Conquistadora - Esmeralda Santiago [108]
Eugenio stared at Ana as if she’d sprouted snakes around her head. “Do I understand you correctly? Are you offering to trade Miguel for Los Gemelos?”
“I didn’t say that, don Eugenio. What kind of a mother do you think I am?”
“But you said—”
“I’m suggesting an arrangement to benefit everyone. I stay here building what your sons and I began. If I fail, I’ll return to Spain, but Miguel will be yours. That way, you and doña Leonor will not be the only ones to have sacrificed sons.”
“I find it hard to believe what I’m hearing.” Eugenio leaned against the wall, needing the support of the sturdy beams. “In any case, Leonor will never agree to leave Miguel here. She has already made that clear to me.”
“Ah, yes, doña Leonor,” Ana said with a rueful smile. “She, I think, would prefer a cleaner arrangement.” There was no sarcasm in her voice, but she seemed to be talking to herself. “Perhaps when you misunderstood me earlier, we were closer to what would make the most sense to her. Yes, a straight barter would make more sense.” She sighed then, lowering her voice so that he would come closer, she continued, “What if I get Los Gemelos, you get Miguel? You raise him in a more … suitable … environment.”
“Ana, do you mean this? You’d give up your child?”
She looked him in the eye. “Don Eugenio, I’m not giving Miguel up; I’m sending him to be raised by his loving grandparents, who are better equipped to educate and care for him than I am.”
“If that were the case, why do you need to own Los Gemelos?”
“Because I’m a poor defenseless widow whose entire fortune has gone into this place, to which I have no legal claim. And it’s true, I’m still young, strong, and healthy. I don’t wish to live the remainder of my life as your dependent, like Elena does. But I’m willing to live as … as your business partner, for lack of a better word.”
“There’s something wrong with this.”
Ana continued, as if she hadn’t heard him. “Los Gemelos should remain in your name with Miguel as the only heir. And you must agree not to sell it without offering it to me first. That seems only fair, doesn’t it?”
“Yes, that seems right.”
“If, as you predict, I get married again, Miguel’s inheritance will be protected.”
“You seem to have thought this out thoroughly.”
“We’re having a necessary discussion about my future and Miguel’s. I appreciate your help in trying to determine what’s best for me and my son, but you do understand that if I don’t have my own home, I’ll be forced to return to my parent’s house in Sevilla, and I’ll take my son with me.”
“Now you’re threatening me.”
“I’m merely discussing my options with you, sir.”
“I see.” Eugenio’s lips twisted, as if tasting something sour. From the yard rose the sound of Miguel’s laughter, and the women’s light steps coming up the stairs. “Let’s continue our discussion later. They’re back from their picnic.”
Eugenio was preoccupied the rest of the day. He circled the pond, his hands clasped behind his back, mulling over Ana’s offer and how it would affect his life.
He’d already sold the farm in Caguas because after Inocente’s death his wife was afraid to live in the campo. Divesting himself of Marítima Argoso Marín was next. With both sons dead, there was no one left to manage the shipping business—an enterprise Eugenio didn’t, and didn’t want to, understand. He was heartened by Luis Morales Font’s offer for Hacienda los Gemelos because he couldn’t imagine himself—or Leonor—ever wanting to live there. He had trouble accepting that the black men and women on the hacienda were his property even though he’d sent money to his sons for buying slaves. Like every hacendado, he was convinced that slaves were necessary to the operations and better suited to the work than white laborers.
Both his and Leonor’s family in Spain had owned slaves who remained with their parents after abolition. In San Juan, their friends kept slaves for their households, but Eugenio had been less exposed to the