This Fierce Splendor

Dominic’s heart skipped a beat when he saw her face. She was marble-pale in the moonlight, her thin body swaying slightly. He stopped the mare before them. He didn’t know what to say. What the hell could he say to her? “Elspeth, I’m sorry. Lord, I’m so so sorry.”

She wasn’t listening. “He was terribly ashamed of being frightened,” she whispered. “Even at the end. He so wanted to be like Nicholas, like you, Dominic. He even tried to dress like you. You gambled, he gambled. You stole a woman, he stole a horse.” The tears were running slowly down her cheeks. “I’m sure he didn’t understand the difference. He wanted only to be like you. Why couldn’t they see that?”

Dominic felt as if he were being ripped to pieces. He swung off the mare, tossed the reins to Silver, and took a step closer to Elspeth. He wanted to touch her, comfort her, but all he could do was stand and stare at her. “I don’t know,” he said hoarsely. “I guess we sometimes do things in too much of a hurry.”

“They wouldn’t listen to him. He could have paid for the horse ten times over.”

“That wasn’t the point,” Ben Travis said gruffly. “He stole it.” He turned to Dominic. “Get her out of here. I can’t talk her into leaving.”

Elspeth’s gaze was still on the hanging man. “He won’t take Andre down. He’s going to leave him there all night.”

“You know the rule, Dom. The body is to be left swinging for a full twenty-four hours.”

“Cut him down, Ben.”

Ben shook his head. “Not me. We made a rule and we’ve got to stick to it. That’s the only way law can work.”

“Law,” Elspeth repeated wonderingly. “What law?”

“Our law. Hell, it’s not perfect, but it’s all we’ve got,” Ben said. “And it’s better than no law at all. I’ve seen lawless towns, and so have you, Dom.”

“Cut him down.”

Ben shook his head. “I’m not going to-”

A shot shattered his words. The rope shredded and Andre’s body dropped to the ground. Dominic slid his Colt back into his holster. “Now you don’t have to cut him down. Just go get the undertaker and get him buried.” He paused. “Tonight. Tell Jake I’ll pay for it and that I don’t want any window displays or I’ll see that he joins Marzonoff.”

“The boys ain’t gonna like this.” Ben looked at Dominic and hastily added, “All right, all right, you don’t have to be so damn touchy.”

“What do you mean ‘window displays’?” Elspeth asked, staring at Andre’s body sprawled on the ground.

“Jake sometimes sets the coffin upright in the funeral parlor window after a hanging,” Ben said absently. “And then he-”

“Shut up.” Dominic’s voice cut across his words like the switch that had whistled through the air to sting the rump of the horse bearing Andre. “My God, Ben, will you get the hell out of here?”

The older man looked a little startled. “I didn’t mean nothing.” He cast an apologetic glance back at Elspeth as he turned and started down the street. “Sorry. I guess it does sound kind of bad.”

“Barbaric,” Elspeth whispered. “Monstrous. I can’t understand this. When I first came here I thought everyone was so kind, and yet tonight… Everything is changed… different.”

“Take her back to the hotel,” Silver said fiercely. “She can hardly stand up. I will stay with the Russian until Jake comes.”

“Elspeth,” Dominic said softly. “Silver is right. Come with me. You can’t do anything more here.”

“More? I couldn’t do anything. I was helpless. Do you know how that made me feel? I wasn’t strong enough to make them listen. A man died because I wasn’t strong enough to prevent it.” Elspeth’s voice was shaking with intensity. “No one has a right to be that weak. Not when it means a man’s life. You could have stopped them, Dominic. Silver could have stopped them.”

“You can’t blame yourself. You’ve been very ill,” Dominic said quietly. “You did all you could.”

“I should have been stronger.” She closed her eyes. “I will be stronger. I couldn’t stand for anything like this to ever happen again because I wasn’t capable.” She swayed, her lashes flicked open and her eyes held rising panic. “Dominic, I think…” She took a wavering step toward him and pitched forward into his arms.

Dominic heard a low cry from Silver. Then she was off the horse and beside him. “She has fainted?”

Dominic nodded, and he picked up Elspeth’s slight weight in his arms. He was raw and hurting, he wanted the welcome release of anger but there was no one he could fight. He could exist only with this burning ache that was compounded of pity, regret, and sorrow. “It’s probably for the best.” He cleared his throat to rid it of huskiness. “My God, I wondered how she lasted this long. We have to get her away from here before she regains consciousness.”

Silver nodded. “The hotel?”

Dominic shook his head. Elspeth would never be able to stay in Hell’s Bluff without being constantly reminded of the horror of this night. “No, go back to the hotel and pack up. Meet me out front in fifteen minutes. I’ll go to the livery stable and hire a buckboard.”

Silver nodded. She swung back on the mare. “We are returning to the cabin?”

“No.” He turned away and started in the direction of the livery stable, his arms unconsciously tightening around Elspeth. “We’re going to Killara.”

10

Dawn thrust luminous fingers through the dark passes of the Dragoon Mountains; pale sunlight gleamed on the white walls of a large two-story adobe house in the valley far below and glinted off the tiles of the roof, enriching their color to a blazing red. His mother had never liked that red roof since the moment she had set eyes on it, Dominic remembered. She had always claimed the gaudy color was more suited to a bawdy house than a respectable home, but his father had only laughed and told her that any number of the noblemen in Spain had roofs of that color, so the Delaneys were in fine company. Gaudy roof be damned, Dominic had always loved that house. It was the heart of Killara. It was home.

Dominic experienced the same wrenching pang of bittersweet happiness he always did when he returned to Killara. He deliberately forced his gaze away and glanced over his shoulder at Silver sitting beside Elspeth’s prone figure in the bed of the buck-board. “We’re almost there. Has she regained consciousness?”

“Not yet, but she has stirred a few times.” Silver adjusted the blanket covering Elspeth and then lifted her gaze once more to Dominic. “Perhaps she does not want to wake up. It was not a pretty sight she closed her eyes on.”

A thrill of fear clutched at him. “Trust you to look on the bright side. Are you trying to scare the hell out of me?”

“Why not? You deserve it. If you had not gone to Rina’s, Elsepth would not have tried to stop the lynching.”

“I know. But there were reasons.”

“Good reasons?”

“No,” he admitted, his voice heavy with weariness. “They seemed good at the time, but a man can usually find a reason for anything if he looks hard enough.” He glanced back at the house in the valley below. “Hell, maybe that’s what I’m doing now.” He flicked the reins and the team started down the winding road leading to the foothills. “Tell me when she wakes up.”

The silence of the next few minutes was broken only by the creak of the buckboard and the clop of horses’ hooves on the hard rocky surface of the trail.

“Are you going to stay with her?” Silver asked.

Dominic’s hands tightened on the reins. He didn’t answer for a moment. “No, I’ll stay a few days and then go back to Hell’s Bluff. You can take care of her. She won’t need me here at Killara.”

“Yes, I can care for her.” She paused. “But I will not be welcome, and I will not stay if the old man does not