The racket from the living room drew closer to her bedroom door. Since she wasn't wearing anything, she started across the room to her robe and would see what the Colonel wanted. If Montoya was in such a mood, he wouldn't just leave until he aired his distress.

Before she reached her robe, Montoya burst into the room. Anton right behind him hollered, "You cannot just barge into our house, Colonel!"

"I can do what I damn well please," Montoya's raging stopped suddenly. Mary Rose knew he saw her naked and hurriedly place the robe in front of her. She knew he got quite the peek of her, and yet he didn't register anything but anger on his face.

"What in the hell do you think you are doing?" he demanded of her as he shoved Anton back into the hall and slammed the door so they were alone.

"I am getting dressed. Get the hell out of here!"

"Not until I tear you apart, limb from limb."

"Someone got up from the wrong side of the bed this morning?" Mary Rose fumed as she yanked the tie of the robe around her waist.

He drew the lapels of her robe together with his fist and pulled her close to his face. "Mark my words, your plan will not work."

"Of course it will, but only if everyone does what they are supposed to do. I put the finishing touches on the plan last night."

"Your plan! Bah! Your secret plan has been discovered, Seņora Guevara."

The Queen. Of course. She had to have found out, somehow. Did she get to the banditos at Beggar's Canyon before they could be bought? But, why would she tell the Colonel? What was that little turncoat's game? Mary Rose couldn't get the fact that she might have gone to Montoya out of her head. Mary Rose chuckled. As Maria Teresa or as the Queen of Swords?

Montoya's fist was planted at the base of her neck as she was flat against the wall so hard that she feared she would choke. No one, not even Colonel Montoya, treated her in such a way and got away with it. Mary Rose pushed him away and strode across the room to her cutlass. She pulled it out of its sheathe and held it threateningly between herself and Montoya. "Maybe we should settle this the old-fashioned way."

"Grisham! Get in here!" Montoya commanded, just after he laughed.

"You cannot fight your own battles, Colonel?" Mary Rose needled him, slowly moving to his left, his vulnerable side, with the tip of her blade near his nose. "Are you getting so soft that you need your Capitan to come to your aid?"

Grisham entered, and raised an eyebrow when he saw Mary Rose fully intending on following through with her challenge. Montoya pushed her blade down and said, "You stole from me." He gripped her blade with his gloved hand and pulled her toward him. He looked at her hilt and announced, "And you knocked me over the head in order to do it!" He pulled the cutlass from her hand and ordered Grisham, "Take her away. Put her in the stockades with the other scourge of humanity."

"Very well," Grisham said and took hold of Mary Rose's arm.

"What is the meaning of this?" Mary Rose argued. "You barge into my home and...."

"Take her away!" Montoya ordered and started going through her drawers. "Search every inch of this hacienda, and if that brat of hers makes any moves to stop us, shoot him. I am not particular as to where."

"Montoya!" Mary Rose shouted as she kneed Grisham. When he bent over holding his crotch, Mary Rose continued, "Will you just tell me what you think I have done? I do not have a 'secret' plan!"

Montoya moved close to her. "You know what you stole. You stole it all."

"What?"

"The necklace, the...."

"You gave me the necklace."

"Where it is?"

"In the safe."

"Open it."

Grisham stood upright and sneered at Mary Rose. They followed him to the study and Grisham broke open the safe with little trouble. He had to have had practice. He pulled the pouch she had put her treasures in and presented it to Montoya. The Colonel eagerly went through it, and then dumped the contents onto the desk. "Where are my jewels?"

"I do not know what you are talking about." The look on Montoya's face told her that he wouldn't be satisfied until every stone was unturned. She didn't need his mind set on betrayal, whatever happened to him. She hadn't done anything, they wouldn't find anything, she had done what she needed to do. "Be my guest," she told Montoya and his men. "Satisfy yourself in the only way you can be satisfied. Search my home. By all means, do not leave any room untouched."

Mary Rose and Anton sat on the sofa while Montoya's men went through her house. Cleaning up the mess would take time, but it could be worse. It was a good thing she didn't bring a lot of her possessions to the house. The head maid, Sofia, gasped every time one of the soldiers broke something or emptied drawers on the floor. If Mary Rose hadn't allowed this, she would never hear the end of it, and just might end up in jail for some offense she had no part of. As she looked at her son, she knew that it took next to nothing to be jailed. Montoya would never let whatever burr was on his saddle go. The bureaucracy might not be in her favor. It wasn't as if she was totally innocent in everything in life, he could easily make up an offense and make it seem credible to society and the Viceroy.

Anton looked at if he were going to explode or start punching, and Mary Rose laid a hand on his to stop him. "What did you do?" he whispered to her.

"Nothing."

"I find that hard to believe."

The men were thorough, that was certain, as they pulled out drawers and let the contents fall to the floor in order to sift through them. The few pictures she did have hung were taken down and checked behind. Heavy furniture was toppled to look for hidden compartments. It was only when Grisham took out a dagger to cut open the cushion of a wingback chair did Mary Rose decide it was time to call things to a stop. She yanked the cushion from him and said, "Does this look like it was been recently restitched?" She shoved it back in his face. "Montoya! Enough of this nonsense. You have come up empty, except for that man," she pointed at one of the privates, "who found my lingerie drawer!"

"We did come up with nothing, Seņora." Montoya stalked to her, pleased with how his men trashed her hacienda, "But that does not prove a thing."

"Why do you think I stole something from you? Why do you think I was the one who hit you over the head? You think I am the only one who does not like you? Colonel," Mary Rose chuckled as she said, "you are not exactly the neighborhood cut-up." She flipped her hand in Grisham's direction. "I would bet that he would not even be counted as a friend. When you act like this, you will lose whatever comrades you have. Stop it. Come to your senses, or I will call the whole deal off."

"Oh, the deal is off, Seņora."

"Fine." A new deal had been made to each other's satisfaction, as they stared at each other toe-to-toe. She said, "Take the necklace. I do not want a thing to do with you. I will seek my revenge in my own way."

Montoya stared at her in such a way that made her think he could look right through her. She gathered her robe around her, as they had not given her the opportunity to properly clothe herself. She had the thought of flashing him, but with the pipsqueaks in the room, she didn't want to give them a peep show. He was thinking something, and she really wondered what that was, and what had got him so damned riled. He finally spoke, to Grisham. Short and sweet, he commanded, "Leave us."

Grisham bowed his head to his Colonel and grabbed Anton's arm, giving him a shove to the door. "Mother?" Anton asked, as he was escorted out.

"Go cooperatively," Mary Rose told her son. "I do believe the Colonel and I need to have a chat."

When they were alone, Montoya stepped over the contents of her humidor, spread out all over the floor, then stooped to pick up a handful. He pocketed them and faced her.

"Go ahead, take them all. Does that satisfy you?" Mary Rose needled. "What exactly does satisfy you, Colonel?"

"I will only be satisfied when I have my cannon. I will get them and do not need you to do so."

"Just leave Mazar alive."

"So you can kill him?"

Mary Rose just shrugged. Montoya chuckled. "What it is he did to you is something I can guess at, but the real story must be more than fascinating. It could not just be the age-old story: Boy gets girl, boy takes from girl, boy leaves girl, girl wants blood."

"There are only seven plots in the world, Colonel."

"Oh, I know that for a fact. People are so easy to read." Montoya took a seat next to Mary Rose on the sofa and she moved over when their shoulders and legs were touching. "Why did you have Mazar move his ship?"

"I had what?"

"His ship has been moored a mile off shore for over a week. I received word from an acquaintance that it sailed late last night."

Mary Rose halted her facial expressions from Montoya, as this was all news to her. She had assumed that Mazar had arrived in the area to goad her into doing something, thinking he could overtake her and her men. Little would he know that was exactly what she had planned to do, hire more men and have the added advantage of the military to storm his--her--ship. Where did he go? Why did he go? What was he planning?

Looking back at Montoya, who was staring her down with his piercing, gray eyes, she turned away again and said, "I cannot possibly imagine what he has planned. Which acquaintance is this?"

"A fellow Colonel who also has been interested in the comings and goings of that coward pirate."

It had to be Balthazar, Mary Rose determined. Colonel Alfonso had been on Mazar's tail since before she had met him three months earlier. She had had no idea that Montoya knew Alfonso, but then again, they were comrades with equal footing.

he looked back at Montoya, who was still staring at her. She closed the collar of her robe and asked, "Are you going to help me clean up this mess?" as she indicated the chaos in the room.

"I will clean up the mess that is Lorenzo Mazar." Montoya chuckled and said, "I am still wondering what charge I can levy on you to put you behind bars where you belong."

"I did not bonk you over the head," Mary Rose said softly. She lightly rubbed the small remnant of the hit on his temple, wanting to soften him up, but he took her hand and placed it back on her lap.

Her voice stronger now, with a hint of exasperation, Mary Rose proclaimed, "So, you thought I made that mark on your head, stole some jewels, and made off with Mazar last night?"

"Or would meet up with him."

"I will only meet up with him to kill him."

As Montoya stood and straightened his uniform coat, he said, "Do not let me stop you." He walked outside and ordered his men to mount up. As she heard the pounding of the soldier's horse's hooves, she looked around her messy house. Anton walked in and asked, "What is going on?"

"I do not know."

"It has something to do with that pirate."

"Of course."

"I should have killed him while I had the chance." Anton shook his head bitterly as he picked up a painting he had given his mother for her birthday three years before, which had fallen out of the frame when the house was ransacked. "To think you allowed that man into my father's bed. For three months, he was taking stock of everything you had."

"He only took the watch."

"That we know of. Really, mother. Your taste."

"Anton," Mary Rose declared. "Do not ever talk to me in such a fashion again! I am your mother, and I demand respect. We have both made horrible mistakes. Get past it! I am going to. Help Sofia clean up this mess. I am going to get dressed and then go for a morning ride."

The banging of her bedroom door accentuated her anger at Anton, Montoya, Mazar, the world in general at that moment in time. The sounds still reverberated in her ears as she paced her bedroom a few times. She couldn't believe the news that Mazar had just turned tail and ran; he must be planning something. As she sat on the edge of her bed, she went through all the reasons for his departure. None that she came up with made any sense at all.

Continue to Part Six

If you have missed any episodes so far, you will find them in the Season Three Archives section .