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Mexico1874
The house was deserted.
He'd known it from the instant he rode into the yard, but Rafe couldnt stop himself from calling out again anyway.
"Juanito! Señora Ruiz!"
No answer. No face at the window, no opening of the door. Only the wind, banging a shutter against the cracked adobe.
They were gone. Sand had blown and piled against the doorsill, which his son's grandmother never would have permitted. Rafe tightened his hand on the reins, yet he couldn't turn the horse away.
A fear like none he'd ever known knifed his heart.
Someone must know. Los Pinos was a tiny village — everyone would know what had happened to the old woman who had always lived in this house and to her grandson who had been born in it.
He wheeled around and took off at a high lope toward the square, which was bustling as usual with border-town business. He scanned it for children, in front of the merchants' stalls or playing around the well. None was big enough to be his son.
As he neared, the sound of his horse made the two women drawing water turn to watch him come. He recognized them by sight but he didn't know their names.
"Señoras! Donde está la Señora Ruiz?"
He shouted the question before he was even close enough to hear the answer. He didn't need to. Each woman crossed herself the moment he spoke the name.
Dead. The fear slashed him again. What about hisson?
"Y el niño?"
One of the matrons turned and pointed toward the river where the children often played. Rafe tipped his hat in thanks, and when he dropped his hand he saw that it was shaking.
Thank God. Thank God.
He swerved, headed in the direction the woman had pointed. People stuck their heads out of the cantina to see what the hurry was as he pounded past and several stepped away from the stalls to watch him.
Rafe barely noticed the adults, however, because children began to pop up over the riverbank, drawn by the rapid hoofbeats ringing against the hard earth.
He scanned each small face as he rode toward them, the sudden, sharp fear growing as he drew nearer and nearer and Juanito, did not appear.
What if the woman hadn't understood him correctly? What if she'd been wrong? What if something had happened to Juan Rafael, too?
Juanito loved horses more than anything else in the world — every time Rafe came to see him he paid more attention to whatever mount he was riding than to him. A dozen other children had heard Beau and come to see what horse was loping toward them, so where was Juan?
What if something had just happened to him, was happening at this very minute, when all the others were looking the other way? A tree root holding him, trapped, underwater...a blow to the head when he dived in...
The river, always, lay so shallow...
Two boys ran up over the bank, water streaming from their nearly naked bodies, and Rafe's gaze flew to them — but they were too tall, too lanky. No. Could that be Juanito on the right?
He stared in wonder as they stopped and looked at him shyly, like the others. Yes! It was Juanito.
His perfect oval face, so like Angelina's — except for the whiskey-colored eyes only a bit darker than Rafe's own — had thinned a little, his high cheekbones showed up more. And he was so tall! How could any child have grown this much in only six months?
"Whoa."
To his shock, Rafe's voice broke on the word. He sat back in the saddle for the stop, and relief tried to pull his shoulders into a weak slump. But he held them straight. His emotions weren't going to rule him, no matter how surprisingly deep they ran.
He was almost close enough to reach out and touch his son. His son who, thank God, was alive and well. They weren't in the habit of embracing or touching verymuch; usually Rafe only tousled his hair in saying hello or good-bye. Was he too old now to have his hair tousled?
The boy was fine, he looked healthy. He was too thin, though — all over, not just in his face.
"Hola, mi hijo," Rafe said.
Juan gave him the ghost of a shy smile in answer and met his gaze for an instant before he ducked his head in embarrassment. But not for long.
Despite the fact that all the others were staring at him, he spoke.
"Tu caballo se llama Beau, no?"
"Sí."
He remembered the black from three years ago! Juan Rafael had been only six the last time he saw this horse.
That stunned Rafe, then saddened him. The last time he'd ridden Beau to Los Pinos was the time he'd brought a pony to Juanito. The grandmother had sold the animal by the time Rafe had crossed the river going north again. Months later, when he'd returned, the child still had been heartbroken.
Anger, pity, and sorrow flooded him. And something else, too: guilt. He was the father of this boy and he should've made sure the child had a horse. That was the least he could've done.
At that moment, he knew he could never leave the boy again.
"You must come with me now," he said, thinking only of finding the Spanish words to convey the message, not of the unending complications of what it meant. "Let's get your things."
He gestured for Juan Rafael to mount behind him, slipped his toe from the stirrup, and held down his hand. The boy moved forward, slowly, then he stopped and looked back at his friend.
"La casa de Diego es mi casa," he said...
Anonymous
Posted June 10, 2001
Rafe Aigner is a professional gambler living in Texas in 1874 when he wins a newspaper in a poker game. The newspaper is the San Antonio Star, and it belonged to the newly widowed Madeleine Calhoun. <br><br> Rafe remembers Madeleine from New Orleans twelve years before when he asked her to run away with him and marry him, but she refused, reluctant to leave her father and his newspaper business. Promising that she would wait for him, Maddie let Rafe leave. Upon seeing reports of his death, Maddie was devestated and finally married Sutton Calhoun after she was left alone and penniless when her father died. <br><br> While Madeleine is happy to see Rafe, he is angry with her for not waiting for him all those years ago, especially when he finally made his way back to New Orleans only to find her married to another man. Unfortunately for Rafe, he is forced to lean on Maddie as he needs someone to look after his son Juanito, a boy that Maddie seems to bond to almost instantly. <br><br> Madeleine is such a likeable heroine, having lived the life of a southern belle only to lose so much in the Civil War and later, after her husband gambled away most of her inheritance. She survived to become stronger, strong enough to take a chance on Rafe when he walks back into her life again, though she knows that she could have her heart broken if he chooses to leave and take Juanito with him. <br><br> The unsettled nature of the relationship between Rafe and Maddie keeps the reader hooked. Rafe is so unwilling to let himself be loved, having hardened his heart long ago because of Madeleine's apparent betrayal. Unlike so many romance novels, where attraction is paramount, Rafe and Maddie establish a new friendship through their love for his son which leads them to fall in love all over again. Readers will want to explore the two previous installments in this series: THE RENEGADES: COLE and THE RENEGADES: NICK.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.In 1862 New Orleans, Rafe Aigner pleads with his beloved Madeleine Calhoun to elope with him. Although she loves Rafe, Maddie feels obligated to care for her ailing father, who has no one else, and to run the family newspaper for him. She tells him that she loves him, yet cannot run off to Texas with him, but will remain here until he returns. <P>Years later, Rafe wins a San Antonio newspaper in a card game. Accompanied by his nine-year old son, Rafe travels to San Antonio to decide what to do with the paper. To his shock, he finds Maddie running his newspaper. Maddie thought Rafe died during the Civil War and is stunned that her now deceased husband gambled away the paper. Rafe feels Maddie betrayed their love by not waiting for him, but agrees to give her three years to turn a profit. As they both care for his son, their old love rekindles, but will he understand that she did wait until she thought he was dead and she had no other option? <P>THE RENEGADES: RAFE is a warm Reconstruction Era romance that uses strong lead protagonists to tell an engaging tale. The secondary cast provides the audience insight into Rafe and Maddie. Though the exciting plot depends a bit too much on coincidence, sub-genre fans will fully enjoy Genell Dellin¿s gripping novel that hooks her readers from the start to the finish and encourages them to seek previous Renegade books (see the stories of COLE and NICK). <P>Harriet Klausner
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Overview
Half-Choctaw Rafe Aigner is no man to trifle with: dark and dangerous, he's survived by his wits and the turn of the cards. But now he has a young son who needs him, so the time has come to settle down. Fate has brought him to Texas, and Lady Luck has won him the San Antonio Star. But when Rafe discovers that the woman running his newspaper is the woman who once owned his heart, he's shocked — and furious.The Woman
If she hadn't ...