Retreat (Robledo Mountain #3)Chapter 9 free porn video

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The next morning, bright and early, Tom and I loaded up the wagon and drove it over to the back door of the bank, where Levi was waiting for us. I signed the withdrawal receipt and accepted a deposit receipt of $35,000 for the sale of 4,000 head of cattle to Richard King. We loaded the bags of money into the steel wagon box, locked it up, and drove it back over to the hotel.

In the hotel restaurant, we found the ladies waiting for us, along with Richard King, a total of twenty vaqueros, and Raphael with Frank. After a quick breakfast, we mounted up and rode for home, with Raphael and Frank driving the wagon and everyone else on horseback.

With such a large party, no one was really worried about being attacked, but, without being told, the Estancia vaqueros disappeared once we were out of town to perform screening and scouting duty. The Captain was a little confused by the departure of the vaqueros until we explained what they were doing.

We pulled into Mr. Mendoza’s stable late the next afternoon, tired and hungry. Anna and Yolanda left their horses with us, and walked over to the restaurant. We got all the horses taken care of and introduced Mr. Mendoza to Captain King. Captain King’s vaqueros were invited to spend the night in the hayloft with the Estancia vaqueros, and they rapidly accepted the offer after being told about the abysmal accommodations offered by the hotel.

The vaqueros all disappeared into the restaurant for their supper, while the rest of us joined Mr. Mendoza at his work table behind the stable. There we all relaxed and brought Mr. Mendoza up to date on the cattle sale and gun fight. Captain King seemed to enjoy the relaxing atmosphere. He listened attentively to everything that was being said, including the hiring of Frank. I made a mental note to myself to be careful about what I said around this man.

Captain King and Frank were apparently invited to supper, as Mr. Mendoza made sure to include them in our walk over to the restaurant. We stopped just inside the back door as usual to watch the kitchen dance for a few moments, before going into the dining room. Captain King looked around at the huge table with all the place settings and asked if this was a special function room.

“Well, in a way it is,” I replied. “This is the Mendoza family dining room. Mrs. Mendoza owns the restaurant and most of the family works either here or hauling freight for Mr. Mendoza, so the entire extended family eats their meals here.”

He was about to ask more questions when the ladies came in bearing the platters and bowls filled with our supper. The kids all trailed in behind them, and we all dug in. Captain King listened with fascination to the various discussions going on around the table. I told Anna in Apache that I couldn’t wait to see his reaction to meal time at the Hacienda, if supper here fascinated him so much. She beamed me one of her special smiles and agreed that it would be interesting to watch.

After supper, with the table cleared and the after-supper coffee served, Anna picked up the guitar from behind the chair. She handed it to me without a word. I tuned the guitar and sang what had become my standard opening song, “Keeper of the Stars”. When I was done, Mrs. Mendoza said that she’d heard that the visit to El Paso was interesting. I grinned at her and sang “Mi Vida Loca”, which had everyone including Frank and the Captain grinning.

I played a few more requests, before the kids started begging tio Pablo to play the lion song. Anna threw me a huge super megawatt Anna smile as I started the introduction of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”. Anna and Yolanda got all the kids and most of the adult’s ready and I started singing. Everyone came in on queue, and we went through the song twice before I brought it a close. The second time around, even the Captain had joined in and was smiling.

The kids were happy, and they all thanked me as they filed out to get ready for bed. I mixed things up after that, singing “Do You Know Where You’re Going To”, “I Have a Dream”, and “Hooked on a Feeling”, before finishing up with “Anna’s Song”.

We talked for a while longer, enjoying the coffee before everyone headed across the courtyard to bed. Anna and I escorted the Captain to the guest bedroom in the house where his saddlebags were laying on the bed, and bade him a good night, telling him we’d see him at breakfast in the restaurant.

With a good night’s sleep and a filling breakfast under our belts, we left Las Cruces the next morning right on time. The vaqueros, very aware of the danger that could be waiting anywhere between Las Cruces and the Estancia, pulled their disappearing act as soon as we were out of Las Cruces. They rejoined us once we were on the Estancia, knowing that the Scout/Sniper teams had already spotted us and alerted everyone on the Estancia.

We stopped just inside the Estancia for the ladies to relieve themselves, and I took the opportunity to send a message to Hector, asking him to meet us at the Hacienda for lunch with a cattle buyer, and to start rounding up 4,000 head of cattle.

The captain watched curiously as I sent the message with the little mirror we all carried, and was surprised to see an acknowledging flash from the mountains. I explained that I had sent a message to the Ranch Segundo, asking him to start rounding up 4,000 head of cattle and meet us for lunch at the Hacienda.

We had resumed our ride when the message came back from Hector telling us he would get the roundup started, and would meet us at the Hacienda. I acknowledged the message as we rode and returned to talking with the Captain who was full of the usual questions. I explained about the annual flooding and the need for the levees as well as the road work he could see going on in the distance.

A few minutes before we reached the bridge, the lead vaquero came up beside me and told us he was taking the Captain’s vaqueros to the Ranch where they would stay until they left. I nodded and told him to draw any additional supplies needed for the extra vaqueros from the store. He nodded and spurred his horse off towards the Ranch operations area, waving for the other vaqueros to follow him.

Captain King was again full of questions about why the vaqueros were riding away and I explained that they all lived at the Ranch operations area, while we lived at the Hacienda. I laughed, telling him he would understand better after tomorrow morning’s ride. In the meantime, we would spend the afternoon unpacking and relaxing at the Hacienda, where many of his questions could be answered much more easily.

We’d just crossed the bridge when Captain King asked, “How much farther to the Hacienda?”

“It’s just over the top of that slope,” I replied, pointing at the slope where the top of the Hacienda was visible.

Anna rode up next to me to get a better look at Captain King’s face as we crested the slope, and he got his first look at the Hacienda. She giggled a little as his eye’s bulged out in shock at the size and the architecture.

He was just starting to get over his shock, when three of the young cousins came running out of the courtyard door to get our horses and take them down to the stable. We all laughed at his expression.

“You’ll get used to it soon enough,” I said congenially.

Anna and Yolanda took the Captain to the room he’d be using while he was here. I sent Raphael and Frank up to the terrace to relax for a few minutes, while Tom and I unloaded our part of the wagon and hauled the bags of coins into the study and then into the cave. When we got upstairs to the terrace, the ladies and the Captain were already there, enjoying coffee with Frank and Raphael.

Frank and Raphael left a few minutes later to deliver the vaqueros’ packages to the ranch, before taking the wagon to the village. As they were leaving, the Captain got up. He walked to the railing and looked out over the river towards the Doña Ana Mountains.

The rest of us sat sipping our coffee with smiles on our faces, knowing that he was still trying to process what he had seen so far. Eventually, he turned around and rejoined us at the table, telling us it was a magnificent view.

Hector arrived a few minutes later, and while we were introducing him to the Captain, Cristina, Celia, and Carla brought out our lunch.

Over lunch we talked about the roundup, and I asked Hector how long it would take to round up 4,000 head with the extra fifteen vaqueros the Captain had brought with him. His immediate reply of about five days surprised the Captain.

Seeing his surprise Hector elaborated. “Between your fifteen vaqueros, and the forty or so vaqueros currently available we’ll round up 5,000 head in the next three days, then spend two days culling that down to 4,000 head your vaqueros find acceptable.”

With a surprised look on his face the Captain asked, “How many vaqueros do you have?”

“The Estancia currently has eighty vaqueros.” Hector replied. “At any given time, twenty are on security duty patrolling the Estancia, and ten are working on the roads or loading and hauling stones for the masons. The other ten are getting ready to deliver the monthly beef quotas to the forts we currently supply.”

Miranda made a rare appearance outside the kitchen, bringing us a plate of biscochitos to snack on shortly after lunch. We spent the rest of the afternoon on the terrace drinking coffee, snacking on biscochitos, and answering the Captain’s questions about the Estancia.

The Captain was again surprised when Beth and Izabella came out on the terrace, leading the rest of the kids to welcome us home. After a round of hugs for everybody we introduced all the kids to the Captain and explained which ones were ours, and which ones were Tomas’ and Giuseppe’s. As the kids were leaving, chatting away to each other, the Captain asked how many languages they were speaking.

I listened for a moment and told him, “Sounds like four at the moment.” I listened for another moment and smiled. “Nope, it’s five languages. English, Spanish, Apache, Italian, and German.”

“Good lord man! How do they understand each other?” he asked.

Anna laughed and explained, “Everyone on the Estancia is required to be fluent in English, Spanish, and Apache. The kids also learn Latin in school, but since Giuseppe’s kids are Italian they are teaching the other Hacienda kids that language also. The German was picked up informally, from the masons’ kids at school.”

“School? What school? Why Apache?” he asked.

We all laughed at his confused look. Anna and Yolanda answered all his questions about the school, as well as the relationship to the Apache and their security work on the Estancia. They finished up just as Cristina announced that supper would be ready in a few minutes.

We all walked into the dining room, to find everyone already seated at a much bigger table. Seeing my puzzled look Anna told me that it had been delivered yesterday and set up this morning before we arrived. With that puzzle solved, I introduced the Captain to everyone, including the three babies lying in bassinets next to their mothers.

Supper was the usual riot of conversations in multiple languages with the kids constantly shifting between languages depending on who they were talking to. The Captain ate supper with a look of amazement on his face, as he tried to follow along while the kids told us about school, riding their horses, and the new friends they’d made while we’d been gone.

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I was sitting in the restaurant the next morning, finishing up breakfast and thinking about how Anna’s smile seemed to make my day. I’d just taken my last bite when Anna came over with fresh coffee and sat down, giving me another one of my Anna smiles, and asking me what I had planned for the day. Swallowing my last bite and taking a sip of coffee I said, “I was hoping to talk my fiancée into spending the morning riding with me, and perhaps start learning to shoot. Do you think she would...

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I woke up the next morning feeling more refreshed than I had since the mountain lion attack. Stretching my arms out to my side, I looked at my right hand, flexed my fingers, and laughed at the thought that I could play the guitar again. I hadn’t realized until yesterday afternoon how much I missed it. Jumping out of bed, I ran through my tai chi exercises and the katas, before cleaning up with a basin of water, and getting dressed. I was whistling as I walked in the back door of the...

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Tom and I were relaxing after breakfast, enjoying our umpteenth cup of fresh hot coffee when the ladies had decided we’d had enough time. “So, Pablo, you’ve had your breakfast and coffee, now tell us about the trip,” she demanded in an almost imperial voice. Looking around the table, I realized for the first time that Tom and I were the only men in the room. “As you command, my Lady,” I replied giving her a sitting bow. “But first, where is everyone?” “Well, it is harvest time, Paul. Tomas...

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Early the next morning I awoke and stretched out on the queen size bed, luxuriating in the feel of crisp cool cotton sheets and thinking about how good I felt. All those minor joint aches and pains I’d learned to live with over the years simply weren’t there. And those dreams! I rarely remembered my dreams after waking, but somehow, I knew that I remembered every one of last night’s dreams. The dreams of my past, both good and bad. With a yawn and a final stretch, I got up and started my...

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I was up before first light the next morning. I found two of the ladies already up and quietly preparing to make breakfast for the camp. I walked down to the river and soaked my head in the water to wake me up, as well as help tame my hair. When I lifted my head from the river, I found Giuseppe and Hector had joined me. After relieving ourselves we walked back up to the campfire where the ladies handed us each a cup of coffee. We sat drinking our coffee and enjoying the quiet of the...

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Standing at the opening of the cave, they stared inside in stunned disbelief. I cleared my throat, regaining their attention. “No one else besides you three know about this. I expect it to remain that way. The cave and what’s in it are never discussed outside this room, and then only if the door is closed and barred.” Handing Mr. Mendoza the lantern, I watched from the doorway as they wandered around exploring. All I could see was the soft glow of the light when they were in the smaller cave...

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Six weeks later I was again lying in Mr. Mendoza’s hayloft. Tom’s even breathing and soft snores provided background accompaniment, as I marveled at everything that had happened in such a short time. With the exception of the six days Tom and I spent on a trip to El Paso, and a two-day trip to the Hacienda, the four of us had spent virtually all of our time together. The first morning of our two-week visit at the Hacienda they’d seen me practicing Tai Chi on the plateau in the early dawn....

Refuge Robledo Mountain 2Chapter 8

The second week in Santa Fe started out much as the first had gone. I spent the morning with Anna who had narrowed down the selection of cutlery to two different styles and now needed me to help her make the final selection. As usual we both liked one pattern over the other, so the cutlery was paid for and consigned to Mendoza Freight for delivery. The china pattern was a different story. Anna still couldn’t find anything she liked, so I suggested she explore the possibility of getting a...

Railroad Robledo Mountain 4Chapter 14

“Good morning Maco,” I said, walking into the dining room for breakfast. “We missed you at breakfast yesterday and again at dinner last night.” “Good morning Paul, or rather, good night for me,” Maco answered wearily. “I just stopped by to have breakfast with Beth since I haven’t seen her for a couple of days.” “What have you been doing to be so tired?” “I was the Scout hidden behind you yesterday. All of us were in our hides at three yesterday morning and we stayed in place until three...

Refuge Robledo Mountain 2Chapter 10

We skipped our exercises and practice for the second day in a row, in the interest of leaving town early in the morning before anyone else was awake. I’d paid for the room and stables for four weeks the day after we’d checked in. We still had two days of the four weeks left, so there was no issue with just leaving. After one last check of the room, we walked downstairs carrying the saddlebags and scabbards and slipped out the back door to the stables where we saddled the horses, added the...

Robledo MountainChapter 12

I was up early the next morning after a restless night, dreading the conversation Anna wanted to have. Walking into the restaurant I was surprised to get my normal Anna smile, hug, and kiss. Maybe this wasn’t going to be so bad after all. She pointed me back to my usual table and brought over two cups of coffee. Sitting down, she said that breakfast would be out in a few minutes and asked how I’d slept. “Not well. It was a restless sleep that had me tossing and turning all night,” I...

Refuge Robledo Mountain 2Chapter 7

We rode into my usual camp in the copse of trees just north of Santa Fe two weeks later. Her wounds were healing nicely. She hardly seemed to notice the wound in her arm at all, but was still slightly favoring her side. However, we were both tired. Tired of riding, tired of trail food, tired of sleeping on the ground, tired of being dirty, and just plain tired. I helped Anna off her horse, took her in my arms, and hugged her tight giving her a big kiss in the process. “One more night of...

Refuge Robledo Mountain 2Chapter 16

I left Tomas alone for a few days. He went to the village and rode along the river with Jesus and others he’d picked from the files. He was getting a feel for the land where he was going to be responsible for growing crops. The day before the election, Tomas asked to see me after breakfast. I asked Clara to send a coffee service up to the terrace and Tomas followed me upstairs. We sat down at a table enjoying the early morning sunshine. As I poured our coffees I asked Tomas what was on his...

Refuge Robledo Mountain 2Chapter 17

We all rode out after breakfast the next morning. The half day ride was quick. We all saw the Estancia through George’s eyes, as he talked about what a change there had been since his last trip north along the Camino Real. Crossing the river just before noon, we rode up the slope and I discovered that this was the first time he’d seen the Hacienda in all its glory. We gave the horses over to the cousins, after pulling our weapons and saddle bags off. Anna and I led George through the...

Railroad Robledo Mountain 4Chapter 15

“¡Juan! ¡El hombre malo!” I yelled as Tom and I walked into his office the next morning. “¡Dios Mio!” he exclaimed. “You startled me,” he said shaking his finger at us before reaching for a towel to clean up the small amount of ink he’d spilled on the countertop. “It’s good to see both of you again. Let me put these books up and we can talk.” Tom and I busied ourselves getting coffee before sitting down at the small table. Juan grabbed his coffee off the counter and joined us. “So, my...

Railroad Robledo Mountain 4Chapter 17

Before going to bed, Tom and I worked on the mortar shells in the den. “Paul are you sure this is going to work?” Tom asked skeptically, as he applied hide glue around the brass sides at the bottom of the 12-gauge shotgun shell. “It should work just fine, at least for the shotgun shells, Tom. The tricky part of all this is the caps in the top of the shells.” Squinting, I focused my mind on dabbing just a little hide glue on the percussion cap before sticking it inside the plunger cap and...

Robledo MountainChapter 32

Tom, Giuseppe and I were relaxing after lunch while we waited for the ladies to arrive. A little after one o’clock, one of the cousins came into the camp telling us that wagons from Las Cruces were on their way. I thanked him, and the three of us went up to the slope, where we used our monoculars to watch the wagons. There were ten heavily laden wagons about a mile away moving slowly up the road. With a groan I said, “My back is already starting to hurt, just thinking about unloading those...

Refuge Robledo Mountain 2Chapter 4

Standing at the terrace railing with a light breeze blowing from the north while sipping a fresh cup of coffee the next morning, I watched the gaggle head down the slope before breaking into their separate groups. Giuseppe and Sofia with their escort of three of the cousins headed off towards the site of yesterday’s ambush. Tom and Yolanda rode out to practice shooting, while Miguel and the cousins led their group of farmers across the river to begin another day of Apache training. My mind...

Refuge Robledo Mountain 2Chapter 6

We slept in a little later than usual the next morning. While late, we could have joined everyone for breakfast, but Anna had other ideas. She remembered my warning that we’d be missing both soft beds and hot water for the next month or longer. Rolling over on top of me, she said she wanted one more memory of a nice soft bed before we showered. Eventually we made it to the shower and enjoyed the hot water. After a good breakfast, we loaded up the horses and mules, and double checked our...

Refuge Robledo Mountain 2Chapter 11

I sat at the picnic table on the patio looking out at the nightly spectacle of glorious colors as the sun set behind Picacho Peak. A song with a snappy beat wafted softly over the outside speakers hidden in rose bushes climbing up both sides of the patio on their trellises reaching for the roof. I couldn’t quite make out the words to the song, but it was very familiar. If I didn’t know better, I’d believe I was actually back in my twenty-first century home. But I did know better. “You’ve...

Refuge Robledo Mountain 2Chapter 14

After breakfast, the next morning, we all went our separate ways. The Padre, Yolanda, and Sofia were taking her kids to school while Alejandro went out to visit his cousins on the upper plateau. He was a little sad to see the others leaving but brightened up when Anna said he would be starting school in a few days and would go with them in the mornings. Tom and Giuseppe went off to check the dams and the quarry. I told Cristina we were going to be using the study most of the day and asked her...

Railroad Robledo Mountain 4Chapter 6

I shared my dream with Anna the next morning before we got out of bed. She agreed with Dream Laura’s thoughts on both JT and ‘the Boss’, which didn’t really surprise me as I’d noticed before how alike their thought processes were. While Anna showered, dressed, and left to check on JJ, I sat cross-legged in the middle of the bed, and tried to meditate, something I’d never really been all that good at. Maybe I was trying too hard or perhaps I was just too rusty, but a half-hour later, I gave...

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