Marco and the Devil's Bargain by Carla Kelly Read Free Book Online Page A

wanted him right now.
    Maybe Toshua understood. “She said some unkind things to you, Paloma,” he said, his voice softer now. His eyes never left Maria Teresa’s outrider as he led the two horses into the courtyard. “Hard words.”
    â€œ Just words.”
    â€œ Will she cause you trouble?”
    â€œ If she can.” Involuntarily, she stepped even closer to Toshua as Maria Teresa hurried from the hacienda, her satchel in her hand and yarn trailing behind her. It would have been a funny sight, except that Paloma saw real terror on her cousin’s face. I doubt she has a single easy day in Valle del Sol , Paloma thought, wondering at her own pity for her cousin.
    Maybe her cousin misinterpreted her expression. Maria Teresa glared in her direction and Paloma steeled herself. All her cousin did was shake her finger. Maybe Toshua standing so close had something to do with that.
    Maria Teresa threw her satchel at the guard, who made a face as he turned away to tie the bundle behind his saddle and stuff the yarn in here and there while the other men laughed. When none of the idlers in the courtyard offered to help her mount, she shrieked at her guard for being dead to duty.
    â€œ How terrible a thing to work at the Castellano ranch,” Toshua said. “I hear that Señor Castellano cannot keep men on his property.” He gathered the reins and stood there, indecision on his usually impassive face.
    â€œ Perhaps you should return to the Double Cross,” Paloma suggested, feeling uneasy, because Toshua never appeared indecisive. He had the look of a man who had just realized something unpleasant. What, she did not know.
    â€œ I have four guards,” Paloma reminded him gently.
    â€œ I wish you had not touched the stranger from the east.”
    â€œ You needed my help,” she said, puzzled now.
    â€œ All the same ….” He turned away with his horse toward the horse barn, where the other guards moved far away from him. When he was close to the barn, he turned around again and mounted, riding his horse to Paloma, no indecision on his face now.
    She stood her ground as he halted the big bay directly in front of her and held out his hand. “Come with me to the Double Cross. I fear I have done a bad thing in taking this stranger within Señora Gutierrez’s walls.” He gestured with his fingers, edging closer, coaxing her. “Do you trust me?”
    It was the question Paloma had asked herself for months now. Her mouth felt strangely dry. She looked into his eyes, still seeing the honest man through all the layers of her own fear.
    â€œ Please, Paloma. Just drop everything here.”
    â€œ The yarn. My stockings. Luisa.”
    He shook his head and leaned closer, his arm extended, ready to gather her onto his horse.
    She stepped back. “I do not trust you, Toshua. God help me, but I do not.”
    There was no disguising the hurt in his eyes, which brought tears to her own, as she tumbled into the dust whatever trust they had so tentatively forged. He leaned down, and she backed farther away until she was under the shelter of the portal and practically in the doorway. “I do not,” she whispered. “God forgive me if I am wrong.”
    The guards of the hacienda were edging closer, themselves, sensing a threat to Paloma that she knew was not there. This is a matter between me and Toshua , she wanted to tell them, but she knew they would not understand. Someone made a move toward the open gate. “Please leave, Toshua, before you cannot,” she begged him.
    He edged closer. “Do this and do not doubt me. Stay far away from this man I have brought here and probably should have killed.”
    Paloma nodded, not able to look at him, because she was already feeling remorse so deep that there probably wasn’t a word for it. “Ride, Toshua.”

Chapter Five
In which a stranger ponders his situation and Paloma regrets hers
    H