City Girl (8 page)

such high incidence of injury and casualty

upon the enemy that they retreated and fled.

Crystal craned her neck and searched the rocky hills for some sign of Enchanted Rock.

"Can't see it from the road," Garrett informed. "Country is too hilly." Crystal sat back, mild disappointment sedating the sparkle in her eyes.

"Maybe you will get over to it one of these days," he said quietly, and she glanced up sharply, surprised at the perplexing tone of comfort in his voice. How changeable he was!

He shifted in his seat, rubbing a cramped knee with his large hand while keeping his eyes conspicuously upon the winding road ahead.

"It's got a very colorful history, you know," he went on. "Indians used to say it was haunted."

Crystal's eyes widened, more at his sudden talkativeness than at the legend. "Really? Just because this one man defeated them there?"

"Oh, no. The rock has figured in Indian lore since before recorded history. Different tribes used to worship there. Human sacrifices and whatnot. Some of them believed their gods lived on top of the rock. Probably because of the strange lights and sounds that come from it at night."

"You're kidding," she breathed out skeptically. For an answer, he slanted his eyes mysteriously and grinned. "It's not really haunted," she insisted. "That's just plain ridiculous."

His face broke into a wide smile that sent an inexplicably warm glow through her, and it was she who shifted uncomfortably in her seat this time.

"Well, I suppose you could make a case either way." He laughed.

Probing blue eyes turned upon her, and Crystal felt the breath catch in her throat. She turned quickly back to the safety of her window.

A while later, they turned west onto a dirt road and drove through a cloud of reddish dust for several miles. It had been some time since another automobile had passed them, and now there was not even a gate to break the monotony of fencing.

"How much farther to the ranch?" Crystal asked anxiously, feeling an uncanny excitement building up inside the cab of the El Camino.

"Technically, we've been on the ranch for the last twenty minutes, but the house is just ahead."

As if to confirm his report, the rig joustled over a cattle guard across the road, its wheels making rubbery knocking noises against the regularly spaced pipes welded at either end to pipes running crosswise over a shallow ditch.

A dozen questions leaped to the fore of Crystal's mind, but she did not want to press her luck by asking any of them. It seemed that Garrett Dean did not mind volunteering information when the mood struck him, but apparently he did not like being questioned, at least not by city girls. So she kept her silence and watched anxiously as the El Camino tore over the road toward their final destination.

A little farther, they topped a hill and the rig slowed as the gate came into view. It was really quite elaborate.

Beneath a high arch in the adobe wall that ran for some distance on either side of the heavy black wrought-iron gate before giving way to whitewashed fencing, there hung a thick wood sign that read "Heritage Ranch." As the El Camino approached, Garrett reached over his head and pressed a small rectangular black box affixed to the visor. The heavy wrought-iron gate swung open smoothly, and they drove through into a fairytale land of Spanish palaces, manicured lawns, and enchanting gardens.

Crystal's gasp must have been audible, for Garrett glanced in her direction. He stopped the rig in a paved parking area at the foot of a long, sloping alameda. Just the alameda itself was breathtaking, with its trellises of grapevines intertwining with fragrant honeysuckle to form a sort of long, low, wide tunnel over the stone footpath.

The house sat enthroned like a huge reclining Spanish giant at the top of the hill just beyond the alameda. It was a long, single-storied structure of brilliant white adobe with tall arched windows laced in black wrought-iron grillwork. Its slanting red roof stood out in vivid contrast.

Garrett sounded the horn, its tinny blast shattering the quiet solemnity and making Crystal jump.

"This is it," he announced. "Home."

"Hey, boss! Welcome back!"

Crystal peered into the shade at the sound of the heavily Spanish-inflected voice and spotted a queer bow-legged creature in droopy cowboy hat and pointy-toed boots hurrying down the hill toward them.

"Hey, Petie! Glad to be back," Garrett called, getting out of the car. "Give a hand here, will you?" He moved away to begin unloading Crystal's luggage from the rear of the El Camino. She let herself out and stood beside the El Camino, not knowing what to expect from this toothless, shriveled little man now glaring openmouthed at her.

"What we got here?" he queried bluntly, looking from one to the other suspiciously. Suddenly, as if a man possessed, Petie's eyes bugged out and he stared at Garrett. "What'd you do, go and get married on us?"

Even as Garrett roared at the little man to keep his ill-mannered mouth shut, Crystal reeled backward in shock. The word "no" formed in the back of her brain, but she never got it out. Garrett was busily and angrily setting the matter straight.

"And where the devil are your teeth?" she heard Garrett exclaim loudly. He turned apologetically to Crystal, and immediately the color flamed to her cheeks.

"Excuse this old coot, ma'am," he said deferentially and a bit formally. "I suppose it's my fault. I didn't take the time to call and let anyone know you were coming with me. But that's no excuse for rudeness." He shot a warning glance in Petie's direction and grimaced, hands coming irritably to belted hips.

Crystal's eyes instinctively followed his, just in time to catch Petie in the act of fishing his dentures out of his jeans pocket and popping them into his mouth. He smiled apologetically, teeth gleaming white where there had been a black, gaping hole before.

The whole ridiculous scene seemed suddenly funny, and she had to clamp a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing outright.

"I go tell the missus," the little man muttered contritely, and took off on his misshapen little legs.

Crystal erupted in giggles, watching the strange creature waddle back up the hill, mumbling to himself with elaborate gestures.

"Well, I'm glad you thought it was funny!" Garrett grumbled, clasping a big hand around her arm just above the elbow and propelling her forward. "I'll send him back down for your things, but right now I think we better get you in the house and properly introduced."

As she obediently allowed herself to be escorted beneath the alameda, she could see that the house was built in two separate wings with a high, wide, enclosed entrance area connecting them. At each end of the entrance hall stood double doors easily eight feet tall and now standing open, allowing her a view of a courtyard in the center of the huge house. The hallway itself she judged to be at least thirty feet deep and perhaps ten feet in width. The courtyard beyond was paved with reddish cobblestones and furnished with several small white wrought-iron divans with yellow vinyl cushions. It was here that Garrett finally loosened his grip on her arm after depositing her safely on one of the little divans.

Crystal took in as much of her surroundings as she could in the few seconds allowed her before the household erupted in gales of babbling Spanish. This appeared to be only one of two courtyards, the inner one. Crystal could see over a low adobe wall at the rear to another where the blue waters of a large rectangular swimming pool glinted in the sunlight. Beneath the archways that bordered the inner courtyard on the three remaining sides, Crystal could see heavily tinted glass walls.

The voices babbling Spanish grew louder, and a brown woman of gigantic proportions suddenly burst through an open doorway of sliding glass and descended upon Crystal as if she were a prodigal daughter returned home. With smothering hugs, Lupe made her enthusiastic welcome known, then turned to Garrett and pounded him affectionately on the back.

"Welcome! Welcome!" she chanted through a thick Spanish accent. "Welcome, little one. I am Lupe. Oh! So thin!" She inspected Crystal's arm through the thin fabric of her blouse and clucked a sweet scolding.

"Good Lord! Has everyone around here forgotten their manners?" Garrett boomed, but Lupe only folded her arms across her great breasts and winked down at Crystal, who perched self-consciously on the edge of the yellow vinyl cushion, hovering somewhere between despair and delirious laughter.

"Speaking of manners!" Lupe scolded, wagging a chubby finger at the lean, tall cowboy. "Since when is it good manners to bring home a guest without giving us a chance to prepare for her?"

"Am I supposed to inform everyone on the place before I hire on more help?" he boomed, throwing his hands above his head in exasperation.

"Ooh!" Lupe's thick brows rose in surprise, then her black eyes narrowed perceptively. The look she gave him implied that she doubted his motives for bringing this pretty young woman here, but she turned a welcoming smile on Crystal. "Forgive me, pretty seňorita. I did not know."

"That's all right, Lupe," Crystal responded with a nervous smile of her own. Such a welcome! She was not sure what to think. "I should apologize for making such an abrupt entrance." She was suddenly very tired. Her shoulders sagged perceptibly, but seeing that Garrett was not in any mood to make explanations, she went on. "I've come to tutor the children. I am a teacher."

As understanding lighted Lupe's eyes, she poured out a fresh cascade of welcome, her big hands pounding Crystal affectionately on the back. Crystal had to gasp for air with each pound, but at least her presence here would not be resented, anyway not by this big Mexican woman. Still, she wondered if she could survive much more friendliness.

Garrett interrupted with an order for his housekeeper. "Get her settled. You can visit later. And see to it that Petie brings her bags in and then have him unload the bulls in the feedlot. I'm going to wash up." He began moving away, rolling up his sleeves as he went.

Just then, however, a thin, rangy cowboy came hurrying through the gate in the back wall of the courtyard. When he saw Garrett, he picked up his pace. "Got trouble, boss, over on section three. Hay baler's broke down. I was hoping all the way in that you was back."

The grimace on Garrett's face contained an odd mixture of irritation and challenge. "Where's Rod?"

"Pulling a calf over on section three."

"Well, what about Rick?"

The rangy cowboy shook his head. "Fence down on five." He danced uncomfortably from one foot to another, eyeing Crystal speculatively.

Garrett scowled, then flung a hand out in capitulation. "Oh, all right," he grumbled. "I sometimes wonder what I pay you men for. I always have to do everything myself anyway."

"Yes, sir," the cowboy acknowledged absently, still eyeing Crystal with a furtive sideways glance.

Again Garrett scowled. "This is Miss Crystal Gentry, our new schoolteacher," Garrett introduced, making a great show of the whole affair with a flourishing sweep of his hand. "And this is one of our top hands, Cleave Lawson. Now, if everyone has his curiosity satisfied, can we all get to work?"