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 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.”