Part 39 (1/2)
”_Nada!_” forbade Dona Dolores. ”Not so fast, senor. I am the duenna, and I have very sharp eyes. So also have others who are walking in the plaza. You have chanced to find my beads, and are escorting me to the house of Senor Vallois, where your friend, my husband, is to join me at breakfast. Please do not forget that you are escorting me. If you choose to pay compliments to my companion, and I am too deaf to hear anything that is said, who can blame me? Besides, you know I do not understand English.”
”Senora, you are an angel!” I exclaimed.
”_Santa Maria!_ but that is the truth,” she mocked. ”Yet do not tell it to me when she is in hearing.”
”Dolores! Is this a time for jests?” murmured Alisanda. The senora fell to counting her beads, with the most pious of expressions. My lady addressed me in English: ”Dolores knows all, Juan. But it will be easier for you to talk in English, and she will not have to strain her conscience when she next goes to confession. Juan, it was rash to force this meeting.”
”Forgive me, dearest one! But I could wait no longer. The interruption of our last meeting--”
”_Santa Virgen!_ that terrible aide! I was stricken dumb with terror when he lunged at you--from the rear! The coward!”
”You saw it?”
”All! all! Juan, dear friend, you must guard yourself--you must be careful! That savage Andalusian! I heard all you said--how you spared him, that I might escape the scandal of a duel beneath my window. Has he challenged you?”
”Not yet.”
”Not yet! But he will--he will! Do not fight him with swords, Juan. You told me once that you were not a swordsman. He is the most expert fencer in all these provinces.”
”If he is a master, I have a better chance against him as it is than if I were an average swordsman. He will at least not know what I am going to do, as he would know with one who fenced according to rules.”
”But he will kill you! No, do not fight him with swords, Juan. Let him challenge you, and be sure you name pistols.”
”Would you have me murder the man?” I protested.
”You need not shoot to kill.”
”That is true. But, dearest, let us speak of more important matters. You have not yet told me--”
”I wrote of your danger from His Excellency, Juan. Be prudent. Make as few enemies as you can. You have many friends.”
”Walker has intimated that I shall gain more friends if I tame this Andalusian bull.”
”_Nada!_ If the swashbuckler challenges, you must fight, Juan. I know that. But do not force the matter yourself. He stands high in the favor of His Excellency.”
”Alisanda,” I replied, ”you, like all others here, are far too much in fear of this tyrant Governor-General. But rest a.s.sured Lieutenant Pike and I comprehend the man and the situation. Should we show the slightest sign of weakness, I at least will at once be flung into prison, if not garrotted. The only course which will avert the blow is for us to show a bold front.”
”Yet a little diplomacy--”
”Trust Lieutenant Pike to attend to the diplomacy. In his direct communications with Salcedo, he will flourish the steel blade in a velvet sheath. Aside from that, we have decided that the bolder our talk and bearing the better.”
”Yet consider his absolute power--I fear for you, Juan!”
”What odds of the danger, if I have your love--Alisanda?”
A quick blush leaped into her pale cheeks, and she looked down, in sweet confusion.
”No, no, dear friend,” she murmured. ”Do not speak of that now. It would be too cruel, if later--Juan, you must see Father Rocus!”
”At once!” I a.s.sented.
”Go, then, now! You will find him at the _Parroquia_.”