This Fierce Splendor

6

A bairn.

Dominic rose slowly from the mat and reached for his white shirt lying on the table. There was no question in his mind that Scottish witch was driving him to madness. She had accepted her fate with surprising meekness, almost as if she felt she was deserving of punishment. Yet at the thought of possible harm to their child, she had reacted like a wild woman. Their child? Christ, he was already mad. He had hardly touched the woman and already he was imagining his seed filling her womb, their child forming.

He finished fastening his shirt and unbuttoned his trousers to tuck in the tails. What kind of bastard did she think he was? He had never fathered a child to his knowledge, but he would never abandon a woman who was carrying his baby. He would see that Elspeth was well taken care of and the bairn free from- Dear God, he was doing it again!

He strode through the doorway, his gaze searching the narrow trail in the direction from which they had come. The moon was almost full and the winding path hanging over the gorge clearly illuminated. No Elspeth.

Well, she couldn’t have gone far. She had been wearing only the cloak and no shoes on her feet. The trail was full of sharp rocks that would cut her feet to ribbons before she had gone a quarter of a mile. Perhaps he should just wait here for her to return to him in defeat.

He dismissed the thought immediately. He knew very well how determined Elspeth could be. She had amply demonstrated her strength of will to the entire town of Hell’s Bluff in the last week, and would probably crawl all the way back to town on her hands and knees before she returned to ask him for help. Well, by God, no matter how stubborn she was, he would have her back. The thought of Elspeth on her knees before him, his fingers tangled in her long fair hair, was very pleasurable at this moment, when his body was aching so intensely it was difficult to move.

He turned on his heel and strode around the cabin to where he had picketed the horses. On horseback he would be able to overtake Elspeth in a few minutes. There was no place to hide even if she left the trail. The rocky sides of the gorge were dangerously steep and bare of vegetation except for a tall saguaro cactus here and there. She would be forced to stay on the trail and should be easy to spot.

A pale gleam of slender limbs beneath the voluminous blackness of a cloak. A broken doll thrown into the rockstrewn darkness below him.

“Jesus… no!”

He wasn’t even aware he had muttered the words as he ran toward the steep, sloping verge of the gorge. He half-ran, half-slipped down the fifty-odd feet to the shallow, trickling stream at the bottom of the gorge.

Elspeth was ominously still, her head half in the water and half on the uneven stones that banked the stream. She didn’t stir as he carefully turned her over. In the moonlight her skin shimmered as whitely as the tombstones in the family graveyard at Killara. He shuddered as the thought came to him. She couldn’t be dead. Only a few moments before she had been alive and trembling in his arms. Dammit, he wouldn’t let her die.

He thrust aside the cloak and pressed his ear to her naked breast. He couldn’t tell if it was her heart or his own that was throbbing so erratically. His hands ran quickly over her limbs. Nothing seemed to be broken, yet how the hell did he know? She needed a doctor, but it was too far to take her back to Hell’s Bluff until he knew she could stand the trip. He didn’t even know if he should move her, but he couldn’t leave her lying here in this damn creek.

“Snakes…” Her voice was almost inaudible, but it caused relief to cascade over him with a force that made him light-headed. She was alive.

He gently brushed the hair back from her temple and came away with blood on his fingertips. Her scalp was bleeding steadily, the blood darkening the fairness of her hair. He made an effort to mask the sickness he felt, but it wasn’t necessary. Her eyes were still closed, her long lashes lying like sooty smudges on her pale cheeks.

An anxious frown formed a wrinkle between her brows. “Snakes,” she whispered. “Don’t let them-”

He closed his eyes. Snakes. He had deliberately held them up to her as a threat and now, when she was lying here helpless and unable to defend herself, the memory was coming back to torment her. “Don’t worry. I won’t let them near you,” he said thickly. He opened eyes that glittered in the moonlight. “I won’t let anything hurt you. Trust me.”

She didn’t seem to hear him. “S-snake.” Her voice rose with panic and terror. “Sna-” She broke off as her body went limp against him.

The door of the cabin was thrown open with an explosiveness that sent it crashing against the cabin wall!

Patrick stood in the doorway. “Dom, you’re a goddamn son of a bitch. Why the hell did you think you could-” He broke off as his gaze fell on Elspeth’s slight body lying motionless on the mat on the floor. “My God, what did you do to her?”

“What does it look like?” Dominic’s fingers adjusted the white linen bandage around Elspeth’s head, and then pulled the tan blanket closer about her throat. He didn’t bother to turn around from where he was kneeling by the mat. “I’ve damned near killed her.” He rose to his feet and stood looking down at Elspeth. “She may still die. I’ve done everything I can but it’s been two days and she’s not much better.”

“You did this?” Patrick moved slowly across the room to stand beside him and look down at Elspeth. He inhaled sharply as he saw the livid bruises marking Elspeth’s pale cheeks and throat and the bloodstained bandage on her head. She looked like a small, helpless child who had been mercilessly beaten. Sudden rage flared in his brown eyes as he turned to look at Dominic. “I hope to hell you’re proud of yourself. You had to be crazy to do this.”

“Yes.” Dominic wearily rubbed the back of his neck. “I guess I was crazy. It’s hard to remember. Let’s go outside. I’ve just managed to get her back to sleep, and I don’t want to disturb her. She has… dreams.”

“How considerate of you.” Patrick’s voice was caustic as he whirled and strode across the room. “You brutalize her, almost killing her, and then you worry about disturbing her.” He didn’t stop walking until he was several yards away from the cabin. It felt good to take action, any action, and the morning sunlight was strong and clean after the sick horror he had experienced in the cabin. Poor little owl. God, he had never been able to bear cruelty to the helpless and he would have sworn Dominic would never have… He whirled to face his uncle, his eyes blazing. “Was it fun? She’s so damn little.” He drew a harsh breath. “Why? For God’s sake, why, Dom? I know she must have made you mad as hell. They told me in town what she did to you after I left for Killara, but did she deserve this?”

“No.” Dominic was staring unseeingly into the gorge below them. “She didn’t deserve it. I was angry and I wanted her. It seems like everything I’ve wanted in the last ten years has been snatched away from me. I guess I got used to grabbing and holding on tight when I saw something I wanted.” His lips twisted. “Hell, maybe the anger was just an excuse. Maybe I was just grabbing again.”

Patrick’s gaze followed Dominic’s to the gorge below. “Did you rape her?”

“No, but not because I didn’t try. If I’d caught up with her before she fell, I would probably have-”

“She fell?” Patrick felt a rush of profound relief and his gaze flew back to Dominic’s face.

Dominic nodded toward the gorge. “She fell down there and hit her head on the rocks. It happened on the night I brought her here. She was running away from me.” His gaze lifted to meet Patrick’s. “So yes, I did do it. It’s my fault she was hurt, and it will be my fault if she dies.”

For the first time since he had stormed into the cabin, Patrick noticed the puffy black pouches forming half moons beneath Dominic’s eyes and the stubble darkening his jaws. He was bare to the waist, and Patrick had a fleeting memory of the fine linen bandage binding Elspeth’s head wound. “She’s that bad?”

Dominic nodded. “She sleeps most of the time, and when she’s awake she’s out of her head. I’ve been waiting for you to show up.” He smiled mirthlessly. “I knew you wouldn’t believe that note I left in her room at the hotel and would be riding on out. I need you to bring Doc Bellings here from Hell’s Bluff.”

Patrick shook his head. “Doc Bellings is on one of his binges and drunk as a skunk. I ran into him at the Nugget last night when I first rode in. He won’t be any good to you until he sobers up.” He made a face. “Hell, I wouldn’t