“Tell me,” he murmured, reaching for her.
—
Merlin showed up for the first time in days, a bit thin and seemingly preoccupied. He wanted only food and a brief snooze in Rafe’s chair before disappearing again.
“We should have kept him in,” Maggie told Rafe, anxious. “He looks like he could use a few square meals. Doesn’t he realize this is home?”
“Of course, he does, lass.” Rafe pulled her comfortably into the circle of his arms where they sat together on the couch. “But you know how it is. Tomcats in the spring…”
She smiled and linked her fingers together behind his neck. “I haven’t noticed you wandering,” she said.
“That’s because I have everything I need right here.” He kissed her tenderly. “An Irish lass who holds my heart.”
Her smile widened at the soft cadence of his deep voice. “Do you realize how Irish you’ve gotten yourself? More and more with every day that passes. No brogue, but your voice has the rhythm.”
“Does it bother you?”
“Bother me?” She laughed softly. “Darling, I love it!”
“I love you,” he whispered, and she forgot about tomcats.
—
On Friday morning a special messenger arrived at the house while Maggie was in the den, carefully cleaning a very old Spanish saddle that was another piece of the Delaney history Rafe kept preserved. Rafe came into the room, sat down on the couch, and dropped a large manila envelope in her lap.
Sitting cross-legged on the floor, she had been industriously polishing a silver buckle, but put aside the cloth and buckle to pick up the envelope. “What’s this?” she asked.
Rafe sat back and smiled at her, but his eyes were grave. Apparently ignoring her question, he said musingly, “I think you still have a…tiny reservation about us, love. True?”
She gazed at him for a long moment, then took a deep breath and nodded, unable to destroy the trust between them by lying. “It isn’t anything I can put into words,” she explained seriously, getting up to sit beside him on the couch, still holding the envelope. “It’s just a feeling that I’m…inadequate somehow. I mean, well, you know where you came from. You know what bloodlines combined to make you what you are. You know your own history. And I don’t know mine.” She gestured slightly when he would have interrupted. “Oh, I know it doesn’t matter to you what my background was. And it doesn’t really matter to me—except that I wish I could know.”
She laughed a little shakily. “It isn’t a reservation, Rafe. It isn’t a doubt, isn’t uncertainty. And it isn’t about us. It’s about me. I know who I am and where I am. I’d just like to know where I came from.”
He tapped a finger on the thick envelope in her lap. “Then open this, lass, and you’ll see where you came from.”
“What?”
He smiled at her confusion. “I knew you felt…uncertain about your background, your family’s history, and I knew it bothered you. So, a while back I called Cougar Jones, who handles security for Delaney Enterprises. He’s a handy man to know, and I’ve never yet seen a question or request stump him. So I told him I needed a genealogy traced. He knew of someone back East who does that kind of thing, and here it is.”
She looked down at the envelope, then lifted glowing eyes to his. “You did that for me?”
He leaned over to kiss her gently, then gave her a stern look. “There’s one thing though. As you said, your background doesn’t matter to me. So no matter how many horse thieves you find on your family tree, lass, you’re still going to marry me! Understood?”
She nodded meekly. “Understood.” She wasn’t entirely certain she wanted to know her bloodlines now that the answers were right in her lap, but she opened the envelope anyway, because she had to know.
Whoever had assembled the material, she saw immediately, had done a thorough job. Not only was there a detailed family tree going back several generations, but there were also biographical summaries of the principal O’Rileys. The spelling of the name had changed more than once—just as the Delaney name had been altered, Rafe confided. Both bent their heads over the papers.
“Would you look at that?” Maggie said in amusement. “I’m Irish both sides practically back to the apple!”
Rafe started laughing suddenly and pointed to a name. “You see that? I happen to know that name.”
“Don’t tell me…?”
“That’s right. He was a horse thief. A rather famous one too.” He grinned at her. “I told you we made a terrific team. I’m descended from a cattle rustler, and you’re descended from a horse thief!”
“Well,” she said dryly, “if we lose all our stock, we’ll both know one way of getting more, won’t we?”
He suddenly pulled her into his arms, crushing a sheaf of papers between them. “Do you know,” he said huskily, “that’s the first time you’ve said we?”
“I like the sound of it,” she murmured, smiling at him.
“I love the sound of it.” He sat back and reached into his pocket, pulling out a small black velvet box. “It’s what I’ve been waiting for.”
She stared at the box, then her eyes widened when he flicked the catch with his thumb to reveal a ring nestled inside. It was obviously a very old ring, the golden shank finely made and warm with the smooth glow of age and care. It was set with a beautiful opal surrounded by diamonds. The opal was alive with glints of pink and green fire, and the diamonds shone brilliantly.
“Not a traditional engagement stone,” Rafe said softly, watching her face. “But a special ring. The Spanish don brought the stone up from Central America, and had the ring custom made for his Delaney bride. I took it to a jeweler to have it cleaned. The opal’s your birthstone, isn’t it, Maggie?”
She looked at him and nodded, her heart too full for words.
“I think it’ll fit. Her hands were tiny too.” He took the ring from its box and slid it onto the ring finger of her left hand. It fit perfectly.
“Rafe…” Her voice was hoarse, but her eyes said what her throat wouldn’t allow.
He pulled her back into the warmth of his embrace, neither of them noticing when the genealogy papers fell to the floor.
—
“I have to fly into Tucson tomorrow morning,” Rafe told Maggie much later that night. “A board meeting. Why don’t you come along? You could see something of the city.”
Cuddling closer to his side, she yawned sleepily. “No, you’ll be busy. Besides, I really need to make at least one appearance down in the compound and try to get some work done.”
“If you insist.”
“I do.” She was nearly asleep when a worry surfaced. “Rafe? Your brothers’ll be at this meeting?”
“Of course.”
Uneasily she said, “You came back from Hell’s Bluff looking as though you’d fought a war, and both your brothers left here after fighting a fire. What’s going to happen in Tucson?”
“A stuffy board meeting,” he assured her. “Burke will tell us a lot of things we won’t understand, and York and I will be bored stiff. That’s why they call them board meetings, you know.”
She ignored the attempt at humor. “But somebody shot at Burke while he was here, and hit York and—” She took a deep breath. “Just…be careful, will you, please? I think you and your brothers should build a concrete bunker for your little get-togethers.”
Rafe chuckled softly. “We’ll be fine. The Tower has excellent security, and Cougar’ll watch over us all.”
Maggie wasn’t completely reassured, but when Rafe was dressed the next morning, she forgot worry in the enjoyment of his appearance. “You look,” she told him from the depths of the bed, “like the devil in an angel suit.”
Having abandoned any feelings of guilt over lounging in bed past dawn, she hadn’t argued when he’d told her to stay put. Now, gazing at him as he adjusted the knot of his tie in front of the dresser mirror, she couldn’t help but giggle.
“Thanks a lot,??
? he said.
He was dressed from neck to foot in solid white. Three-piece suit, shirt, tie, shoes—all were white. And while another man might have looked most peculiar in the outfit, it fit Rafe perfectly. It set off his dark good looks and his cheerful mood. He had taken attire meant to be formal, she realized, and made it into something else. Jaunty. Rakish. Devilish.
Knowing the man she loved, she cocked a questioning brow. “Rebelling?” she asked politely.
He turned to grin at her. “Something like that. Burke likes us to be businesslike at these blasted meetings. I borrowed a pair of coveralls from one of the maintenance men once and showed up like that. I thought he was going to deck me.”
She giggled again. “Well, you’ll certainly startle them today.”
He walked over to the bed, then leaned down, his hands on either side of her, and kissed her. “I’ll let you know what the reaction is. By the way, I have a present for you.”
“You do?”
He straightened and smiled at her. “I do. It’s in a box, and here in the house. Somewhere. It’s up to you to find it.”
It took Maggie only a moment to understand his motive, and her voice caught him just before he left the room. “Rafe! You’re just saying that to keep me from working. I’ll search this house and not find a thing.”
“If you search the house, you’ll find it,” he said. “And I know you’ll search, lass. You’ve too much Irish blood not to be curious.” He winked.
Maggie threw a pillow at him, but he was already gone.
Two hours later, she found it. Swearing but amused, she climbed up on a chair and wrested the box down from the top shelf of Rafe’s stein collection. It was a dress box and, opened, revealed a dress. An absolutely beautiful dress fashioned of lovely violet silk. She knew without looking at the size that it would fit. It was long, with full sleeves and a deep V neckline. A pair of matching high heels, wrapped carefully, were also in the box.
She had no earthly idea when or where he’d gotten it, and wondered at his reasons even as she pulled the dress from its box and admired it. That was when she saw the note. It was short and to the point, the handwriting as bold as the man and his demand.
Pack a few things, lass—including this dress. We’ll leave when I get back.
Now, where, she wondered, were they going? Someplace she’d need a formal dress, obviously. And then, unbidden, she remembered Rafe saying that the brothers still dressed for a meal at their mother’s table. At Killara.
Killara?
Maggie badly wanted to see the place where Rafe had grown up, see the homestead that Old Shamus had defended so successfully from Apache raids and Mexican bandits and whatever else had come along. She wanted to see where the Delaney family had founded their dynasty. She really did want to see that.
She didn’t want to see Burke Delaney.
Wincing, she remembered her behavior during and after the fire. How in the world was she going to be able to meet Burke’s amused green eyes? She wasn’t ready for that, she knew. She’d never be ready for that.
But she packed. She knew her Rafe.
—
It was late that afternoon when she heard him in the kitchen, cheerfully telling Mrs. Taylor that he and Maggie would be gone for a day or two. When he came into the den, she had only a moment to note the discarded coat and tie, and the shirt sleeves rolled up to reveal his bronze forearms. Then she was pulled up from her chair and hugged fiercely.
“I missed you, love.”
She looked up at him and saw signs of strain that would have been invisible to anyone else. “Rafe, what happened in Tucson?”
He smiled, one hand lifting to brush a strand of hair from her face. “In the end…a tempest in a teapot,” he said. “But a violent storm while it lasted.” He wasn’t smiling any longer, and his black eyes were somber. “I hadn’t realized before how some things are beyond our control. How we’re all vulnerable to loss through…outside influences. It wasn’t me on the rack this time. But it could have been me.”
“Your brothers?” she asked softly.
“Burke.” He shook his head. “I’ll tell you about it later. The only thing I want to tell you now is that I love you, Maggie. So very much.”
She gazed up into eyes that were once again smiling tenderly. Hugging him, she murmured, “I love you too.” After all that, it was a little difficult to air her grievances. But Maggie tried. “Rafe, you aren’t taking me to Killara, are you?”
“Of course, I am. Are you packed?”
“Yes, but—”
“Good, then we can get started.”
“But, Rafe—”
“Where’s your case?”
“There, by the door. Rafe—”
“Come along, love.”
Maggie dug in her heels. “Rafe! After the way I acted during the fire, I don’t want to see either of your brothers! Talk about lousy first impressions.”
He smiled down at her. “My love, my brothers are shortly to become your brothers-in-law. Now, I enjoy visiting both brothers whenever time permits, and occasionally they come here. Do you propose to hide in a closet, or what?”
She groaned. “I just don’t think I’m ready—”
“Hey.” He cupped her cheek in one warm hand. “Apart from your own feisty personality—which is very endearing, in case you didn’t know—you also boast the sterling quality of making me deliriously happy. First impression and all, my brothers will love you like a sister. And besides all that…” His smile went a bit crooked, vulnerable. “I need to go home, lass. I need to look at Killara. Okay?”
She smiled tremulously, warmed by the trust he showed in allowing her to see his vulnerability. “Okay. But if both your brothers try to talk you out of marrying me, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
He laughed and led her through the house, barely giving her time to wave to Mrs. Taylor as they passed through the kitchen. At the helipad he stowed her case in back, explaining that he always kept clothes at Killara for himself. Then he buckled her into the passenger seat and went around to his own side. Moments later they were lifting from the ground.
There was little conversation within the helicopter while it headed east. Maggie was happy despite the coming meeting with at least one of the other Delaney brothers, content to gaze at Rafe’s strong profile and watch his hands moving expertly at the controls of the aircraft. She returned his frequent smiles, feeling truly at peace for the first time in years.
Watching him, she saw his eyes narrow suddenly, and followed his gaze to see another helicopter approaching from the east. A Delaney helicopter, she realized. Burke’s? Before she could ask, the other craft had passed them, and she barely made out two figures within it, one of whom gestured at Rafe. A thumbs-up gesture. Rafe spoke quickly into his headset, then apparently listened to the response.
Then he was laughing. “Well, well,” he said cheerfully. “It looks like the clan’s all here. That was Deuce—a friend of York’s—in that bird. York’s at Killara.”
“You mean, I have to face both of them?” She groaned.
He grinned at her. “Don’t jump out. You haven’t got a parachute!”
Maggie grumbled to herself, but when they lifted over a mountain range moments later, she forgot to be worried.
It was spread out below and before them, painted in glowing reds and oranges by the setting sun, nestled in its valley with a sprawling air of belonging. It was a feeling, Maggie realized, of time and battles, and much love, a feeling of family and unity.
“Killara,” she murmured.
Rafe smiled at her, love and tenderness alight in his eyes. “Killara,” he said, and headed the helicopter for home.
Some things, like Topsy, just grow. A thought becomes a suggestion…an idea…a plot. “What if…?” becomes “Well, maybe…” and finally “That might work!”
For the endless hours of work, the conference calls, the batting back-and-forth of ideas, the patience, good humor, generosity, and utte
r professionalism, I’d like to dedicate this book to my co-conspirators in a truly dastardly plot: Iris Johansen and Fayrene Preston
BY KAY HOOPER
The Bishop Trilogies
Stealing Shadows
Hiding in the Shadows
Out of the Shadows
Touching Evil
Whisper of Evil
Sense of Evil
Hunting Fear
Chill of Fear
Sleeping with Fear
Blood Dreams
Blood Sins
Blood Ties
The Quinn Novels
Once a Thief
Always a Thief
Romantic Suspense
The Haunting of Josie
Amanda
After Caroline
Finding Laura
Haunting Rachel
Classic Fantasy and Romance
On Wings of Magic
C.J.’s Fate
Something Different
Pepper’s Way
If There Be Dragons
Illegal Possession
Rebel Waltz
Larger than Life
Time after Time
In Serena’s Web
Raven on the Wing
Rafferty’s Wife
Zach’s Law
The Fall of Lucas Kendrick
Unmasking Kelsey
Outlaw Derek
Shades of Gray
Captain’s Paradise
It Takes a Thief
Aces High
Golden Threads
The Glass Shoe
What Dreams May Come
Through the Looking Glass
The Lady and the Lion
Star-Crossed Lovers
The Wizard of Seattle
The Delaney Christmas Carol
Rafe, the Maverick
Adelaide, the Enchantress
Velvet Lightning
Golden Flames
Summer of the Unicorn
The Matchmaker
PHOTO: © SIGRID ESTRADA