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“Let me find us a room for the night. I don’t want you alone in the dark.”
Elena simply nodded, even though she had said they should make camp outside the town. It was as if she had given up, was too heartsore to argue with him. Maybe she just needed some time to think about what she might want to do next.
What had she expected? Other than using it as a destination, she had never said what she had hoped to really gain from coming here. Perhaps a family reunion with all her mother’s family?
Thomas went into the inn and purchased a room. It was small, but had a bed, and that was all that mattered. He would hold her and convince her to take her grandmother’s house. At least she would have somewhere to live, somewhere to start over. She could sell the donkey and buy a cow or a goat. Once the villagers knew she could heal people, they would want her to stay.
He let her sleep while he went downstairs. The innkeeper was a jolly man who pretty much told him the same thing the elderly woman had.
“So, there are no more relatives at all?”
The man laughed, causing his belly to jiggle. “We are all related in some way.”
“Do you think the villagers will accept her…I mean us if we stay?”
“Who can tell these things? There are no young people here anymore. If they were not killed by the English or the French, they all moved to the bigger towns or went to Cadiz seeking their fortunes. It would be nice to have some babies born here again.” He gave Thomas a wink.
Part of him would love to have babies with Elena, but not in this lifetime. “Thank you for your encouragement. In the last village we went through, they said there had been some Frenchmen passing through. Did they come through here too?”
“Si, but they did not stop, thankfully,” he replied.
“Good. We do not need their type here. Elena’s family was killed by the French. She will be glad they did not stop here.”
“Sadly, I hear this same story, amigo.”
“Does el alcalde ever come to town?”
“Si, every week he comes for the rents.”
“When would that be?”
“Now let me see,” he said, counting his fingers. “In two days’ time, but you would be better to go and see him. He will be more willing to listen when his mind is not on money.”
“Thank you.”
“I’ll bring you up some food later and a bottle of local wine, yes?”
“Si.” They shook hands, and Thomas went back up to Elena to tell her what he knew.
He found her staring out the window. “Are you all right?”
She turned, and the expression on her face made his heart squeeze painfully. He rushed to her and took her in his arms.
“I’m so sorry.”
“This is my grief to bear.”
“What do you mean?”
“You must leave me here, Tomas,” she said between sobs. “I will stay here and take my grandmother’s house.”
“I will not leave you here unless it is what you absolutely want.”
“They think you are my husband. They will feel sorry for me when you leave and never come back.”
Shit! He hadn’t thought of that. The words came out of his mouth before he had time to think it through. “Come with me.”
Her head shot up.
