Hill Country Courtship. Laurie Kingery

one o’clock, MacLaren’s man had still not made his appearance. “Shall we eat dinner? Once we depart, we will not have the chance to eat again for many hours. Yet what if he appears right in the middle of the meal and expects us to take off that minute?” Juana fretted.

      “Never pass up food when it’s available. It’s a long ride out to Five Mile Hill Ranch, and if he arrives while we’re eating we’ll just invite him to sit down with us. Men never pass up a chance to eat.”

      Mrs. Meyer gestured them toward a table filled with steaming bowls of chili and bread still hot from the oven.

      “I’m going to miss your chili, Mrs. Meyer,” Maude told her.

      “I’ve taught you how to make it, girl. Anytime you have a hankering for it, just stir up some. Remember to use good stewed beef and lots of chili pepper, and don’t be shy with the jalapeños. If it doesn’t bite you when you lay a spoonful on your tongue—”

      “It’s not Mrs. Meyer’s chili,” the two finished in perfect unison, then giggled.

      Juana had still not taken her seat. “There he is, just as we figured,” she said, staring out the window to where a cloud of dust heralded a wagon coming toward them.

      A middle-aged man with thinning black hair and a dusty bandana slung low around his neck jumped down from the wagon with a lumbering grace, knocked hesitantly on the front door of the boardinghouse, then straightened and blinked in surprise as Juana went forward and opened the door to him.

      “Buenas tardes,” she said in lilting, melodious Spanish, and Maude was glad of all the Spanish words her father had made her learn so long ago. “I am Juana Benavides. You have come to take Miss Harkey, the baby and me out to Five Mile Hill Ranch, no? We were just having dinner. Won’t you sit down and have some chili with us before we go?”

      “Mucho gusto, senorita,” the man murmured, and Maude could see that he was much taken with the sight of the pretty Juana. “I would be happy to join you for your meal, of course. I am Hector Gonsalvo, Senor MacLaren’s segundo—his right-hand man,” he added in English, for Maude and Mrs. Meyer’s sake. “I did not know I would have the honor of two ladies’ company today.”

      The man might as well have thumped his chest like a gorilla, he was so obviously impressed with his own importance.

      Maude sniffed. MacLaren better not think he could renege on the terms of the agreement, at this late stage. But perhaps he had just forgotten to tell Gonsalvo that he was hiring Juana, too. From the way the man was staring at Juana, it was clear that she was someone he would not quickly forget.

      He’d better not think he was going to start up a flirtation with her friend right under her very nose the first afternoon they met, Maude thought, intercepting an approving look from Gonsalvo with a glare. She wasn’t taking Juana Benavides away from all that was familiar to her to endanger her honor.