The Daughter of Doctor Moreau(23)
Montgomery did not speak, merely placing his rifle down and crossing his arms.
Carlota nodded, accepting the apology even if Montgomery had not replied.
Both men were good-looking and sleek in their dark suits. They stood up straight and didn’t slouch like Montgomery, who was leaning a shoulder against the wall. She knew few men. Aside from the members of her household there were the men from books, from pirate novels. Men from the pen of Justo Sierra O’Reilly, Eligio Ancona, and Sir Walter Scott. Her static world was being invaded by a different sort of man.
Eduardo Lizalde looked at her with his lively green eyes, and she lowered her gaze, her eyes firm on her fingers.
“Gentlemen, good day,” her father said as he walked in.
She felt Eduardo’s gaze lifting, heard him turning to her father as he spoke, apologizing again, introducing himself, while she stared at her hands. When Eduardo Lizalde had kissed her hand, he’d been clumsy. His lips had latched on to her wrist for a brief moment. She touched that spot.
“Well, sir, Isidro and I have been away from the peninsula and recently returned. My father, thinking we might as well become acquainted with our properties, asked if we might want to tour the haciendas in this region and take stock of them, seeing as he’s had little chance to visit. There is much business to attend to in Mérida. That is how we’ve wound up staying at Vista Hermosa.”
“And how exactly did you end up in Yaxaktun?” Montgomery asked. She looked at him. He was still leaning against the wall, arms crossed, his brow furrowed.
The parrot was making a racket, apparently invigorated by the presence of the strangers. It yelled a nasty phrase that he’d learned from Montgomery and Carlota stood up, pressed her fingers against the bars of the cage, attempting to soothe the bird. Hush, she told it. Hush now, pretty bird.
“As I mentioned to you, Mr. Laughton, there was word that an Indian raiding party had been spotted near my hacienda and they seemed to be headed in this general direction, which is why I requested laborers to support us.”
“We don’t run a hacienda, but a sanatorium. There are no laborers. Perhaps your father did not inform you of that.”
“My father did say you conducted research here. Tuberculosis, I think?” Eduardo said, his voice amiable while Montgomery sounded gruff. “But there must be attendants for the sick.”
“Mr. Laughton and I manage Yaxaktun, with the assistance of my daughter,” her father said, as he sat down. He motioned to Carlota. She sat down again and he patted her hand. “We have a cook and two young servants who tend to the animals we keep.”
This was the lie her father and Montgomery dangled in front of all strangers. No one was to know about the true inhabitants of Yaxaktun. She supposed they must consider the young men strangers, even if they were related to their patron.
“So few people? Are you not afraid? The Indians keep close to this area.”
A breeze swayed the white curtains inward and Montgomery shifted his stance. The parrot yelled once more, a shrill scream, no words this time.
“We’d be of little interest to them,” Montgomery replied. “They might take the main road, but they’d leave us be. Which is why I don’t recommend trying to hack your way to Tórtola. You’d get nowhere or get within the reach of people you do not want to meet.”
“The Indians are bellicose, but surely no match for brave men and guns,” Isidro said.
“I can see you’ve spent scant time in Yucatán. Perhaps you were reared in Mérida and then went, where? Mexico City?” Montgomery asked.
“Of course.”
“Then you haven’t seen much of this part of the peninsula. The Maya rebels have the east for good reason. They know the land, they have the courage, and they are moved by their faith in their leaders. I wouldn’t go stirring an anthill and I wouldn’t disturb them.”
“Yucatán will be cloven in two, should such attitudes be followed by the Mexican government. What we need is President Díaz to send soldiers to put all these seditious Indians back in their place.”
“I doubt that’ll ever happen.”
“It’s not surprising an Englishman should think such a thing,” Eduardo said. “After all, you British folk trade with them. Mr. Laughton, the reason why we came to Yaxaktun is not only because of the threat of an Indian party, but because we’ve been told Indians have found this farm an amicable place. That they’ve been trading here, obtaining supplies and assistance.”
“Now that is a lie, and I wonder who told you that.”
“Vista Hermosa may not be around the corner, but the people there hear stories all the same. They say Juan Cumux walks around these parts as though he were lord and master.”
Cumux was one of those names that always made Carlota pause. He was a general, and though not nearly as powerful or well known as other rebels such as Bernabé Cen and Crescencio Poot, he commanded enough men that people took notice and prayed he wouldn’t stray into their lands. He’d been around for many years, since before Montgomery arrived at Yaxaktun, and Melquíades had muttered curses when he spoke of him while Ramona didn’t say a thing. Best you don’t invite bad luck by naming it, that’s what Ramona told them.
“We wouldn’t welcome such a man into our home. Surely you’ve been misled.”