“His wife—wasn’t she engaged to the old man hisself once?”
It was bubbly Corinne, who hadn’t changed at all since Rowena had seen her last, except to become slightly plump, who first broke the awkward silence that followed introductions.
“My goodness, Rowena, it’s still hard for me to imagine that you’re a mother. Uncle Todd, little Guy Ramon looks exactly like you. He has your eyes, except they’re not so flinty-hard… oh!”
Jack Davidson reddened as Corinne clapped a hand before her mouth, eyes wide.
“Oh! Oh I’m sorry! I did promise I wouldn’t let my tongue run away with me, didn’t I? But it just seems so strange, somehow. Like something in a storybook, except that it couldn’t have been very pleasant for all of you, could it? I mean…”
“Corinne!”
“Let her be, Jack. At least she speaks her feeling, which is more than most of us have learned to do.”
Shannon’s voice was gruff—he was looking from under his beetling brows at his grandson, who stared back curiously, apparently unafraid.
“You understand English, boy?”
“And Spanish and Apache,” Rowena put in quickly. “Would you care to be introduced, Todd?”
She probably planned all this, Lucas was thinking, from behind his frowning expression. She, and that friend of hers. Damn all scheming women anyhow! He caught Corinne’s half-laughing, half-apologetic glance at that moment, and smiled back at her unwillingly. She was honest, at any rate. Shannon had been right about that much.
“Well! Now that we’ve been introduced I may as well tell you that you don’t look at all as I used to imagine.” Corinne tilted her head consideringly. “You remind me of—yes, of Heathcliff, in Miss Bronte’s book, Wuthering Heights. Although, of course, Rowena has far too much character to be a meek and mild Cathy, don’t you think so?”
“I have never met a woman who talked as much and from whom I actually felt I needed rescuing!” Lucas said wrathfully later.
“Did you really think so? I thought you liked Corinne. The way you kept staring at her with that look on your face…!”
He looked down rather grimly at Rowena, who merely smiled back at him demurely.
“She fascinated me, all right! And you—suppose you tell me what the look on your face means, ma’am? Are you satisfied with your trickery? My God, I never thought I’d actually feel relieved to have him suggest we go someplace more private to get acquainted. And I’m warning you right now, I don’t aim to sit by her all through dinner either! How in hell did I let you talk me into this?”
“Are you really ready to listen? I think it’s because, like me, you suddenly saw Todd today as—a lonely old man. And because he is Guy’s grandfather, and you and I don’t have
the right to deprive him of that very special relationship. Oh, Lucas!” Rowena turned suddenly, putting her arms around him, and the movement of her body against his was supple, and still exciting. “Think of all the years that were wasted in feuds and misunderstandings! And think of what your adopted grandfather, the shaman, said once, about seeing both sides of a coin. Is there any reason why, now that time has passed, you and Todd cannot greet each other in a civilized fashion?” Sensing his indecision, she added slyly: “When Montoya brought Luz and their children to visit us this spring you were perfectly willing to forget everything he’d done to try and keep us apart!”
“Didn’t notice that you acted too mad, either.”
“Well?”
“If you don’t want to get seduced before dinner and keep everyone waiting, I guess we’d better go on downstairs.” A bar of crimson light, like a sullen parting shot from the setting sun, pushed its way through the partially drawn drapes of the hotel window, making the lamplight seem suddenly insignificant.
They looked into each other’s faces; searching, renewing, re-evaluating. It was as if, without words, Rowena was saying: “I love you, and I have chosen you. There is room in our lives for other people too, now that we are sure of each other.”
In the corridor outside a child laughed, and Lucas lifted her chin up with his finger, brushing his lips gently against hers.
“There, ma’am. That’s to hold you until later. Let’s go rescue that boy of ours and get him to bed before he’s spoiled rotten with all the attention he’s been getting.”
The distant ghosts receded, and were gone. Arm in arm, laughing, they left the room.