Free The Furies by John Jakes

creature. Lovely! Reyes, my personal physician, assured me she would be fit to travel within a day or two.”
    Again Amanda translated. Susannah looked blank. “Travel? Travel where?”
    “She wants to know where we’re supposed to go,” Amanda said.
    “Why, back to your own people!” Santa Anna said, speaking to Susannah in Spanish. “I thought briefly of sending you to Mexico City, as proof of our victory. But I’ve concluded it would be more useful for you to go to Gonzales. I’ll send an escort—my own orderly, Benjamin. He was an Anglo—although a slave—before he joined my service. When you’re once again among your own—”
    “What do you mean, her own?” Amanda fumed. “Her husband died at the mission. Murdered by your men!”
    Santa Anna sat forward suddenly, losing his relaxed manner. “Murder is a very ugly word, señora.”
    “But it fits.”
    “No. Those who died were casualties of war. By their traitorous behavior, they arranged their own executions. It was no doing of mine.”
    Amanda laughed then, so loudly and contemptuously that the officer who had reproved her before drew his sword.
    Standing by Susannah’s chair, Cordoba tried to warn Amanda with his eyes. She ignored it. “No doing of yours? Who raised the no-quarter flag from the church, may I ask? Who gave the command for the playing of the deguello? ”
    “God, what hypocrites you Anglos are!” Santa Anna snarled. “You cavil at the harshness of war while your white brethren in the United States—and here in Texas until I put a stop to it!—trade in human flesh without a qualm of conscience. Blood of Jesus, woman, don’t prattle to me about inhumanity!”
    Santa Anna’s slashing gesture stunned Amanda to silence. Before she could accuse him of taking refuge behind an issue entirely unrelated to the battle, he barked at Cordoba, “You will please assume the duties of translator, Major. I dislike this woman’s contentious attitude. Especially since I have generously decided to permit the noncombatants to go free.”
    Seething, Amanda exclaimed, “You’ll forgive me, Your Excellency, but I’m suspicious of this sudden outpouring of compassion—”
    “Excellency—” The officer who had drawn his sword stormed around the desk. “I suggest that kindness is wasted on this American slut.”
    “Kindness and rational argument, it seems.”
    “Then let my dragoons have her.”
    Santa Anna pursed his lips. “A possibility. A distinct possibility—”
    “If you’re going to kill me, do it and be done!” Amanda raged. “I’ve had enough of Mexican mercy for one morn—”
    “Amanda!” Susannah Dickinson cried. “For God’s sake be civil to him! I don’t know what you’re saying, but you’re going to make everything worse. Almeron’s dead. Angelina’s hurt—” Suddenly she began to weep.
    “I want to live. I want to get out of this place. I want to live— ”
    Amanda held back an angry remark. She had no right to endanger Almeron Dickinson’s widow or the blacks because of her own hostility.
    Presently the color that had rushed to Santa Anna’s cheeks faded. He rose, moving out from behind the desk. “What did she say, Major? I caught a little of it, but not everything.”
    Cordoba repeated the sense of Susannah’s plea. Santa Anna nodded, said to Susannah, “I am glad you show some appreciation of the realities of the situation, señora—” He paused, allowing Cordoba time to translate. “Your people were foolish to oppose the Centralist regime. I trust that when you leave Bexar—supplied with food, blankets and money—you will lose no time in communicating to your fellow Texans that resistance is futile. I am more determined than ever to see the rebellion crushed now that the so-called Council at Washington has taken its ill-advised step—”
    Cordoba cleared his throat. “I don’t believe any of those in the mission knew about the declaration, Excellency.”
    “Ah, yes, you’re probably