Conquistadora - Esmeralda Santiago [71]
She’ll like it here, Severo thought, dismounting and walking circles around the land, using his machete to chop saplings grown too tall since the last time.
Severo Fuentes chose this as the perfect spot for the new, the real, casona of Hacienda los Gemelos. He envisioned the house as a masonry and tile palace for Ana. He took her plans for a house with a roofed wraparound terrace and altered them to fit the site. He imagined Ana sitting in a shady corner of the balcón even on the hottest part of the day, the breezes playing around her shoulders. She’d be dressed in pale green, like on the first day he saw her, with her black hair pinned, revealing the fine down along the back of her neck.
The first time he saw Ana, the voice inside Severo’s head, until then silent for years, said, “There’s your wife.” Ana would be his. She’d be his and so would Los Gemelos. The voice didn’t mention Los Gemelos, but he soon learned they came together. Coming to Puerto Rico had been her idea, Severo knew; Ramón and Inocente simply followed her ambitions.
With Inocente dead, Severo had no doubt that Ramón would soon lose heart. The tropics had crushed better men. Tens of thousands had taken advantage of the Crown’s Real Cédula de Gracias of 1815 encouraging white settlers to colonize and make their fortune, with the certainty that they could leave after five years, presumably enriched. Like many Europeans who dreamed of building wealth from sugar, Ramón and Inocente were speculators, not agriculturalists. A little money, optimism, and willingness to work hard weren’t enough. You had to be tough, you had to be strong, and every time your eyes rested on black skin, you had to be able to silence your conscience. Neither Ramón nor Inocente could do that, but Ana could. He knew it from the first. And the afternoon that she looked him in the eye and said, “Find them,” he was certain. He knew that, like him, Ana was ruthless enough for this land in a way Ramón and Inocente were not.
Severo predicted that without his brother, Ramón would soon doubt his ability to manage the plantation. Don Luis had already begun putting doubts into Ramón’s head. He had his eye on the hacienda, but he was overextended, even though he’d managed to scrape together enough to give Ramón and Inocente a loan. It was part of his plan to keep the Argosos indebted to him, to let them improve the land while he strengthened his own position. Then he’d call in his loans. But don Luis had a weakness, and Severo knew that too. He was vicioso, a man with a taste for every imaginable vice. His lechery and abuse of his female slaves were only the beginning. He was a gambler, and over the years, his losses were Severo’s gain as Luis came to him again and again for loans. To his credit, he paid if he won, but no one so reckless could win every time. If he didn’t lose at cards, it would be at cockfights. If not those, horse races. Severo bided his time. He wouldn’t allow don Luis to own Hacienda los Gemelos. If he had to use his own money to pay Ramón and Inocente’s debts, he’d do that, too. If Ana was to be his, the hacienda must be hers, and he would protect her interests.
Severo expected that Ramón would turn to him with increasing uncertainty. One day, he’d inform Ana that they were leaving, that he could manage the business from the city, like other Europeans who’d settled on