With a sigh, Lerdo nodded. “I will do what I can.”
It would have to suffice for the moment, but Ginny held little hope that Lerdo, with his world collapsing around him, would expend much energy in finding one man.
A week passed before she was once more summoned to the palace and a meeting with el presidente. He looked even more tired, deep lines engraved into his face by sleepless nights and strain.
“It is time, Señora Alvarado. My tenure is done, and the battle lost. You must travel swiftly now, and inquire from General Díaz if I am to be granted safe passage from Mexico. General Luna will accompany you.”
“General Luna? Your Excellency, I must protest. I do not trust the man. He is not to be trusted!”
“Try to put aside your personal feelings about Luna,” Lerdo said quietly. “As an emissary of Spain, he has access to Díaz where many do not.”
“Then perhaps he should make the arrangements for your escort to New York,” she said tartly, and saw the reproach spring into Lerdo’s eyes.
“Luna has access, not trust, Señora.”
Trapped and frustrated, Ginny could do little else but acquiesce, but she once more took to wearing a dagger strapped to her thigh beneath her skirts. It gave her more confidence, a reminder that if she had to, she would use it against Luna. Or any man who tried to hurt her.
General Luna looked at her with barely concealed triumph when she climbed into the carriage early the next morning, his black eyes glittering.
“I trust you slept well, Señora Alvarado?”
When she did not answer, he persisted, “And Carmen, she is an adequate servant, I trust.”
Sitting back, smoothing her hand over the deep green velvet folds of the cloak she held around her, Ginny said tartly, “It must be dreadfully tedious to be so bored with life that one must immerse themselves in all the petty details of another person’s life. I pity you, General, for your lack of diversions.”
He laughed softly. “Oh, do not waste such a sentiment on me, señora. I have my diversions. Yes, I have some most interesting diversions. Perhaps, one day, I shall share them with you. I think, somehow, that you might appreciate them more than most women.”
“Do not waste your time or mine, General. Now, if you please, I would prefer to ride in privacy. Be so kind as to ride with the driver.”
“I have my orders, fiery little cat,” he said in a low, intimate tone, “and one day you shall learn what it is to take orders from me. I think you will learn more swiftly than you like what it means to court discipline.”
A feeling of nausea churned in her belly as she stared at him, and Ginny knew that should she ever fall into this man’s hands, she would regret it.
“If you ever come near me,” she said slowly, each word distinct and deliberate, “I will do my best to gut you from neck to navel.”
To her angry surprise, he only smiled. “You will be a challenge for me, señora. I await the day with great anticipation.”
Before she could respond again, Luna shut the door, and to her relief, did not ride inside the carriage with her.
I do not think I can take another moment of his nasty innuendoes! she fumed. When I return to Mexico City, I will insist that Lerdo find me a safe escort home! Even if I have to wait until Díaz himself is president, I do not dare remain near Luna. He is dangerous.
But now she had to convince Porfirio Díaz, the man who would be the next president of Mexico, to show clemency to his predecessor. It was not an interview she anticipated with eagerness.
23
The silver mines were rough passages cut deep into the heart of a mountain, with tiny cells hacked into dank corridors off the main artery. Rickety wooden frames were built into the sides, clinging like vines to the rock walls that rose a hundred feet high.
It was Steve’s worst nightmare come true, an endless litany of labor and wretched conditions. Before, when he had been sent to the mines by Devereaux, he had resisted the guards’ attempts to force him to work. This time, he was a model laborer, blending seamlessly into the anonymous file of men.
But he waited.
The right time would present itself, and he would grab it. Then he’d be free again.
The man who had befriended him upon his arrival was manacled to him, their leg shackles tearing flesh but not their fierce desire to escape.
“When you go,” he said softly one day, waiting until the armed guard had passed them, “take me with you.”
Steve slid him a wary glance. “What makes you think I intend to escape?”
“You have that look about you. But you, I think, are much smarter than the others who have tried and failed.”
Juan Rodriguez was a political prisoner, a man who had spoken out too boldly and found himself arrested and sentenced to twenty years hard labor.
“I miss my family most,” he said bitterly. “My wife was pregnant when I was arrested. I do not even know if I have a son or a daughter. Or a wife any longer.”
Steve thought of Ginny, and he thought of their children. What would happen if he didn’t manage to escape? But Ginny must be looking for him; she was resourceful. She would find him, or at least go to his grandfather.
Ah, Christ, I hope she doesn’t think I have just gone off on business for Bishop again! Where the devil is Paco?
He was supposed to have met him there in that tiny cantina, but all hell had broken loose when the soldiers had come in “looking for escaped rebel prisoners,”
