by Jo Worthington
The merchant ship Marine Falcon from London took the waves with sails full and sped its way to the port of Monterey. From there passengers and homeward bound sailors made their way to all parts of Spanish California. Some stayed in Monterey, others set out for Santa Barbara and one sailor headed for the pueblo of Los Angeles.
Luis Samaniega was going home at last. He never wanted to board a ship again in his life. He would find other means to earn a living in this world. In fact his future was assured since he was set to apprentice with the blacksmith. Luis was 22 with finally some money in his purse and he was going home to propose to his pretty little Esperanza. He pulled his woolen jacket closed. The night was warm but Luis felt chilled. He longed for a hot bath and a warm bed. In only a few more hours he would finally be home in his parents’ modest house. In spite of the swaying and pitching of the speeding coach Luis surrendered to his need for sleep.
Esperanza combed her light brown hair. Even with all her efforts to keep her head covered the bright sunlight had done its job and lightened her hair in streaks. In some places her hair had turned golden blond and it was not unattractive on her. She leaned forward to admire her image in the light of the candles on her crude wooden dressing table.
Esperanza’s parents were poor people who had worked very hard to put food on the table for their family of four daughters. Her mother and three sisters worked in the haciendas of several of the wealthy families in Los Angeles. Before his death, her father had worked in the fields. Esperanza was the baby of the family and the most delicate of beauties. Her father could never bear to see her laboring and so he managed to send her to school and when she was finished he kept her home. Even after his death Esperanza’s mother and three sisters continued to pamper her. She was now 19 years old and had been in love with Luis for what seemed like most of her life. While Luis had been at sea for the last two years she had blossomed into a beautiful woman. Her beauty was not lost on the young men of the pueblo and this was something of which Esperanza was becoming well aware. With so many admirers she began have second thoughts about spending her life with the man who would soon be home to apprentice to the blacksmith.
Her eldest sister, Silvana, spent six days each week at the hacienda where she worked. On her one day off Silvana would come home. Esperanza hung on her every word as they walked to church on Sunday mornings. Silvana entertained her younger sister with visions of what it was like to live on the hacienda of a wealthy family.
Silvana worked at the de la Vega hacienda. She would indulge Esperanza with stories about the young, handsome Don Diego. Silvana was a chambermaid and had charge of all the bedrooms in the house. She would make the beds and clean the rooms of Don Alejandro and Don Diego and their frequent guests. Esperanza never forgot the day when her sister explained in the simplest of terms the difference between the men in their own world and men like Diego de la Vega.
It was in the simple act of picking up a jacket. Silvana talked of taking a jacket that was carelessly draped over the back of Don Diego’s chair in his bedroom. Usually Bernardo took care of his clothing but since it was there, she decided to hang it in the wardrobe. As she lifted the jacket from the chair Silvana noticed the light clean scent of spices. She brought the fancy embroidered jacket closer to her face. Silvana said it had not the smell of a man who toils for his living, not like that of their father’s shirts - of hard work. It was the scent of someone who could indulge in the pleasures of a man of wealth. There was the light fragrance of soap, mixed with that of a sweet cigar, and the smell of fine wool – leisure, wealth and privilege. While Silvana spoke, Esperanza listened and absorbed all that her sister had to tell her.
Silvana told of the sheets, soft and smooth to the touch, not the rough cotton that they slept on, not the sheets that made their faces sore when they settled against the pillow. Silvana filled her sister’s head with visions of a man’s bedroom with silver brushes, silken dressing gowns, fine leather slippers and scented soaps.
When Silvana was about to marry she left the employ of the de la Vega hacienda. But she was there long enough to learn that a man of wealth and breeding is very different from a man born of a poor family who must forever spend his days in the labor of hard work. Silvana was wise enough to understand her place in society but in spite of or perhaps because of her education, this was not something that Esperanza could accept. Esperanza began to envision where her true destiny lay.
Esperanza and her sisters, along with the de la Vegas’ family, many friends, servants and their families had been invited to the fiesta in celebration of Don Alejandro’s birthday. At the gala, Don Diego cordially asked her to dance with him. Esperanza was flattered but she was also keenly aware of how lovely she looked that night.
She tried to get close to him but Don Diego held her gently but firmly at a gentlemanly distance from his body as they swayed and spun to the seductive rhythm of the guitar music. For every step forward that she tried to take in his direction, Don Diego seemed to take one step plus a half away from her and all the time he was smiling at her, pretending he had no idea what she was trying to do.
Esperanza gave up her maneuvers and allowed him to gaze into her sparkling eyes while she enjoyed the width of his shoulders and the curve of his lips as he softly smiled down at her. She was very aware of the warmth of his hand on her waist as he guided her to the sensuous music. She was surprised that his large hand that held hers was so hard. Esperanza had expected soft hands from this wealthy scholar who did no hard work that she knew of. But yes, there was that warm scent of fragrant soap about him. This she had expected. It was then, during this single dance with Don Diego that she began to set her sites higher than Luis Samaniega.
