There was someone coming toward me in the hall. I gripped the door handle. That someone was holding a candle.
“Don Cristóbal, what are you doing here? Is there something wrong?”
Julia.
I fought my impulse to scream. A man wouldn’t do that. Instead, I let go of the doorknob and fixed the collar of Cristóbal’s smoke jacket.
“There’s a snake in my chamber,” I said as calmly as I could muster.
“A snake? Virgen Santa. I’m so sorry, Don Cristóbal, that’s very common here, especially on cooler nights, such as this one.”
She called this a cool night?
“Allow me.” She entered the room.
A few minutes later, she came out, snake in hand.
“Good thing you didn’t touch it yourself,” she said. “These snakes are poisonous, and they attack when they smell fear, but I have been around them all my life so I’m not afraid of them.”
She walked past me as if she were carrying a tray of tea instead of a live snake.
“Good night,” she said.
I stood there for a moment, hand on my chest. If someone wanted to persuade me to leave, they were on the right track.
CHAPTER 14
Angélica
Vinces, 1907
“Thanks for saving my life yesterday,” I told Juan.
He was sitting under his favorite tree, holding a long bamboo stick.
When he looked up, my heart thumped against a shield of ribs and flesh. He was so handsome.
I had to pretend things hadn’t changed between us in the last twenty-four hours when he’d held my hand for the first time. I had to treat him like I always had, like a good childhood friend, even though we weren’t kids anymore. He’d turned fifteen last month and I was thirteen.
I shivered, remembering the feel of his hand tightening against mine as he saved me from falling from the bridge yesterday. There had been a loose board on the bridge that fell in the river when I stepped on it. I’d lost my balance and nearly fell into those deep brown waters.
“You don’t need to thank me,” he said. “Anyone would’ve done the same.”
“I don’t know about that. My brother might have let me fall,” I said.
Juan chuckled. “Yeah, maybe.”
Oh, how I loved his smile. In truth, I loved everything about him. He was the only boy in the region who paid me any attention. Other boys just wanted to play with Alberto since they didn’t think I was capable of doing fun things, like climb trees or fish. But Juan was different. He always found ways to include me in his games with Alberto, and if my brother’s mean friends would leave me alone, Juan would come find me or invent a game where I could partake. He even taught me how to swim. I was so lucky to have him as a neighbor. But I shouldn’t fool myself—he’d only held my hand so I wouldn’t fall and drown. He was just being a decent person.
“What do you have in there?” I asked, peeking into the box. It was filled with stones and leaves.
With his stick, he shuffled the stones exposing a long snake.
I cringed.
This topped it all. I’d known Juan to collect frogs and lizards. He even had a black widow spider once because he was fascinated by the fact that she would kill the male after mating.
I was so embarrassed every time he mentioned mating, even if it was between insects. Especially now with my unrequited devotion for him.
I never minded his collections before, but those animals never hurt anyone. They were just ugly to look at, but interesting. Snakes, on the other hand, scared me ever since I’d heard from one of the maids that the carpenter’s son had died of a poisonous bite.
“Her name is Lola,” he said, as if he was talking about a family friend.
The snake had a beautiful pattern in red and black. I was strangely attracted to this creature, more so than the black widow he’d already discarded.
“Is she friendly?” I said.
“As friendly as snakes can be.” He shrugged. “Usually this type of snake doesn’t like to be near humans, but Lola is different. She lets me touch her sometimes.”
“Can I?”
He knelt beside the box, setting the stick on the ground. Very slowly, he reached out for her and rubbed her.
“It’s me, Lola,” he said. “Want to meet my friend?”
The snake remained still. Juan turned toward me and grabbed my hand. My heart did a flip.
I crouched beside him and he guided my fingers toward the snake’s body, which was softer than I’d ever imagined. And so cold.
“I like her,” I said.