“I don’t need you to tell me what to do,” Silver said harshly. “I don’t need anyone-” She stopped. “Get out!”

Dominic frowned, his gaze on her flushed cheeks and overbright eyes. “Silver, what the devil is wrong with you?”

“Get out! The patron wants his prodigal son. No fatted calf but…” She bit her lip and came forward to stand beside the bed. “Elspeth and I don’t need you now.”

“And I don’t need either of you,” Elspeth said quietly. “It’s time I began to take care of myself. I’ll stay here and rest for a few days and then I’ll start for Kantalan.”

Dominic slowly shook his head. “Why the hell won’t you give up?”

“Because what I feel for Kantalan is very close to what you feel for Killara.” She raised her hand to stop him as he started to speak. “You needn’t be afraid that I’ll badger you any longer to go with me. I realize now how unfair I was being to assume I had a right to demand that of you.” Her lips were trembling as she tried to smile at him. “You were quite right to be annoyed with me. I’ll just have to find Kantalan on my own.”

“And how do you intend to do that?” Dominic’s voice was harsh with barely concealed violence.

“I’ll find the other person White Buffalo spoke to about Kantalan and question him about how to get there. Perhaps Silver could take me to her village and persuade White Buffalo to speak to me.” Elspeth’s gaze shifted to Silver’s face. “If it wouldn’t be too much trouble? I know I’ve already asked a great deal of you.”

“White Buffalo is dead,” Silver said. “Quiet Thunder is the medicine man now.”

“Oh!” Elspeth was momentarily disconcerted and then brightened. “Then perhaps I could speak to him. The legend is supposed to be handed down from medicine man to medicine man.”

Dominic frowned. “For God’s sake, you can’t go riding into an Apache camp and start asking questions. Geronimo…”

“I’ve never done anything to hurt them,” Elspeth said. “Why should they hurt me when I want only to ask a few questions? Will you take me, Silver?”

Silver’s golden face lit with a reckless smile. “Why not? I have no desire to stay in this house.”

Dominic was torn between the desire to turn Silver over his knee and whale the tar out of her and an aching sympathy for the hurt he knew she was feeling. He had known as soon as he had seen Silver’s face that his mother had said something that stung. They couldn’t be together for five minutes without a quarrel erupting. He supposed it was natural for two strong women to be in conflict, but it was damnably inconvenient that Silver had been goaded to defiance at the same time Elspeth decided to exert her independence.

“Good, then it’s decided,” Elspeth said. “Thank you, Silver. I’ll try-”

“No!” Dominic’s low voice was explosive. “If you think I’m going to let you leave here and wander all over hell and back on some wild goose chase, you’re dead wrong.”

Elspeth frowned. “I don’t know why you should be upset. I should think you’d be grateful. Perhaps you didn’t understand me. I’m no longer asking you to do anything to assist me. Thank you for your concern, but you needn’t trouble yourself about me at all from now on.”

“Oh, needn’t I?” Grateful? He wanted to put his hands around her slender white throat and strangle her. How dare she try to calmly dismiss him from her life. Didn’t she realize she belonged… He blocked the thought before it could take full form. Didn’t she realize how idiotic she was being? She would get herself scalped or raped, possibly both, and all because she wouldn’t give up a damned childish dream. He rose and turned on his heel. “That’s a great relief to me. I certainly don’t have the time to worry about a crazy woman.” He strode quickly toward the door, every step radiating impatience and anger. “You can do what you please.”

“Thank you.” Elspeth’s voice was low and clear behind him. “I shall.”

Dominic closed the door behind him with a force that was only a shade away from a slam. He stood beside the door, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. Jesus, she was going to do it. She meant what she said and wouldn’t ask him again to take her to Kantalan.

The knowledge should have relieved him, but not when he realized what Elspeth’s next step would be. He started down the hall toward the door at the far end of the corridor. He should go down to the library to Da, but it would have to wait. At the moment it was urgent he speak to Rising Star.

11

A white mist, enormous dark eyes, and clear, gentle serenity.

Elspeth drifted softly up from the darker mists of slumber to look at the strange woman sitting in the tufted green velvet chair beside the bed. She felt no sense or unease or surprise, just the same tranquility that had flooded her when she had opened her eyes. “Hello,” she whispered.

“Hello.” The woman’s voice was mellow as dark honey and a lovely smile lit her dusky face. “I hope you will forgive my intruding on your privacy. I asked my niece to permit me to sit with you until you awakened from your nap. I am Rising Star. I am married to Dominic’s brother, Joshua.”

Elspeth sat up quickly. “I’m very happy to meet you.”

The woman before her was in her late twenties or early thirties and was as different from Silver as the sun was from the moon. The burning vitality that fueled every movement and action of her niece was missing in Rising Star. She sat in the chair as straight and graceful as a young queen, her loose white gown unable to disguise the fact that her slim body was heavy with child. Her thin high-cheekboned face was dominated by huge dark eyes that shone with humor and warmth, and her smile was truly beautiful. Glossy dark hair was pulled away from her face in a neat bun, every tendril carefully trained to smooth order.