Marco and the Devil's Bargain by Carla Kelly

until they touched. It was the briefest contact, but it moved her in ways she could never explain. I need not fear this man, she told herself.
    With his hand still covering hers, she told him of the evil bargain that the physician had struck with her husband. “He is not a good man, but Marco and I must bend to his will. And if I must, you must. Toshua, we need you with us on the Staked Plains, if we are to have any chance of success.” She sighed. “No, any chance of returning alive at all.”
    He was silent a long time, but she expected that. Several servants came and went from the horse barn, obviously surprised to see a Comanche and the wife of the juez crouching there together in the raw January wind. One of them stopped, but the fierce look Toshua gave the man sent him scurrying on. He would probably hurry inside to find Marco, but she knew Marco would leave this up to her.
    â€œ You know I have no power with my tribe anymore,” he said finally. “My wives threw me over for a younger husband and told lies. I have been banished. How can I help you?”
    How indeed? It was a good question. “I just believe you can,” she said, not bothering with logic. “As it stands now, Marco and I and the physician will travel to the Llano Estacado after I have recovered from my inoculation.”
    â€œ I am surprised that Señor Mondragón would permit you to accompany him.”
    â€œ It was my bargain for my own inoculation. I cannot—I will not—allow him to go without me.”
    â€œ Are you not afraid, little sister?”
    She knew it was a slip of the tongue. Toshua’s grasp of Spanish was good, but he had his lapses. “I am terrified,” she said, and then could not hold back the tears any longer. She had been determined to persuade this man without resorting to womanly subterfuge. “I am even more terrified of a long life without Marco. We go together, and we need you.”
    â€œ Even though I have no standing with my own people?”
    She nodded. “Toshua, from what that foul physician has told us, there are Kwahadi, Penateka, and other Nurmurnah dead all across the plains from la viruela . We don’t know what we will find, but the doctor might be a bargaining tool for you, too.” She shrugged. “Or we could all die the first night on the plains.”
    Toshua grunted. She shivered, and for the first time he seemed to realize how close they were crouching together, facing the wind from the north and west. He stood up and held out his hand to her. With no hesitation this time, she took it. He led her inside the horse barn and they sat on the nearest bench. He looked around, a slight smile on his face.
    â€œ You are a careful woman, and not inclined to gamble,” he reminded her.
    â€œ I will risk anything for Marco Mondragón,” she said simply. She turned businesslike then, because time was passing. “I will be inoculated, and then you will be inoculated. And then we—”
    He stopped her with his hand on her arm this time. “You will not think me less Nurmurnah if I say to you to I fear this thing?”
    â€œ I am afraid, too. We could die from this treatment, but if we live, we need never fear la viruela again.”
    â€œ Tell me what that devil man will do.”
    She described the process as best she could. “This does not sound like a hard thing to do,” he said.
    Paloma hadn’t considered that aspect. “I suppose it does not.”
    He sat back and folded his arms, suggesting to Paloma that he was about to strike his own bargain. She was not wrong.
    â€œ Señora Mondragón,” he began quite formally, “although I do not understand how such a cut and mere thread can stop the Dark Wind, I will agree to this on one condition.”
    â€œ Which is…?”
    â€œ When you have been inoculated, you will inoculate me . I trust no one else, and certainly not that foul