Chapters (59)
Her face grew pale and she hesitated. But she opened the door wider and allowed them in. She was alone. Ram looked around, wanting to see everything; he had never spent time inside her home. But she would not meet his gaze.
“What do you want, Señor Singh?” she asked in Spanish, addressing only Jivan.
Jivan glanced at Ram. They had agreed that Ram should be the one to speak, but now he began talking. “Karak Singh’s trial will begin in a week. You must come to the court and tell them what you saw.”
Her face showed surprise, then indignation. She clasped her arms in front of her waist.
“If you do not,” Jivan continued, “Karak Singh will be sentenced to death and then he will hang. If you do, perhaps the jury will have pity. Perhaps he will live.”
Ram clenched his jaw. Jivan spoke as if she were responsible, as if the entire trial rested on her shoulders.
Her eyes grew round. She began to breathe quickly, then she gained control of herself.
“I do not understand. What do you want me to tell them? I saw nothing.” She would not look at Ram.
The realization came to Ram slowly, tinged with contempt. She meant to deny everything. His eyes met Jivan’s.
Adela grit her teeth. Her expression turned to stone. Surely she had killed the man who had approached her after her husband’s death; surely she was that hard?
“You come and ask this, but every day people threaten us now,” Adela said. “Alejandro’s workers have left. People say Rosa should not have married Karak. That only bad things can come of such mixing. Do you know what the men in the barrio say about her, about Esperanza? About me?”
“I know! You already told us,” Ram said, impatiently, his anger rising.
Adela still would not look at him.
“Rosa’s children will not have a father,” Jivan said.
“He beat her!” Adela cried.
“He does not deserve death!” Ram said.
“Have you not hurt us enough! In the barrio, we think your farm is a haunted place, evil!”
Through the window, Ram could see two men standing nearby, watching the house, smoking. They had been among the cluster of men who had stood on the porch. Far away, a dog barked.
“The lawyer’s name is Clarence Simms,” Jivan said, turning to go.
Ram followed him. He could not look at her again.
She closed the door behind them, quietly.