This Fierce Splendor

want me.”

“Then Rising Star can care for her. For God’s sake, there are women enough in the house to nurse her if she has need of it.”

“What makes you think she will stay if you are not here? She is your woman and a woman’s place is with her man.”

His woman. The words caused in him the same bittersweet feeling he had experienced when he first caught sight of Killara. “You’re being mighty persuasive all of a sudden. Only yesterday you were threatening me with your little knife and now you’re-”

“I did not want you fornicating with her unless she wished it,” Silver said calmly. “It does not mean that I do not know you are her man. It is clear. Why are you laughing?”

“I was just thinking that Rising Star is going to have a hell of a time keeping my mother from washing your mouth out with lye soap. Lord, you have a foul mouth.”

“Because I speak the same words I have heard men use all my life? Why should a woman be considered foul when a man is not? I will pay no attention to such nonsense.”

“Silver, a woman can’t-”

“A woman can do anything if she is strong enough. A woman can be anything a man is and more.” She paused. “Much more. You will see.”

“If she is strong…” The words were a husky wisp of a sound. Elspeth’s voice.

Dominic jerked around. Elspeth’s eyes were open and staring straight ahead into the wavering half-light of the valley below. A rush of relief poured through him. “Good morning,” he said. “We were wondering when you were going to wake up.”

“Were you?” Elspeth’s lids fluttered shut again. “I’m in a wagon, aren’t I? Where are we going?”

“Killara. I thought you’d prefer it to Hell’s Bluff.”

“Yes,” she whispered. “Oh, yes.” Andre’s plump body dangling limp at the end of a rope, his eyes open and staring blindly ahead. Anything would be better than being in that nightmare town, where kindness masked brutality and nothing was what it seemed to be. “It was hideous. They have to be monsters.”

“No. They’re people just like you and me,” Dominic said quietly. “A few of the men in that mob were even my friends.” He paused. “No, are my friends. They thought what they were doing was right and I respect them for it.”

Her eyes flew open to stare at him in horror. “Respect them? How could you respect them? I saw their faces. They enjoyed it.”

“Some of them, maybe. Some people like death because it makes them feel more alive. You probably noticed them more than the others, because they push closer to warm their hands at it. The people you don’t notice are the quiet ones who just stand and watch. Men like Ben Travis, who were there because they believed what they were doing was necessary.”

Elspeth sat bolt upright, every muscle of her body tense with rejection. “They were wrong!” Her tone was vibrant with intensity. “Andre was-”

“Guilty.” Dominic’s voice held both sadness and inflexibility. “We live in a black and white world out here, Elspeth. I’m afraid the reasons don’t matter much if a crime is committed.”

“You’re defending them.” She was staring at him incredulously. “I suppose you would have been out there by that tree with them if you hadn’t been more pleasantly occupied.”

He winced. “I hope not. I hope I would have listened to Marzonoff and tried to talk reason to that crowd.” His jaw squared. “But I won’t lie to you. I’m no stranger to lynch mobs. I’ve watched a few bastards swing with as much pleasure as anyone you saw there in that crowd.”

Silver shook her head. “Lord, what a stupid thing to say to her right now. Maybe the old man is right and you are not my uncle. I don’t believe I want to claim such a peabrain as a relation.”

Dominic cast her a fierce glance. “Was I supposed to deny it? You know damn well-” He broke off and turned back to Elspeth to continue jerkily. “Ben Travis was right. Our way isn’t perfect, but we try to do the best we can. So don’t tell me about monsters. You couldn’t recognize them if you saw them. Well, I can. I know how they look and how they sweat and whine when they’re caught. I’ve hung quite a few of them.”

“And shot them, too, I’d wager,” Elspeth said, her eyes blazing. “You’re supposed to be a gunman, aren’t you? I guess you’re very proud of all the men you’ve murdered.”

Silver inhaled sharply, her muscles stiffening warily as her gaze flew to Dominic’s face. Rage. Cold rage. She automatically drew a few inches closer to Elspeth.

Dominic spoke very slowly and distinctly. “I’m not a murderer. I’ve not even been tempted to commit murder until I made your acquaintance. However, I haven’t the faintest doubt that you could cause a preacher to break all ten commandments.”

“Pay attention to the trail, Dominic,” Silver said hurriedly as she grasped Elspeth’s shoulders, pushed her down, and pulled the blanket up to cover her to the nose. “And you be still, Elspeth, arguing is not good for you.”

Elspeth’s eyes were blazing above the edge of the blanket. “I’m not arguing.”

Silver cast a hasty glance over her shoulder. Dominic had turned around and was no longer looking at them, but the muscles of his shoulders and his spine were still rigid with tension.

“Hush,” she whispered as she quickly covered Elspeth’s lips with her fingers. “Now is not the best time to strike at him. He is already hurting and he may do something he may regret later.”

“I’m not strik-” She stopped, arrested by Silver’s words. “Why is he hurting?”

“He is coming home,” Silver whispered. “And he knows he must leave again. When one has a great thirst, a sip of water is only a torment. I know you are angry with him, but it is time to be patient. He came here only because he wished you to be free from pain. You owe him gentleness.”

How strange to hear Silver speak of gentleness, Elspeth thought. She more often displayed ferocity and passion than tenderness. Her gaze wandered to Dominic, lingering on his dark hair and the tense slide of muscles coiled beneath his blue cotton shirt. Silver’s uncle displayed that same ferocity and passion and yet he, too, could be thoughtful and gentle if it suited him. It was difficult to remember Dominic possessed those qualities when they were constantly being overshadowed by this maddening cynicism and mockery. Oh, she just didn’t understand him. She turned away from him and looked instead at the purple-hazed mountains in the distance, blinking rapidly to keep back the tears. She didn’t understand any of the people of this strange, wild land. How could brutality and gentleness exist hand in hand?

According to Silver, Dominic was suffering for her sake. There was so much pain in the world and one could only bear it with as much courage as possible. No! The rejection of that meek homily came immediately and with violence, jarring her out of the tearful apathy and confusion into which she had fallen. She was not going to sit calmly and “bear” anything ever again. The words she had heard Silver speak when she had fought her way up from the depths of sleep came back to her. She had thought she had been behaving with boldness and aggressiveness since her father’s death, but she realized now it had been a mere travesty of strength. She had not been strong, she had been pitifully weak. Instead of solving her problems herself, she had nagged and prodded Dominic for help. If she had possessed true strength of will, she could have somehow prevented Andre’s death last night.

“Elspeth?” A tiny frown creased Silver’s brow beneath the turquoise-beaded headband. “What is it? Don’t you feel well?”

Elspeth nodded. “I was just thinking about Andre.” She closed her eyes, shutting out Dominic and Silver and all the support and warmth they lent her by their presence. Loneliness. Aching loneliness and the beginning of panic rippled through her. She would feel better, she assured herself in swift desperation. She had really been alone all her life and this was no different. When she spoke again her voice was only a thin thread of sound. “I was thinking about Andre, and about strength.”

“There she is.” Silver’s voice held a strange tension as the wagon rolled onto the flagstones of the courtyard. “I should have known she’d be up and about.”

Elspeth struggled to a sitting position, her glance following Silver’s to the front door of the imposing house. “Who?”

“The old woman. Dominic’s mother, Malvina Delaney.”

Malvina Delaney stood in the shadows of the alcove sheltering the carved double doors. As the wagon drew closer, she stepped onto the flagstones of the courtyard. Elspeth judged her to be about sixty years old, her hair