Page 35 of Midnight Rider
Bernadette stared at him with faint amusement. “Why, Father,” she said, “did you get it in the neck, too?”
He cleared his throat, locked his hands behind his back and paced. “That venomous woman!” he muttered. “Looking down her nose at me as if I were one of her damned peons, and telling her grandson—in front of me, mind you!—that I hardly looked the part of a wealthy gentleman!”
“That’s nothing to what she said about me,” she replied with a rueful smile. “She didn’t like me at all. And when her niece came in wearing a gallon of heavy perfume, I had an attack.” She grimaced. “Lupe told Eduardo that he’d have to hire a nurse for me.”
“The damned insolence!”
She glanced at him. “Well, you used to say the same thing.”
He looked uncomfortable. “Perhaps I’ve been a bit...unfair in the past,” he conceded. “But whatever my own feelings, those women have no right to sit in judgment of us, or to make rude remarks about you. Or about me!”
Bernadette felt, for the first time, an affectionate kinship with him. How different her father had been since she and Eduardo had become engaged. At last, she said, “She doesn’t approve of me, and she doesn’t like the idea of my marrying Eduardo, regardless of how much money you’re willing to loan him,” she said on a heavy breath. She glanced down at her small hands folded neatly in her lap. “I must admit, I found her very heavy going. And Lupe—”
“She wants Eduardo,” he interrupted with a hard look. “Did you know?”
“It’s hard to miss. She pretends to be friendly, but it’s all a ruse, and I’m not sure that Eduardo knows it. They’re the only family he has left that he’s willing to claim, and I don’t want to have words with him about her. But if she’s allowed to order my wedding gown, I expect I’ll go to the altar in one that’s two sizes off and of a design to make me look ridiculous.”
“She won’t have any say about the gown.”
“But—”
He held up a hand. “I’ll say what’s to be done. You’ll go to New York to shop for it. I’ll have my secretary at my office in San Antonio book passage for you in our private train car. Maria can go with you. I’ll have one of thevaqueros’wives take over her duties in the kitchen. There’s only me to cook for anyway, with all the visitors finally gone.”
Bernadette was uncomfortable at the thought of traveling so far alone. “I don’t want to go,” she said miserably.
“It’s that or let Lupe pick out the dress herself.”
She got up. “That’s no choice at all,” she said heavily. “Very well, I’ll go.”
“There’s a specialist there, a doctor who has had some great success dealing with asthmatics,” he added surprisingly. “You can see him, as well.”
She was astounded. He hadn’t taken any notice of her health for years, except to complain about it. “Do you mean it?”
He averted his eyes as if his comment embarrassed him. “’Course I do. Go on, then, start packing. You’ll leave tomorrow. I’ll telegraph now to get the arrangements underway.”
“But what about Eduardo?” she asked worriedly. She had visions of the women talking him out of marrying her while she was gone.
“He’ll still be here when you come back. You can stay at the Waldorf-Astoria. I’ll telegraph straight to them to get a reservation for you.”
“You’re being very kind, Father.”
“You’re the only daughter I have left,” he replied gruffly. “Can’t see you married in rags, can I? Not in the biggest cathedral in San Antonio.”
“Oh, I see.”
He glared at her. “No, you don’t. I want you to do me proud, sure I do, but I’m not having you made a laughingstock by that haughty Spanish miss!”
She wasn’t sure what to say. It was still like talking to a stranger. “I won’t be.”
“This whole affair is my fault.” He stared down at his boots. “I thought getting myself into his social circles would make me acceptable to the better families. I never realized until the ball how wrong I was about that.” He lifted pale eyes to her. “I haven’t a thing in common with them. We’re as different as night and day. I had to earn what I have. They inherited it, most of them. The Culhanes and I get along, of course, because the old man made his fortune the way I made mine. But, then, they’re not exactly overwhelmed with invitations from back East, either.”
“I think it was as hard for your guests that night,” she said. “It isn’t that they don’t think you’re good enough to be invited to social events, Father, it’s that you don’t share the same interests. They know nothing about cattle and you know nothing about golf.” She smiled. “Perhaps you might get some clubs and learn to play. Surely someone in San Antonio has a course of some sort to play. Isn’t there a man named Cumming Macdonough who brought the game over from Scotland a few years ago and built a golf course there with his sons?”
“Yes, by golly, there is! And he knows the game better than anybody hereabouts. Lass, you’re a constant wonder to me! I’ll go looking for him this very weekend!”
She grinned. “That’s the way to get into exalted circles—learn the games they play and beat them at it.”
He chuckled. “So I’m discovering.” He searched her eyes, so like her mother’s. “Bernadette, I’ve never given you much reason to think that I care what happens to you. But I do care. There’s time to back out of this marriage. I won’t say a word, and I’ll still give Eduardo his loan.”