Untamed Fire (16 page)

“You are all right,” Gaby said with
insistence. “You have attempted to do too much too fast.” She
raised her eyes to Lupe with silent instruction to get Raphael.
Lupe obeyed without question, shooing the other servants from the
room.

Dona Maria grabbed hold of Gaby’s hand,
clinging tightly to it.

“Do not worry,” Gaby offered in a soothing
tone. “It is not your time. There is much for you to do here
yet.”

“Yes, much,” Dona Maria agreed in a faint
whisper.

Gaby smiled, although a bit of fear crept
along her heart. “You must see to your son’s marriage and of course
the birth of a grandchild. You will be a perfect grandmother, kind,
gentle, yet strong when you must be... like now.”

“Yes,” Dona Maria said, taking a deep
breath, her anxiousness and fear dissipating. “Yes, I must be
strong.”

“All women must be strong, Dona Maria,
otherwise how would the men survive without us?”

Dona Maria grinned. “I envy you your
courage, Gaby, and your strength.”

“You have just as much if not more,” she
encouraged. “You have lived many more years and have learned much
more than I. I envy and respect what the years have taught
you.”

Tears came to Dona Maria’s eyes. “How I
wish...”

Her words trailed off and Gaby scolded her
gently. “Wishes can come true if we wish with all our heart.”

Dona Maria nodded and clung even more
tightly to Gaby.

“Mother!” Rafael’s deep voice was filled
with fright. “What happened?” He bent beside her afraid to move or
touch her.

She looked at her son, but her grip remained
firm on Gaby and that was not lost to Rafael. “A slight pain, my
own fault. I’ve done too much.”

“I’ll summon the doctor,” Rafael said.

“It isn’t necessary,” his mother
insisted.

Rafael looked to Gaby and she nodded.

“I insist, Mother. I want to make certain
you are well. I love you and wish to take no chance with your
health.”

Gaby was moved by his open declaration of
love for his mother and she felt close to tears herself. Why, she
wasn’t certain, or perhaps she was. Did she want Rafael to love her
so unconditionally?

After issuing instructions for the doctor to
be summoned immediately, Rafael effortlessly lifted his mother into
his arms and placed her on the bed.

Gaby, without hesitation, attended to her at
once. She wiped the woman’s brow with a damp cloth and adjusted her
pillows, closed the shutters against the afternoon sun, and finally
instructed Rafael to leave while she saw to making her more
comfortable.

Rafael kissed his mother on the cheek and
promised to return as soon as Gaby was finished. And he did. He
took a chair next to his mother’s bed and watched as Gaby bustled
about, talking constantly to his mother.

It was inconsequential conversation, but it
kept his mother alert. He also noticed how cool and comfortable his
mother appeared and not at all in any pain. She sat cuddled by fat
white pillows, wearing a pink lace nightdress opened at the neck
and covering only part of her arms. Her black hair was swept up off
her face and neck and pinned to the top of her head. A cool cloth
sat on her brow and Gaby insisted that she sip at the cold water
she kept in a glass by her bed table. Her cheeks were flushed with
color, and she appeared to him in perfect health.

Gaby’s appearance, however, was in stark
contrast to his mother’s. Strands of her dark hair had loosened
from her braid and fell about her face. Her white blouse was wet
from the water that trickled onto it every time she rinsed the
cloth for his mother’s brow. She looked tired, worn, and
worried.

When the doctor finished his examination and
announced she had overtaxed herself, Rafael issued strict
orders.

“You are to do only so much preparation for
the Galvezes’ visit. The servants are more than capable of handling
all that needs to be done. Lupe is efficient enough in her duties
to see to the meals without your interference. I will make certain
the house staff sees to the cleaning of the hacienda. You, Mother,
are to rest and be well for their arrival, and nothing more.”

Dona Maria agreed with only a bit of
reluctance. “All right, Rafael. I suppose Gaby can do all that I
need done.”

“No,” he snapped. “She will do only so much.
I have need of her elsewhere.”

“Where?” Dona Maria asked.

Gaby wondered the same thing.

Rafael leaned over his mother and kissed her
cheek once again. “Don’t worry about it. Gaby will be available to
you for so many hours during the day. The other part of the day you
will rest... that is an order.”

Dona Maria didn’t care for this turn of
events. As soon as she felt stronger, she planned on being up and
about. There was trouble brewing. She could smell it, and she
didn’t like the scent.

~~~

The days that followed Gaby found her chores
light. She had more free time, but usually spent it helping the
other household servants. She was confused since she had assumed
Rafael would have much for her to do.

This bright, sunny morning she and Elena
were busy cleaning the large receiving room. The chairs and massive
wooden chests required polishing and that was what the two women
were about. Both wore white scarves secured over their dark hair.
Aprons, bright in color, hugged their chests and waists. Elena was
busy with the chairs while Gaby stood balanced on a sturdy ladder
wiping the tops of a tall chest.

“What are you doing?” Rafael shouted
startling both women and causing Gaby to grab the top rung of the
ladder to prevent herself from falling.

“Get down,” he demanded standing at the
bottom and looking up at her.

“I’m not finished,” she answered with an
edge of obstinacy in her tone.

“You should have never started. You were not
instructed to do this work. Now get down.”

“Elena needs help,” she insisted, refusing
to budge.

Rafael turned a stern look upon the
girl.

Elena’s voice quivered when she spoke. “The
other servant who was to help me has fallen ill. Gaby offered to
help.”

“See I tol—” Gaby let the rest of the words
die on her tongue after seeing Rafael’s expression.

“Did I not tell you I had duties for
you?”

“Yes, but you nev—”

“I will issue them when I’m ready.”

“Then, in the meantime, I can help the
other—”

“No, you will not,” he said, cutting her off
once again. He turned to Elena. “Leave us.”

She hurried from the room, never glancing
back.

“You are a tyrant,” she said, annoyed with
him for upsetting Elena.

“No, I am a dictator,” he countered.

“At least you have gotten something
right.”

“What I have gotten right is your inability
to obey my orders.”

“I was only trying to help,” she said
quickly, afraid he wouldn’t let her finish.

“You help enough. You wash, you cook, you
clean, you play with the children, you pick fruit and vegetables
for Lupe, and you tend my mother. Is there anything you do not do
around here?”

“I do not take care of you!’ she shouted
back. She realized her mistake immediately, but she couldn’t recall
the words. She didn’t want to.

Rafael stood silent for a moment, his
intense blue eyes fixed on her dark ones. Then he spoke, his voice
deep, his words measured. “Do you wish to care for me?”

“If my duties were such I would care for
you.”

“Then if I instruct you so, you will
obey?”

“Don’t I always?” She smiled.

Rafael couldn’t help but grin, and Gaby’s
heart fluttered as his strong features grew even more handsome. She
did not think he could be more handsome than he already was but
when he smiled... her heart fluttered again.

“That is a debatable question, Gaby.”

Her smile became mischievous. “One you find
hard to win.”

He gripped the sides of the ladder. “These
are just small skirmishes,
querida.
In the end, I will win
the battle.”

He released the ladder gently and walked to
the door.

“Don Rafael.”

He turned.

She grinned wide and patted her chest. “I
will win the war!”

“We’ll see about that.” Rafael laughed. He
continued to laugh as he walked down the hall, out into the
courtyard to the corral. After mounting Bella, he said with joy,
“The war has begun.”

“Lupe, do not upset yourself,” Gaby scolded
lightheartedly. “You are an excellent cook. The Galvezes will beg
Dona Maria to take you back to Spain with them.”

Lupe wiped her plump hands on her apron
before crossing herself. “
Madre de Dios!
Do not talk such
nonsense. I was born and raised near the mission. I would never
leave this land.”

Gaby laughed and hugged the woman as best
she could, since her arms could not fit around her ample size. “I’m
teasing, though not about your ability to cook—especially your
pepper cornbread—I cannot get enough of it.”

“You better be careful with my cornbread,”
Lupe warned only half-seriously.”How do you think I got to be so
big?”

Gaby laughed and snatched another piece of
the warm bread from the platter on the table.

Lupe playfully swatted at her hand, missing
it. “You will grow fat and no man will want you.”

“Miguel, the metalworker, wants you,” Gaby
said.

Lupe’s full cheeks bloomed red. “I need some
grapes picked. Get a basket and make yourself useful.”

Gaby popped the last piece of bread into her
mouth and dusted her hands off before searching out a basket in the
small room off the cooking area.

“I was thinking,” she said, returning with a
large basket hooked over her arm.

“You think too much,” Lupe remarked.

“So I’ve been told many times. But I was
thinking about the Galvezes.”

“Why?” Lupe asked, dusting the table with
flour to knead her bread.

“I have heard the name before, but I cannot
recall where.”

Lupe shrugged. “Probably the servants.”

“Why would they speak of them?”

Lupe looked at her strangely. “Don’t you
know who they are?”

Gaby shook her head. “No, I thought them
just friends of the Cabrillos.”

Lupe took the large ball of dough from the
bowl and plopped it on the table. “I will tell you, since this
visit is bound to bring back unpleasant memories.”

Gaby sat on the chair, placing the basket on
the floor beside her.

Lupe’s hands worked automatically, kneading
the dough as she spoke. “The Galvez family and the Cabrillo family
are distant cousins. When Senora Galvez gave birth to twin girls,
both families were happy, very happy. Don Felipe and Don Ramon had
always planned on uniting the two clans. The first-born twin was
betrothed to Rafael. He was only twelve at the time, but from what
I’ve been told, he took his responsibilities almost as seriously
back then as he does now.”

Gaby shifted in her seat, listening closely.
She recalled Rafael telling her that his betrothed had been taken
from him, and she had wondered what had happened to cause him so
much pain.

“Don Rafael visited his future wife when she
was only one month old. From Dona Maria’s stories it sounds as
though Rafael loved her on first sight.”

“Or that a small newborn brought out his
protective instincts,” Gaby offered.

“You are too wise for one so young,” Lupe
said with a smile. “Anyway, that night the twin girls were
kidnapped. A search followed, people were questioned.” Lupe lowered
her voice. “I even heard that peasants were beaten to discover
information.”

“But nothing was discovered?”

“Nothing. It was as though the twins had
just vanished.”

“Does this have anything to do with why the
Cabrillos left Spain?”

“I don’t know. They left five years later to
come here, but it’s never been mentioned why they chose to make a
new home here.”

“And the Galvezes and Cabrillos remained in
touch?”

Lupe nodded. “Of course. Dona Isabel was the
one who arranged Rafael’s marriage. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s
engaged to Louisa Ortega before she leaves here. I understand she
enjoys matching people together.”

Gaby stood, grabbing the basket. “I better
pick the grapes.”

Lupe agreed with a quick nod and continued
kneading the dough, not noticing the frown that crossed Gaby’s
face.

It was early afternoon. The sun was high in
the sky although it had not reached its peak, therefore, Gaby had a
couple of hours before the hottest part of the day would send the
workers scurrying for their siesta.

Her step was light, and she had forced the
frown from her face. She refused to allow thoughts of Rafael
Cabrillo to enter her head. She had dwelt too much on him of late.
It was doing her no good. She would only be hurt, deeply hurt. She
must keep her distance and curb her foolish thoughts and desires as
difficult as that may be. No good could come of it, not ever.

She entered the grape arbor with a swing to
her full hips. She loved it here, so peaceful, so quiet, so much
solitude. It was built for Dona Maria by her husband. He had
promised her that the red grapes she loved would cover the
structure and grow profusely for her to enjoy, and they did. These
were the grapes that fed the hacienda and the ones that produced
the wine were grown in the vineyards.

Gaby didn’t waste any time. She placed her
basket on the ground and set to work, making certain she tested
some for their freshness.

Rafael had caught sight of Gaby walking
toward the grape arbor with the basket on her arm. He had
instructed her to help Lupe, and for once she was obeying him. He
smiled at the small victory. He turned his head away determined to
ignore her, focusing his attention on the large basket of grapes
brought in from the vineyard for his inspection.