Return From Darkness

By Steph

When Alan returned, he said, "they found how she came onto the property."

"Then they think it was her?" asked Inez.

"Oh yes. And this on the night after the sighting at the docks is too coincidental to think otherwise," Alan said.

Luis sighed. He hated listening to their discussion, as if he wasn't there, wasn't involved, a child in their eyes. He looked up at Alan. "Why don't the police speak to me directly?"

"Because they don't need to, Luis," Alan said. "She had already been convicted. She's a fugitive now. They don't need your testimony or evidence."

"I mean about last night," he said. "I was the one who heard her outside my window." He pulled his hand from Inez. "They," he said pointing at Inez, "convinced me that I was only dreaming. I won't have this any longer. I will not have you all keeping secrets from me." He turned to Inez and met her soft gaze. His voice softened in response to those eyes. "I will not have you keeping the truth from me."

"Then we will not," Alan said. "We have always been willing to speak, but you have not always been willing to listen. You can't blame us for waiting until you were ready."

Alan spoke to him sternly, but no differently than when they had difficult decisions to make in the business. Luis recognized the tone, nodded and looked away, ashamed. "You are right, of course." He sighed. "Alan, I think it's time I return to work. I cannot stay here with nothing to do but think of myself all day long."

"I agree," said Alan. "And since I am headed there directly, why don't you have your horse saddled and come along?"

"Today? Now?" It suddenly seemed too soon. Yet, what could happen? The people who saw him might laugh at him or whisper behind his back. What could he do about that except to keep himself busy, and work was the best way.

"Yes, now. Come on then, I'll wait for you downstairs."

Inez seemed overjoyed, at least happily satisfied, as she stood when Luis stood. He wanted to go back to bed, to forget what Reynolds had told him, to forget the boy who died. As he changed in his room, he wondered if it had been Julia, or maybe it was Billy, who killed the boy. Yet, it was Julia who put the poison in his coffee.

Fighting the urge to weep yet again, he made his way down the stairs and allowed himself to be helped into his saddle. Alan sat easily on his horse, watching him.

"There is a lot to do," Alan said as they made their way slowly to the gate. "You'll find it hard to think about all of this once you start working again."

"I hope so, Alan. I truly hope so."

**

Alan had not lied to him. There was a great deal to do in the office. Gabriel had kept the paperwork up, but the businessman in Luis soon saw that orders had not been completed, that delays had cost them money and that field inspections had been insufficient. There had been a slowdown in orders from two of their regular clients and that struck him as odd. He immediately called one of the two and discovered that another exporter had undercut them in price.

Before the day was out, his promise of quality and a temporary discount convinced the client to return. At the end of the day, Luis felt exhausted but accomplished. He liked the feeling and left the office, promising his employees that he would see them tomorrow.

He had detected no laughter, no whispers, just employees worried that he might find fault with them. As he rode home, he wondered why he hadn't returned to work earlier.

***

"You no longer need a nurse," Inez said in response to his question of why.

"How do you know that?" Luis asked. "I have only been back to work a few days. Suppose I relapse?"

She laughed softly. "Don Luis, you are healthy. You have even regained most of your weight. In another week, you will no longer need that cane, which you have only used these past two nights after long days at your office. You certainly do not need me to bathe you or feed you. You have not needed me for some time, I think."

He stared at her, unbelieving. He knew the truth of her words, but that didn't keep him from panicking. He had grown accustomed to her presence. Who would he play chess with at night? Who would read to him? Dine with him?

"Maybe you could stay as my secretary," he said, grasping for something to say that would keep her here.

She laughed again, blushing shyly. "Don Luis, I am a nurse. Doctor Xavier has asked me to take on another client in town. Don Miguel Verona. He has an apartment in the city very close to the Jordan family, and they have offered a room before, so I may ask them now."

"You won't be staying with Don Miguel then?" asked Luis, glad to hear it because Miguel was a renowned lecher, despite his advanced age.

"No, it would not be proper. It is only he and his valet. Even his cook and housekeeper live elsewhere."

Luis paced in his study now, his cane lying over the desk. She would at least be in Santiago, and at Alan's house, which was better than a boarding house. He stopped and looked at her. "I don't like it. I think you should stay here a bit longer."

"But Don Luis…"

"I like your company. I like…you." There, he said it.

Now, she bowed her head and turned away from him. "And I have come to enjoy your company as well, Don Luis. I think, though, that we might. I mean it may be possible. I am a widow, after all, not a fresh maiden." Her face turned scarlet and she covered her mouth with her hand.

Luis stood still for a long moment, surprised and delighted with her words. He walked to her, standing close, facing her back.

"I mean that I don't need permission to see a man, you understand. I am quite a liberated woman. Oh dear, this is not coming out right at all."

He smiled and placed his hand gently on her shoulder. "I think I understand, Sra. Wetherby. And I would be pleased if you would allow me to call on you, once you have established yourself in the Jordan residence."

She wiped her hands on her nurse's dress and nodded, still facing away from him. "I would be pleased to have you as a caller, Sr. Vargas." She turned, flustered, still avoiding his eyes. "Now, if you will excuse me. I must pack. I will be leaving in the morning."

Luis stared at the door for long moments after Inez had left. Maybe it was better this way, he told himself. After all, anything he did here would be seen as compromising her. He couldn't do that to her. She was a proper woman.

His eyes narrowed. Is she proper, though? What is a proper woman? The unbidden questions appalled him and he quickly shoved them aside. No, Inez was not like Julia. He would not, could not see his nurse as such a whore as his wife.

But try as he did, he could not rid himself of those thoughts once they had risen. Julia was a whore, a proven whore. He had seen her level of comfort in the house of her kind. He knew she had many men and she took money, and that defined a whore. Inez was not such a woman. She was compassionate, gentle and likely understood very little of the variety of pleasure that could be found in the bedroom. Maybe, maybe Luis could teach her, but for him alone, not to be shared with another.

What was he thinking? He would never marry again. Besides….

"My god," he said aloud. "I am still married."

**

The next morning in his office, Luis wrote a petition to the Church for an annulment of his marriage, charging that his wife was a polygamist and an adulteress and that she took precautions to prevent pregnancy. He asked Alan for copies of the newspaper items about her and Billy, which he included with the petition.

"It is about time," Alan said as Luis watched the delivery boy leave the office with his package.

"I had not thought about it, but…" began Luis.

"But Missus Wetherby is no longer your nurse, and you'd like to see her in, what? Social circumstances?"

Luis smiled, sat in the leather chair across from Alan and took a brandy from the servant who offered. "She is moving into your house today, I understand."

"She is renting the cottage," Alan said. "She would not accept our offer to allow her the use of it without payment." Alan's eyes twinkled. "She is a fine woman."

"She has some very good characteristics," Luis said. Strong arms, he thought, and laughed aloud. "She is also very pretty."

Alan grinned at him. "Its good to see you laugh like yourself again, my friend." He puffed on his cigar. "Augusta has invited the both of you for dinner tonight."

Luis nodded and set the glass down, then stood. "I will be happy to come. But right now, I have an inspection to make. I'll see you tonight."

"Seven," Alan called after him.

"I'll be there," Luis called back as he left the room for the stairs that would take him to the stables.

**

The inspection did not go well. Luis found evidence of leaf rust disease, which attacked the Arabica coffee plants at the edge of the plantation. He spent hours convincing the plantation owner that his plants needed to be burned immediately before the fungus spread. It would be a disaster for all of Cuba if the disease took hold. Now, Luis would have to file a report with the government. Every plantation in the low-lying areas of the island would have to be inspected.

The time spent with the plantation owner made him late for dinner. As he rode into the city, he told his two escorts to go on home.

"But Sr. Vargas," said one, "Sr. Jordan said to stay with you."

"I'm fine, Felipe," Luis said. "I'm only going a few blocks."

"Then it is not out of our way," Felipe said. Both men stubbornly kept at his side until he reached Alan's house.

"It's about time!" Alan called as Luis entered the drawing room. Alan lost his smile when he saw Luis' grim countenance. "What happened?"

"Blight," Luis said, and the men began discussing what Luis had seen. Luis took an offered brandy and remained standing while he and Alan continued their conversation.

"Luis, Alan," said Augusta, stopping Luis in mid sentence. "Sit down and talk. Luis has just walked in and he looks as if he might collapse."

Indeed, Luis hadn't noticed his weariness. The two men sat, but jumped to their feet again as the door opened and Inez entered with Marie.

Luis found himself staring at Inez as she entered in a flowing dress that accentuated her feminine shape without revealing an inch of skin below her neck or above her wrists. His lips parted when she smiled at him and he noticed that she wore lip powder, though just a touch. Her eyes brightened with laughter and Luis suddenly realized he'd missed something.

"What?" he said.

"I was showing my pony, Robert, to Miss Wetherby," Marie said.

"Yes," said Inez, "which was all fine and good until Robert decided to kick a bit of muck into the air."

"Muck?" asked Luis, very confused.

"And so we both had to change," said Marie, impatiently.

"Ah," said Luis, reaching down to kiss the top of Marie's head. "But I am late, too, so I had not even noticed."

"And so you must all be famished," said Augusta. "Shall we?"

At dinner, Luis tried to keep his fatigue to himself.

"Luis tells me you are an accomplished chess player," Alan said to Inez.

"Accomplished? Surely not," Inez said. "Mr. Wetherby taught me the first year of our marriage. Now, he could play a fine chess game."

"He was a good teacher," Luis said.

She gave him a warm smile. "Yes, he was."

"And have you met your new patient?" Luis asked.

She rolled her eyes just slightly. "Don Miguel, yes."

"And the position satisfies you?" Luis continued.

"It satisfies me to be able to do my job, Don Luis," she said. "And it satisfies even more when patients recover quickly from their illnesses."

Her demeanor had changed to that of a professional, so he changed the subject. "I read this morning that there is a new opera coming to Santiago. Do you enjoy opera, Sra. Wetherby?"

"I do indeed, Don Luis," she said.

"Ah yes," said Augusta. "They have received marvelous reviews. We should all go together. Don't you think, Alan?"

"Opera, well, I suppose," said Alan.

Luis grinned at his friend, who he knew found opera tedious. But Alan never opposed Augusta in such things and for that, he was grateful. For this family, he was grateful, and for Inez, who now looked at him, he hoped, as a man, and not a patient. He certainly enjoyed looking at her as a woman, and not a nurse.

Not long after the men retired to the parlor for cigars and port, Luis' exhaustion began to overwhelm him.

"Why don't you stay in our guest room tonight?" Alan offered.

"No, no, thank you, but it is not far to my house," Luis said, shaking his head to clear it.

"Then I will call Felipe," Alan said, and before Luis could stop him, he had left the room.

Luis decided not to argue. They were his friends. They trusted him and he would trust them. He had caused them too much trouble to continue giving them more.

He bid goodnight to Alan and Augusta, then walked outside with Inez.

"Then it's settled," he said. "Saturday night we shall dine with the Jordans and afterwards, the opera. I look forward to it."

"As do I," she said.

He kissed her hand and she blushed, remaining in the lamplight just outside the open door. Luis turned and pulled himself onto his horse, trying not to show his fatigue, tipped his hat and turned, followed by Felipe, his escort.

The two men walked the horses through the streets of Santiago, nodding to those who walked along the cobbled streets and wooden walkways. The night was so clear that Luis could see the Milky Way as a splash of white across the black sky. He was tired, but he felt as alive as he ever had.

They turned down the final street before reaching the road to his home. On the corner, among a crowd of young people, stood a cloaked figure, below a streetlamp. As Luis passed, the figure drew the cloak back to reveal a face.

He stared for several moments then looked away, his heart beating wildly. He said nothing, as if he could not speak. When he looked back, the figure was gone, nowhere among the crowd. He wanted to cry out, but he did not know to whom, so remained silent. The figure was gone, yet the face remained fixed in his mind.

He had seen her, and she him.