The Enchanted Land

  Her eyes flew open. “Seth, must I tell you …?”

  He roughly pushed her from him. “No, I must tell you. I know about them all. I know about Madame Nicole.”

  Her hand flew to her mouth, her eyes were wide. “No.”

  He stepped out of the bed, reaching for his clothes. “Tell me, did you react for all of them as you did for me? No wonder you’re such an expensive whore. Tell me, how much do you share with your ‘partner’? Does he set you up or do you find your own men?”

  “No,” she whispered, the tears coming to her eyes. She was on her knees in the bed, her damp, tangled hair falling about her. “No, Seth. That’s all wrong.”

  “Well, ma’am, you are certainly fetching like that. I don’t imagine you’d pleaded with many men. Does it hurt your vanity to find that you can be walked away from? I know you are used to doing the walking.”

  Her sobs were choking her, her body shaking.

  Seth almost reconsidered, but quickly he picked up his hat and walked to the French doors. “I remember some time ago, when you left a light in the window so I could climb to your bedroom. It’s ironic, isn’t it?” He paused and reached into his jacket pocket and withdrew several gold coins. He tossed them to the floor beside the bed. “You can share that with your decorator friend. Goodbye, wife.” He made the word sound ugly. And almost instantly, he was over the balcony.

  When Theron found Morgan an hour later, his patient was calm, sitting quietly against the back of the bed. Something was very wrong. He preferred her hysterics to the icy calm he saw in her eyes now. He sat by her, took her cold little hand.

  “What’s happened?”

  She turned to him and smiled. It was a smile Theron had never seen before, and it made chills run down his spine. “I have just had a visit from my husband, the man I’ve loved so long, the man I’ve dreamed of day and night.” Her voice was flat.

  “After he had used my body and made me react, he taunted me, accused me of having many men.”

  “Morgan, I really don’t understand any of this. Why would he want to hurt you so? Doesn’t he understand our relationship?”

  She laughed. “I don’t believe my husband understands anything. He wouldn’t allow me to explain. He saw only the wrong side of everything.” Morgan began telling Theron of her marriage to Seth, how she had asked him to marry her, had fought her feelings for him. She told of Seth’s jealousy and Joaquín’s treachery.

  “He never even asked you if the note was true? It never occurred to him that you had been taken against your will?”

  “It is ironic, isn’t it? He has tried, judged and hanged me—and I am innocent. I don’t believe I want to talk anymore, Theron.”

  The look in Morgan’s eyes frightened him. Always, she had a kind word. Always, she smiled. But now her lips curved into a snarl.

  “Maybe we could find him. Find him and tell him the truth of what has happened to you—that none of it was your fault.”

  She turned on him, eyes flashing. “I should go to him and tell him that I am innocent? What should I do, plead with him, beg him to forgive me—for nothing? I loved him and he should have been able to see that. I told him so tonight, but he chose to ignore it. He believes I was one of Nicole’s whores. What if I had been? What if his pure little Morgan had been tarnished by other men? Should I kill myself in that case? He didn’t care enough for me to even listen to me, to find out what had happened to me all this time.”

  She took a breath and leaned back against the pillows. “He was not the man I thought he was. I never want to hear his name again.”

  “Morgan, please listen…”

  “I would like to sleep now. I believe Mrs. Farrell will want us to spend the day discussing her dining room, and I need strength to face that woman’s taste. Good-night.”

  Theron kissed her forehead, blew out the lamp, and left the room.

  Morgan fell asleep, remembering Seth’s back as he disappeared over the balcony.

  Morgan became more and more involved in her work with Theron. In the next months, she tried constantly to keep herself from thinking of Seth, from fully realizing that he was alive. Did he have a mistress? Was some other woman taking care of him?

  All she had to do was find him, tell him that Joaquín had forced her to write the note, that she had not had any other men… No! How dare she even think of pleading with him! He was a vain, arrogant man and she wouldn’t lower herself.

  Gradually, Theron’s customers noticed the difference in Morgan. Before, she had met the men’s advances with smiles and jests. Now she tended to sneer at them. She no longer returned their flirting with friendly jibes.

  The evenings she spent with Theron often turned into brooding silences. Before, they were hardly ever out of one another’s sight; but now Theron spent some evenings alone.

  “Take it away, Jeannette. The very sight of food nauseates me.”

  Jeannette took the tray and set it on the dresser. Then she held her hand to Morgan’s forehead.

  “Stop it! There’s nothing wrong with me. I just don’t feel like eating.”

  Jeannette was calm. Theron had told her about Seth’s attack on his wife. “No, ma’am, there’s nothing at all wrong with you. I’d say that, in a few months, you’ll be perfectly all right.”

  “Months! Don’t be absurd! I’m just not feeling well. A few days’ rest and I’ll be fine.”

  “I should say in about six months, you should be quite yourself again.”

  “Six months! Jeannette, will you stop raving like a lunatic and take that food away? Even the smell of it makes my stomach turn and…” Her face drained. She met Jeannette’s stare.

  Smiling the maid picked up the tray and started to the door. “I’m sure Mr. Shaw would want the doctor to check you, to confirm the time. But I think he’ll say six months.”

  When Morgan was alone, she leaned back in the bed. “No. It can’t be,” she whispered. Her hands went to her stomach. It was hard, but had a slight new roundness. “A baby … what will I do with a baby? A baby whose father hates his mother?” She remembered her own fatherless childhood. It had hurt her in many ways, being raised without a man around.

  The doctor’s visit confirmed what Jeannette had known for some time and Morgan hadn’t even guessed at.

  Theron was delighted with the news. “A baby in the house! Delightful! Wondrous! We’ll make the guest room into a nursery. Chinese décor, don’t you think? Of course, I’m very partial to Chinese. Or how about Italian, some clean lines, very fluid? Color. We can do oranges and siennas, or the cool colors.”

  “Theron, please. I’ve just found out about this. I don’t know what I’m going to do yet.”

  “Going to do? Well, of course you’re going to stay right here. Jeannette and I will take care of you. Come along, Jeannette, let’s let Morgan rest for now. We’ll see you in the morning. I’m rather tired, too. This has been a very exciting day.”

  Alone, Morgan’s thoughts whirled. A baby, her own child. She smiled. Yes, she wanted this baby, very much. She needed someone to care for, to care about.

  But how should she or he be raised?

  Her life with Theron was pleasant, but a baby needed more than a mother who decorated people’s homes, a mother whom the townsmen took great delight in trying to pinch. What if her child found out this mother had been sold in a public auction at a brothel? What about Morgan’s inheritance? She had not thought about it in a long time, but if she had a child, she wanted him to be raised in security.

  She would go to Albuquerque and meet with her father’s lawyers. Then she’d take her child and go back to Kentucky, and Trahern House.

  The thought of Trahern House brought tears to her eyes. Many times when she’d been so happy with Seth, she had laughed at Trahern House, thinking how lonely and barren it would seem to her after her life with Seth. Ah, but now she wouldn’t be alone. She’d have her child.

  It took Morgan a week to convince Theron of the wisdom of her plan. Sh
e would return to New Mexico and then to Kentucky.

  “Morgan, how can you leave? You’re like my little sister. What would life be like without you? Please stay.”

  It wasn’t easy to think of leaving Theron or the luxury he provided for her. When she left him, she’d be enitrely on her own, taking care of herself and responsible for another life as well.

  A stage line had recently been started, connecting the Santa Fe Trail with the gold fields of California. It was on this stage that Theron booked Morgan’s passage.

  The goodbyes were tearful. “If you ever need anything, you know where you have a friend,” Theron told her as she mounted the high steps into the stagecoach.

  The return trip to Santa Fe was awful. The coach swayed and bounced with every rock the wheels hit, and there were thousands of them.

  They stopped only long enough to change horses, the passengers being forced to grab whatever they could and to eat in the coach. The windows had pieces of canvas that rolled down over them, but a closed coach, with the six unwashed and sweating people, was unbearable. They talked at first, one man in particular trying to get Morgan’s attention, but after the first few days they were all too tired for conversation. In the beginning Morgan had tried to keep her face and hands clean, but when she rubbed her neck and dirt rolled off in her hand, she gave up.

  When they arrived in Santa Fe, she was too tired, hungry, and dirty even to remember why she had come. Her legs were cramped and she could hardly stand.

  “Here, let me help you with that.” Someone took her hand baggage and she turned to meet a pair of familiar eyes.

  “Frank!” she cried, the weariness of her body making her vision blurred.

  “Morgan!” Frank picked her up and swung her around. “Last time I saw you, them outlaws had carried you off.”

  Her eyes clouded. “An awful lot’s happened since then.” She turned away, frowning. If he thought of her as Seth did, he’d hate her, too.

  “Hey, little gall” He squeezed her again and set her down. “Don’t you go lookin’ like that. I heard every word of the story from Jake. I don’t know your side of it, but I sure don’t believe you left Seth for Joaquín.”

  “You don’t?”

  “Hell, no. Anybody could see the way you two followed one another around. I never saw two people so stubborn as you two. Both of you head over heels in love and neither of you admitting it.”

  “Oh, Frank! Thank you.”

  “Let’s get you out of here. I bet you want to clean up. I’ll take you to the hotel, and then tomorrow, after you’ve rested, we can go to the ranch.”

  “No, I can’t go to the Colter ranch.”

  “Just hush now and I’ll take care of you. I won’t put up with your bullheadedness. Tomorrow you go to the ranch. It’s where you belong, especially with that young ’un you’re carryin’.”

  Her eyes flew to his, open wide.

  Frank laughed. “Always have had an eye for the ladies. Only thing that’s changed about you is that curvy little belly. And with six kids of my own, I sure know what causes that.”

  Morgan was grateful to Frank for taking care of her. She was content to stand back and let him order her a bath and dinner in her room. Once alone, she scoured herself in the hot water and ate greedily. It was still only about six in the evening when she fell into the soft bed.

  Late the next morning, Frank came for her with a buckboard. She had rested and she felt strong enough to protest about going to Seth’s ranch, but Frank refused to listen.

  “That’s your home. Of course you’re going there.”

  “But, Frank, I need to go to Albuquerque and see my father’s lawyer.”

  “All right, you can visit there later, but first you go home. Lupita will be waiting with open arms and hot tortillas. You couldn’t ask for more.”

  Morgan was grim. “What about Jake? And Paul? Will they greet me with open arms? The woman who ran off with another man? You don’t even know for sure that the baby I carry is Seth’s.”

  Frank grinned. “You’re even more stubborn than I remember. I know that that little one you’re carryin’ is yours. That’s good enough for me. If Seth Colter and you been in the same town for the last few months and he ain’t the father, then there’s something wrong with him, not with you. Now, if you’ve finished your lunch, we’d better be on our way.”

  As they made the long trip to the Colter ranch, Morgan tried not to think of what would greet her there. They talked of Frank’s family, whom Morgan had never met, and of life in general in New Mexico. Morgan told Frank about the hundreds of people pouring into San Francisco each week. She talked about Theron and the work they’d done, making him laugh over her stories of the people and the wealth they didn’t know how to handle.

  Lupita heard the wagon long before she saw it. She walked slowly out to meet them. Since Seth and Morgan had both gone, a change had come over the place. There was no laughter anymore. Jake and she ate their meals in the big kitchen while Paul took his outside. Paul didn’t like the gloom of the inside.

  She recognized Frank instantly, and thought he’d brought his oldest daughter with him. But something about the smallness of the form next to Frank made her start. “It couldn’t be,” she whispered. And then she began running toward the wagon.

  “Señora Colter! You’ve come home!” The large woman practically lifted Morgan out of the wagon. She clasped her tightly in her arms, Morgan returning the hug.

  “Lupita, you better be careful how you handle our little mother-to-be.”

  Lupita gasped, held Morgan at arm’s length, and then hugged her again.

  Chapter Seventeen

  “FRANK, you must stay to help us celebrate Señora Colter’s return.”

  “Please, Frank, I need your help. I need someone here who believes in me.”

  Both women looked up at Frank, their eyes imploring.

  “No, Morgan, you don’t need me. Not when you have Lupita fighting for you. I’ve got to get home. The wife’ll want to know what kept me overnight in Santa Fe anyway. I may need you to come defend me. Jake’s a hummingbird compared to my Louisa.”

  Lupita and Morgan watched as Frank rode off in the buckboard. When he was out of sight, they turned to one another.

  “Lupita… I…”

  “There’s no need for you to explain anything. I never believed a word of it. Now, let’s get out of this sun. If there’s going to be a baby, then there are many things to be done.”

  “But, Lupita, I can’t just come back here to live, not after all that’s happened. Frank nearly forced me to come.”

  “And he was right. This is your home. This is where Seth’s baby should be born.”

  Morgan stopped. “Seth’s… How do you know? What makes you so sure it’s his baby? I’ve been gone a long time.”

  “Señora Colter,” Lupita laughed, “you do not have to explain anything to me. Jake and Paul will need explanations but I do not. Now come on inside or that baby will get a fever from the sun.”

  Morgan turned startled eyes to her rounding stomach. Her hand went to the mound. She had so recently learned that she was to have a baby that she hadn’t had time to think of it much yet, to get used to its constant presence.

  “Yes,” she smiled up at Lupita. “We will have to take care of her.”

  “Her? Already you know what it will be?”

  Laughing, their arms around one another, they walked to the house. It was cool within the thick adobe walls. The familiar rooms brought Morgan home at last. Everything had been good in this house. All the many happy memories came flooding back to her.

  She turned to Lupita, her face reflecting joy at being home.

  “You are right. This is my home. This is where Seth’s daughter will be born.” She watched as Lupita’s grin widened. “Yes, it’s Seth’s child.”

  Lupita again ran to Morgan and hugged her tightly. “I knew you’d find one another. I knew it. When will the Señor join us? Why did he ever allow you
to travel alone? I will have many words to say to him for this.”

  “No, Lupita. Seth doesn’t know about the baby. He won’t be coming here.” She paused. “Now you will let me explain.”

  “No! It does not matter. What is between you two is your business. Come into the kitchen and let me feed you two girls.”

  “Two girls?” Morgan laughed when she realized Lupita’s meaning. “Lupita, do you think we could make some empañaditas this afternoon?”

  The rest of the day was blissful. It was good to remove the whalebone corset she had worn in San Francisco. Lupita’s cool cotton blouse and skirt felt marvelous against her body. She brushed her hair, glad not to have a maid standing nearby waving a hot curling iron.

  “Now you look like yourself. The chickens all ran and hid from you before.”

  “Yes,” Morgan laughed. “I feel like me again. Like I’ve really come home. Lupita, no matter what happens, I have a right here, don’t I? I want my baby born here.” The tears came once again. “This is where I was happiest. Where Seth and I were happy.”

  “Yes, Morgan, no one will make you leave. Seth’s child will grow up here.”

  “Look at me. Sometimes I think I’ve spent the last year crying. I think we ought to get started with the cooking. Does Paul still eat as much as he used to? Of course, it was always Seth who could eat more than the rest of us put together,” she laughed. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “It’s not going to be easy, is it, Lupita? I know Jake believed Joaquín’s story.”

  Lupita looked at her with sympathy. “No, it won’t be easy. But soon it will all be worth it, Morgan.”

  As Morgan began putting flour and butter together, she said quietly, “I like being called Morgan by you.”

  That evening when Jake walked into the house and saw Morgan, he was torn. He wanted to kill her. And at the same time, he wanted to leave and never see her again. He stood rooted, staring at the young woman who had caused everyone so much misery.