Page 27 of The Promise of Jenny Jones
“You know my daddy?” Graciela asked shyly.
“I’ve known your daddy all of my life.” The cowboy wasn’t cold to Graciela, but he wasn’t particularly warm either. “I knew your mother, too, years ago. And I know your grandfather, Don Antonio.”
Jenny stopped her futile struggle against the ropes to listen. Either the cowboy had done some research, or he was who he said he was. In either case, intuition told her that he was here reluctantly. He might indeed be Graciela’s uncle, but he had no feeling for the kid.
“My mama is dead,” Graciela confided in a whisper, tears brimming in her eyes.
“I heard about it when I went to fetch you at Dona Theodora’s.”
Graciela wiped away the tears and continued to stare at the cowboy. To Jenny’s horror, she spied the beginnings of trust. Jenny renewed a furious struggle against the ropes that bound her to the chair. The minute Sanders had mentioned going to the no-name village to fetch Graciela, she understood his intention.
“You know my aunt Tete too?”
The cowboy smiled. “I met your aunt Tete years ago when she was visiting your grandpa Antonio. She and your mother were riding in their carriage and a wheel came off. I stopped to help, and your aunt Tete found fault with everything I did. She had a big fan, you know?” Graciela didn’t move her eyes from the cowboy’s face. “And she kept hitting me with it on the shoulder, right here. And she’d say, ‘Con permisso, Señor,but you are doing that all wrong.’ ”
Nodding and smiling, Graciela slid down the wall and sat on the bed, staring at the cowboy in fascination.
Realizing how easily the cowboy had charmed the kid made Jenny choke.
“Here’s what we’re going to do,” he said to Graciela. “I’m going to take you to your daddy and your grandmother Ellen.”
“I want to go home to Aunt Tete,” Graciela said in a whisper. Singing the same tune she’d sung for Jenny.
“Your home is in California now.” He studied the kid’s expression. “But maybe you and your daddy can visit your aunt Tete or she can visit you. Going to California doesn’t mean that you won’t see your aunt again.”
Jenny couldn’t believe how easily he swept aside the kid’s protest. Why hadn’t she thought of that? She had only to glance at the kid’s face to know Sanders had given her the perfect reassurance. The kid’s face told her something else. With a sinking heart she realized that Graciela was going to go with the cowboy without a peep of a struggle, without a shred of regret, or a twinge of gratitude for what Jenny had gone through so far. The snot.
“All right, here’s what I want you to do. You get dressed, all right? I need to talk to—” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder.
“Her name is Jenny Jones. She killed my mama.”
Jenny squeezed her eyes shut and let her head drop forward. Damn it. She should have belted the kid when she had the chance.
“That’s what I need to find out. As soon as Jenny and I have finished talking, we’ll leave.”
Graciela didn’t hesitate. The disloyal, ungrateful little brat jumped off the bed and scampered to the bureau, removing the change of clothing Maria had packed for her. As modest as a full-grown lady, she stepped behind the dressing screen, and in a minute her nightgown flew past the side of the screen.
The cowboy removed the napkin from Jenny’s mouth and sat down at the table, shoving Graciela’s supper plate away from him. “Who the hell are you? And how did you get my niece?”
Jenny told him the whole story, starting with killing the bastard who had attacked her and ending with leaving Marguarita standing in her cell and Jenny hightailing it away from the compound dressed as a priest. She didn’t spare any details.
Ty Sanders didn’t interrupt, he listened quietly and watched her with cool eyes. “If you agreed to take my niece to her father, then what the hell are you doing in Durango?”
Jenny’s lip curled in exasperation. “My primary concern was to get away from the cousins. How long didyouhang around the Verde Flores depot waiting for them to wake up?”
“There are a lot of stops between here and Verde Flores. Why didn’t you turn around and head north?”
“And risk having Chulo and Luis jump me again in Verde Flores?” Jenny snapped. “Untie me.”
“Not a chance.” The cowboy looked toward the bed, where Graciela had returned after getting dressed. The instant her head touched the pillow, she had fallen asleep. He was silent for several minutes. “I’m inclined to believe your story.”
“Listen, you son of a bitch. I don’t ever lie. That’s why Marguarita trusted me, a stranger, to take her daughter to California. That’s why she asked me to raise the kid if your weak-spined brother couldn’t or wouldn’t.”
The cowboy narrowed his eyes. “Looks like you bought your life cheap, Jenny Jones, because you don’t have to take Graciela to California after all, and there’s no chance that you’ll be raising her.”
“Yeah, well that isn’t how Marguarita saw it.” She yanked on the ropes, then gave it up. “Marguarita didn’t say hand the kid to an uncle if one shows up. And she didn’t say that you or any other family member could raise the kid if Robert couldn’t or wouldn’t. She toldmeto take the kid to California, and she toldmeto raise her if it was necessary.” Leaning forward, she stared into his eyes, meeting glare for glare. “And that’s how it’s going to be. I promised. So, I’m not handing her over to you. I’m the one who’s taking her to California.”
He leaned forward, too, until their noses almost bumped. “No, you aren’t. As of right now, you have no claim on my niece. Tomorrow you can go back to wherever you came from.”
