Rio (28 page)

At that point, he turned his face toward her, and she took a deep breath and stepped backward in shock. While the left side of his face was handsome, the right side was scarred and twisted. “Oh, dear Lord,” she whispered, trying not to stare but unable to take her eyes off the stranger.

He seemed to sense her horror, and he winced and turned quickly away so that his right side was hidden again.

* * *

Diablo watched her from the car step. He was almost hypnotized by the girl. She was certainly not yet twenty, and small. Her blue dress accentuated her eyes, which were as pale as a Texas sky, and her hair was lighter than corn silk. The tight waist accentuated her tiny body, and she was fragile and delicate, almost too delicate to be in this cold, harsh country. He had never seen anything like her before. He found himself staring at her full, pink lips, and without thinking, he turned his head to get a better look.

Too late he saw her hand go to her mouth and the way she stepped backward in dismay. Diablo turned his face away, too aware that his scarred face had frightened her, and the old anger arose in him. He would always have this effect on women, always. The fact made him angry with the beautiful, petite girl, although he knew it was not her fault.

Two men walked up to join the girl, not looking at Diablo. The older one had wispy hair, almost snow blond, and eyes as pale as the girl’s. The other was middle-aged, perhaps in his forties with a small potbelly, and hair and mustache dyed too black to hide the gray.

Diablo’s hand went to his pistol as the old memories flooded back. Then he forced himself to concentrate and not think of that long-ago day. He would pick the day and time, and this was not it. He grabbed his carpetbag and stepped back into the shadows of the car door so the men would not see him. He stared at the girl again, thinking he had never seen anything so fragile and beautiful. He wanted her as a man wants a woman, but was angry because she had recoiled from him. What could he expect? Didn’t women always shrink back from his ugly face? And yet, he always hoped there would be one who wouldn’t. Sunny, yes, that was what they had called her, and that was a good name for her. This girl was a magnificent princess; she could have any man she
wanted, and she would not want him. He sighed and turned his attention again to the men congregating on the platform.

The man called Canton had joined the other two, and everyone’s attention was on the crowd of gunfighters as they gathered around.

Diablo heard the big man say something to the girl about going shopping. She nodded, but Diablo saw that she was still staring back at him in a sort of horrid fascination.

“But Uncle Hurd, what about you and Dad?” the girl asked.

“We’ve got Stock Growers Association business to tend to. Now don’t worry your pretty little head—you just run on, and we’ll meet up with you later in the day. Here,” the big man reached into his pocket, “here’s some extra money to spend.”

The older man objected. “But Hurd, I give her money all ready.”

“So I give her some more. I’ve got plenty to spoil her.”

The girl tried not to accept it. “Oh, Uncle Hurd, it’s too much—”

“Nonsense. Now you run along and buy yourself something nice to wear at the party I might give soon.”

The girl took the money, hugged both the two men, and left. Diablo’s gaze followed her until she disappeared down the brick sidewalk and past the station. Then he watched the two men she had accompanied, and a terrible rage built in him as he remembered something too horrible to be voiced.

After fifteen years, he had returned as he had always promised himself he would. He cared nothing for the cattlemen’s war. Diablo had come to Wyoming for one reason and for one reason only: he had come to torture and kill certain men, and one of them was one of the two men the girl had embraced.

Yes, the mass hanging of the mostly Irish deserters of the St. Patrick’s battalion during the Mexican-American War actually happened. The rebellion of almost six hundred soldiers was something the army managed to keep secret for more than one hundred years, but the scandal finally came out. It is our government’s largest official execution in North America. However, as I’ve told you before in my earlier book,
Diablo,
it is not the largest mass execution within the United States’ borders. That doubtful honor goes to the hanging of the Santee Sioux after an uprising known as Little Crow’s War in Minnesota in 1862.

How many were hanged in the army rebellion? Figures vary, but it appears to be somewhere between forty and sixty. Why did the soldiers revolt? Some say it was because they were new immigrants, mostly Catholic, who had to deal with strict Protestant army officers. Others say it was because Mexico offered any soldier who joined up with them 320 free acres of land and Mexican citizenship. Some of those hanged were not even American citizens yet, so there is some question as to whether our government could legally punish them. Some soldiers were not hanged, but were given fifty lashes on their bare backs and branded on the cheek with the
letter “D” for deserter. This was the fate of the revolt’s leader, John Riley. The Saint Patrick’s Brigade is still revered in Mexico today, with a monument to them in Mexico City.

For more information on this subject, I suggest the movie
One Man’s Hero,
starring Tom Berenger. Look for Prince Albert of Monaco (yes, movie star Grace Kelly’s son) in a cameo scene. In the credits, he’s listed under his mother’s maiden name.

Interesting reference books are:
The Shamrock and the Sword: The St. Patrick’s Battalion in the U.S.-Mexican War,
by Robert Miller, OU Press, Norman, Oklahoma;
Rogue’s March: John Riley and the St. Patrick’s Battalion, 1846–48,
by Peter F. Stevens, published by Potomac Books Inc., Dulles, Virginia. Finally, ifyour local library has the Time-Life Old West series, the volume entitled
The Mexican War
is very readable.

Dueling used to be a way for gentlemen to solve their disagreements. It was so popular in Texas in the 1830s that a law was passed forbidding it. Of course, the most famous duel in American history is Alexander Hamilton versus Aaron Burr in 1804. The pistols belonged to Hamilton and his son had been killed with those very pistols in an earlier duel. These pistols still exist and today are in a bank vault in New York City. When they were closely examined in 1976, it was discovered they had trick “hair” triggers that could cause them to shoot prematurely.

If some of the characters in Rio seem familiar, the Durango family has appeared in a number of my stories. Turquoise and Edwin Forester first appeared in
Cheyenne Princess.
If you have already read that book, you were not surprised at the shocking ending to the story you have just read.

So what will I write about next? I’m going to continue the Texan series.
Diablo
was about a gunfighter,
Rio
about a vaquero. Next, we are going to cover Colton Prescott, a lieutenant in the U.S. Army in Texas. The army was attempting to hold off the Comanche Indians who were ravaging that
state’s western borders in the 1850s, before the beginning of the Civil War.

Colt is a true Texan and a career soldier; tall, with black hair and bright green eyes. When he was young, he lived among the Comanche for five years and knows their ways.

How does this story fit into the panorama of the Old West? Colt was a small boy on the 1830s wagon train along with Texanna, the beauty who was carried off by the Cheyenne. Texanna became the mother of Iron Knife and Cimarron, who both had their own stories earlier.

Now grown up, Colt is engaged to the major’s beautiful and arrogant daughter, Olivia, who has inherited a great fortune from her mother’s family. She wants her daddy to promote Colt so she can marry him and take him back to a civilized life in Washington, D.C., where they can live comfortably in rich society.

Then the army rescues Hannah Brownley, a yellow-haired woman who has been held captive by the Comanche for three years, and she comes with a small half-breed son. She is an outcast and certainly her husband, who has already married again, doesn’t want her back since she has been used by a savage and won’t give up her Indian son.

Hannah doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere, especially at the fort with Olivia and the officers’ wives and daughters, who are horrified she didn’t kill herself rather than share a savage’s blankets. All the soldiers think of Hannah as a whore and try to sleep with her, but she resists their advances.

As the weeks pass, it’s more and more evident that she might as well go back to the Comanches because she fits in nowhere and no one knows what to do with this hapless girl. However, her brave and indomitable spirit appeals to Colt and her small, outcast son tugs at his heartstrings. Is he willing to fight a Comanche chief to keep her and turn his back on his promising military future? Torn between his rich, beautiful fiancée and the ragged outcast, Hannah, which will Colt choose?

Our next book of the Texas series probably will be out in early 2012. Look for
Colt: The Texans.

For those who keep asking how the stories all fit together, here it is. Remember the books are not written in chronological order. If you want to read them in chronological order, go by the date the story begins. Thus,
Warrior’s Honor
(1857) was the first in the series, although it was the twentieth printed.

The Panorama of the Old West

1. Cheyenne Captive (
   1858)
   

   Iron Knife and Summer Van Schuyler, the Boston socialite
   

2. Cheyenne Princess
   (1864)
   

   Cimarron (Iron Knife’s sister) and Trace Durango
   

3. Comanche Cowboy
   (1874)
   

   Cayenne McBride and Maverick Durango (Trace’s adopted brother)
   

4. Bandit’s Embrace
   (1873)
   

   Bandit and Amethyst Durango (a Mexican cousin to the Texas Durangos)
   

5. Nevada Nights
   (1860)
   

   Dallas Durango (Trace’s sister) and Quint Randolph
   

6. Quicksilver Passion
   (1860)
   

   Silver Jones and Cherokee Evans (a friend of Quint Randolph
   

7. Cheyenne Caress
   (1869)
   

   Luci and Johnny Ace (son of Bear’s Eyes, Iron Knife’s Pawnee enemy)
   

8. Apache Caress
   (1886)
   

   Sierra Forester and Cholla (the Forester family are old enemies of the Durangos)
   

9. Christmas Rendezvous
   (1889)
   

   Ginny Malone (Sassy Malone’s cousin) and Hawk
   

10. Sioux Slave
    (1864)
    

    Kimi and Rand (Randolph) Erikson (a cousin on his mother’s side to Quint Randolph)
    

11. Half-Breed’s Bride
    (1865)
    

    Sassy Malone and Hunter (Sassy used to work as a maid in Summer Van Schuyler’s mansion)
    

12. Nevada Dawn
    (1887)
    

    Cherish Blassingame and Nevada Randolph (Quint and Dallas’s son), a sequel to
    Nevada Nights
    

13. Cheyenne Splendor
    (1864)
    

    Summer, Iron Knife, and their children (a sequel to
    Cheyenne Captive
    )
    

14. Song of the Warrior
    (1877)
    

    Willow and Bear (Iron Knife once saved this Nez Perce warrior’s life)
    

15. Timeless Warrior
    (1873)
    

    Blossom Murdock and Terry (brother of Pawnee scout Johnny Ace)
    

16. Warrior’s Prize
    (1879)
    

    Wannie and Keso (the children adopted by Cherokee Evans and his wife, Silver), a sequel to
    Quicksilver Passion
    

17. Cheyenne Song
    (1878)
    

    Glory Halstead and Two Arrows (Iron Knife’s cousin)
    

18. Eternal Outlaw
    (1892)
    

    Angie Newland and Johnny Logan (Johnny was in prison with Nevada Randolph)
    

19. Apache Tears
    (1881)
    

    Libbie Winters and Cougar (Cholla’s fellow scout and friend)
    

20. Warrior’s Honor
    (1857)
    

    Talako and Lusa (a schoolmate of Summer Van Schuyler)
    

21. Warrior’s Heart
    (1862)
    

    Rider (a gunfighter taught by Trace Durango) and Emma Trent (the girl raped by Angry Wolf in
    Cheyenne Splendor
    )
    

22. To Tame a Savage
    (1868)
    

    Austin Shaw (Summer Van Schuyler’s former fiancé) and Wiwila; also their son Colt and Samantha McGregor
    

23. To Tame a Texan
    (1885)
    

    Ace Durango (son of Cimarron and Trace Durango) and Lynnie McBride (younger sister of Cayenne McBride)
    

24. To Tame a Rebel
    (1861)
    

    Yellow Jacket and Twilight Dumont, Jim Eagle and April Grant (both men are scouts and friends of Talako)
    

25. To Tempt a Texan
    (1889)
    

    Blackie O’Neal and Lacey Van Schuyler (one of the twin daughters of Iron Knife and Summer Van Schuyler)
    

26. To Tease a Texan
    (1890)
    

    Larado and Lark Van Schuyler (Lacey’s twin sister)
    

27. My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys
    (1893)
    

    Henrietta Jenkins and Comanche Jones(acowboy from Trace Durango’s Triple D ranch)
    

28. To Love a Texan
    (1880)
    

    Brad O’Neal (Blackie’s younger brother) and Lillian Primm
    

29. To Wed a Texan
    (1895)
    

    Bonnie O’Neal Purdy and Cash McCalley (Bonnie is the younger sister of Brad and Blackie)
    

30. To Seduce a Texan
    (1864)
    

    Rosemary Burke and Waco McClain (a cousin on his mother’s side to the O’Neals)
    

31. Diablo: The Texans
    (1877)
    

    Sunny Sorrenson and Diablo (a gunfighter taught by Trace Durango)
    

32. Rio: The Texans
    (1876)
    

    Rio Kelly and Turquoise Sanchez (a minor character in
    Cheyenne Princess
    )
    

33. Colt: The Texans
    (1856)
    

    Hannah Brownley and Colt Prescott (Colt was a small boy on the wagon train in the 1830s where Iron Knife’s mother, Texanna, was stolen by Chief War Bonnet)
    

You may write me at: Box 162, Edmond, OK 73083, or see my new website at: georginagentrybooks.com. If you would like to buy some of my past novels, many bookstores carry them or can order them. You can also find some of them online at www.kensingtonbooks.com. This long, continuing series began in 1987, so it is very difficult to find the earliest books. Perhaps Kensington will reprint them eventually.

Via con Dios,
Georgina Gentry