Juanita la Larga: a Novel

Chapter 28

Chapter 28 T he following day something very surprising occurred in Villalegre , and it prompted a great deal of talk. Don Paco did not show up at the town hall or at the mayor’s house or at the clerk’s office, places where he made rounds every day to perform his various duties. They went to his home to make inquiries and he wasn’t there. The bailiff and his wife, who served and looked after him, did not know how or when he had left and could give no information as to his whereabouts. The whole day went by without Don Paco returning and without anyone discovering where he was, and astonishment grew. No one was able to explain the reason for that disappearance. Thanks to the well-being and prosperity that prevailed in that region and to the meritorious Civil Guard, it had been a long time since there was any talk about bandits and kidnappers. Where, then, was Don Paco holed up? People asked themselves and did not come up with a satisfactory answer. His friends, and most especially Don Andrés Rubio, were worried . Only Doña Inés did not fret. Her stoic character and her resigned and Christian conformity with the will of the Almighty almost always kept the tranquillity of her spirit intact. Doña Inés, moreover, saw nothing alarming in the incident, and she explained it in the most natural way to herself and to her friends Don Andrés and Father Anselmo. She assumed and said in confidence that her esteemed father, although he was healthy and well and looked more like a young man than an old man, had begun to age, to falter, and 148 Juanita la Larga 149 to go soft in the head, the result perhaps of how much he worked and studied with it. The fact was, according to Doña Inés, that for some time her father had been giving frequent, albeit slight, indications of extravagance, of premature senility. To such a motive did Doña Inés attribute Don Paco’s disappearance. And declaring that, for no other reason than his whimsy, he had gone off on foot and was perhaps wandering about the wilderness and nearby hills, she predicted that when he got tired of wandering he would return to town as if nothing had happened. Nevertheless, Doña Inés’s prediction did not come true that night or the next day. When Juanita returned to her house between nine and ten o’clock at night, Don Paco still had not turned up. Juanita, who was not stoic nor as good a Christian as Doña Inés, was most distressed and filled with anxiety and worry, for all that she had concealed it until then. When she was alone with her mother, she could not contain herself any longer and opened her heart to her, seeking solace. “Don Paco hasn’t turned up,” she said. “My heart foresees a thousand misfortunes.” “Don’t torment yourself,” her mother responded. “Don Paco will turn up. What can have happened to him?” “How should I know? I’ve said nothing to you, Mamá. Until today I’ve kept it all to myself. Now I need to get it off my chest and I’m going to confess it to you. “I’m a foolish, lowdown, despicable woman. I could have had him for my own and I disdained him. Now that I’m losing him, perhaps for good, I recognize how many merits he has, and I love him, I love him madly. And so that you can see how unworthy and mean I am: even though I love him I’ve wronged him—I’ve pierced his heart with the poisonous dagger of jealousy. I’m to blame and Don Andrés is blameless. I led him on, I provoked him, I drove him crazy, and if he showed a lack of respect for me, I got what I deserved.” 150 Juanita la Larga “Girl, I don’t really understand what you’re saying. Either I’m not in the know or you’re talking nonsense.” “I’m not talking nonsense now, but I did talk it before. I repeat: I provoked Don Andrés to get revenge on Doña Inés and to nettle Don Paco. I was jealous. I was afraid he would fall for...