Return to Paradise (Torres Family Saga) (49 page)

      
Ruth's eyes widened, then narrowed as she watched the play of emotions on Olivia's face. Since Ana's death at the hands of the Inquisition, she and Isaac had raised Olivia with their own granddaughter Rebecca. “I know you as well as anyone, Olivia. You think this whole wretched tangle amusing. Once you see the girl and her wolf you may not be smiling so. I would hate to have your husband widowed with three small children to raise if Vero gobbled you up like one of cook's chickens,” Ruth added, only half in jest.

      
Olivia let the burble of laughter escape as she slipped a plump grape in her mouth. “What thinks Rebecca of this new addition to the household?”

      
Ruth waved her hand in dismissal. “She has been in Genoa, visiting your cousin Alejandro and his wife for the past month. She knows nothing about this...this creature and her creature.”

      
“Yet Benjamin keeps Rani here in spite of all,” Olivia said thoughtfully, tapping one slim finger against the elegant hollow of her cheek.

      
Ruth sighed and said grudgingly, “She saved his life when her band of cutthroats abducted him. He feels obligated to her.”

      
Olivia suppressed another peal of laughter and said drily, “From what I have heard ‘obligated’ seems an inappropriate word.”

      
“Really, Olivia, such talk is not seemly.”

      
Olivia patted Ruth's frail hand gently. “I am four and thirty years old, wed for many a long year. I know why Benjamin keeps the girl here. The question is what to do with her. Is she coarse and lusty? I have seen
Rom
wenches at the fairs telling fortunes and dancing. Somehow I cannot imagine my proper cousin bewitched by one such as that.”

      
A loud snarl followed by a yowling hiss rent the air outside the window. “That wolf has doubtless treed Cinnamon again. She will come after it and you may judge her looks and manner for yourself.”

      
The two women rose and walked briskly toward the door leading into the courtyard gardens.

      
Rani knelt in the freshly tilled dirt of a bed of oleander with her arms about Vero's neck, petting and soothing the wolf, who gazed keenly at a low overhanging limb of the willow tree on which sat the plump orange cat Cinnamon. “You cannot have him. Tis most inhospitable to eat our hostess’ pet, Vero.” A soft chuckle of laughter caused Rani to turn and gape at the grand lady standing next to Ruth Torres.

      
“I daresay you are right. My aunt is quite attached to that old rascal, as I am certain you are to your pet.”

      
Rani tightened her grip about the wolf's neck. “Vero is more than a pet. He is my protector and friend. He has saved my life many times...and he means no harm in chasing the cat.”

      
“Unless Cinnamon grows careless in his old age,” Ruth said crossly, standing back a ways behind Olivia, who studied the girl with shrewd eyes.

      
“So you are Rani Janos. I am Benjamin's cousin Olivia.” She stepped forward and extended her hand experimentally to the wolf, allowing him to sniff it and decide if he approved her or not. He did, giving her a careful slurp, then sitting down to watch her, the cat now forgotten.

      
“He has only taken to one other
gadje
. ” Rani's voice was filled with awe as she stared at the beautiful woman.

      
“Allow me to guess that it was Benjamin. He has always possessed a great affinity to animals. Perhaps tis the healer in him.”

      
“He tended Vero once in Italy when some soldiers had shot him.” Rani suddenly realized that she was kneeling in the dirt with her skirts all awry and her hair tangled about her shoulders. What did this elegant lady think of her?

      
As if answering the unspoken question in the Gypsy's round golden eyes, Olivia extended her hand to the girl and assisted her in standing up. “I would like to speak with you, Rani Janos. I have never known a
Romni
before, only an old
Rom
man who cared for my husband's horses on our country estate. He told me bits about your language and customs.”

      
Rani stood in front of Olivia, at a loss for words. The
gadji
towered over her, tall and willowy, dressed in a gown of deep green brocade embroidered with gold thread. Her reddish brown hair was neatly contained in a snood sewn with seed pearls and she wore the most beautiful emerald necklace the girl had ever seen.

      
Olivia turned to Ruth and said in her low musical voice, “Aunt, if you would be so kind, I would enjoy speaking to Rani alone. I believe Cinnamon is safe enough for now.” The cat winked his green eyes balefully from his perch, as if agreeing.

      
Ruth, glad to be quit of Vero any time, nodded. “I shall send a servant with some refreshment for you.”

      
“Now, come, let us sit on yonder bench and discuss many things.”

      
“Things such as Benjamin?” Rani asked guardedly.

      
Olivia laughed. “Yes, certainly Benjamin. But first tell me about yourself.”

      
Something in the older woman's sparkling blue eyes, so warm and inviting of confidence, led Rani to let down her defenses. Before she knew it she was pouring forth her whole life's history, her aversion to Django and Rasvan and their coarse brutal ways, her adoption by old Agata, even the
phuri dai's
offer to train her in the magical arts.

      
“Yet you chose to give up this chance in order to save Benjamin and come here with him.” Olivia watched the blush stain the girl's dusky cheek. She was certainly a delicate little creature, wild and untutored, yet nothing like the
caraque
who regularly camped on her husband's estates every spring. “You love Benjamin, do you not, Rani?”

      
The soft question, asked so kindly and knowingly, caused Rani's heart to tighten in her chest. “Yes...but I am
Romni
He cannot love me, only...”

      
“Only bed you,” Olivia supplied, noting again the blush. “He took your innocence,” she stated flatly.

      
Rani's eyes flashed with amazement. “You are the first Torres ever to assume I had chastity to protect. Even Benjamin thought I was a whore when first he...we...”

      
“Yes, that would be my arrogant young cousin's glib male assumption.” She studied the girl's face, noting the delicacy of her features once again with curiosity. “You spoke of your father and brothers. What of your mother, Rani?” A suspicion was beginning to form in her mind.

      
“I never knew the lady,” Rani said bitterly, then gasped at her choice of words.

      
“She was not
Romni,
was she?”

      
Almost against her will, Rani repeated Agata's hurtful story to this sympathetic listener, concluding in a taut, low voice, “She did not want me—would have had me killed if my father had not claimed me. I can never be a
gadji.
I was foolish to leave my band and come here.”

      
“Perhaps not so foolish...if you truly love Benjamin.” Olivia mulled over an idea. “Tis wildly improbable, yet I know my cousin. He and Miriam Toulon did not suit, in spite of their common love of medicine. He was altogether too patient with her and she with him. For years promised to wed and he never laid a hand on her.”

      
“But she was a lady, not a
Romni
.” Rani hated to hear the name of Benjamin's beloved spoken aloud, yet Olivia's words puzzled her.

      
Olivia scoffed. “Yes, such a splendid creature on a pedestal—until Rigo Torres pulled her from it and she most willingly fell into his arms.”

      
“Benjamin was grievously hurt by that,” Rani said softly, unwilling to meet Olivia's eyes.

      
“I imagine it did rather bruise his ego, but he was the one who waited while Miriam dabbled with her studies and her practice for all those years. She would not follow him to Española. Would you, Rani?”

      
Now their eyes met. “Yes, but he would only take me…” Her voice faded.

      
“As a mistress? We shall see about that. I think you have the potential to become lady enough to suit my cousin, even satisfy Aunt Ruth. She really is a dear, gentle soul, you know, only terrified witless by Vero, here.” She patted the wolf, who nuzzled her hand.

      
“I cannot give him up,” Rani stated flatly.

      
Olivia laughed. “Vero or Benjamin?” Then, seeing Rani's distraught expression, she immediately sobered. “You do not have to chose, child. From all the tales my uncle Aaron and aunt Magdalena have told us about the New World, I am certain there will be a place for Vero. But you will have to make a few adjustments.”

      
“Such as?” Rani eyed her with curiosity now.

      
“Such as eating with utensils and learning proper manners for social occasions. You must…er…moderate your vocabulary. My aunt has indicated you have a most colorful way of expressing your displeasure.”

      
Rani shrugged. “Already I have learned to bathe. After suffering that naught else can be very difficult.”

      
“Good. First we will begin by outfitting you with suitable clothing. You must dress like a lady and learn to move and walk with the encumbrance of such tortuous devices as farthingales and long trains for formal occasions.”

      
“I have already grown used to shoes,” Rani ventured.

      
“That is an excellent beginning. I shall take you to my dressmaker this afternoon and she can measure you. You are such a tiny thing, she will love you. Then we will begin lessons in deportment. Oh, I suppose you cannot read?”

      
“Only
Rom
signs.”

      
“My cousin is a terrible snob about reading and writing, although many noblewomen of the highest rank cannot even sign their names. Come, let us begin with some simple lessons. If you are half as quick as I think you to be, you shall dazzle Benjamin!”

      
Rani and Olivia agreed that until the girl was ready to make her debut as a lady, she would use her simple peasant clothes and apply herself to her lessons during the day while Benjamin was busy with his practice. At first he wondered at the contented way she greeted him each evening, no longer complaining about being confined or bored. Neither did Ruth and Isaac come to him with tales of her horrendous escapades. Miraculously he had not caught her stealing for weeks! And even Vero behaved. Well, Cinnamon might dispute that, but the sly old feline and the clever wolf seemed to have arrived at a truce of sorts.

      
Benjamin noticed the improvement in Rani's table manners and attributed it to Olivia, whom he knew had adopted the girl. His elder cousin, herself an orphan rescued by Isaac from the clutches of her father's ruthless family in Spain, was prone to take in every stray that wandered to their doorstep. She had a menagerie of animals and put every street urchin she could find to work in her indulgent husband's vineyards, stables or household.

      
Returning slightly early one afternoon, he encountered Olivia leaving in her litter as he dismounted from Avarroes. Cocking one golden eyebrow jauntily, he took her hand and said, “I have scarce seen you since you returned to the city, Cousin. Has Rani been entertaining you?”

      
“She is a positive delight, Benjamin.”

      
“I do not doubt she has proved the challenge of your lifetime,” he said drily.

      
“Yes, she is that and more, but so bright, so quick to learn...er, once she is so motivated,” Olivia evaded gracefully.

      
Benjamin snorted. “You should have been the one motivating her to make an acquaintance with soap and water the first time. Now that was a Promethean challenge.” They shared a laugh, but then Benjamin's expression sobered.
 

      
“I know not what to do with her, Olivia. Our uncle chides me about marriage and duty. Yet I owe a duty to Rani, too.”

      
“And you desire her.” Olivia's expression was smug as she watched him color in embarrassment.

      
“I can scarce wed an illiterate Gypsy wench.” Benjamin looked distinctly miserable, but Olivia took no pity on him. “You can bed her easily enough and I warrant you were the first, too.”

      
“Olivia, this is not a suitable subject for us to discuss.”
 

      
“Do not play the prig with me, Cousin. Tis not in your nature. As to Rani's suitability for this grand family, I think she would do well enough, but I shall leave that for you to discover for yourself.” With that enigmatic remark, she bid him a good day and climbed into her litter.

      
Benjamin entered the courtyard, still puzzled and more than a bit disturbed. What were those two scheming females about?

* * * *

      
“Next week Uncle Isaac is giving a feast with musicians and dancing, to celebrate the arrival of a great fleet of trading ships laden with rare goods from the Levant. I think twill be an excellent opportunity for you to make your first social appearance. Your gowns are ready and you have learned etiquette most felicitously.”

      
Rani felt her stomach flutter with nervousness as the two women sat in the library of Olivia's big city house, which had been converted to a schoolroom of sorts. She could now write her name credibly and had mastered the rudiments of the alphabet. “Will Judah Toulon be present at this celebration?”