Return to Paradise (Torres Family Saga) (35 page)

      
Rasvan bristled in anger. “The
gadjo
has shamed us both—I only began to train the young bear because you are unable to work the old one!”

      
“Soon I will be up and able to work my bears...and deal with the yellow-haired devil old Agata favors.”

      
“We do not have much time. Tis not Agata alone who favors him. So does Rani. You should have seen them just now. He will take her maidenhead!”

      
Django scowled and cursed. “She is pledged to Michel, Sandor's son. We will gain a large bride price for her and then have power in the council with the
voivode's
son as brother-in-law.”

      
“We must kill the physician quickly.”

      
“Yes, but Sandor has said he is to have the freedom of the camp and Agata favors him, curse the old hag. We must act carefully. Perhaps he will sicken and die...or have an accident. If he were to fall from a horse trying to escape... Let me think on it for a few hours,” Django said. His black eyes narrowed in concentration as he dismissed Rasvan, saying, “In the meanwhile, ask Sandor to come to me. I would discuss Michel and Rani's wedding with him.”

      
While the brothers plotted, the subject of their fulmi-nation wended his way on foot toward the banks of a sizeable pool of water. “Why in the hell do the stupid fools not camp beside this lovely spot instead of hauling water through the woods for cooking?” Benjamin grumbled. Little enough water was needed since they certainly did not use it for bathing.

      
“I will go mad with itching if I cannot bathe,” he muttered, looking about the small wooded bank of the pool. He had watched the men bring stock here and water it a few minutes ago, then depart. No one seemed to be about. He had left Rani playing with her wolf near Agata's tent. After a swift search of the area, he stripped off his clothes, wrinkling his nose at their sweaty, bloodstained condition. “I must smell as vile as the
caraque
. Well, not quite.”

      
He carried his hose and tunic to the water's edge and submerged them, then began to scrub with a small piece of soap he had taken from his bag. Ruefully he wondered how his sisters would react to seeing their elder brother act the part of a washerwoman. “God's balls, I am homesick!” Could he ever return to Española now that Miriam and Rigo lived there?

      
“First things first. I must find a way to steal back Averroes and escape the delightful hospitality of my hosts.” He wrung out his tattered shirt and hose, then spread his clothes on several rocks to dry in the warm sun. After wading in a few yards, Benjamin was delighted to find that the pool's bottom fell away sharply and he could swim. He sudsed up his hair and body, then tossed the soap onto the bank, all the while idly wondering what Rani Janos would look like with the layers of grime washed away. He dismissed the thought and dove beneath the water to rinse off.

      
The subject of his thoughts stepped onto the bank just as Benjamin vanished beneath the surface of the water. She let out a shriek of alarm and frantically searched for some means of rescuing him. What madness had led him to fall into the water? “Let you away from my sight for a few moments and you are ready to drown!”

      
She pulled her sharp dagger from its sheath and began frantically hacking at a half rotten tree branch overhanging the pool. If she could just break it the rest of the way loose, it might reach Benjamin and she could pull him from the water when he bobbed up again—if he came up again.

      
Benjamin surfaced and took a long, swift stroke through the water before he heard Rani's cry. “Hold on! I have a tree limb. Tis rotten but I think it will work. Here, catch on to it,” she grunted as she flung the heavy dead wood with its scratchy dried clusters of leaves in Benjamin's direction.

      
Before he could duck the limb hit him broadside with enough impact to drive him once more beneath the water. Scratched, bruised and winded, he broke the surface a few feet away, only to fall victim to the flailing tree limb once again.

      
“Hold on to it, you dumb
gadjo
!” Rani shrieked, tottering precariously at the water's edge.

      
Benjamin swore as the scratchy oak leaves abraded his wounded shoulder. “Get that damned tree away from me! Can a man not take a swim without being clubbed insensate?”

      
“You will drown! Grab on to the limb.”

      
Rather than argue with the hysterical girl and risk being knocked unconscious so that he would indeed drown, Benjamin seized the limb with both hands and gave a fierce yank. He had hoped to pull the weapon from her hands, but blind terror lent Rani strength. Instead of releasing the limb, she hung on and followed it headlong into the water, kicking and screaming.

      
The weight of the heavy end of the limb pulled the frantic girl under. Benjamin tried to dodge the leafy end, which was still splashing about the surface of the water like a crazed crocodile in a death frenzy. He finally dove deeply and swam around the deadly disturbance. The girl had stirred up so much mud from the floor of the pond he could see nothing as he groped for her. Finally he touched one small arm and held on to it, then began to pry her fingers free from the limb. Once she was disarmed, he still had no easy task getting her to the surface.

      
For such a tiny thing, Rani was amazingly strong, with sharper nails and teeth than her pet wolf. He subdued her only after she had inflicted several deep scratches on his hands and arms. As he held her fast and pushed up to the surface she sank her teeth into his shoulder. He broke the water and let out a snarling oath, then flung the sodden girl into the shallows, where she landed panting and dazed.

      
Her hair was plastered like a wool cloak across her face and her long ruffled skirts were twisted and clumped between her thighs. Rani struggled to breathe. Ah, sweet air, more air! She reached up and clawed her hair from her eyes as she turned to search for Benjamin. Surely he must be dead. She let out a sob that changed to a gasp of shock when she saw him out in the middle of the pool, magically holding his upper body above the deep water and scowling furiously at her. “You—you are not dead?” she choked.

      
“No, by the twenty-four balls of the twelve apostles, but you soon will be! What the hell were you doing? If you wanted to murder me you should have let Django do it quickly that first night by the fire.”

      
“I was trying to save your life,” she replied in affront. Her voice was laced with equal amounts of bewilderment and horror as she watched him glide through the water. “How came you to fall in?” she asked as she scurried onto the dry bank and began to wring out her skirts. The dyes faded onto her hands and arms in a rainbow of colors. She flung her hair back from her face and it landed with a loud plop against her back. Oh, misery!

      
“I did not fall in. I jumped in quite voluntarily to bathe and swim, two pastimes you would do well to cultivate.”

      
The gold-coin eyes grew even larger in that small, mud-streaked face as she stared incredulously at him. “I have heard some
gadje
actually wash their bodies.” She shuddered at the thought. “Dogs and horses and other wild animals swim when they must, but I never saw a man so foolish as to do it of his own free will! The
Rom
never go near water. Tis bad luck.”

      
He eyed her critically and said, “Then you must have led an incredibly lucky life up until now.”

      
Rani felt utterly humiliated. How dare this stupid
gadjo
insult her! “I risked my life to save you, you ungrateful wretch!” She shivered in spite of the noon heat, then struggled to her feet and flounced off, leaving a trail of dye-stained water on the sandy bank.

      
After sneaking into her wagon, Rani began to change into dry clothes. She considered the strange habits of the physician and wondered if both she and Agata had been mistaken about her fate being joined to his. Then she heard Rasvan's voice as he neared their wagon, obviously in conversation with someone.

      
“I am glad tis settled. Three of your father's best horses, the red rug from Turkey and twenty gold pieces. Django will choose the horses when he is able, but I will look over Sandor's herd and recommend the ones that are most fleet.”

      
“You ask a very dear bride price for Rani. I am surprised my father agreed to it,” Michel said.

      
Rani froze when she overheard the
voivode's
son. How she hated the sound of his petulant voice. Wed her! She shuddered, thinking of his rotted teeth and scruffy boy's body with its pale, hairless chest. Then Rasvan's next words caused her heart to skip a beat.

      
“Soon we must kill the
gadjo
. ”

      
“I do not like this. If my father found out—”

      
“Django has planned it all. While he and I are feasting at the campfire, we will pretend to get very drunk. His woman will help him to bed and you will drag me beneath my wagon. Then, while everyone is asleep we will crush the physician's skull with a club and carry him off into the woods and bury him. If we steal a horse and tie it many miles from here, everyone will believe he has escaped.”

      
“But Rani's wolf guards him.” Michel sounded dubious.

      
“I have long wanted to rid myself of that accursed beast. It has the Evil Eye and will hex us all one day. Django purchased poison while we were at the fair. Vero will feast his last the night the moon wanes.”

      
Quickly, lest they discover her, Rani slipped out the other end of the wagon and ran in search of Agata.

      
Vero, who had been away from camp hunting, came trotting up to Agata's cookfire just as Rani slipped into the
phuri dai's
tent.

      
“Rasvan and Michel are going to poison Vero and then kill Benjamin in but two days! What are we to do?” she whispered, shivering with fright.

      
“By the dark of the moon,” Agata murmured, plucking at the hair on her chin. “Do not fear for Vero. He will eat none of Django's poison. As to your golden man...” She eyed Rani speculatively.

      
Under her scrutiny the girl felt her cheeks flame. “He is not
my
man. In fact, he is impossible to understand. He nearly drowned us both this afternoon—bathing in the pool where we water the livestock!”

      
The
phuri dai
chuckled. “You will have to learn some new ways in order to survive in the world of the
gadje
. ”

      
“Bathing?” In truth that thought frightened her nearly as much as did Rasvan and Django.

      
Agata shrugged, then said, “I shall ponder what to do. We have yet two days before your brothers will act.”
Perhaps you will yourself provide me with the solution to the problem...

* * * *

      
Michel formally brought the bride price to Django that night while the wily old Sandor beamed proudly at his display of wealth. Rani Janos was well worth it, for she was Agata's choice to be the next
phuri dai
. Sandor was not deceived where his son was concerned. Michel was weak. The boy needed a strong, clever woman to guide him.

      
Rani watched Django and Michel seal the bargain binding her in a loathsome alliance.
I will never lay with him.
The very thought of giving her virginity to the skinny, nasty-tempered boy made her ill. Then, sensing the
voivode's
eyes on her, she swept her thick black lashes down, veiling her look of repugnance.

      
Benjamin stood near the edge of the gathering listening to the exchange in their strange foreign tongue. Django was obviously betrothing Rani to the chief's son and the girl was just as obviously displeased by the transaction. He studied her elfin face and slender body, once again curious about how she might look if properly bathed and dressed—or undressed. Grinning ruefully to himself, he muttered low, “God's bones, I have been too long without a woman to ever think such a thing. I must escape, and that right quickly!”

      
After scouting the campgrounds as much as he could without raising suspicion, Benjamin was unable to find where the accursed Janos brothers had hidden Averroes. Perhaps Rani knew the horse's location. Dare he ask her? He decided that if he did not find Averroes by tomorrow night he would risk it. He thought of the rusty stew pot filled with hedgehogs, squirrels and other delicacies that the
caraque
ate with grimy fingers. “I must escape soon else I will die of the plague—or starvation!”

      
He passed several campfires where men, women and children squatted about their crude iron cookpots, devouring their evening meal with relish. Bones and bits of meat were tossed to dogs that waited eagerly. One small child busily wrestled a hunk of meat from the family pet, then shoved it in his mouth, mud, dog saliva and all.

      
Benjamin feasted on a chunk of cheese and more of the stale black bread, washed down with some wine. At least he had been able to wash the knife and cup before using them. As he was finishing up, Rani reappeared at Agata's fire. “So this is where you disappeared. There is a feast at the central campfire. Why do you keep to yourself?”

      
“Perhaps I pine for your hand, which is already pledged in marriage,” he said sarcastically, then wished instantly to call back the words. Her small face looked crestfallen yet defiantly proud at the same time. “Forgive me, Rani. I know you do not favor Michel, but he seems a harmless boy. A woman of your formidable talents could surely bend him to your will.”