Paloma and the Horse Traders Read Free Page B

pleased as each day seemed to
bring more language to her cousin’s child.
    “ Papa is probably nearly to Taos. He
is going to buy a team of horses to pull a carriage.”
    “ Why?”
    The eternal why of children. Paloma considered
a satisfactory answer. “He wants us to be comfortable if we visit
your Aunt Luisa, or go to Santa Maria.”
    Amazing that less than three years ago, the
idea of her going anywhere without many guards was unheard of. As
it was, Paloma couldn’t remember when last they had taken a full
complement of armed riders to Santa Maria. Maybe peace really had
come to Valle del Sol.
    Her answer must have satisfied the two-year-old
mind. Soli nodded and snuggled closer to Paloma. Her eyes closed,
and soon she felt warm and heavy.
    “ Papa,” Claudio said with a
sigh.
    My sentiments exactly , Paloma thought.
When both children slept again, Paloma eased herself out of bed and
dressed. She walked to the chapel, relishing the quiet time to pray
for Marco and Toshua’s safety as well as their own protection in
this district so far away from Spanish power, or what remained of
it. She rested her hands on her belly and prayed for the new
child.
    She spent a longer time in the storeroom off
the kitchen, pleased to see the fruit of summer’s labors in bins
and barrels, and the ristras of chili peppers hanging in
ropes from the rafters. She sniffed the boxed rows of gleaming
candles, then backed away, queasy from the odor of tallow. The
beeswax candles smelled more fragrant, but even those upset her
stomach.
    She must have looked a little fine-drawn when
she came into the kitchen and nodded to Sancha. The housekeeper
appraised her, then reached for the cracker box. Silent, her eyes
lively, Sancha handed her several biscoches , then followed
them with water still cool from the olla on the shady back
porch.
    “ Four months of this before I feel
better,” Paloma said with a sigh.
    “ Such is the lot of women,” the
housekeeper reminded her. “What will we do today?”
    The crackers worked their magic and her stomach
settled. Paloma looked around the well-ordered kitchen, where all
business was conducted in the family. She breathed the fragrance of
apples and quince. Nothing pressed on her mind today, so she took
another sip of water, content, except that Marco was not
there.
    “ I believe Eckapeta and I will take
the young ones to the river. Could you prepare us a little almuerzo ?”
    * * *
    Marco and Toshua arrived in Taos after a long
three days of traveling, made more comfortable for Marco by
discarding leather breeches and linen shirt for his doeskin
loincloth. Toshua trapped three rabbits, fat from feasting on the
bounty nature offered as autumn approached. Even Paloma’s posole wasn’t as good as rabbit bits toasted on a stick over
a piñon campfire.
    Or so he told himself. Marco would have given
it all up for restful sleep in his own bed with Paloma beside him.
Only three days and he missed the wife of his heart. No doubt he
was softening into middle age.
    Even Toshua remarked on his companion’s long
silences. The Kwahadi removed his own rabbit tidbits from the
stick, set them on his tin plate, and sprinkled salt on the meat,
just a little pink the way he liked it. “Friend, a man cannot spend
all his time in the company of women,” he commented, sitting back
on his haunches.
    “ I believe this man could,” Marco
said. “I sleep better in Paloma’s arms.”
    “ Then there is no hope for you,”
Toshua replied, with just the hint of a smile. “Even now, when she
is soon to be puking in the morning, and not exactly eager for your
embraces?”
    You won’t hear it from me that she remains
eager , Marco thought. “Even now,” he said, salting his own
rabbit. He wondered how much to say, how to explain an uneasiness
he didn’t understand. It was a feeling above and beyond his usual
fears, born years ago when he had come home to find Felicia and
their twins dead of cholera. This was