Silver kept her expression totally free from any hint of pain. Why did she let the old lady’s words hurt her? She didn’t need the old man or his wife or any of the Delaneys. “I’ll say what I like. Do you think I care what you think of me? I wouldn’t be here if Elspeth didn’t need me, and the minute she is well, I will be gone.”
“Perhaps that would be wise. You’ve never been comfortable here.”
No, comfortable was certainly not the word for Silver’s feelings during her stays at Killara. Hunger, eagerness, resentfullness were far closer to the mark, but never had there been either security or comfort for her here. She raised her chin, her gray eyes glittering with defiance. “I did not choose to be here. I did not want you any more than you wanted me.” She started for the door, moving with grace and majestic pride. “And I do not want you now. I may say the word, but I am not a whore nor do I make others into whores to suit my ends as you do.”
“What do you mean?” Malvina’s brow was furrowed in a frown.
Silver looked over her shoulder. “You know what I mean. I saw your face when you realized Dominic wished to bed Elspeth. You think she may be used as a weapon to keep him here.”
“You’re speaking foolishness. I would do no-” She broke off as she met Silver’s contemptuous eyes and glared back at her with equal intensity. “Why not? He
Silver nodded. “I saw it. But she does not know that she wants him. Her head is full of clouds and dreams of lost cities.” She smiled icily. “And, until she does know she wants him, you are not going to push Dominic into bed with her, old woman. I’ll be here to see to that.”
“Will you?” Malvina smiled with a confidence that was not without a touch of pity. “Dominic has to be made to realize he has to stay here on Killara. It’s the only place he’ll be safe from Durbin, so don’t get in my way, Silver. I can’t afford to be kind.”
“Kind?” Silver laughed shakily. “I do not remember you ever being kind to me.”
“Don’t you?” Malvina’s smile faded and she suddenly looked old and terribly weary. “Perhaps you’re right. I think I tried to be kind at one time, but you were always a difficult child and the situation was… complicated.”
“Yes, I can see how ‘complicated’ it would be for you.” Silver turned away. “It was lucky I never needed your kindness. I did not care, you know.” She walked swiftly toward the door, carefully keeping her voice from betraying anything but scorn. “I never cared for any of you or your precious family. Not for a minute.”
The door slammed shut behind her.
“Your home is very grand,” Elspeth said breathlessly. She looked up at a black wrought-iron chandelier gracing the ceiling of the foyer. “I don’t see how you can bear to live away from this house. It looks very Latin.”
“Mexican.” Dominic was climbing the curving staircase, the heels of his boots clipping loudly on the polished mahogany steps. “It would be strange if it didn’t look Mexican. It was built by the vaqueros on the ranch, and their idea of a palace was their patron’s rancho back home in San Felipe. When Da told them he wanted a palace fit for a queen, this is what they built for him.
“A palace,” Elspeth repeated with an uncertain laugh. “Your father was obviously a very ambitious man. Did he want a kingdom to match his palace?”
He looked down at her in surprise. “Of course; he never intended anything else. That’s why he left Ireland and came to America. There he could remain only what he was, a reiver and a smuggler and my mother only a housemaid in a lord’s house. When Da married her, he promised he would give her a palace someday and that they would rule a land as wide and rich as all Ireland.”
“And she believed him?”
“You haven’t met Da yet. He’s not a man who makes a promise lightly. Killara isn’t quite as large as Ireland yet.” His lips tightened. “The first thing we have to do is get back the land Da sold last year and then branch out. I’ve been thinking that maybe we should start acquiring land in Texas. There’s not a hell of a lot of land in this territory that can support the herds we’re going to be running once the railroad comes in. Our herds are smaller than they could be, and the cattle lose too much of their fat on the trail drives to market.” His brow furrowed thoughtfully. “Maybe when one of my claims hits, I’ll be able to-” He broke off and looked down at her. “Why are you laughing?”
“I was just thinking that your father isn’t the only one with dreams of vast kingdoms,” she said. “I think you have a few aspirations in that direction yourself.”
The eagerness faded from Dominic’s expression. “Perhaps you’re right. I guess I like the idea of running a kingdom as much as he does. My father and I are cut from the same cloth. The only difference is that he’s a builder and I’m a destroyer.”
“What do you mean?” She had never seen him like this. They had reached a certain level of intimacy in these last few weeks, yet she realized now she didn’t really know him at all. She had never seen the eagerness or excitement that had illuminated him when he had spoken of his plans for Killara, nor had she seen the pain and bitterness that was on his face now.
He shrugged. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter.” He was walking swiftly down the corridor, passing a number of polished wood doors. “I think you’ll be comfortable in Brianne’s room. She was the first girl born in the family and we all kind of spoil her. If Killara is a kingdom, then Brianne is our princess.”
“She’s very lucky. It must be wonderful to be a member of such a large and close-knit family.” Elspeth tried to keep the wistfulness from her voice. “I hope she won’t mind me ousting her from her bedchamber.”
“Not Brianne. She doesn’t mind anything but being bored. To her, any change has to be for the better. It wouldn’t surprise me if she talks Da into letting her spend the night with some of her friends in the Mexican village.”
There was warm affection in his tone. It appeared Dominic was as fond of the Delaney “princess” as he was of her twin brother, Patrick. “Village? I didn’t see a village on the way here.”
Dominic paused in front of a door at the end of the hall and shifted his hold on her to open it. “It’s over the hill, beyond the family cemetery. Da wanted it close enough so that a shot could bring the vaqueros running when they were needed but far enough away to give us privacy.” He was striding toward a canopy bed whose rosewood headboard towered a startling nine feet and was crowned in the center with the carved head of a deer. The canopy and coverlet gracing the large bed were a rich bottle-green velvet. Plump, cozy pink roses patterned the thick beige carpet on the floor, and graceful green vines curved in feathery trails on cream-colored wallpaper. A black lacquer vanity and full-length oval mirror were luxuries a true princess would have envied, Elspeth mused. It was difficult not to compare this magnificent chamber with her own starkly ascetic room in her home in Edinburgh.
Dominic placed her on the bed and stepped back. “Silver should be here in a moment. Is there anything I can get you before I leave?” His words were impeccably polite.
She experienced a throb of disappointment, bewildering in its intensity. For a few moments she had thought she had come closer to understanding him than ever before, and now he had once more shut the door on revelation. The room that had seemed so welcoming was suddenly chill and foreign and the man before her was a stranger too. How else could she expect to feel in a place where young men could be taken out and hung like fowl in a butcher shop? She swallowed to ease the sudden nausea that assaulted her along with the memory of the hanging. She sat up hurriedly and smiled with an effort. “No, thank you.” She smoothed a strand of pale brown hair neatly behind her ear with nervous fingers. “I’ll be quite all right. Your mother said your father wished to see you, and I wouldn’t want you to keep him waiting.”
He hesitated, his eyes narrowed on her face. Then he sat down beside her on the bed. “A few more minutes won’t hurt.”
“No, really I-”
“I’m staying,” he said flatly. “My mother was right, you’re pale as death. I thought once you were away from Hell’s Bluff it would be better. It’s not, is it?”
She shook her head. “I keep remembering,” she whispered. “I keep seeing… You were there. You know what I see.”
He nodded. “And I can’t promise you it will go away, but it will lessen. In the meantime, you’ll just have to try to think of something else.” He smiled with surprising gentleness. “Would you like me to tell you about how my father managed to give my mother her palace?”
“You said your vaqueros had built it. ‘Vaquero’ is Spanish for cowboy, isn’t it?”
He nodded. “It was a little more involved than that actually. Sixteen years ago Da couldn’t have afforded to
