Valaquez Bride Read Free Page A

and now…"
    "Just tell me how he is," Juliet pleaded. "You can lecture
me later. Okay?"
    Rosita shrugged, ceasing her sermon with obvious
reluctance. "Señor McKay is not too bad. He break a leg
and…" She tapped her head, "He has a—what is it
you call it? A percussion?"
    "A concussion?" Juliet exclaimed softly, amber eyes
mirroring her dismay. "How bad a concussion? Is he still unconscious?"
    "No, he wake this morning. Asks for you," Rosita added
reproachfully, waggling her finger again. "Are you not ashamed,
niña
?
The señor wanted to see you but you were not here. He is a good man and
he has smiled little since you run away. Why you want to leave with
that—that
tuno
, that rock singer?"
    As Rosita gave a disdainful sniff and gyrated her scrawny
hips in a comical parody of a rock musician, Juliet had to smile.
"Benny is not a rock singer. He sings ballads and folk songs."
    "Is same thing," Rosita proclaimed with a disparaging toss
of her hand. Her sharp brown eyes bore into Juliet's. "Why you want a
boy like him when you could marry into the
grande
Valaquez family? Or is it perhaps it was the wrong brother who wanted
to marry you? Would you run away if Don Raul wanted you as his wife?
Hmm,
niña
?"
    As embarrassing pink color tinged Juliet's cheeks, she
half turned to stare at the white plastered walls of the entrance hall.
"I don't want to discuss Señor Valaquez," she said stiffly. "I just
want to change out of these jeans into a dress and go visit Uncle Will
at the hospital."
    "Too early," Rosita declared but her tone gentled and she
reached out to pat Juliet's arm. "You cannot visit the hospital until
eight o'clock. When you come back, you will have dinner with me. Si? It
is
cocido
. You always like that. At the market
today, I find beautiful fresh chick peas, big and yellow. And I put in
only the nicest bits of bacon, beef and chicken. Will be
muy
delicioso
. Si?"
    Juliet nodded automatically but without much real
enthusiasm. Though she had always enjoyed sharing
cocido
with Rosita at the small wooden table in the vast airy kitchen, right
now the idea of any kind of food just didn't appeal to her. She smiled
apologetically at the housekeeper. "It does sound delicious but I may
not be very hungry, even after I get back from the hospital."
    "Yes. You will be," Rosita announced, pinching Juliet's
forearm appraisingly. Then she shook her head. "Too skinny."
    "You've always said I'm too skinny," Juliet protested,
though she smiled affectionately. "If you had your way, you'd feed me
until I popped out of all my clothes. But really, I'm no thinner now
than I was before I—than I ever have been. So don't fuss over
me." Bending down, she lifted her suitcase from the floor. "I think
I'll go have a long bath."
    "Have strong coffee first," Rosita commanded, pointing
toward the closed double doors of the
sala
. "Go
sit in there; I bring it."
    "But I don't want any coffee. Really. I just want
to…"
    "Go sit," Rosita repeated sternly.
    And because it was easier than arguing, Juliet went into
the
sala
and sat. It was a mistake. Her uncle's
favorite room evoked too many memories. Shifting restlessly on the sofa
upholstered in dark blue brocade, she gazed pensively at the brass lamp
on the round mahogany table beside her. It provided the only
illumination in the large white-walled room and the far corners were
shadowed. She smiled wistfully, remembering all the quiet summer
evenings she and Uncle Will had shared in here, sometimes playing
backgammon or games of poker that were supposedly lessons but which
usually disintegrated into hilarious defeats for her. Her logical
feminine mind had refused to accept the fact that four of a kind beat a
full house.
    Those companionable times had ended last year, however.
When the Valaquez men had entered their lives, she had been interested
in the wrong one while Uncle Will had suddenly decided to climb
society's ladder by marrying her off to Pablo. While she had tried to
explain to him