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waiting for me back in San Antonio, niño. We're going to build a pretty fair ranch of our own.”
           “Dulcia?” Melanie asked, already dreading the answer.
           “My wife. Didn't Charlee write Deborah? I was married last summer in Mexico City.”
           “Well, I hope you and your bride will be very happy in Texas, Lee. Adam and I promised to wait for Joe across the street. Maybe we'll see you after the ceremonies. I think they're about to begin.” She turned quickly away and shaded her eyes, scanning the crowd around the grandstands.
           With a nod, Lee gave Adam a final hug and rose. “I'd better find Charlee and Jim pronto. When you locate your friend, we'll be over by the right-hand side of the platform.” With that, he disappeared down the crowded street as she stared blankly after him.

 
     
    Chapter Three
     
     
    El Sueño Grande, May 1846
     
           Lee wiped the sweat from his brow and stopped to admire his handiwork in the clear noonday heat. The corral, with its sturdy high cross rails of oak, should hold at least fifty prime horses, culled from the wild mustangs he and his men had captured the past several months. Now, they would begin breaking the best of them for sale.
           With any luck, only one more trip out onto the open plains and he would have enough stock. He looked from the new corral to the rebuilt hacienda. The low-ceilinged, six-room stone-and-adobe structure he had built on the ruins of his parents' place was scarcely the grand mansion that would one day house his family, but it was a comfortable beginning nonetheless. Although Dulcia had made no protest when he brought her from Bluebonnet last week, he was sure it seemed primitive to her. At least here she was mistress of her own modest domain, with three house servants to see to her comfort. Still, he felt uneasy about her fragility in the face of frontier hardships. As he pictured his wife's soft features, another face floated in his memory, one with glowing, tanned skin and snapping gold eyes that mocked him.
           What the hell am I doing remembering that little hellion? he thought incredulously. Feeling an unreasoning surge of anger at the way his subconscious had conjured her up, he was further upset with the immediate comparison between her and Dulcia that some perverse self-punishing instinct caused him to make. Neither fragile nor modest, Melanie Fleming fit in splendidly in Texas.
           Admittedly, Lee had been shocked at how she had changed since their first encounter when she had been a twelve-year-old child. Even then, he had thought the daughter of Fleming's octoroon mistress would grow into a striking woman. But her exotic beauty combined with earthy sensuousness had surprised him. Frequently over the past months, as he had slaved and sweated rebuilding his parents' dream, Lee had found Melanie haunting his imagination, causing him to wonder how she would respond to his touch. Scarcely the way a proper criolla would, he was absolutely certain of that!
           Angrily, he pulled his disloyal thoughts back to Dulcia, his gentle and patient bride who adored him. If she did not return his ardor in making love, that was to be expected from a woman with her upbringing. A lady did not behave with abandon. He felt a renewed surge of guilt for his wayward thoughts, especially now that she was pregnant.
           Smiling ruefully, he recalled the evening when she had told him he was to be a father. It was the month after he had gone to Austin for the statehood hoopla. She had been so shy, yet proud about becoming the mother of his child. Of course, he had taken her agonizingly embarrassed plea to be relieved of conjugal duties with as much good grace as was humanly possible.
           When in Mexico City, he had been disillusioned with the morality of upper-class men who kept mistresses, thinking such a practice decadent and insulting to the women who