FicWad

Again, Alejandro's memories came back to the forefront of his mind...

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In order to honour Doña Araceli for giving up the splendid mare to his benefit a few weeks earlier, the next time he had to go to San Diego for business Alejandro took Dulcinea instead of his usual horse. And, he reflected, it would also be a good test to see how the spirited young mare behaved on a long-distance journey.

His lawyer admired the animal, and some patrons at the tavern he was staying in recognised it as one of Señor Alvarez's horses, an offspring of his superb stallion Toboso. Some of them even knew who had bought the stallion, and wondered why this mare now was with a stranger from Los Angeles...

As soon as he arrived in San Diego, Alejandro wrote a few messages for his acquaintances there to make them know of his arrival in town and of his coming visit to them. He then called a young boy who was passing by the tavern's porch:

"Hola, muchacho!"

"Me, Señor?"

"Si. Do you want to earn a few centavos?"

"Oh, si Señor! Always!"

Alejandro chuckled. The child was more or less Felipe's age, and his eagerness reminded him of the young deaf-mute boy.

"How old are you, niño?"

"Ten years old, Señor," the child answered. "But I will soon be ten and a half!" he emphasised.

The older man raised an eyebrow in sign of appreciation.

"Well then, young Señor, do you know Jorge Alvarez? Si? Good, this message is for him," Alejandro told the boy while giving him a folded sheet of paper. "And do you know where Don Julio Casal's hacienda is? Yes? This one is for him. And Señora Ximénez de Valdès?"

"The Ximénez Company, Señor?"

"Si. Here's a note for her. And another one for Don Luis Nuñez, if you know where his office is. Will you remember it all, muchacho?"

"Si Señor: Alvarez the horse trader, Don Julio, the Ximénez Company, and Señor Nuñez's office."

"That's it," Don Alejandro told him. "Now here's for the trouble..."

And he took his leather purse out of his jacket to give the boy more than the few centavos he had promised.

"Oh, gracias Señor, muchas gracias," the child said as he looked at the coins in awe. "Is there anything else I can do for you, Excelencia?"

Alejandro chuckled again.

"Not for the moment, niño. What's your name?"

"Pedro, Excelencia."

"Then go, Pedro. Hasta la vista!"

"It will be a pleasure, Señor!" the boy said as he left.

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"Thank you for the invitation to have a business lunch at your hacienda, Doña Araceli," Alejandro told Señora Ximénez de Valdès after the usual and customary greetings.

"Oh, you're welcome. Since I couldn't invite you for dinner tonight, that was the least I could do for a good business partner, and a good friend!"

Not free for dinner tonight, uh? Probably some one-on-one romantic candlelit dinner with her foppish beau, Don Alejandro thought. What a waste of her time! Really, why didn't she do better than Cesar Villegas? Alright, alright, Alejandro had given up long ago the idea of marrying off his son to the charming very young widow – and truth be told, this idea now seemed to make him rather... uneasy, without him knowing exactly why – but still...

He found Doña Araceli to be a bit... subdued, today. Slightly listless, down. Bah, perhaps she was a bit tired.

"I am glad for this opportunity to thank you in person for letting me have this splendid mare," Don Alejandro told her after lunch, "and for sending her to me. I wasn't sure my letter could convey my appreciation of this gesture: it went straight to my heart, and Dulcinea has soon become my favourite."

"Dulcinea?"

"Yes, I found this name rather fitting. What do you think of it?"

"Fitting? ...Uh... she's not exactly gentle, though..."

"She's still young and a bit wild, sometimes overexcited," Alejandro told her, "but her eagerness is good to see. She just needs to calm down. It will come with age and with training."

"...and with her first foal...?"

"I see that you haven't forgotten," he said with a smile. "You really want this not-yet-existing offspring of hers, it seems!"

"Well," she replied, "if I take this foal at a very young age, I could train him, tame him, break him in myself, and he'll be used to me... It would certainly be a superb animal, spirited and all, but whom I could control and who would trust and obey me..."

"I see... But you haven't told me yet your price for Dulcinea... How much did she cost you?"

"No price, Don Alejandro. She's a good and wonderful horse, who deserves to be mounted by an excellent horseman."

"Thank you for the compliment, Doña Araceli, but I can't accept such a present. That's far too much! Please allow me to repay you the price you bought her..."

"Don't even think of it," she objected, "and rather think of things that way: I'm not presenting you with this mare, I'm presenting her with you. As I told you, she deserves a good horseman; take very good care of her, choose the most beautiful and spirited stallion you have to service her, give me their offspring and I'll consider we're even."

"Oh, so I 'm the gift in that deal?" Alejandro asked with twinkling eyes.

"A gifted gift, if I may say so," Doña Araceli answered. "But tell me, how did she behave on the long way from Los Angeles?"

"Like a very good girl, I must say," he answered with a slightly smug grin. "She behaved and complied."

"I see that you are very glad you could tame such a wild and spirited girl, and control her..." Araceli remarked with a laugh.

"Oh, it's not so much a matter of taming, but rather of establishing mutual trust and understanding."

Seeing the both sceptical and envious expression on her face, a sudden thought crossed his mind, some wild guess at first which soon became a certainty. He chuckled and asked her with a teasing glint in his eyes:

"She threw you off, didn't she?"

Doña Araceli rolled her eyes and pursed her lips in a little pout, with a strange mix of a hint of slight irritation at his spot-on guess and a pinch of unwitting amusement at the obvious fun he was having at her expense.

Then she admitted a bit grudgingly:

"Alright, alright, you win: she threw me. Happy?"

"Not if she hurt you," he replied. "Were you injured?" he inquired, now more concerned than amused.

"No, don't worry, no damage done," she answered. "No harm. Except to my ego. Oh, and also to another part of my being that both my mother and propriety have always forbidden me to mention by name," she added with a comical funny face, followed by a both amused and sheepish little smile.

Alejandro couldn't help but chuckle again.

'Oh you, smarty-pants', Araceli thought inwardly with some unexpected fondness. Unexpected and... uninvited; but not really unwelcome.

But still, the man looked far too pleased with himself and with his riding skills. Or far too amused with her own lack thereof, and she couldn't tell what annoyed her most. Or what amused her most... After all, she had to admit, this was indeed quite funny... on second thought.

She conceded defeat:

"Alright, this might not be entirely the mare's fault. It's possible that, perhaps, I may have overestimated my skills as a horsewoman a bit."

Don Alejandro failed at totally suppressing another amused smile at her obvious reluctance to this simple admission. Oh yes, she had quite some self-pride... and 'pride comes before a fall', he remembered fittingly. Literally, in this case... He chuckled again at this thought. Better not say it aloud though, she might not find the pun that funny...

"Well, you know the saying," he told her instead, "When you fall off the horse, get right back on!"

"I've not waited for you to tell me this before doing so, mind you!" she retorted a bit gruffly.

He didn't let her tone deter him or mar his merry mood.

"You may have mounted a horse again, but not this horse!" he said, holding his hand out to her in a clear invitation. "Come on, Dulcinea is just here outside, and I'll stay right beside her..."

"WHAT! But... but... I can't, I'm not dressed fittingly for riding," she objected, showing him her fancy frilly lacy and silky lavender dress to illustrate her point.

"I'm in no hurry," he simply said in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. "I can wait for you to change into a more fitting outfit."

"But... even though... I mean... it's not possible just now! I have things to do! Sorry Don Alejandro, and thank you for the offer, but I don't have time for a training session."

He eyed her a bit suspiciously, the amused glint never leaving his eyes.

"Hmm..." he said, "wouldn't you be trying to find excuses? Trying to avoid the confrontation with Dulcinea?"

"Absolutely not!" she stated with so much bad faith that Alejandro had a hard time not to laugh aloud. "...Erm... well... maybe..." she then qualified in a drawling and reluctant voice, "...perhaps..." she finally admitted. "But I really don't have time right now, I have a business appointment with a shipowner in less than half an hour."

"Alright, but you've only earned a reprieve... You can't eternally postpone! Let's say... tomorrow? Your time will be mine, fair Lady. I want to reconcile you and Dulcinea, let's just say it's part of my repayment for the sumptuous present you gave me. So, tomorrow? Unless your... ahem... your previously bruised parts still hurt a little bit...?" he dared ask with meaningfully raised eyebrows.

Oh, really, this man liked far too much poking gentle fun at her.

"Oh, Don Alejandro de la Vega!" she mockingly chastised him, pointing a finger at him in fake rebuke. "How dare you make mention of such matters, honestly... Such a gentleman as yourself! You should feel ashamed," she added, doing her best to appear severe and offended instead of downright burst out laughing. "I assure you that now only my ego still suffers from the fall: I've stopped looking for every cushion I could find around before sitting on a chair or a sofa..."

"Or a saddle...?" he suggested.

"You're walking a thin line here, Don Alejandro," she warned him gently, trying hard not laugh. "I might take offense of the fact that you're addressing the delicate subject of my tender parts, and–"

This time he couldn't hold back any longer and burst out laughing. When he got his breath and voice back, at the sight of Doña Araceli with arms akimbo and hands on her hips he said:

"Sorry, I know I shouldn't have. But I would like to point out that you were the one who initially brought the subject up, my dear!"

The nerve of this man! But against her better judgement, she chuckled.

"Alright, alright," she said with the hint of a smile in her voice and on her lips, "I admit I brought this upon myself, I guess. Let's call a truce?"

"Nothing would make me happier, Señora! And as for the truce between you and Dulcinea, let's say tomorrow?"

She sighed but couldn't help but smile at him and at his gentle eagerness. A wiseguy, granted – and who liked far too much teasing her – but a charming one. And genuinely kind, too.

"You won't give up on this idea, will you?" she asked.

He just smiled by way of answer.

"As you wish," she went on. "Really, I've known mules who were less obstinate..." she added sotto voce. "At least you will see that I'm not as hopeless a rider as you seem to think. Ten o'clock, before it's too hot outside?" she offered.

"Tomorrow, ten," he agreed with an almost childish grin. "That's a date, then..."