This Fierce Splendor

15

The stairs stretched mountain-high before him, and Dominic knew he was going to have a head as big as a chamber pot in the morning. He shouldn’t have had that last drink with Da. For that matter, he shouldn’t have had that first drink with Da. His father had kept the bourbon flowing as freely as his arguments as to why Dominic should remain at Killara. If he wasn’t drunk, he was damn close to it.

He reached the top of the steps and moved slowly down the corridor. His gaze went automatically to the door at the end of the hall. The door to Elspeth’s room.

She would be lying in that big soft bed, her fair hair wild silk on the white pillow. He had warned her to lock her door. Had she done it? He paused outside his own room, feeling the familiar swelling of his manhood as he thought of how she had looked this afternoon with her breasts bare, cheeks rose-pink, eyes limpid. No matter what she said, she had wanted him. Heaven save him from pure, virtuous women. They were all liars whose greatest delight was the torment of men like him. From now on he would stay with the kind of women he knew something about.

Hell, maybe it was a good thing Da had kept filling his glass throughout the evening. He might be able to sleep tonight. If he wanted to sleep. He took an impulsive half step toward Elspeth’s door. Why not? he thought recklessly. The bourbon was setting off tiny fires in his veins, and he needed a woman. He had warned her that she was not safe from him.

He came to a stop even as he reached for the knob of the door. He was a fool. Why was he hesitating? Tomorrow he would ride out and perhaps never see her again. Why not take what had been withheld so long? He stood there for a full moment, his muscles tense and his heart beginning to pound. His hand slowly fell away from the knob and he returned to his own door. Yes, there was no question about it. He was a fool.

He entered his room, not bothering to light the lamp on the table beside the door. He stripped off his shirt, poured water into the basin on the washstand, and splashed water on his face. The cold shock cleared his head a little but did nothing to alleviate the turmoil in his body. He reached out blindly for the towel on the rack beside the washstand.

A sight, soft and deep, floated from the bed across the room.

Dominic’s hand froze before he touched the towel. His hand moved smoothly, swiftly, to the gun at his hip, drawing it even as he dropped to the floor. His gaze searched the darkness.

The sigh came again and with it a soft murmur.

Dominic rose slowly to his knees. He knew that sound. He had heard Elspeth utter that half-audible moan many times when she had been dreaming. He felt as stunned as if the bullet he had expected had torn into him. My God, had he blundered into Elspeth’s room by mistake? No, he wasn’t that drunk. This was his room and the bed Elspeth was lying in was his own bed.

He slid the Colt back into its holster and rose to his feet. He made his way to the table, fumbled for matches, and lit the lamp. His hand was trembling as he picked up the lamp and crossed the room to stand beside the bed.

She was naked, lying on the coverlet, her hair an unbound glory of lustrous brown shot with gold. Her eyes were closed, her lashes arcing onto the softness of her cheeks. Her pink lips were crumpled and slightly parted.

He stood looking down at her, the muscles in his belly knotting and his manhood becoming rigid. The scent of mint and cloves radiated from her pale skin, shining in the lamplight as if burnished by a loving hand. His. She had come to him.

He set the lamp down on the bedside table, unfastened his gunbelt, and set it beside the lamp. The long wait was over. He began to strip quickly, never taking his gaze from the woman on the bed.

Heat surrounded her, invading her senses, piercing the heavy veil of sleep.

“Elspeth.” Dominic’s voice, rough velvet. “Open your eyes.”

Her lids were so heavy that it was a difficult command to obey. She wanted desperately to go back to sleep, but Dominic kept calling her as he had called her so many times before to free her from a prison of nightmares. She hadn’t realized she had been dreaming, but it must be so or Dominic wouldn’t be calling her. Her lids fluttered, then slowly opened.

He was so near, scarcely a breath away, looking down at her. His light eyes were hot and his lips were heavy with sensuality. He had looked like this once before, she remembered hazily, right before she had fallen down the slope. But that was a long time ago, a hundred nightmares ago, and she couldn’t quite recall…

“No, don’t shut your eyes again. Wake up, Elspeth.”

She hadn’t known her lids had closed, but she obediently opened them again to look into his face. How very unusual and shimmering were those gray-blue eyes gazing into her own. Dominic had such beautiful eyes. “I’m awake.”

“Good.” His voice was jerky. “Because I sure as hell can’t wait any longer. Come here.” His lips were on her breasts, this tongue flicking at the sensitive nipples. Flame shot through her and she cried out, arching up to him.

“And you can’t wait either, can you?” he muttered. “Crazy. I was crazy not to…” His hand moved down her stomach to nestle in the curls at the apex of her womanhood, tangling, pulling gently as he suckled at her nipple.

Her heart pounded painfully, she couldn’t breathe, her flesh was on fire. Hunger. She was experiencing insatiable hunger. She wanted more. Her hands went around his shoulders and slowly slid to his neck to curl in the thickness of the hair at its nape. “Dominic, I want… more,” she whispered.

He chuckled. “Don’t worry, I’ll give you more.” His fingers moved down, searching. “I’ll give you all you can take.” He found what he had been seeking and began massaging, stroking.

She convulsed, the muscles of her stomach clenching. Sleep vanished, the world vanished. All that remained was Dominic’s skillful fingers and that secret part of her slavishly responding to his bidding.

His gaze was narrowed on her face, hungrily catching every nuance of expression. “Hell, I’ll give you more than you can take. I want to make you want it so bad you’ll beg me for it.” His fingers began a circular movement.

She gasped and her teeth clenched. A pulse throbbed in her temple, another throbbed against his fingers. “Dominic!”

“I’ve wanted you too long,” he muttered as he moved over her. “I wanted time to touch you, play with you, dammit.” He parted her thighs, one finger running down the flowing heart of her. “Lovely. I knew you’d be this lovely.”

She should be fighting him, she thought vaguely. There was some reason why she should be fighting him.

Then his finger plunged deeply.

She cried out, arching helplessly up to him, her fingers tightening in his hair, and all thought of resistance left her.

“Tell me you want it.” His brilliant eyes blazed down at her. “Tell me you want me.”

His gaze was holding her own, his finger moving rhythmically within her. Her throat was too tight to speak.

The rhythm escalated. “Tell me.”

“Yes. Oh, yes.”

His thumb pressed hard on that sensitive button, his finger delved deeper. “All of it.”

Elspeth’s head was thrashing back and forth on the pillow, her teeth biting her lower lip to keep from crying out. “I want you, all of you.”

“You’re damn right you do.” His hands gentled, but his eyes were smoky-hot boring down at her. “And I’m going to keep it that way. I’m going to take you every way there is, and then I’m going to start over. I’m going to keep you so hot, all you’ll want is what I’m going to give you now.” His chest was moving with his labored breathing, and she could see the pulse leap in his temple.

He raised up on his knees and his rampant manhood was there before her. “See? I’m like this whenever I look at you, whenever I think of you, whenever I’m in the same room with you.” He took her hand and brought it to him.

Warmth, smooth hardness, pleasant to the touch. Her grasp unconsciously tightened around him.

His features convulsed, the cords of his neck stood out and he threw his head back. “God!”

His nostrils flared as he tried to force air into his lungs. “Let me go, Love. I can’t take this right now. Later.”

She reluctantly released him. Beautiful. That part of him was as beautiful as the rest of him.

His face was heavy, flushed, as he looked down at her disappointed face. “You like me?” His lids half-closed, veiling his eyes. “You want me again?”

She nodded, staring up at him helplessly.

His hands gently widened her legs. “Here?” His palm covered her. Heat, possession, emptiness.

He knew. Dominic knew what she did not. She could see it in his face, feel it in the warmth of his hand. He knew how to stop the hunger and the fever. “Yes,” she whispered.

He was there, nudging gently, his hands once more performing that fiery magic. “I’ll try not to hurt you,” he said thickly. “I can’t promise, but I’ll try.”

He had said that once before, she remembered dimly, and it had something to do with the reason why she should fight him. But it wasn’t the prospect of pain that had frightened her. It was something else.

He was entering her body. Fullness. Fever. His hard length fighting the tightness resisting it. On Dominic’s face was an expression of terrible pleasure. His eyes shut as his hands closed on her breasts. “You’re killing me,” he gasped. “Tight. You’re so tight.”

Was that bad? It didn’t seem so, for he wasn’t trying to withdraw. In fact, he was pushing harder, farther into her. Why had he said it would hurt? There was no pain, just this exquisite fullness to combat the hunger.

He stopped, his eyes opening slowly. They were glittering, wild, almost unseeing with the pleasure enfolding him. He trembled; a shudder rippled through him. “It’s time.” He lowered himself over her, resting his elbows on each side of her. “Open your mouth, love. Take me into you.”

Her gaze clung to his face as it lowered slowly toward her. There was nothing else in the room, nothing else in the world but his dark face and his body joined to hers.

“Merge with…” She forgot what she had been about to say as her lips parted and she took his tongue deep within her. He groaned low in his throat, but the sound was lost as their tongues met, toyed, blended.

He plunged forward, ripping aside the last barrier that separated them.

Pain, hot pain. Her cry was muffled against his lips. Then completion, fullness, delicious containment. One.

He lifted his head and looked down at her. “It’s over. Did I hurt you?”

“Yes. But it doesn’t matter.” She lay there, full of him, and pushed up on her elbows to look down at their joining. How smoothly he fit within her, just like the statue she had seen in that temple in India. Yet the fit was the only smoothness about this jagged, pulsating, hungry intruder. She fell back on the bed. Her breasts beneath his hands were full, swollen, jutting up to touch his palms. “Is it truly over? There seems to be something… missing.”

He flexed slowly within her. “I only meant the pain was over.” He moved again and smiled with savage pleasure as she inhaled sharply and then moaned deep in her throat. “This is what it’s all about, Elspeth. This is why you came to me.”

She hadn’t come to him, he had come to her, but it didn’t seem to be worth arguing about at the moment. Her hands tightened on his shoulders as he began to move, buck, plunge with a rhythm that felt as if it were tearing her apart. She panted, her nails digging into his flesh. Hot liquid heat. Hunger. She was expanding inside, bubbling like the Sun Child, molten, and building toward an explosion.

“Elspeth.” Her name was a groan on his lips, spoken between clenched teeth. She could see the glow of perspiration on his throat and chest and the pungent scent of bourbon and musk surrounded him. “Mine. You belong to me.” He drove deep within her and stopped. “Say it.” His breathing was so labored he could scarcely get the words out.

She knew what he wanted with an instinct as ancient as time. Even though the haze of heat, the rhythm that was storming at her body, she knew what he needed. “Yours.” Her voice was scarcely audible, a mere wisp of a sound.

“Always?”

“Always.”

He began to move again, harder and hotter, cradling her buttocks to lift her up to receive each forceful thrust.

Tears were running down her cheeks. The world was trembling, the tension growing, his thrust deepening. Unbearable pleasure. Exquisite. Titanic. How could it go on without destroying them both? Was this magnificent destruction of the senses when she had feared? No, she would have been helplessly enthralled with it as she was now. Then what?

The bairn. The answer came to her suddenly. That was what had disturbed her, the possibility of hurt to the bairn.

“Dominic.” Her tongue moistened her dry lips. It was difficult to speak, but she must. “The bairn.”

At first she thought he hadn’t heard her. The rhythm didn’t lessen, nor did the intense pleasure on his face. Then he looked down at her and shook his head to clear it. “What?”

“The bairn. What if-”

His fingers moved to her lips. “Hush.” A smile so beautiful it took her breath away lit his dark face. “Mine,” he said softly. “Do you think I don’t know how to care for what is mine?”

No, Dominic would love and care for his child as he did for Killara. He would give it all his devotion and protection. Dominic would not let his bairn suffer hurt or humiliation. “Yes.” She closed her eyes and let the sorcery of emotion flow over her. “You would know, Dominic.”

A pang of tenderness shot through him, tempering his passion. “You have my promise, Elspeth.” He kissed her lips with a sweetness that shook her even more than his raging possession. “Content?”

When she nodded, he once more started the rhythm that brought not contentment but soaring hunger and desire. She gasped, her hands fluttering up to clasp him.

“Elspeth, I think…” His eyes were glazed, his voice a hoarse guttural growl. He moved faster, deeper, the world was spinning, devoid of air, enveloped in flame. “Take me.”

What did he mean? She was already taking him, all of him. He was part of her. Then she realized what he meant as the spinning increased before becoming a dizzying blue, snapping the tension and throwing them into radiant, pulsating darkness.

“Jesus!” Dominic’s chest was rising and falling as he tried to get his breath. He didn’t want to leave her, he never wanted to leave her. Yet if he didn’t, he wasn’t sure he wouldn’t collapse on top of her. “Damn that bourbon.” He carefully moved off her and drew her into his arms.

His head fell to the pillow, still covered by the brown velvet coverlet. Why hadn’t she removed the coverlet when she came to bed? he wondered dimly. Now they were too exhausted to bother. His lips brushed her temple. “Are you cold?”

“No.” The word was slurred. He could tell she was almost asleep again.

He nestled closer, his hands closing possessively over her breasts. He still wanted her, he realized in surprise. Neither the bourbon nor his pleasure, nor exhaustion had altered that state. He couldn’t remember ever wanting a woman again so soon.

God, he was tired. He would make love to her once more in a few minutes. He would watch her face as he moved and enjoy her incredible tightness. But now he would let her rest and perhaps rest a little himself. His heavy lids closed, he felt awareness edging away from him. No! He tried desperately to capture it once again, but it was gone.

Elspeth woke with Dominic’s hands cupping her breasts and the feel of his long, muscular body against her back. She stiffened with shock as memory of the night returned, ripping aside the comfortable veil of sleep. She kept her eyes tightly shut. Maybe that memory had been a dream. Perhaps Dominic’s presence in her bed was also a dream.

Dominic stirred against her, his breath warm on her ear, his big hands tightened on her breasts, his palms gentle and possessive even in sleep. If this was a dream, it certainly was a tactile one, she thought desperately.

Oh, dear, it wasn’t a dream. Dominic had warned her, but she had believed the threat was an idle one born of anger. She was a fallen woman! Strange, it didn’t feel any different. She could detect no dark burden of sin weighing upon her. Perhaps that would come later. True, there was a slight ache between her thighs that could be a punishment for the iniquity of the act she had committed.

A warm wet tongue suddenly darted into her ear. Her lashes flew open.

“Turn over.” Dominic’s voice was dark and drowsy. “You have a magnificent backside, but I have a fancy to-”

“Brown,” she said dazedly as her gaze wandered to the tan brass-studded chair across the room, then to the amber drapes at the window, and finally to the dark brown of the canopy over her head. “Why is everything brown?”

“I have no idea,” he murmured. His fingers tweaked lazily at the nipples beneath his hands. “And frankly, I don’t care. I suppose my mother likes brown. Turn over, Elspeth.”

She threw off his hands and rolled panic-stricken to the far side of the bed. “No, I didn’t want-” She broke off as she sat up and a bolt of pain zagged through her head. She rubbed her temple. “Merciful heavens, my head hurts.”

“So does mine, but that isn’t my primary discomfort at the moment.” His gaze was fastened on her breasts. “Come here and see if you can make both the aches go away.”

She gazed at him indignantly. “Have you no compassion? First you ravish me, then you carry me to your room so everyone will know of my disgrace. And now you expect me to submit to you willingly. I’m not lost to all shame even if I am a fallen woman.”

There was a flicker of anger in his translucent eyes. “Elspeth, I’m in no mood for coyness this morning. My head feels as if it’s been kicked by a horse. I thought you were done with lies. Now, come here and give me what I need before I forget to be gentle with you.”

“Gentle? You weren’t-” She stopped. There had been pain, but she could not deny he had tried to be gentle. A tide of scarlet dyed her cheeks as the memory of their bodies joined, his face looking down at her as he moved within her. “Well, even if you were, it doesn’t matter. You can’t deny you ravished me.”

“Ravished?” His voice lowered to menacing softness. “I don’t recall ravishing you. However, that may come to pass if you don’t stop this blasted whining. God, how I hate hypocrisy.” His lips tightened. “You came to me because you wanted me to do exactly what I did to you last night. I thought you’d at last decided to forget the lies a ‘good’ woman tells herself.”

“I did not come here. Do you think you can hide your debauchery by claiming I came to you?” She jumped off the bed and looked wildly for her nightgown and robe. She didn’t remember him removing them, but they surely must be somewhere. She snatched a corner of the velvet coverlet from the bed and held it before her to hide her nakedness. “Why do you not admit you crept into my room and took advantage of my exhaustion to carry me in here and have your way with me?”

He sat up, his expression stunned. “Are you mad? Why should I do that? One bed is as good as another.” He added with a sardonic smile, “To any experienced debaucher.”

She ran trembling fingers through her hair. She wished her head would stop aching. She couldn’t seem to think. “How do I know why you would do it? I have no knowledge of these matters. What did you do with my gown?” She could see no sign of either her gown or robe. Would he have put them into his bureau drawers? She discarded the idea immediately. Her memory of last night had been of a Dominic far too impatient to be tidy.

He leered at her. “I burned them. I intend to keep you locked in this room so I may vent my lust on your virtuous body again and again. What else would you expect of a wicked seducer?”

Her eyes widened. “You can’t mean it.”

“Of course I mean it. Why shouldn’t I-” He stopped. She was standing there, unclothed, only the scrap of brown velvet and her long fair hair veiling her nudity, her expression vulnerable and uncertain. A sudden wave of tenderness lessened the frustration and disappointment he was feeling. “No, I didn’t mean it. I don’t know where you put your clothes. Don’t you remember?”

“How could I remember? You’re the one who disrobed me.” Her lips were trembling as she said with touching dignity, “I wish you would not make sport of me. This is not an easy matter for me to deal with. If you will tell me where my clothes are, I will dress and return to my room.”

His eyes narrowed on her face. There was no coyness there, only genuine distress. She honestly believed what she was saying. He’d had a hell of a lot of bourbon last night with Da and he had been in a wild fever for her. Maybe he could have done what she accused him of.

He rejected the idea immediately; his memory of every detail of last night was too vivid. He distinctly remembered looking down at Elspeth and thinking, how lovely her pale skin was against the brown velvet coverlet. He remembered lying down beside her and the damnably hard time he’d had waking her. Still, once awake, she’d been everything that was pliant and docile, looking up at him with those huge dreamy eyes as he entered her.

Sleep. Docile. Headache.

My God, would his father have dared?

Dominic inhaled sharply as he remembered how Da had kept the liquor flowing last night. And when had Elspeth ever been as docile as she had been when he had taken her in his arms in this bed? “That interfering son of a bitch.” He swung his legs off the bed, stood up, and quickly began to dress. “Did you have anything to drink last night?”

She stared at him in bewilderment. “A glass of lemonade with my soup.”

“You weren’t at dinner. My mother said she had sent up a tray.” He pulled on his boots. “Who brought the tray?”

“Rosa. I thought it was very kind of her.”

“Oh, yes, very kind. Don’t just stand there. Put something on.”

“What?”

“Try the bureau drawers. My mother is very fastidous about not leaving garments strewn about.”

The pink flannel nightgown and dark blue robe were folded neatly in the top drawer. Elspeth stared at them dumbly for a moment before she took the nightgown out of the drawer and pulled it over her head. “Your mother helped you to undress me? I can’t believe any respectable woman would be a party to such an act.”

“My mother’s ideas of respectability are sometimes guided by her love for my esteemed father. I don’t know if she was involved or not, but there’s a definite possibility.” He added water to what was in the basin from the night before, splashed his face, and reached for the towel. “Bring me a shirt from the second drawer.”

She obeyed him without thinking. A curious intimacy existed in the simple act, she thought as she handed him the white shirt. Intimacy. The color suddenly stained her cheeks as she remembered the degree of the intimacy that bound them after what had occurred in that bed last night. “I’m going to my room now. I’ll stay there until you’ve left Killara.”

“The hell you will.” His eyes were glittering with cold fury as he slipped his arms into the shirt and began to button it. “Thanks to my loving father, there’s been a major change of plans.”

He tucked his shirt into his trousers, grabbed her wrist, and strode toward the door. “Come along.” He pulled her down the hall, his expression tight and grim, his grip on her wrist unrelenting.

“Where are we going?” she gasped, stumbling to keep up with him.

“I have a few words to say to my father.”

“Then say them, but let me go back to my room.”

He didn’t answer as he started down the stairs.

“I’m not dressed!”

“I assure you that condition won’t bother my father.”

“It’s very early. They might not be up.”

“He’ll be up.” He stared straight ahead as he descended the last steps. “My father is always up by six.”

“Good morning, Dominic.” Shamus smiled genially as he stepped out of the parlor into the foyer. “You look a bit out of sorts.” His expression reflected a flicker of surprise as his glance shifted to Elspeth and he noticed her state of undress but he rallied swiftly. “While you look charming, Miss Elspeth. I always think a woman most enchanting with her hair floating around her and her face bedewed by sleep.”

“Thank you,” she said dazedly. “That’s very kind.”

“Kind!” Dominic laughed harshly. “My God, don’t you realize yet what they’ve done to you? You’re the bait in the trap, the cunning little amusement that’s going to keep me chained here.” He faced his father. “Isn’t that right, Da?”

Shamus’s face became wary. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I’m talking about the fact that Elspeth was drugged last night and put in my bed.” Dominic grated the words out through clenched teeth. “My God, how did you have the-I brought her here to protect her.”

Shamus’s eyes widened and then narrowed thoughtfully as his gaze moved slowly from Dominic to Elspeth and then back again. “Do I take it you’ve enjoyed this young lady’s… favors? Ah, now this is a very serious matter, Dominic. Surely you’re not going to cast her cruelly aside and just wander on your way?” His voice lowered silkily. “Why not stay here and do the honorable thing by the poor lass?”

“I’ll be damned if I’ll be stampeded into doing what you want.”

“Won’t you, indeed?” Shamus asked softly. “Are you going to let her go then? Perhaps to fall into some other lucky man’s bed.”

Dominic’s hand on Elspeth’s wrist tightened with bruising force. “Damn you, Da. You’ve gone too far this time.”

“Yes, he has,” Elspeth said slowly. Her free hand went up to rub her temple. Her head was throbbing terribly and the bewildering exchange between the two Delaneys had swirled around her like a tempest. It had taken her a few minutes to realize what they were actually saying. “And so have you, Dominic.” She jerked her wrist from Dominic’s grip and continued with great deliberation. “I’m a little confused, so please be good enough to help me. You put something in my lemonade to make me sleep more soundly, Mr. Delaney?”

Shamus shook his head. “I didn’t say that, my dear.” He sighed mournfully. “It’s truly a grievous pass when a son doubts the honor of his own father.”

“And then someone took me to Dominic’s room and undressed me?”

He nodded. “So Dominic claims. But all of this is really unimportant now, Elspeth. We must set about putting right this wrong done you.”

Unimportant? Incredible. The man was incredible. “And you made sure that Dominic had a wee bit too much to drink so that he wouldn’t notice I was not quite myself.”

“Now, I will admit to blame for Dominic’s condition last night. I do hope the liquor didn’t make him incapable of pleasing you.” He darted a sly glance at Dominic. “It takes a bull of a man to pleasure a woman when he’s had a drop too much. Perhaps he’s not the man his father is.”

Elspeth felt the hot color stain her cheeks, but this time it was with rage not shame. She stepped back, her eyes blazing with fury. “You used me. How could you dare to do that to a stranger in your own home? You’ve disgraced me and treated me as no more than a pawn in your Delaney quarrels.” She turned to Dominic. “And you’re no better. Do you know how a woman with no reputation is treated? I received a sample of that treatment in Hell’s Bluff. It… it hurts.” She blinked the hot tears away. “And yet you thought of nothing more than your own pleasure last night. I was helpless and confused, but you could have stopped.”

“Could I?” Dominic’s lips curved in a lopsided smile, “You’re wrong, Elspeth. After I saw you, there was no way on earth I could have turned away. Da knows me very well.”

“Because you’re both selfish and wicked and-” She whirled and ran up the stairs. Her muffled words floated back to them. “You both deserve horsewhipping. I’ll not stay here at your precious Killara another hour.”

The two men stood there in silence until they heard the door of her room slam behind her.

“I believe she’s a little upset,” Shamus said mildly. “You’d better go smooth her feathers.”

“Presently.” Dominic turned to face his father, his expression hard. “There’s something I want to get straight with you first. She’s right, Da, we both used her for our own purposes. You used her as a bond to keep me here and I wanted her enough to blind myself to what you were doing.” He paused. “And you tried to use me, too. I don’t like to be tricked, Da.” His voice lowered to a silky murmur. “Oh, you’re very clever, but you’re not going to get everything you want. You’ll have your bond, but it won’t keep me at Killara. I’ll tell you how it’s going to be. I’m going treasure-hunting, and I’m going to find that treasure. I’m going to bring back a bonanza of gold to Killara, enough to make us into the landed royalty you always wanted to be. And when I do that, I’m going to pay off that damn mortgage and decide whether I want to let you stay on here. And you’re not going to have a damn thing to say about it.”

Shamus shook his head. “Patrick told us Elspeth had a bee in her bonnet about Kantalan. You’re not fool enough to think it exists.”

“I’m damn well going to find out.” Dominic smiled coolly. “And if it doesn’t exist, I’ll find some other way to get what I want. I’ll rob a train or join the bandidos down in Mexico or-”

“And you’ll have me paying through the nose for another pardon,” Shamus said grimly. “Don’t talk crazy.”

“I feel a little crazy. Crazy and trapped. I don’t like that feeling one bit, Da.”

Shamus glanced up the stairs. “You’ll find there are compensations for giving up your freedom, if you choose to do it.”

“Of course I choose to do it,” Dominic said harshly. “Maybe I’m not as much your son as I thought. I won’t make Elspeth into my whore and then send her away.”

Shamus lifted a brow. “Really? I understood from Patrick that that was your original intention. Have you undergone a reformation, Dominic?”

Dominic flinched as he remembered Elspeth’s words of yesterday regarding his need for reformation. He turned away. “I don’t think Elspeth would think so. In her eyes I’m Satan’s favorite offspring.” He started up the stairs. “Hell, maybe she’s right. Send down to the village for Father Benedict and tell him I want him in the chapel in two hours.”

“You’re going to marry her?”

“Yes. I’ll probably have to hog-tie her and drag her before the priest kicking and screaming.” His lips tightened as he looked over the banister at his father. “But I’m going to marry her. She thinks she’s already experienced the fate of a whore in Hell’s Bluiff, but she had Silver and me to protect her. She doesn’t realize how much more she could be hurt. She’s very… innocent.”

Shamus nodded, his expression sincerely regretful. “I like the girl and I’m truly sorry this was done to her in my house.” He hesitated. “I didn’t do it, Dominic. I won’t deny I’m delighted with the result, but I’ve never had to victimize women or children to get my own way.” He smiled crookedly. “However, I can see how you might have jumped to that conclusion. I’d go to great lengths to protect someone I love.” He paused before adding gruffly. “As I love you, Dominic.”

“I know that,” Dominic said wearily. Now he didn’t know what to believe. Da would sack, burn, and pillage the entire territory if it meant protecting his family, and there was no one else who would have had anything to gain by encouraging Elspeth’s seduction. Yet Shamus had never lied to him before and it was not like him to deal in anything as underhanded as this scheme. He met his father’s gaze. “If you didn’t drug Elspeth, who did?”

“I have no idea, but I’ll find out.” Shamus’s lips tightened grimly. “No one does this to a guest at Killara. You can bet I’ll have a few questions to put to Rosa after we get the wedding out of the way.”

“You do that,” Dominic said. “But right now making sure that Elspeth is protected is more important than asking questions. We’ll leave after the ceremony. I don’t think Elspeth will want to stay here any longer than necessary under the circumstances. We’ll need two burros readied as pack animals. Tell Ramon to saddle my horse and the gray Elspeth rode yesterday.”

“Anything else?” Shamus’s tone was threaded with irony. “I’d advise you to wait until you come back with your saddlebags stuffed with gold before you start giving me orders, Dominic.”

“Just one more thing.” Dominic stopped at the head of the stairs to look down at Shamus. “I hope to God you’re telling me the truth, because if I find out you did this to Elspeth, I swear I’ll find a way of punishing you, Da. Do you understand?”

Shamus glared up at him fiercely, then a faint smile curved his lips. “Oh, yes, I understand, Dominic. Who could understand you better?” He turned back to the parlor. “Now, run along and try to pacify your sweet little Scottish bride-to-be.” He frowned. “I have to tell Malvina we have a wedding in the offing. She’ll probably want to check Miss Beetle’s book on the proper etiquette involved.”

Dominic gazed after him blankly. Etiquette? The entire world had gone mad. He turned and strode down the hall toward Elspeth’s room.