Chapter Two Miranda's Story. 2/15

"The Carlotta necklace was made for Empress Carlotta, wife of Maxmillian, by the poor people of Sonora. Garnets, pearls, and diamonds—-worth 250,000 dollars. Ramone Monteja was an agent who kept it at his ranchero for three generations. It was not his. It belonged to the people." She spoke with fire.

"My father, Emilio Vassalis was a revolutionary in Sonora. He became one after he watched my mother die of starvation, giving her share of our meager food to her children—-me, my brothers, and the baby. Three brothers—-Emilio and Matteo are gone now. Vincente is in San Diego. He gave up the fight too."

The ladies saw the pain become fresh in her eyes again. They waited for her to continue.

"I went to the ranch and pretended to be the niece of Monteja. The necklace was in the safe in town. I couldn't get it until Monday. I had never been in a house such as this. Rich gringos and I pretended to be an aristocrat. Fish outta water flopping around like an engañar."

"Your father looked so handsome that night. A blue check suit and that western tie he likes. Smelled like a cowboy in a cathouse with gold in his pocket."

The ladies' eyes grew big, and the older ones laughed raucously. Miranda said exactly what everyone thought. The younger women giggled.

"I had him throw that away when I came home with him. I like him in bay," she winked.

"He was the first man to ever pull out a chair for me. He has never let me do it since if he was anywhere around. Like when the daffodils bloom on the ridge in spring, he brings me the first ones."

"I had never used a linen napkin before. I tucked it in my bosom and I think that was the first sign I was falsa. Your grandmother noticed, and then she asked me to say grace. I had never done that before either—-Nick quickly jumped in. He was so handsome and kind to me."

"I couldn't get comfortable on Audra's feather bed. Slept on the floor. That's where mother found me when she came to invite me to church. Another sign, I was not an aristocrat. Your papa was wearing that same blue suit to church. I begged off and went for a ride. Didn't know Nicholas was watching me go east."

"After church, he watched me with Hollis. I thought we would help the poor peasants with the necklace. No, he just was a gringo who wanted to rule us."

"Anyway, your papa called out, and I ran on the horse. Tried to jump the fence, and that poor animal stumbled. I hit my head. Yes, my hard head and my love carried me upstairs."

"He put me in bed and called the doctor. When I woke up in that blue bedroom of your aunt. I felt like I was in the sky; Gold drapes like the sun. I slipped on Audra's blue peignoir. Prettiest thing I ever saw. She gave it to me when I came home. I still have it." she smiled at her memory.

"Well, my stubborn self snuck out. Your papa caught me in the barn. I proudly pulled out a gun, threw a knife, and tried to strangle him with a cord. I taught him that, and it will come up later. A lady is always prepared to get what she wants—and I just didn't know it for sure, it was Nick Barkley."

The ladies laughed, and the nieces all ahhhed and oohed at her mettle. Peg's eyes grew big. Jane patted her on the leg, "Wait —-"

"You tried to shoot me, stab me and strangle me? What else you got?" Nick asked me.

"I passed out from the head bump and ended up locked in Audra's room. Poor Silas brought me breakfast, and I was horrible to him. Called him a slave to gringos. He still teases me sometimes—-And whispers "Gringos" to make me laugh."

Victoria and Jane laughed. They heard the story from Silas himself.

"I threw my tray at your father, and we began a tussle. A pillow fight for the ages. Then he kissed me, and not just a peck. Our first real kiss, the kind that you don't recover your breath from. A married kiss, if you know what I mean—-"

"Mother!" Maria Victoria spat in horror.

"It got you here, young lady."

She shook her head at her mother, in love. All the others grinned at the mother and daughter.

"I told Nick, he couldn't have kissed me if I had not let him."

"He just gave me that little boy smirk of his; it always works, and he knows it."

"Anyway, I went downstairs hoping to see him for supper. He was gone. He had given me the freedom to leave, but I already knew I didn't want to go."

"Mother Barkley showed me so much grace—-feeling of autumn in the air—"

"I come into your house as an imposter and to steal and yet you treat me as if I have done nothing wrong."

"I don't think you have—-yet."

"You never really looked for kindness before."

"Mother Barkley really got me thinking. I waited up for Nick and fell asleep on the settee. We talked, and I made up my mind to stay in the valley—-well, until a lot happened." And she looked sad again.

"I have never begged before for anything. Please give it to me."

"Miranda, it doesn't belong to me."

"Miranda, if it were mine to give, you would have it."

"I believe you."

"I know when I am beaten."

"I don't understand you."

"What has happened to you?"

"I am not going back to Sonora."

"Are you forgetting about all the hungry people?"

"Why aren't you going back?"

"Because Nick Barkley wants me to stay."

"Miranda, you are making a mistake"

"We can rule all of Sonora. All of us in this room. We have done the fighting we deserve the reward."

"Let people rule themselves."

"Give the peasants rule? The aristocrats would get their ranches back without costing a cent."

"Get millions out of them.l

"Have you bought and sold revolutionaries before?"

"I am sorry to disappoint me."

"I chose who will ride with us."

"I despise myself."

"You are a mercenary."

"Box canyon. Roberts cabin."

"Necklace for Miranda or Monteja"

"Barkley, you are my ticket to the border."

"I don't know, Nick. I just couldn't all my life I have been taught to hate. I never thought I could learn from a revolutionary and a rebel."

He dropped a knife, rope, gun. She laughed.

"Let's go back to the house, shall we?"

"We went back to the mansion, and I was very happy for two months until I got a letter from my brother. We were a month from the wedding."

"I must go home."

"Why?"

"I have been thinking. Deserting my people if I stay here. And the guilt I would feel would be a wall between us. My brother needs me—-father depended on me to carry his torch."

"If I do not go now, I will not go at all."

"And I went back to Sonora. Your father was so angry at me. And yes, I know I was wrong,"

—-&—-

Tea was brought in, and more tea cakes. The ladies served each other, and when the servants left, they settled back in to hear the rest of the story.

Maria Victoria seemed very tense. She had discovered the truth by accident last year and decided never to mention it to her parents. She was organizing family documents with Uncle Jarrod after his heart scare.

"You should know where everything is."

They are my parents, and they deserve my silence. But what will my Madre say?

"Well, I settled back in with the revolutionaries and kept up the fight. But my heart wasn't in it. But I am a mule, and I can't seem to get myself off the wrong path unless your father talks some sense in me. And he was angry at me—angry. Angriest he ever was. We put out the word I had stayed in Stockton so we could regroup."

Miranda drained her sherry and continued the story.

"Your Uncle Heath caught a hired killer breaking into the mansion. He had a bounty for my death or return to Mexico. The rumor had flown that I kept the real necklace, and a faux one was given to the Mexican consul. Nick and Jarrod could not figure out where that began, but the real necklace did disappear in Mexico City."

"He confessed that a thousand gold notes were on my head. My Nick left during the night to come to find me. He did. Rode for days and quite a bit of trouble. Became so sick and stayed at my Dona mission. Wished I had never left the valley."

"We married, and he gave me my beautiful necklace. Garnets and pearls on the cross. "I bought you a necklace that I don't want to leave your beautiful neck. It belonged to a couple who had been married for fifty years. I am gonna keep you that long for sure. Just like you are never leaving me again."—-I was an American now and out of the revolutionary world. Nick does send grain and commodities to the mission in Sonora every year. He helped Vincente start a winery in San Diego."

The ladies all smiled and complemented Miranda. Victoria caught the relieved look on her oldest granddaughter's face.

"Does she know the rest of the story? It was over thirty-eight years ago."