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She slipped from his embrace and jumped to the ground. Tomás murmured a word to the horse

and followed her. He stripped out of his trousers and stood before her, naked as she,

breathtakingly beautiful. Once more they kissed, and the vast blue sky wheeled over their

heads in joy.

They Changed together. Side by side, they went to Esperanza and licked her hands in thanks.

Shoulder to shoulder, pale fur mingling with brown, they set off across the desert.

Twenty-two

Tomás and Rowena returned to the cañon unannounced, three days after their simple wedding.

For the two days following Cole's death, they had run as wolves—oblivious to the human world,

traveling where they would, Changing to make love in sheltered places and under the sky.

Rowena had overcome her shame and doubt, but enough modesty remained that she waited

out of sight when, on the third day, Tomás ran to one of the villages where his true nature was

known, and borrowed clothing and horses to suit their human shapes.

It was as humans that they rode back to the outskirts of Las Vegas and got a message to Weylin,

who brought Esperanza to them. She was well, if very quiet, and ready to accompany them

back to the cañon.

Of Sim there was no sign.

The three of them went in search of the old padre, who married the couple quickly and with

little fanfare, Esperanza and a villager serving as the only witnesses. Rowena wore New

Mexican clothing and a borrowed veil, but to Tomás she'd never been more radiant.

The tiny village of El cañon del Rito de las Lagrimas seemed deserted when they arrived.

Esperanza, though she was merely human, was the first to spot the giggling child crouched

behind a casa wall. After that there was no hiding, and the other children and Tomás's men

spilled into the plaza with cheers and cries of welcome.

"Bienvenido!" old Nestor said, beaming through his wrinkles. "Enhorabuena to you both!"

Tomás helped Rowena and Esperanza to dismount, and the three of them ducked laughingly as

the children, from youngest to oldest, pelted them with wildflower blossoms. Rowena knelt to

accept the happy greetings of the children, while Esperanza watched with a quiet smile.

"How is it that you knew we were returning?" Tomás asked, drawing Nestor aside. "I sent the

men back long before—"

"Before you were nearly killed in Las Vegas?" The old man said. "Before Weylin MacLean

captured you and Cole MacLean died?"

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Tomás shook his head in wonderment. "News travels fast, but so few know of this cañon…"

"One who knows it well brought us the tale," Nestor said. His smile faded. "Sim Kavanagh rode

in four days ago, to tell us all that had happened since he left with the lady." The old man

frowned. "I would have shot him myself if he had not convinced me that he spoke truth. But he

said that you had rescued the lady, and he had taken Esperanza and then let her go. He told us,

too, how you and the lady met MacLean's men in Las Vegas, and how she fought for you like la

fierecilla." He glanced at Rowena, who was bouncing little Gita on her knee. "I was much

gladdened to hear that she had accepted you. She is one very much like your mother. At last

you have a woman worthy of you."

Tomás flushed, an experience new to him and not without inconvenience. "No, my friend. She

is by far my superior." He looked at Rowena with love and such happiness that he thought his

heart must burst. "And it was Esperanza, too, who saved my life, and Rowena's. Cole MacLean

brought his death upon himself, and set the lady free."

Nestor clasped his hands. "Then it is over, gracias a Dios." His brow furrowed anxiously. "It is

over? señor Kavanagh was right when he said that you have made peace with Weylin

MacLean?"

"It is true," Tomás said. He wondered how Sim could have learned so much, when he'd done no

more than shoot the gun from Cole's hand and then vanish. "There will be peace—at least

between me and Weylin MacLean. The wounds may take time to heal, but—" He looked again

at Rowena. "Change is always possible, amigo. Change, and hope." He looked around the

village, where nothing had altered. Only he saw it through new eyes. "Where is Sim now?"

"He rode on." Nestor drew a folded piece of paper from his sash. "He left this for you."

Tomás took the paper and tucked it into his own sash. There would be time for that later—time

to consider what Sim had done, both betrayal and redemption.

Now there must be only celebration.

"Amigos!" he cried.

The noise died, and all eyes turned to him. He saw the faces of his loyal men—men who must,

like him, now abandon the outlaw way and find another life. They trusted in him as they always

had. And the children—Aquilino and Gita, Miguel, Gertrudis and Catalina, Pilar with her new

doll, still waiting for a proper frock, and Enrique, his gaze full of worship. How much he owed

them all.

He held out his hand to Rowena. She rose with all her natural grace and came to him. Her face

was no longer pale, but shone with the warmth of the sun. Her eyes danced with golden sparks

and sly mischief. Her fingers slid into his.

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"My friends," he repeated. "I have the greatest honor and joy of introducing you to my wife,

Dona Rowena Forster Randall."

One of his men hooted, and the others cried out their congratulations. Pilar beamed, old

enough to understand and approve. Enrique nodded wisely.

"Did I not say it would be so?" he said.

Rowena beckoned to Esperanza. The girl came to stand beside them, her eyes downcast.

"I know that Tomás will translate what I cannot say in Spanish," Rowena said. "I wish to tell you

how very happy I am to be back in the cañon, to be among you and have the chance to know

you much better. I hope that I will be permitted to earn your friendship."

Tomás translated swiftly, and the men nodded approval.

"I would also like to introduce you once more to Esperanza, who has done so much for us and

saved both our lives. I hope you will make her welcome here, so that she will know she has a

home always where she is loved and needed." She hugged Esperanza tightly and kissed her

cheeks. Tomás did the same. Esperanza seemed to glow from within, a fire that touched her

skin and filled her eyes with soft warmth.

After that there was more general talking and laughter and many exchanges of goodwill. Tomás

knew that a serious discussion must soon take place; the men had to decide upon their future,

and that of the children.

So must he and Rowena.

He carried her off for a few moments to himself while Nestor set to preparing a small feast. The

children went back to playing, and Esperanza wandered down to the wood by the stream. All at

once the cañon was quiet with the profound stillness of peace.

They walked, hand in hand, to the waterfall where once Tomás had attempted to seduce

Rowena. If she blushed when they sat beside the pool, he couldn't blame her. He had taken

shameful liberties.

This time there was no hesitation or confusion when they kissed and caressed each other.

Rowena sighed and leaned her head against his shoulder, trailing her bare feet in the water.

"I can't forget what happened to Cole," she said. "No matter how hard I try, I can't put it out of

my mind, or stop wondering what I could have done differently. If I'd understood him—"

"Hush." He pulled her close to him and rested his cheek against her hair. "You were always

blameless in this, mi amor. Cole MacLean was mad."

"Then you no longer hate him?"

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"My hatred died with him. He punished himself, by casting aside all that made him human—in

the finest sense of the word. His kind of sickness was not unique to our kind, but because of his

power it was far more deadly. He believed that the whole world was his to use or cast aside as

he willed. Including you." He kissed her temple. "You could have done nothing to mend his

illness. Sooner or later, he must have destroyed himself. I thank heaven that I found you before

he could destroy you as well." He smiled wryly. "Though at times I was little better than he—"

"Don't be ridiculous." Rowena sat upright and frowned at him. "You are a rogue and a rascal,

granted, but you are not—quite—mad." Her frown resolved into a look of sadness. "Still, I will

always wonder if someone might have reached him—"

"Esperanza reached him," Tomás reminded her. "If he could be healed, she would have done

so. But she reflected back to him the cruelties of his soul, and he could not bear it. Just as she

reflected to us our deepest desires, and made us see the truth in our own hearts."

"Yes." Rowena closed her eyes and laced her fingers through his. "She has a remarkable gift.

And great courage. Perhaps it is something that we were able to save her. Perhaps she will go

on to help others, as she helped us."

"Que asi sea. May it be so."

"I didn't tell you what she said to me at our wedding. She told me that her real name is

Felícita… 'happiness." She could not speak it until after she escaped Sim—and then there was

never time to explain. She lost her voice when she lost her old life, and I gave her a new name

out of ignorance. But she said to me, "You have given me Hope. I was named for happiness, but

I was never happy. Now I have something more precious than happiness. I will keep the name

that was your gift to me." "

Tomás squeezed her hand. "A new name for a new life. It will be a new life for all of us, mi

rubia."

"And how far we have come."

They sat in silence for a while, hand in hand, listening to the water and the cry of canyon wrens

high above.

"Did you know," Tomás said at last, "that Weylin asked Esperanza to stay with him in Las

Vegas?"

Rowena stared at him. "She didn't tell me—"

"It is odd that Weylin confided in me. But he was much taken with her, more than he would

admit. I don't know what passed between them, but she chose to return with us."

"Weylin and Esperanza," Rowena murmured. "How strange."

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"No stranger than Sim and Esperanza," Tomás said. "I think he was in love with her."

"What?"

"You may well be shocked. Sim had contempt for women. He was obsessed with the girl in a

way I've never seen. Perhaps the gentleness in her called out to his suffering. Perhaps he

understood that she was the only one who could end it."

Rowena shuddered. "I wouldn't let him touch her. He's too much like Cole MacLean."

"Not so much. I think there is still hope for Sim Kavanagh."

He remembered the paper Nestor had given him and pulled it from his waistcoat. "Nestor said

he left this for me."

He unfolded the paper and held it out so Rowena could see. The writing was painstaking, as if

by the hand of someone who seldom had the need—or the desire—for correspondence.

" 'Amigo," "it began,

" 'By the time you see this, I'll be gone. I've had a mind for some time now to head out of the

Territory and find new stomping grounds, and now that you're domesticated, there ain't much

point in staying. Your lady and me don't see eye to eye. I grant she's better than I thought, but

there never was a woman who didn't ruin a friendship sooner or later.

Rowena snorted. "The nerve of the man, after all he did—"

"He saved our lives," Tomás said quietly. He continued to read aloud.

" 'I reckon you forgave me for taking the lady. I thought it was a good way to get close enough

to Cole MacLean to kill him. and get you out of trouble at the same time. Didn't work out as I

planned. I wouldn't have turned you in. If you don't know that, you're a bigger fool than I

thought.

Tomás shook his head. "So I am."

" 'I never told you why I hated MacLean as much as you did. It didn't have anything to do with

the time you found me in the desert. No reason you shouldn't know now.

" 'Frank MacLean was my father—'" Tomás nearly dropped the paper. "His father? Maldicion.

"—and Cole was my brother.

"How can that be?" Rowena said. "Surely that would make him—"

" Hombre-lobo. Like us." He snapped the paper flat, as if the words on it might alter. "It explains

much. He says, 'My mother was a whore in Texas. Frank MacLean visited her when he got tired

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of his wife, which was often enough. She thought he'd set her up in a house and give her a

fancy life. Then I was born, and he stopped coming. Ma blamed me for that. She

started sickening a few years later. I didn't know who my pa was until Ma told me on her