This Fierce Splendor

by Iris Johansen

  “Russian?” He knew of only one Russian in Hell’s Bluff. Andre Marzonoff. He knew very little about the man other than that he was a godawful poker player, but he vaguely recalled hearing he had arrived in Hell’s Bluff on the same stage as Elspeth. “Andre Marzonoff is the horse thief?”

  Silver nodded as she handed him his gunbelt. “And I think if you do not stop the hanging, Elspeth will try to do it herself.”

  “Christ.” He buckled his gunbelt on with swift hands. Knowing Elspeth, he had no doubt she would try to stop it. “Why the devil did you leave her alone?”

  “If you had not been here, I would not have had to leave her alone,” Silver said with sudden ferocity. “Why did you not return when you knew there was to be a hanging? Even if Elspeth did not know the man, it would not have been good for her to see this happen.”

  “I forgot the hanging tree could be seen from the hotel. I guess I didn’t think—”

  “You thought of nothing but liquor and fornicating,” Silver said coldly.

  She was right, Dominic thought wearily. If he hadn’t been desperately seeking to erase the tormenting need for Elspeth from his mind and body, he would have been aware of how the hanging would affect her.

  “Your boot.” Rina offered him the second boot she had found behind the chair. She cast a half-mocking glance at Silver. “Anything else, Indian?”

  Silver nodded curtly. “He will need a horse. We will not get there in time on foot.”

  Rina moved swiftly and gracefully toward the door. “I’ll have Li Tong saddle my mare.” The door closed behind her.

  Dominic pulled on his other boot. “How much time do we have?”

  “It depends on how eager they are to hang him.” Silver’s lips tightened. “But Elspeth will not wait long.”

  Dominic felt a cold finger of panic touch his spine and he went quickly to the door. “Let’s go!” He ran out of the room, down the stairs, and out on the porch. Li Tong had just finished drawing the cinches of the saddle on the mare tied to the hitching rail in the street. Dominic hit the saddle with one spring and pulled Silver up behind him.

  Rina stood by the hitching rail, a derisive smile on her lips. “Take care of my mare, Indian. If you don’t bring her back, I’ll take the price out of your hide.” Her gaze ran over Silver in sudden speculation. “Which might not be a bad idea. I don’t have any Indian women at my house. Interested?”

  “No, she’s not,” Dominic said shortly. His heels prodded the mare into a run.

  Silver’s arms tightened around his waist, her cheek pressed against his shoulder blade. The mare was fast, her gait smooth and even, but would she be fast enough? she wondered. No more than fifteen minutes had gone by since she had left Elspeth and perhaps … A sudden roar of voices disturbed the stillness, and Silver’s hopes plummeted.

  A piercing scream shattered the darkness ahead.

  Dominic’s body tensed, his spine became rigid. “Elspeth,” he whispered. How many times had he heard her scream just that way in the night when she was attacked by those terrifying nightmares? Now it wasn’t dreams but reality that was threatening her and he might be too late to drive it away.

  He turned the corner and saw the hanging tree directly in front of him at the end of the street. He heard a second shout go up and felt a cold sickness knot his belly. He didn’t have to look at the man dangling at the end of the rope to know it was over. Too late.

  The mob was melting away quietly, not looking at one another, almost subdued now. It was always like that at any lynching Dominic had ever witnessed. First the exhilaration, then the quiet, casual dispersal as if denying the act had even happened.

  His gaze anxiously raked the crowd. “I don’t see her. God, she has to be here. I heard her, dammit.”

  “There.” Silver pointed. “By the tree.”

  Dominic caught a glimpse of tawny hair against the rough brown bark of the oak and urged the mare forward, picking his way through the crowd.

  Elspeth was standing by the tree, staring blindly up at the grotesque obscenity that was now Andre Marzonoff. Ben Travis was beside her, speaking low but vehemently into her ear. She didn’t answer him. She didn’t ignore him. It was as if she didn’t realize he was there.

  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. N
ot 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 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?