This Fierce Splendor Read Online Free PDF Page B

me?”
    Patrick shook his head. “You’ll have to ask her.”
    “The hell I will.” Dominic leaned back in his chair and rubbed his cheek. He could feel a slight stubble, but he wasn’t about to shave. At the moment he couldn’t stand the thought of anything harsher than a feather against his skin. “Tell her I’m too busy to take on any new business ventures and put her on the stage back to Tucson tomorrow morning.”
    “See her, Dom. She’s come clear across an ocean and an entire continent. Why don’t you let her tell you what she wants?”
    Dominic reached into his shirt pocket for the makings and began to roll a cigarette. “I have a good idea what she wants.”
    Patrick’s brown eyes glinted with curiosity. “What?”
    Dominic ran his tongue over the thin paper and reached for matches. “The same thing her father wanted. What everyone in Hell’s Bluff wants. One good strike that will make them king of the hill.”
    “Elspeth MacGregor is no prospector.”
    “We’ll see.” Dominic lit the cigarette and drew deeply. “Or, rather, you’ll see. I have no intention of talking to the lady.”
    “I wish you would, Dom.” Patrick’s brow furrowed. “It wouldn’t hurt to be polite to her. She’s sort of …”
    “Sort of what?”
    Patrick hesitated. “I think she’s a little owl who believes she’s an eagle.”
    Dominic burst out laughing. The hardness and cynicism disappeared from his face, and for an instant, he looked as young as Patrick. “God, how poetic. Rising Star couldn’t have put it better.”
    Patrick looked a little sheepish. “Well, it fits anyway. A little owl won’t be any trouble for you to shake off. See her, Dom.”
    Dominic’s expression had softened miraculously ashe gazed with affection at his nephew. “If you’re wrong about your little owl, you’re going to wish you’d never come back to Hell’s Bluff today even if it meant crawling to Killara on your hands and knees. You say she’s over at the hotel?”
    Patrick nodded. “She said she’d wait in the parlor.”
    Dominic pushed back the chair, shuddering as the legs screeched on the floor. “I’ll go upstairs and get my hat.”
    He paused at the door to glance back over his shoulder. “How is Rising Star?”
    Patrick’s expression became shuttered. “Fine. She’s in her seventh month now. She’s very happy about the baby.” He looked down at the tablecloth and began to trace one of the blue squares with his index finger. “It shows. She kind of … glows.”
    “That’s nice.” Dominic started to say something but changed his mind. What the hell could he say that would do any good? he asked himself. Abruptly, he turned away. “I’ll be right down.”

2

    “M iss MacGregor, may I present my uncle, Dominic Delaney?”
    Dominic Delaney was not what Elspeth had expected. He was not the uncouth barbarian described by her father nor did he bear significant resemblance to his nephew, Patrick, standing beside him inside the parlor doorway.
    She supposed he could be considered quite beautiful by those in thrall to the slightly wicked appeal of the likes of Byron. The last rays of the setting sun streaming through the window highlighted the shining darkness of his neatly barbered hair and revealed the tiniest hint of a wave in its thick crispness. His long sideburns accented the high cheekbones of his slightly elongated face, and the hollowed line of his jaw and deeply bronzed skin gave him a faintly Spanish look. His attire had the same Latin air: a waist-length black suede jacket, a shirt of fine white linen, and a black string tie.
    He inclined his head. “Miss MacGregor.”
    The two men stepped closer. Patrick and Dominic Delaney were of a similar height, a trifle over six feet, and both were slim. At that point the resemblance ended. Dominic Delaney had none of Patrick’s loose-boned elegance. He was in his early thirties and his physique was more mature, his chest wider and deeper, his shoulder