Page 62 of Midnight Rider

She curled her fingers around the hand resting beside hers on the account book. “We’re doing nicely,” she said. “But I miss your grandmother.”

He kissed her hair. “So do I. She went home only reluctantly, but there were business matters that required her attention.”

“She said she’d come back for the first christening,” she said, deliberately bringing up a subject that had been taboo between them for most of the fours months of their marriage. Despite her fear of childbirth, Bernadette now found herself frustrated and sad that she wasn’t pregnant. She was facing the possibility that she might be barren. She knew that the fault couldn’t lie with Eduardo, because he and Consuela had produced a son. She felt lacking, somehow. She noticed that Eduardo never talked about their situation, or referred to the fact that four months of marriage had failed to bring about the promise of a child.

He didn’t speak for a full minute. His hand absently caressed her pale hair, which was piled into a huge roll around the top of her head. “Perhaps there will be that promise, one day,” he murmured.

She looked up at him sadly. “I’m sorry,” she said gently. “I know how much you want a son.”

He shrugged and forced a smile. “I love you, Bernadette,” he said, his voice tender and low. “If a child comes of that love, it will be wonderful, but I can grow old happily even if we live alone together until we die.”

“I know,” she replied, “but I want a child, too.”

He drew her up into his arms and kissed her tenderly. “Don’t brood about it,” he whispered. “Time will take care of most problems.”

“I hope so!”

They went back to the books and delighted in the way the livestock was thriving.

* * *

BUTASWITHANYSUCCESSFULenterprise, trouble was brewing. Eduardo’s growing herds were noticed by unscrupulous men home from the Spanish-American War and without means. Several of them banded together and began raiding ranches for beef cattle with which to start their own operation across the border in Mexico.

One night they raided the outlying areas of Eduardo’s ranch and made off with over a hundred head of fattened cattle ready to send to market.

Eduardo, when informed of the raid by one of hisvaqueros,immediately strapped on his sidearm and loaded his Winchester.

Bernadette almost choked on her fear as he went striding out the door, deaf to her pleas for restraint.

“Take care of her,” he said to Claudia as he slammed on his hat. “I’ll be back when I can.¡Muchachos, vámonos!” he called to his men as he swung into the saddle and rode ahead of the well-armed assembly.

He stopped by the Barron ranch and Colston, who had also lost cattle to the rustlers, mounted his own men and fell in with his son-in-law.

Together, they rode down the long trail toward Mexico.

* * *

FILLEDWITHANXIETY,Bernadette sat at the window and drank endless cups of black coffee so that she could stay awake. Claudia brought her some scrambled eggs and bacon in the early hours of the morning, insisting that she must eat something to keep up her strength.

The strangest thing happened when she lifted a forkful of eggs to her mouth. She stared at them with growing nausea and suddenly jerked up from the table and ran out to the back porch. The endless cups of black coffee made a return appearance. Claudia, rather than being concerned, stood by and clapped her hands and laughed with pure delight.

“I’m sick as a dog, and you can stand there giggling at me?” Bernadette muttered through the spasms that shook her.

“Oh, no,señora,not at the sickness, but at the cause for it. This particular sickness will end in just a few months, and you will have one fine little baby to show for it!”

Bernadette caught her breath. She gaped at Claudia. “Do you think so?”

Claudia nodded, grinning as Bernadette again threw herself over the railing. “Oh, yes,” Claudia said. “I think so!”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

BERNADETTEWASOVERJOYEDANDoverwhelmed at the prospect of being pregnant, but she was also terrified at the prospect of being a widow even before she could share her hopes with Eduardo.

When the nausea passed, she went back to her vigil at the window and forced herself to pick up her yarn and crochet hook to keep her cold, unsteady hands busy. She thought of the baby and, smiling, began to work on a tiny pair of booties. She could make socks, so these posed no difficulty. The time passed much more rapidly when she was forced to concentrate on what her hands were dong.

She thought about how Eduardo would receive the news about her condition, and she beamed. He would make a wonderful father, and this child might help make up for the loss of his son. She thought of the look he’d have on his face when she told him and her fears died down just a little. But the fear that he might not return was undeniable.

It was well after daylight when she heard the sound of horses’ hooves. She tossed down her crocheting and rushed out to the porch with Claudia at her heels. Her eyes searched wildly for her husband’s tall, commanding presence in the saddle. When she didn’t see him immediately, it seemed that her worst fears were being realized, and tears stung her eyes.

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