Iris Johansen - This Fierce Splendor

He shook his head. “You can’t.”

“Of course I can. Where is he staying?”

“It’s not a place a lady can visit.” He shifted uneasily.

She stared at him in puzzlement.

He sighed resignedly. “Dom rents a room in a wh-house of ill repute.”

“Oh,” she said blankly. “I guess it would be awkward for me to go there.”

His lips twitched. “Yeah. Awkward.”

She brightened. “Well, he can’t stay there all the time. I’ll see him somewhere else.”

“What good would that do? He said he wouldn’t talk to you or see you.”

“He may choose not to talk to me at first, but he will do so eventually.” She smiled with considerably more confidence than she felt. “And there’s no question that he’ll see me. I’ll make certain of it. Thank you for your kindness to me, Mr. Delaney.”

“Patrick,” he corrected her solemnly. “Formality is out of place when a gentleman has recently stuck up a lady’s stagecoach.”

She nodded. “And you must call me Elspeth. Will I see you tomorrow also, Patrick?”

He hesitated before slowly shaking his head. “I have to leave before daybreak for the ranch.” He stood up, his expression troubled. “I may come back next Saturday night, but I imagine you’ll have left Hell’s Bluff by that time.” He hoped so. He didn’t like the way this situation was developing. Dominic’s temper was very finely balanced these days. He wouldn’t allow himself to be pushed far before he turned and savaged any aggressor, and it was clear the little owl was planning on being very aggressive indeed. “If you change your mind, I could arrange for a seat for you on the coach tomorrow morning.”

“I’ll be here when you return next Saturday,” she said firmly. “Thank you, again, Patrick.”

“My pleasure.” He bowed. He had done all he could do. He only hoped Dominic wouldn’t be too rough on her. “Until Saturday.”

She kept a smile pasted on until he had left the parlor. It vanished the moment she could no longer see the back of his fiery hair. She closed her eyes and drew a long, quivering breath. Her knees were shaking and the palms of her hands were moist and cold. This interview had been more difficult than she had imagined it could be. Independence would become easier for her in time, she assured herself desperately. It wasn’t simple to break the habits of a lifetime, and she’d had the bad luck to pit herself against a man like Dominic Delaney in her first real attempt. She had found herself breathlessly nervous and unsure from the moment he’d walked into the room. Even before he’d bluntly refused to consider her offer, she had detected an antagonism in him that had heightened her physical responses to a near painful level of sensitivity. Why had he been antagonistic? She had felt his gaze moving over her face as though trying to see beneath the flesh. What on earth had he been looking for?

A weakness perhaps. She didn’t fool herself that there was anything about her appearance he might find attractive. Her father had been very careful to let her know that men would never look at her with anything but indifference. No, Dominic Delaney had been searching for holes in her armor in order that he might more easily rid himself of her unwelcome presence.

“Are you quite well, Mademoiselle MacGregor?”

She swiftly opened her eyes. Andre Marzonoff stood in the doorway. He had changed into a beautifully tailored coat in a shade of pearl gray; it was even less flattering to his girth than the biscuit-colored one he had worn previously.

However, his concern was obviously sincere and she forced herself to smile. “I’m just tired. I think I’ll go to my room and rest.”

“Perhaps you should have something to eat. I would be honored if you would join me at dinner.”

“I’m not hungry.” Her stomach was fluttering and the very thought of food made her a little ill. Yet he seemed so disappointed, she added, “We could have breakfast together if you’re not engaged.”

His face lit up and he shook his head emphatically. “I would be delighted. I know no one in Hell’s Bluff.”

“Then why are you here?” she asked curiously.

“It is a most exciting place. In Tucson they told me it was the toughest boomtown in Arizona. I thought I would meet many interesting people here.” His tone became carefully casual. “Perhaps you could introduce me to your business associate, Dominic Delaney, when you have finished your transaction?”

“I’m afraid you’d better rely on someone else for an introduction.” She wrinkled her nose. “Mr. Delaney wasn’t pleased with my proposition.”

His smile faded. “Oh. Well, perhaps I can strike up an acquaintance somewhere else. I hear he is a professional gambler.”

“When he’s not shooting people, you mean?” she asked dryly.

His brow furrowed. “Oh, he’s not really a murderer. It is the custom here. A gunfight is as honorable as a duel is in Europe.”

She stared at him in disbelief at his enthrallment with the West and its gunfighters. Suddenly, though, she realized there was something quite vulnerable, even a little pitiful in his childlike excitement. “I see,” she said gently. “I hope you’re able to arrange to meet Mr. Delaney. I believe he was planning on going to a place called the Nugget when he left here.”

“Thank you.” He looked eagerly at the door. “I hope you rest well. Shall we meet in the dining room at nine?”

She was surprised he even remembered their proposed breakfast appointment. It was obvious he couldn’t wait to go in search of Dominic Delaney. “That will be fine.”

His reply was barely audible as he hurried from the room.

A few minutes later Elspeth breathed a sigh of relief as she closed the door of her room behind her. She could relax now. There was no one to see how weak and insecure she felt. This America was such a strange place with its brash and fast-moving people. Every time she turned around there was something new and different with which she had to cope. She had traveled extensively with her father both on the Continent and in the Far East but under very different circumstances. Her father had made quite sure she was kept too busy doing his research to have time to experience the practical and emotional difficulties of existing in a foreign land, a fact that had both disheartened and relieved her.

Even this hotel room was strange. The small chamber was clean, but it bore no resemblance to other hotel rooms in which she’d stayed. And, of course, it was nothing at all like her bedroom in the narrow two-story brick home in which she had grown up. The rough pine boards of this floor were covered by bright rugs in a bold design reminding her of a picture of an Aztec mosaic she’d seen in a book in London. The double bed across the room had no headboard and the springs were sagging slightly; the spread covering it was no more than a shabby patchwork quilt. A mahogany nightstand was adjacent to the bed and a rocking chair with a woven straw seat occupied the corner of the room to the left of the window. The mahogany armoire against the other wall was chipped and scarred and the flower-sprigged China basin and pitcher on the washstand next to it were permanently stained. It was a totally depressing and impersonal room, she thought in discouragement. If this sort of room was all that was available to rent, it was no wonder Dominic Delaney chose to live elsewhere.

Then the color stained her cheeks as she realized how naive had been her thought. A man like Delaney didn’t live in a bordello for the quality of the bed but for the quality of the women in it. Elspeth was quite aware of a man’s physical needs and his casual way of satisfying them. Indeed, a by-product of studying antiquities had been the gain of a good deal of knowledge about hetaeras and the services they rendered. Services . The word was inappropriate when used in connection with Dominic Delaney. It sounded bland. Mechanical. That hardly applied to the man whose every movement was intense and radiated vitality. Even when he was still she had been conscious of something waiting to break free. Did it break free when he was with one of those women who lived in the bordello? She could imagine his face dark, intense, as he-