the kitchen. Come,
Paloma. You need to remember your manners. This might mean a visit
to the
sala
.”

Soledad’s eyes widened again. “The
sala
?
Papa! She’ll be good.”

“
She always is. Almost always.”
Marco turned to Claudio. “Off goes the beard.”

“
Sí,
Señor Mondragón. I would
wish to avoid the dread
sala
.”

After the noonday heat of the kitchen garden,
the
sala
was cool and inviting. Paloma had no objection when
Marco steered her toward the bench where Claudio had spent most of
the night. He sat her down, sat down beside her and swung her feet
up into his lap.

Toshua had followed them into the
sala
.
He squatted on his haunches by the bench. Paloma looked from one to
the other.

“
What are you two planning?” she
asked.

“
She knows us, too,” Toshua
said.

“
I only marry smart women, same as
you,” Marco said promptly. He took off her shoes and rubbed her
feet. “Toshua and I are going to ride into Santa Maria tomorrow. I
want to see what happened there, if anything.” He
stopped.

“
When are you going to get around to
telling me that you and Toshua are going to track Great Owl and see
where he goes?” she asked, feeling a hollow spot in her
middle.

“
I told you she was smart, Toshua,”
Marco said. He ran his hands over her instep. “I haven’t decided.
Paloma, I don’t know what Great Owl is up to. Was he just after
horses when he came here before Taos? Why did he shoot at Claudio?
And why did he stop?”

“
You fear he might endanger what
little peace we have earned from Kwihnai?” she asked.

“
I fear it greatly.” He rubbed her
ankles now. “We’ve worked hard to maintain peace here in Valle del
Sol.”

“
Whatever you do, I must come, too.
After all, he shot at me.”

Paloma looked at the doorway and let out her
breath slowly, her eyes wide, her heart remembering.

Claudio must have convinced Graciela to leave
him a close beard. Paloma sat up, her eyes on her brother, but
seeing their father. Papa always told Mama he liked a close beard
because he had tender Spanish skin, which always made her laugh;
she was more Spanish than he was.

And there he stood, close beard, his eyes so
blue, as blue as hers, his head tipped slightly to one side, just
like Papa. Paloma bowed her head and closed her eyes. Marco’s arm
went around her waist and she leaned against him.

Claudio came closer. He knelt in front of her.
“Paloma, I never thought this moment would happen,” he said,
choosing his words so carefully, as though he walked them through a
briar patch. “I never thought we would be together again.” He
swallowed and looked at Marco. “Please bless me. It’s been so long,
and I don’t even know if I believe anymore, but
please ….”

Marco made the sign of the cross on Claudio’s
forehead. “You, too, must take us as we are.”

In
which Marco explains brothers and husbands

T
he men did not go to Santa
Maria the next day, and not even the one after that, not with so
much field work to be done as August drew to a close.

The only thing that happened was Eckapeta’s
disappearance. One day she was there, playing with her
grandchildren—for such they were—and the next she was gone. Paloma
asked Toshua.

“
She will find Kwihnai and they will
talk,” Toshua said. “If he has something to tell us about Great
Owl, she will bear the news back here.”

“
You don’t worry when she rides
alone?” Paloma asked.

They were sitting on the low wall by the
acequia
. He put his arm around her, something he had never
done before, something that made Claudio, sitting on her other
side, give a start and look away. She turned her head toward
Toshua.

“
To what purpose?” the Comanche
questioned in turn. “Worry is a great failing among you Spanish. Go
rub your beads. Better yet, go find your man and rub
him.”

She had laughed softly, well beyond letting her
good friend embarrass her, especially when he was right. She could
tell that Claudio didn’t quite understand yet, but time would
change him, as it had changed her.

To Paloma’s relief, Marco said nothing more
about tracking Great Owl. She knew her man well, though, and was
certain the idea had not left his mind. In the years since the
death of her parents and brother, she should have known better than
to borrow trouble from a different day. The brown robes had taught
her that sufficient was the day unto the evil thereof. If the
Franciscans hadn’t taught her, she should have known it anyway.
Still, she worried, and she knew it was because of her children,
helpless little ones. Every breath she took, she breathed for
them.

That’s what it is to be a citizen of this
poor colony
, she thought a few mornings later, as she lay in
bed and listened to her husband’s light snore. She turned on her
side to watch his slow breathing and the way his fine-veined hands
rested on the coverlet, wide open. She thought of her brother
across the hall, and his nightmares. She remembered her own, and
the relief she felt that Marco was there to cover her closed eyes,
moving so rapidly, until she was at peace again.

There had been no one to give Claudio peace.
Too often his hands balled into fists as he slept. She knew because
she was already conditioned to hear her children in the night.
Somehow, her brother became part of her nighttime stewardship. He
had only been with them five days, but she went to him when he
cried out and sat with him, holding his hand until he relaxed in
sleep again.