Conquistadora - Esmeralda Santiago [197]
Efraín led the slaves into the batey. When they saw the ruins, the women wailed, pulled off their head rags, and flapped their shoulders and torso, as if insects had swarmed them. Their children screeched around them, grabbing for the rags, fearing that all that flapping would cause their mothers to float up into the sky. Their cries nearly drowned out the sound of approaching horses, the jingling of spurs, and the curses of men unsheathing sabers. The lieutenant led four soldiers, and three members of the local militia flanked the sheriff. Behind them, a disheveled Manolo Morales Moreau, who was more used to riding in his pretty calash than on a horse, bobbed and jerked, making Severo Fuentes feel sorry for the stressed animal. When Manolo saw Severo with his father, he dropped ungracefully from his mount and waddled to Luis, who wouldn’t let go of Severo until he recognized that the immense, blubbering man grabbing at him was his son.
“They tried to kill me,” Luis wept as Manolo hugged and kissed him and tried to drag him upright, forgetting that his father’s legs were paralyzed.
A soldier rounded up the slaves and made them sit on the ground with their hands on their heads.
“We caught two men,” the sheriff said to Severo and the lieutenant. “One called Yayo, the other Alfonso.”
“Yayo belongs to Los Gemelos. I’m still missing two more, Jacobo and Quique. Alfonso and as many as another five ran from here.”
“We’ll find them,” the sheriff said.
Another soldier rode up and talked to the lieutenant. “Don Miguel is waiting for someone to escort him—”
“Miguel?” Severo turned to Efraín, who was holding their mounts. “Didn’t you go check on his arrival this morning?”
“The ship wasn’t there, patrón,” Efraín said. “I asked, and the harbormaster said no ships would dock today, and to come back tomorrow.”
“There is a mistake. Don Miguel was with don Manolo,” the lieutenant said.
Manolo and a militiaman were trying to lift Luis into his wheelchair. Severo helped them settle the still-distraught old man before questioning his son.
Manolo was breathless from the exertion but between wheezes was able to tell Severo about the ship’s arrival, and finding Miguel on the street, and bringing him home. “When the alarm came, he didn’t hesitate,” Manolo said. “He was riding with us, but next thing I knew, he wasn’t there.”
“He stopped when he saw your fields were on fire,” the soldier said. “He said he was going down there. He was worried about doña Ana.”
Before his last words were uttered, Severo was on horseback, ordering Efraín to follow him down the hill to Los Gemelos.
Teo, Paula, and Pepita, carrying Segundo in a sling, settled in the kitchen with Meri after Ana and the rest left.
“I told her,” Meri said, “about Jacobo. I heard him say—”
“Hush, child,” said Paula. “Don’t talk such nonsense.”
“But I heard—”
“You heard nothing, and you could get a lot of people in trouble with your loose tongue,” Teo said. “No one has said anything about anything. Understand?”
“But I already—”
“Don’t talk anymore,” Paula said. “Get your work and I’ll help you with the hemming. Can you light another lamp, Teo?”
Meri was annoyed. Who did old Paula think she was, telling her what to do? Just as soon as el patrón gave her her freedom papers, Meri was going to tell Paula a thing or two. Always telling her to hush! She should be quiet, the old goat.
Freedom! She’d be free, and as soon as she could, she’d leave El Destino and Hacienda los Gemelos and go away, maybe as far as San Juan. She’d open a dress shop for fine ladies, the patterns taken