The Heavenly Surrender (16 page)

“Release her, Cruz!” Lita screamed as tears of anger and frustration flooded her cheeks. “Let her go!”

“Cállate, Lita!” he growled at his sister. Licking his lips, he moved to kiss Genieva. She spit in his face, causing him to release her in order to wipe the saliva from his eyes.

Helping Lita to stand, Genieva told her, “Go quickly, Lita. I’ll not let him harm you or the…” Her words were lost in her cry of anguish as the back of Cruz’s hand struck her hard across her left cheek, sending her plunging to the ground. She felt the warmth of the blood at the corner of her mouth an instant before she tasted it. Lita was at her side in a moment.

“I’ll kill you, Cruz. If you ever touch her again, I will kill you,
diablo!” she cried.

Cruz only stood chuckling and looking down at them amusedly. “Many men have threatened that to me where women are concerned, Carmalita. Why you think I will be afraid of you doing it?” He laughed, triumphant and completely amused with himself. “Look at Joaquin. Coward! He thinks only of that Amy Wilburn. That girl in town with a
bebé
coming and no
esposo
. He’s a fool, for he knows who its
papá
is. He knows it is me, his own brother, who caused her to be that way, and still he thinks of her, and I stand here healthy and alive.”

“Que está mal! Evil!” Lita shouted. “El diablo! Mama would drop dead of your actions if she were alive still. She would hate you for it!”

The triumphant smile left Cruz’s face as he glared at his sister. “Mama loved me, Lita! I, Cruz Mondragon Archuleta…I was her favorite niño. You would be the one she would find shame in…for you did not do what Papá sent you to do. You turned from him when he needed you.”

“It was wrong! All of it!” Lita cried. Cruz slapped her mercilessly, and she buried her face in her hands.

“
Cállate
, Lita! I hate your voice.” He looked again to Genieva, and she began to scoot back, trying in vain to escape his grasp. Pulling her to her feet, he growled, “
Por favor, mí amor
. Do not fight with me.” And he forced a wet, detestable kiss to Genieva’s neck, causing her to cry out in anguish.

“Leave them, Cruz!” another voice shouted from somewhere near. A moment later Joaquin rode up, his face angry. “Leave the women, que cobarde! Coward!”
Joaquin growled at his brother.

“
You? You call me coward? You, sitting there on
Papá
’s horse, judging me like you’re San Martín de Caballero? Where’s your woman, Joaquin? I tell you where she is…”

Genieva gasped as Joaquin pulled a pistol from his belt and leveled it at his brother. “You will not speak of her, Cruz. I will shoot you here in this orchard if you do. Ride home.”

Lita nodded and wiped the tears from her cheeks. Then, turning to Genieva, she gasped and began dabbing at the corner of Genieva’s mouth with her apron.

“Brevan will kill Cruz for doing this to us!” she mumbled.

“Do not tell him, Lita,” Joaquin stated. Genieva looked to him in disbelief. Understanding her puzzlement, he explained, “It is what Cruz wants you to do. He knows Brevan would come for him, and then Cruz would kill him easily.”

“No one can kill Brevan easily,” Lita argued, straightening her shoulders defiantly. “He is a great man…a strong man…stronger than any of the Archuleta men.”

Genieva put a trembling hand to her cheek. “We’ll say…we’ll say I fell, Lita. If he notices, we’ll tell him I fell. Say nothing to Brian, Lita.”

Joaquin nodded. “I am sorry, Lita. I try to watch him closely…but there are times when I cannot.”

Lita cupped her brother’s chin in her small hand. “You give the Archuleta name some hope, Joaquin. You are the good niño
.
” Then, dropping her gaze to the ground, she added, “I am sorry for your Amy, Joaquin.”

Joaquin’s jaw clenched tightly shut. He looked to the sky for a moment. “I have failed her, Lita. For I have not talked to her since she…”

“It is natural, mí hermanito. But where Cruz is concerned…it may be that she…that she was forced to…”

Joaquin nodded. “Still, it is hard.” He paused a moment, then nodded to Genieva. Mounting his horse, he looked to Lita and said, “Good-bye,
mí hermanita,” before riding away.

“He is a good man, Genieva,” Lita said as she watched him go. “Joaquin and Cruz, they are opposite…good and evil.”

“Cane and Abel,” Genieva mumbled.

Lita looked to her and smiled. “Sí. Cane and Abel. You must not tell Brevan of this, Genieva.” There was an expression of utter panic in Lita’s eyes, and Genieva understood it all too well.

“I know. He doesn’t want your brothers on his land.”

“That is true. But that is not why you must keep silent. If he knows Cruz touched you…”

“I know. He doesn’t want your brothers touching any of his property,” Genieva sighed as she turned toward the house. “Why didn’t you tell me, Lita,” she asked then, “that you knew who fathered Amy’s baby?”

Lita shook her head and smiled nervously. “Would you want to tell the wife of your brother-in-law that your own hermano was…I didn’t want you to think less of me, and anyway…” Lita looked away, obviously ashamed of Cruz’s actions. “No one else knows of it.”

“Brian?” Genieva asked.

Lita shook her head. “Not even Brian, and I feel bad keeping it from him. Yet I do not want to see my husband killed…or yours. It would make great anger in Brian or Brevan. I think you know that.”

Genieva nodded. Whatever it was that kept the two families fighting, knowing that Cruz Archuleta had been the cause of a girl’s ruination would indeed provoke Brevan and Brian further.

“We’ll tell him I fell,” Genieva reminded Lita once more before they parted at the pond.



“What’s the matter, lass?” Brevan asked Genieva later that night as they sat at the table eating dinner. “Ya’re pickin’ at yar food, and it tells me somethin’ is taxin’ yar mind, it does. Does yar face pain ya? It looks like it must. Ya must not be so clumsy near the woodpile, Genieva.”

Genieva had lied to Brevan—just as she had told Lita that she would. She had told him nothing of Cruz and Joaquin in the orchard but rather had told him she had stumbled and fallen into the woodpile. He had accepted the excuse easily enough, but now her conscience bothered her. She shook her head and smiled nonchalantly.

“Nothing is bothering me, Brevan. I suppose I’m only just tired this evening.”

“We’re both tired every evening, Genieva. Ya’re hidin’ somethin’ from me. I can see it in yar eyes.” Brevan’s eyes narrowed. He rose from the table and went to stand over Genieva. “Tell me what it is. It’s plain as if ya wore a sailor’s tattoo across yar face, it is.”

Genieva rose from her own chair and walked away from him. She couldn’t stop her hands from wringing her apron, and she knew her face was turning crimson with guilt. “It’s nothing, Brevan. And anyway, I told Lita that I wouldn’t…”

She felt herself whirl around as Brevan took hold of her arm and turned her to face him. “Ya tell me, Genieva. Is somethin’ wrong with Lita? Has she fallen ill?”

The concern on his face was astonishing. Genieva knew he was truly and deeply concerned for the woman. “No, no. She’s fine. It’s just that…in the orchard today…I was…” she paused, afraid to tell him anything. To tell him the entire truth was unthinkable.

“Go on,” he commanded. Still she paused until he said, “I saw the shoe prints in the orchard today, Genieva. Has Lita been meetin’ with her brother Joaquin there?”

“Yes,” Genieva sighed with relief. He had given her the opportunity to squirm out of her lie—at least a little.

“Joaquin.” Brevan’s chest began to rise and fall with fury. His jaw clenched tightly shut—his fists opened and closed violently.

Genieva panicked and knew she must keep him from finding out about Cruz’s being there as well—and about what else had happened. She didn’t know why her husband should be so furious at his sister-in-law’s meeting with a member of her own family, but she sensed he was preparing to confront the woman about it.

“Brevan,” she pleaded. “Please. I told her I wouldn’t tell you. She knew how angry you would be. But he’s her brother! I don’t understand…” Brevan turned and stomped across the room toward the door. “No!” Genieva called out, following him and taking hold of his arm to stall him. “No, Brevan! Leave her alone. It only makes sense that she should want to see him.”

“It only makes sense?” Brevan shouted. “There is not one good quality in any of her brothers, Genieva! I will talk to her about this. She knows the conditions. She’ll hear me out, she will!”

“No! Brevan, please,” Genieva cried, taking his face in her own small hands. She feared for him. She feared that if he approached Lita about it and Lita’s conscience was as guilt-stricken as her own, she might falter and tell Brevan the whole truth of it. “Please, stop and think before you charge off to reprimand her.” Brevan paused, glaring down at her. “Relax that ever-present pucker on your brow and think.” Genieva smoothed the frown on his forehead with her thumbs and spoke quickly and plainly. “He is her brother, Brevan. It is obvious they care deeply for each other. It is natural she would want to visit with him.”

“It’s not their visitin’ that worries me, Genieva. It’s the reason for which they visit,” he grumbled. Removing Genieva’s hands from his face, he squeezed them slightly and held them at her sides as he continued, “Ya’re ignorant in this situation, Genieva. Don’t make to involve yarself in it while that ignorance persists.”

Yanking her hands free of his grasp, Genieva glared at him resentfully. “The only reason I remain ignorant is because no one will educate me in the matter. Furthermore…I’m not so ignorant that I don’t see the true reason you are either forever protecting Lita or scolding her.”

“And what might that reason be, Genieva? Do you fancy I have some sort of strange attachment to me sister-in-law? That’s it, isn’t it? Yar wee brain has concocted some perverse idea that I favor Lita somehow, it has.”

“I-I…” Genieva stammered, looking away unsettled. She had done it once more. Fear and desperation this time were what caused her mouth to utter what her unconscious mind suspected.

“
Let me clear things up for ya, lass. Lita is me sister-in-law—Brian’s wife—and he loves her completely. I’ve no feelin’ for her other than that of a brother-in-law who worries about his own brother’s happiness. If I had felt anythin’ else I would’ve…” Brevan interrupted himself. He straightened his shoulders and continued to glare angrily at Genieva. “There’re things here that ya don’t know, Genieva. Things ya don’t need to know. But I’ll tell ya this—if I ever catch Joaquin Archuleta on me property again…” He was silenced instantly as Genieva’s hand covered his mouth tightly.

“Don’t even speak such threats, Brevan. Don’t even speak it,” she repeated.

Taking her wrist in his hand, Brevan removed her palm from his lips. “Don’t push me too far, lass. I admire yar ability to work hard. And I admire that ya have wisdom and wit in yar mind. But I warn ya, don’t push me too far. I’m responsible for this family. I’m the head of it still. And I’ll do what has to be done to protect and further it. ’Tis Brian’s baby that Lita carries. The McLean bloodline. ’Tis also the McLean blood helpin’ to give life to Brenna’s baby, and I’ll not see either harmed.”

“I admit…ya are wise to remind me of that,” Brevan mumbled, his voice softening. “Perhaps ya should retire for the day, Genieva. Ya look a bit green, ya do.”

Later that night, Genieva was still unable to sleep. She’d decided a walk near the pond might help her to relax. As she stepped from the porch and into the night air, however, her attention was caught by a flicker of light in the barn. Carefully she approached. What she saw within caused her physical illness. There in the barn stood Brevan. He was dressed only in his trousers and boots. Before him—sobbing quietly—stood Lita. He seemed to say something soothing to her and reached out, tenderly stroking her hair. His powerful hands took her shoulders, pulling her toward him, and he kissed her soundly on the forehead. He smiled and put a finger under her chin to tilt her face upward. She smiled back and embraced him quickly.

Turning from the sight, Genieva fled back into the house. She sat trembling on her bed—until she heard Brevan’s heavy footsteps in the kitchen some time later. Why were they meeting—her husband and her sister-in-law? What matters could they be discussing so intimately at such an odd hour? Genieva’s mind was plagued all through the night with possibilities. So plagued that by morning she was terribly ill. Sick enough that her stomach was wrenching and she was unable to rise from bed until near the supper hour when Brenna arrived for a visit, having heard she was feeling badly.