Until the Day Breaks (California Rising Book 1) Read Online Free Page B

freely. Tyler, with his insatiable hunger for land and cattle. His empire growing as he bought out his neighbors one by one through the years. Only Roman’s family had managed to hold their boundary lines in the valley against Tyler’s merciless onslaught. But not without bloodshed. Hundreds of Indians and rancheros had been killed in the night raids stealing horses. Nothing could be proven, but he held Tyler accountable for his father’s death in one of these raids. He couldn’t believe Sarita had married the Yankee.
    Having slept in his clothes, he got up and saddled Oro and then led his golden stallion from the stables at sunrise. Outside the grandest redwood stables Roman had ever seen waited Joshua Tyler, dressed like a Spanish don. He wore the unique garb of the privileged gente de razón, fitted trousers with flared legs and a short jacket of thick velvet over a billowing white shirt, topped off with a silk-lined sombrero decorated with brightly colored braid. Tyler spoke to an excited group of mounted criollos , superb horsemen in their teens and twenties, boys brash and bulletproof in their own eyes. Roman used to be this way as well, but no more. His father’s death, followed by the battles in Texas, had changed him. He wondered if his carefree countrymen had any idea what awaited them once the United States’ march of Manifest Destiny culminated on California’s sleepy shores.
    With Texas now annexed, the siege for California was all but a matter of time. Yet nothing seemed changed here in this pastoral land of lighthearted people. The gente de razón loved their fiestas: dancing, picnicking, gambling on everything from monte , a wildly popular card game, to horse races, cockfights, and other sporting events. This morning, the men planned a bear hunt, hoping to capture a beast for a bear baiting anticipated this afternoon. While yesterday seemed almost like summer, this spring morning dawned crisp, with an ocean fog besieging the sun.
    Tyler leaned on a fence, telling the men how to find a canyon on his ranch where a grizzly had been sighted a few days prior. The group’s concentration suddenly shifted across the field to a figure emerging from the woods. A breeze stirred the woman’s simple black skirt. Her white peasant blouse was draped by a rough woolen shawl that covered her head, but one long blond tendril had escaped, streaming down her back. Only one woman had hair like that. Tyler’s daughter.
    Joshua Tyler cut short his speech upon seeing her. “You all have hunted bears before. I needn’t say anymore,” he finished abruptly. “ Vayan con Dios , amigos.”
    Go with God indeed. Roman swore under his breath. Was the Yankee girl always wandering about unescorted in these mountains? The men stared at her openly. She was so fair and fetching and did not conduct herself as a proper señorita should.
    What was she doing out so early this morning? Had she met someone down at the river? Why did her father all but ignore her presence? And above all, why of all wonders was an unmarried girl left without a dueña’s protection? This was unheard of in California—unless she no longer had any virtue left to protect.
    Roman longed to ride over to the river to see if she’d met someone there. A man, perhaps? Did she think the paisano clothes concealed her identity? Even dressed like a peasant, her blond hair proved a banner in the breeze. In a few more minutes, she would be out of his reach, safe inside the walls of her father’s Yankee fortress. Allowing his heart to overrule his head, he spurred Oro after her as the rest of the men raced off to hunt bears.
    Rachel Tyler saw him coming and hurried toward the hacienda in an attempt to escape him. She didn’t stop and wouldn’t look at him as he reined in his stallion beside her. He refused to speak to her until she acknowledged his arrival. He could see his stallion made her nervous. She kept moving sideways to distance herself from his horse. He urged