This Fierce Splendor

3

Patrick stepped squarely into a pile of manure. He gave a low exclamation that both identified the substance and expressed his ire at discovering it. He then proceeded with a derogatory tally of Charlie Bonwit’s ancestors. It was damn dark here in the yard of the livery stable. He had told Charlie he would be leaving early this morning, and the least the blacksmith could have done was leave a lantern burning outside the barn. He extracted his foot from the pile and stepped carefully around it, trying to wipe the sole of his boot clean on the hard-packed dirt of the stable yard. Christ, he must look like a horse, himself, pawing in the dirt.

“Patrick?”

He whirled to face the deeper shadows of the smithy’s lean-to on his left and automatically reached for his gun. Then he relaxed as thought caught up with instinct. No threat. His name had been spoken in a soft, uncertain voice shaded with a strong burr. Elspeth MacGregor. His hand fell away from the handle of his gun as he tried to steady the hard pounding of his heart. “You scared the bejiggers out of me. What the devil are you doing here?”

“I’ve been waiting for you.” Elspeth moved forward out of the lean-to. “I think I’ve been here for hours. I didn’t want to miss you. I had no idea what time you meant by ‘before daybreak’ and I-” She stopped and tried to get her breath. She mustn’t sound nervous. It was just that it had been so dark waiting here alone. “I know it’s a great imposition, but I have a favor to ask you that would have been most awkward for me to ask anyone else.”

“You shouldn’t be out here alone,” Patrick said sharply. “Wait here. Charlie usually leaves a lantern hanging on the post just inside the barn. I’ll go get it.” It took him only a few minutes to locate the lantern, light it, and come back to the stable yard. Elspeth was standing where he had left her, her face pale above her black gown. One small, delicate hand was nervously clutching her reticule.

She was frightened, Patrick realized. Frightened and trying desperately not to show it. His annoyance ebbed. “You shouldn’t be here,” he repeated more gently. “Let me walk you back to the hotel.”

She shook her head. “I’ve made a decision. I believe the reason your uncle dismissed me so lightly was that he didn’t realize how serious I am. I have to find a way of making a statement of my determination and let him know I won’t be ignored.” She moistened her lips with her tongue. “It was very cowardly of me to reject the idea or pursuing him to that house of ill repute. It was just that I’m not accustomed to thinking in quite those terms and-”

“Wait just a minute.” Patrick held up his hand. “I don’t like the direction this conversation is taking. Why are we suddenly talking about Rina’s place?”

“Is that its name? We’re talking about it because I’ve decided I have to go there. I think once your uncle realizes I’m prepared to go to those extremes, he’ll treat my request with more respect.”

“You want to go to Rina’s?” He was staring at her, dumbfounded. It was one thing to toy with the amusing image of Elspeth at Rina’s, but the reality was something else again. “No!” he said positively. “A lady does not go to wh-to a place like that under any circumstances.”

“I know that. I’m hardly an ignorant ninny. But there are times when propriety must be put aside, and this is one of them. Your uncle Dominic must be made aware I’m an antagonist worth his mettle.”

“Not this way. Think of something else.”

“You needn’t feel concerned. I wouldn’t think of involving you in the matter.” Her brow knitted in a thoughtful frown. “I decided it would be more practical to go see him quite early this morning. It seemed to me that the establishment would be least populated then. Isn’t that true?”

“Yes,” Patrick said weakly.

“I thought so.” Her expression brightened. “My problem is that I don’t know where this place is located. If I’d asked anyone else, it could have been misunderstood. So I thought you might be kind enough to give me directions.”

Patrick shook his head in amazement at Elspeth. Too nervous to ask directions, but planning on walking into Rina’s place in search of Dominic. The woman before him aroused both his amusement and his protective instincts. “I don’t think you’ve thought this through. There’s every possibility your reputation could be damaged beyond repair. Your presence at Rina’s might definitely be… misunderstood.”

“Why should that bother me? I’m a scholar and an explorer and I couldn’t care less what people say about me.” Elspeth added simply, “not when gossip is balanced against Kantalan. Nothing is more important than Kantalan. Now, will you please tell me where to find this Rina’s place?”

He stared at her helplessly. There was implacable resolution in her expression. Christ, she was going to do it. “I can’t talk you out of this, can I?”

She shook her head. “I thought about it a long time last night. It wasn’t an easy decision. I’m not really very courageous, Patrick.”

“You could have fooled me. Have you thought how you’re going to find Dominic once you’re inside the house? He told you he wouldn’t see you.”

“No.” She frowned. “I guess I’ll just have to go looking for him.”

The thought of Elspeth searching diligently through the rooms occupied by Rina’s girls and their customers brought a fleeting grin to Patrick’s face. “That’s not very practical, Elspeth. We’ll have to think of something else.”

“We?” She shook her head. “I won’t ask you to help. I have to learn to take care of these matters myself.” Her expression became distressed. “I hope you don’t think I was hinting you go with me?”

He knew very well the little owl was incapable of such machinations. “I didn’t think that.” He decided to make a final effort. “I could try to talk Dom into seeing you again.”

“It would be of no use. He seemed quite determined.”

Patrick was of the same opinion, but he couldn’t just ride off and leave her, dammit. She would get into all kinds of trouble at Rina’s before she managed to rout Dominic. And when she succeeded in doing that, she might face the biggest mountain of trouble any woman had ever faced. Dominic might go off like a fire cracker on a Chinese New Year. Patrick went still. Then he began to laugh softly. He would do it! Lord, Dominic would be furious, but it would be worth it.

“What in heaven’s name is so amusing?” Elspeth asked, affronted. “I assure you I’m quite serious.”

“I know you are.” His brown eyes were dancing in the glow of the lantern light. “And yes, I’ve just had a very amusing thought. I believe I’ve solved a portion of your problem. Come on, I’ll take you to Rina’s.” He raised his hand when she attempted to speak. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to interfere.” He chuckled again. “I promise I’ll let you confront Dominic on your own.” As long as he was standing watch close by, he added silently.

She gazed at him doubtfully. He had the same wickedly mischievous expression he had worn in the coach when he had told Count Marzonoff those outrageous lies. “I suppose that would be all right.”

He took her elbow. “Fine. Now, come along. It’s starting to get light in the East and I want to be at Rina’s place before dawn.”

“Is it far?” She had to half-skip to keep up with his long stride.

“Far? No, it’s only at the other end of town. It shouldn’t take us more than fifteen minutes to walk there.” He smiled. “But we have a stop to make on the way.”

“Where?”

“Sam Li’s bathhouse. There’s something I want to pick up.”

“Firecrackers?” Elspeth eyed with alarm the stack of slender sticks linked with long fuses. She had been curious about the large blanket-wrapped bundle since Patrick had picked it up from Sam Li’s shack, but she had never imagined it contained anything as exotic as firecrackers. “What are we going to do with firecrackers?” she asked again.

Patrick was busy tying the fuses together. “You said you wanted to get Dom’s attention and make a statement of your determination.” He looked up and grinned at her. “This will make a very resounding statement, I guarantee.”

“I’m sure it will,” she said faintly. She glanced at the large whitewashed house across the street. It was a fashionable two-story wooden building; eaves and cupolas abounded and a long, gracious porch ran the entire expanse of its front. The candles in the two decorative lanterns on either side of the door had burned low, and all the windows were dark. “But I had a more sedate statement in mind.”

“You want Dom jerked from his lair and forced to confront you in the fastest possible way.” His nimble fingers moved to the second string of firecrackers. “This was the only way I could think for you to do it.”

“The only way or the most interesting way?” she asked dryly. “I think you’re planning on enjoying this.”

“Sure, I always did like a good show.” Patrick started on the third string. “If you can think of a more effective idea, we’ll drop this plan and go on with yours.”

Elspeth certainly wished she could think of something else. She had an idea Patrick’s plan had elements more explosive than the firecrackers. “Your uncle is going to be very angry.”

“Yep.”

“But he’d probably be angry at my coming here anyway.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And it’s really his own fault for being so narrow-minded and uncooperative. This is a very important undertaking; it can add greatly to our fund of knowl-”

She was interrupted by his low chuckle. “I think you’re trying to talk yourself into something.”

She grinned back at him. “I think I’ve done it.” She knelt beside him. “Let me help you.”

He sat back on his heels. “They’re all done.” He glanced at the sky that was growing lighter by the minute. “And just in time. Li Tong gets up at daybreak and we don’t want him seeing us and raising a hullabaloo.”

“Li Tong?”

“Rina’s houseboy. Here, you take these two packets and run them from the front door down the steps and into the street. I’ll take the rest inside and string them along the hall on the second floor and down the stairs to the front door.”

“No.”

He lifted his head. “What?”

“I said no. This is my responsibility. I’ll be the one to set the firecrackers inside the house and light them. You’re clearly trying to spare me the risk of being discovered.”

“What I’m trying to do is spare you a sight that might shock the bejiggers out of you.” He hadn’t given a thought to her being inside Rina’s place to witness the chaos that would result from the firecrackers going off. “I think you’d better wait outside until I call you.”

“No.” She took the larger stack of firecrackers from him. “Do I light each one as I put it in place?”

He sighed with resignation. “All you have to do is to light the long fuse on the first packet. Place that one at the end of the corridor on the second floor. The fuse will allow you enough time to trail the firecrackers down the stairs to the front hall.”

“A very efficient plan.” Elspeth shook her head reprovingly, trying not to smile. “I do believe you’ve handled fireworks in this manner before.”

“Well, the boys and I did stage a little surprise at the Nugget last year.” He stood up and helped her to her feet. “But this promises to be even more interesting.”

His enthusiasm was contagious. A tiny flare of excitement began to smolder beneath Elspeth’s apprehension. “Is the front door left unlocked?”

Patrick nodded. “Rina wouldn’t think of discouraging business, be it day or night.”

“Then I guess I won’t have any problem.” She hesitated, then squared her shoulders and started across the street.

“You might have one problem,” Patrick called out.

Elspeth stopped and turned to face him with swift alarm. “What?”

“Matches.” He took a box from his pocket and grinned. “Catch.” He tossed the box across the few feet separating them. “It’s hard to light a fuse without them.”

She caught the box and smiled lightheartedly back at him. She had never experienced this feeling of comaraderie before. “I’ll remember that in the future.” She turned and picked her way across the hard-packed wheel ruts of the street.

Ten minutes later she was standing in the foyer laying the last of the strings of firecrackers on the bottom step. The house was still in half darkness. Only the first gray rays of morning light that streamed through the bay windows of the parlor to her right served to pierce the duskiness. It was warm and close in the foyer, and the house smelled exotically of a mixture of perfume and cigar smoke.

She wished there were more light. She would have liked to have seen if the furnishings of a bordello were as interesting as she had imagined. Perhaps when the firecrackers went off she would be able to see more.

The front door opened quietly to reveal Patrick’s thick red hair outlined against a pearl-gray wedge of sky. “All set?”

“Yes,” she whispered. “I lit the first fuse just as you told me. Shouldn’t it have gone off by now?”

“Any second.” He closed the door behind him.

“What do we do now?”

“We get out of the line of fire.” He drew her to the corner of the foyer farthest from the staircase. “And then we wait.”

They didn’t have to wait long. Patrick had scarcely gotten the words out when there was an explosion!

Elspeth jumped. She hadn’t expected the noise to be quite so loud. The explosion had echoed like a cannon shot in the still house. The first explosion was followed immediately by another and another until the house was reverbrating with sound: Women’s screams, hoarse masculine shouts, Patrick laughing softly beside her. Doors were opening upstairs and Elspeth could smell the acrid smoke of the fire-crackers.

“Here we go,” Patrick murmured over the barrage of explosions. “How’s this for a statement, Elspeth?”

The first explosion jerked Dominic from sleep. Gunfire. In the hall outside. He moved with the sure instinct that had guided him for the last ten years. By the time of the second explosion, he was on his feet reaching for his gunbelt. When the third explosion rocked the hall, he was at the door.

“Dominic,” Rina said sleepily. She sat up and brushed a shining brown lock of hair from her cheek. “What the hell-” She broke off as another explosion jarred her fully awake. “No, Dom, don’t go out there.” She jumped out of bed, reaching hurriedly for her lacy peignoir.

Dominic wasn’t listening. All his senses were strained toward the danger in the hall. God, he was tired of this. Tired of never going to sleep without worrying if he’d face gunfire when he woke. He yanked open the door, stepping quickly to the side to avoid a possible spate of gunshots. The explosions continued, but there were no bullets sailing through the air, impacting floors and woodwork. He cautiously looked around the doorframe. The hall was filled with smoke and the explosions weren’t coming from a gun. He stared blankly at the string of explosives on the floor going off one after the other. “Firecrackers!”

“What?” Rina was beside him. “Who would do a thing like this?”

He didn’t have to consider the possibilities for more than a minute. He had been in the Nugget when Patrick and his friends had ridden through the doors on horseback throwing firecrackers right and left. “For Patrick, every day is a day for celebration,” he said dryly. “I imagine this was his way of bidding us a fond good-bye until next week. But, if I know my nephew, he wouldn’t be able to resist staying and watching the fun.” He was striding down the hall following the exploding string of firecrackers. “And when I catch up with him, I’m going to tie a string of firecrackers to his tail.” The explosions had reached the head of the stairs and so had he. He called down into the dimness at the foot of the stairwell. “Patrick, I’m about to lift your scalp.”

He thought he heard a shout of laughter amid the explosions sparking down the stairs. It didn’t improve his temper. He started down but was forced to move slowly to keep behind the exploding firecrackers. “Did you consider the possibility you might have set the house on fire? Or that someone could have started shooting before they realized it was a torn-fool trick?”

“It wasn’t Patrick’s fault, Mr. Delaney.” Elspeth moved out of the shadowed hallway to the foot of the stairs. She stood very straight, her eyes fixed on him as if mesmerized. “This was entirely my idea.”

She could barely get the words past her dry throat. She had never seen a real live man naked, and Dominic Delaney was boldly and unashamedly naked. When he had appeared at the top of the stairs with only the smoke wreathing his nudity, she had experienced shock, and then, almost immediately, her usual curiosity.

Michelangelo. He was like a statue she had seen by Michelangelo in that museum in Florence. Powerful shoulders and pectoral muscles, a tight stomach and heavily corded thighs and calves. Only the colors were different, warm bronze instead of cold white marble. Dark hair feathered Delaney’s chest and lightly dusted his legs. There was also hair encircling his… Her eyes widened as she stared in fascination. In all the statues she had seen, that portion of the male anatomy had either been covered with a fig leaf or else the sculptor had depicted it as minuscule and unimportant. Even Michelangelo. But Michelangelo was wrong; it was neither of those things. She jerked her eyes quickly back to his face. “I’ve come to ask you to reconsider.”

The expression of stunned surprise on his face was superseded by ferocity. “The hell you have.” He started down the steps toward her, each word punctuated by the explosion of the firecrackers. “I don’t like women who use their sex as a shield to invade a man’s privacy and put him at a disadvantage. I don’t like it one bit.”

“You said you wouldn’t see me. I had to do something to change the state of things.”

“In case you didn’t hear me the first time, the answer is no.” His blue-gray eyes glinted fiercely through the smoke. “But you knew it would be no, didn’t you, Miss Elspeth MacGregor?”

“Yes, but it appeared to be the only way to get you to take my offer seriously.”

“Dom, what’s going on?” asked a lovely brown-haired woman clad in a blue lace peignoir from the top of the steps. Her gaze fell on Espeth’s prim, black-gowned figure at the bottom of the stairs. “Jesus, what’s happened?”

“Nothing to concern you, Rina. Go on back to bed.” Dominic Delaney’s gaze never wavered from Elspeth. “I’ll take care of this.”

There were other faces peering over the banisters now, but Elspeth was scarcely aware of them. All her attention was focused on the naked man coming down the stairs toward her. She was exquisitely conscious of everything about him. The sleek ripple of the muscles of his thighs, the way his chest moved in and out with each breath. His strange blue-gray eyes gazing at her with insolence and anger and something else…

He stopped at the bottom step and stood there just looking at her in the duskiness of the hall. She couldn’t breathe. She dimly heard the firecrackers going off on the porch but they seemed far away. Everything seemed far away except the man standing before her effortlessly holding her gaze with his own.

“Do you know that you’re in a whorehouse, Miss MacGregor?” His voice was silky soft, almost a murmur. “Women have only one reason for being in a whorehouse. They’re here to perform certain acts of pleasure, to entertain men.”

His index finger reached out and slowly touched her cheek. She inhaled sharply. The skin seemed to burn under his touch. Ridiculous. It had to be her imagination.

“Since you’re a woman, I have to assume you must be here for that purpose.” His hand wandered down to caress her throat, his thumb delicately testing the wild beating of her heart. “And I suddenly feel a need to be… entertained.”

Elspeth found her breasts were heaving with every breath. He couldn’t mean… “No, you don’t understand. I truly meant to-”

“Cut it out, Dom.” Patrick stepped out of the shadows. “Can’t you see you’re scaring the hell out of her?”

“Am I?” Dominic’s hand was gently stroking Elspeth’s throat. He could feel it flutter beneath his palm. Her breath was coming in shallow little bursts. Her pink lips were slightly parted, and he could see the faintest glimpse of her tongue. He wondered what she would do if he leaned forward and parted those lips with his own tongue. “I thought you’d be around somewhere, Patrick. I’m sure you enjoyed the hell out of the show, but you really should have persuaded her not to do it. You might say I’m a little annoyed.”

“More than a little.” Patrick eyed him warily. “But you’ve frightened her enough. She doesn’t know you’re only fooling.”

Was he only trying to frighten her? Dominic wondered. That had been his intention when he had started, but now he wasn’t sure. His hand tightened on her slender neck. Touching Elspeth MacGregor was proving very unsettling. The flesh of his palm was tingling and he could feel a throbbing sensation begin in his groin. “Why don’t you leave the matter to be decided between, the two of us? Its time you got on your way to Killara.”

“Let her go, Dom.” Patrick’s tone was hard. “I’m responsible for her being here. I can’t let you do it.”

“Since when have you had any say about what I do?” Dominic’s hard gaze moved from Elspeth to Patrick’s face. What he saw there surprised him. Christ, the boy was serious. Next, he’d be pulling a gun on him to protect his little owl. A fresh surge of anger provoked by sheer frustration tore through him. It was a frustration that could be easily satisfied, he assured himself. Rina or one of the girls would give him more pleasure than this skinny little bespectacled gnome. But he didn’t want Rina or her girls, he realized in amazement. He wanted Elspeth MacGregor with a lust that was beginning to tear at his gut. It would go away, he told himself impatiently. As soon as she was out of his sight it would vanish as if it had never been. And the sooner that circumstance occurred, the better.

His hand dropped from Elspeth’s throat. “You’re right, it’s time this stupidity ended. Here, hold this.” He threw Patrick the gunbelt he still carried in his hand. “And open the door.”

With a relieved grin Patrick moved swiftly to obey. For a moment he hadn’t been sure Dominic would give Elspeth up without a struggle. Who the hell would have dreamed Dominic would become aroused by the little Scottish girl? And the fact that he had become aroused couldn’t have been more obvious since Dominic was naked as a jaybird. Patrick flung the door open with a flourish. “Yes, sir.”

“Brat.” Dominic picked Elspeth up and slung her facedown over his shoulder.

“Put me down!” Elspeth shouted. She could feel the play of muscles in his shoulders as they braced beneath her struggling weight. He was walking quickly, and with each step her lips touched the middle of his naked back. His arm was around her knees and she could feel the heat from his body even through the layers of her petticoats. Fear. It must be fear that was making her heart pound so frantically, she thought. They were on the porch and then going down the steps. She could see the people who’d been peering over the banisters now streaming down the stairs. “Let me go!”

“I’m about to let you go.” She was sliding down the front of his body to land in a heap of black silk and a flurry of petticoats in the dirt of the street. She fought simply to gain a sitting position.

Dominic Delaney was standing before her, legs astride, glaring down at her. “Now, let’s go over it once more, Miss MacGregor. You don’t exist for me. There are certain lines women don’t cross without suffering the consequences. You crossed one today and didn’t pay with more than a little indignity and dirt on your face. Next time you cross that line you won’t be so lucky.”

He turned and walked toward the laughing crowd of people gawking at them from the front porch.

She struggled to her knees and called after him, “I’m not giving up, you know. I’ll keep on until you listen to me.”

He didn’t look back, and in a moment he had disappeared into the house.

Patrick was suddenly beside her, leaning down to lift her to her feet. He took off his red bandanna and gently rubbed a smudge of dirt from her cheek. “He was right, you know. You got off lucky. In this country a lady is treated as a lady only as long as she obeys the rules. We don’t have as many rules as they do in other parts of the world, but the line he was talking about does exist.”

“I’m not giving up.” There was a touch of desperation in her voice. “I’ll just have to think of something else.”

“I didn’t think you’d give up.” Patrick sighed. “But do me a favor and stay out of Rina’s place while I’m gone. You owe me that much for calling down Dom’s wrath on my hapless head.”

“Very well.” It was an easy promise to make. She had never felt more frightened and vulnerable in her life than the moment she stood there in that warm, scented dimness with Dominic Delaney’s fingers around her neck. “I won’t go back there again.”

Patrick stuffed the bandanna in the back pocket of his pants. “Well, that’s something anyway. Come on, I’ll take you back to the hotel.”

“You’re leaving town now?”

“Pretty soon.” He’d have to stick around long enough to drop a few words into the right ears about Elspeth’s virginal purity and her peculiar ideas of female independence. Those explanations, along with threats of murder or immediate emasculation if any man bothered her while he was at Killara, should offset the effect of any scandal Elspeth’s visit to Rina’s might bring down on her head. It probably would take him until noon to get the word around. That meant it would be late when he got to Killara tonight. Jesus, Gran-da was going to be wild. He took Elspeth’s elbow and quickened his steps toward the hotel. “On second thought, I’d better leave town pretty damn soon.”