Christmas Present Part 14

"Help? Have you lost your mind? He's dead." She swatted the tears from her eyes, feeling the pain ripping her apart. Strangely, though, a part of her that operated on a level beyond awareness began to act to protect the one she loved that still lived. "Take the Jeep and leave," she said, tears streaming down her face. "Drive straight to Mexico. I'll be all right. Quite a few people saw me heading this way. If I'm not back by nightfall, they'll come find me."

"Bria-"

"Listen to me. By that time you'll be very close to the border. You should be able to make it over with no trouble at all." She had no idea if her words had made any impact on Kells. His eyes were darker than midnight and completely unreadable.

With a curse and a quick glance over his shoulder at something he ran toward the Jeep.

She fought back sobs as she turned to her dad. He had always been so strong, so all-powerful. She hadn't been able to keep him from being killed, but she could hold him and stay with him so that he wouldn't be alone until someone came to find them.

Without regard for the blood she slid her hands beneath his shoulders so that she could cradle him against her.

He groaned. Her breath caught in her throat. "Dad? "

He didn't say anything; his eyes remained closed.

She glanced back at the Jeep. It was still there and so was Kells. He looked as though he was delving for something in the backseat.

"Kells. Dad's alive!"

He raced back to her. With another look over his shoulder he jerked off his jacket, then his s.h.i.+rt. "I tried to find something for a compress, but this will have to do." Kneeling, he folded his s.h.i.+rt, then pressed it against Burke's shoulder. "Hold this to his wound. I've called for help. They should be scrambling a copter within the minute."

She hurriedly wiped the tears from her eyes and did as he said, willing the compress to work. And all the while her head filled with questions. "You knew he wasn't dead?"

"I didn't kill him, Bria," he said grimly. "I told you I wouldn't." He lay his black leather jacket across Burke, leaving his own upper body bare to the December cold. "The bullet got him in the shoulder, but it must have nicked an artery. He'll be okay, though, if we can stop the flow of blood and get him to a hospital."

"But-"

"Later." He jerked to his feet and strode to one of the horses. Quickly, expertly, he untied the rope from her dad's saddle and carried it toward another body, a body she hadn't seen until this moment because it was half hidden by brush and boulders.

"Who is that?"

"The man who shot your father," he said, tying the unconscious man's hands together, then his feet.

"Kells... saved my life."

Her dad's voice sent relief pouring through her. "Thank G.o.d you're alive. I thought-"

"I know. Kells... told me about the mirror."

She fought back sobs of happiness. "You're weak. Please don't talk. Help is on the way."

"I'm all right, and I... I want you to know something. I knew everything."

"Bria's right. Burke," Kells called. "You've already lost consciousness once. Try to stay awake this time, but don't use up your energy trying to talk."

Even wounded and bleeding Burke didn't take orders. He concentrated on his daughter. "I knew when... Kells's dad committed suicide, and though I knew I wasn't responsible... I've kept an eye on Kells all these years."

"Dad, please be quiet. There'll be plenty of time-"

"I wouldn't have invited him here if I hadn't known he was a good man... and that I could trust him."

Tears continued to stream down Bria's face. She remembered thinking that her father was too smart to invite an enemy to Killara. Why hadn't she trusted her father's instincts and left the d.a.m.n mirror alone?

She heard the whir of helicopters and saw three approaching, no doubt one of them carrying her mother. In the distance she could see the dust whirls that meant several Jeeps were driving toward them, accelerators jammed to the floor. There was a faint reverberation beneath the ground, indicating hors.e.m.e.n riding flat out to reach them.

Burke Delaney was down The alarm would have been sounded throughout Killara, including h.e.l.l's Bluff and Shamrock. There wasn't a man, woman, or child on Killara who would draw an easy breath until they knew he would be all right.

She smiled down at him and pressed a kiss to his forehead. "I love you, Dad."

A faint smile touched his lips, and having said what he wanted to, he closed his eyes. In the next minutes it seemed as if half of Killara converged on them. But there was no confusion. Everyone worked single-mindedly to help Burke.

After he was carefully loaded onto the helicopter, Cara climbed in after him, then glanced back at Bria. "York and Rafe are meeting us at the hospital. You're coming too, aren't you?"

She hesitated as her gaze went back to Kells. Someone had returned his jacket to him and had wrapped it around his shoulders, leaving his chest still bare. But he looked as if the cold wasn't touching him, as if nothing could. "Kells?"

"You go with your dad," he said tonelessly, his eyes bleak. "Someone is seeing to the horses. The sheriff will be flying in here any minute to pick up the man who shot Burke. As soon as he does, I'll drive the Jeep back."

There were so many things unresolved between them, so many things that she wasn't certain could be resolved or forgotten. She certainly couldn't forget her first words to him when she had leapt from the Jeep. You killed him. "Are you sure you don't want to come with us?"

For an answer he silently turned and walked toward his prisoner. With one last look at him, Bria climbed into the copter with her parents.

As soon as the doctors a.s.sured Bria that her dad was going to be fine, she flew back to Killara. Her mother had her uncles, York and Rafe, plus her aunts, Siena and Maggie, to stay with her, but Kells had no one.

And by this time she had heard the whole story from her dad and from the sheriff. An escaped prisoner from a local jail had jumped out from behind the boulders and demanded not only money from her dad and Kells, but also their clothes, boots, and horses. Her dad had been trying to reason with the man, who panicked and shot him. Her dad had fallen from his horse but managed to remain conscious long enough to see Kells launch himself off his horse at the man. A fight ensued. Then, apparently, once Kells had managed to knock the man out, he had run back to Burke. It was at that point that Bria had arrived and immediately jumped to the wrong conclusion.

He would never be able to forgive her, she thought sadly, and she wasn't sure she blamed him.

What she had seen in the mirror had come true, but while it had shown her a truth, it hadn't interpreted that truth. The scene also hadn't included the man lying on the ground behind Kells.

She had tried to change fate and failed. Her father had been shot, but not by Kells, and thankfully her father was still very much alive.

Ironically, ultimately it had turned out that she hadn't really needed to change fate after all.

As soon as Bria landed on Killara, she went in search of Kells. She knew she was probably the last person he wanted to see, but at the very least she owed him an apology. Before he returned to Australia, she wanted him to know how sorry she was that she had believed in the mirror instead of in him. She also wanted to tell him that she loved him. The knowledge wouldn't make any difference to him, but somehow, in some way, it would to her.

But she couldn't find him. He had returned, someone said, put on a fresh s.h.i.+rt, and then left again. For a split second she panicked, but then she forced her mind to clear.

And suddenly she knew exactly where Kells was.

She jumped into another Jeep and headed for the mountains.

She pulled the Jeep off the gravel mountain road and onto the lay-by and parked it by the vehicle that Kells had driven.

He was standing at the edge of the cliff, his back to her. And it was the same scene she had seen that first night in the mirror.

The width of his broad shoulders stretched against his black split-leather jacket, his long, muscular legs were gloved in faded jeans. His brown hair gleamed with a hint of red in the suns.h.i.+ne. And his attention was focused on the valley below him-on Killara.

Then he turned and looked at her with those amazingly direct eyes of his that were the color of the sky behind him. He appeared hard, dangerous, and very angry. And his eyes held the expression she had never been able to interpret.

Then just as he had in the mirror, he opened his mouth to speak. "I'm sorry, Bria."

The breath left her lungs. She had imagined many things that he might say, but his apology had taken her totally off guard. "What?"

"Tin sorry I didn't believe you about the mirror. Can you ever forgive me? If I had, maybe I could have done something-"

"Why on earth should you have believed me? The idea of a mirror that shows the past, present, and future is totally irrational. My own parents didn't believe me."

"Yeah, but you asked me to believe you and I didn't. I should have."

She stared at him for a moment, having a hard time absorbing what he was saying. "You're angry.

Why?"

"Because I didn't jump that guy before he had a chance to shoot Burke. But most of all I'm angry because I didn't believe you. Like I said, if I had, maybe-"

"I didn't believe you when you said you would never shoot my dad."

"You had reason not to believe me."

She could hardly believe her ears. Hope was beginning to build where before there had been nothing but despair. "Dad's going to be all right."

He nodded. "I know. I telephoned from the Jeep and checked."

She chose her next words carefully. "Dad will want you to stay until he's released from the hospital.

Knowing him, he'll stay there only as long as is absolutely necessary."

He slipped his hands into his jeans pockets. "What about you? Do you want me to stay?"

She nodded slowly, afraid to hope, almost afraid to breathe. " Very much."

"Christmas is less than a week away. Your family will be coming in. I'll be in the way."

"I want you to stay, Kells, but only if you'll feel comfortable." She smiled nervously. "And before you make your decision, there's something you should know, something Mom and Dad already know."

"What?"

She shrugged, feeling more uncertain and vulnerable than she ever had in her life. "I love you."

The hard lines of his face transformed until his lips were curved with the biggest smile she had ever seen.

And it was then she understood the hard-to-defme expression in his eyes. It was lore.

"Thank G.o.d," he said softly. He walked to her, drew her into his arms, and gazed tenderly down at her. "I love you, Bria Delaney. More than I can say, more than I will ever be able to show you in a hundred years of living together. But-"

"There's a but?" She laughed shakily.

"A very big one. Could you be happy in Australia, away from Killara? Because if you can't, I'll move."

Her eyes misted with tears at what he was willing to do for her, but she shook her head. "You love Australia. You've made your home there, built your business there. We'll come back often to visit both The Star and Killara. We have to, Killara is as much a part of me as my breath. But you re my heart, and wherever you are will be my home."

He looked as if he were almost afraid to believe her. "Really?"

"Oh, yes," she said fervently. "I'm going to love working by your side, helping you in your business, making us a home together, raising a family-"

He threw back his head and laughed with sheer happiness. "A family?"

She nodded, smiling. "And Kells, I promise you, you'll never have to fight alone again."

He tightened his arms around her and lowered his mouth to hers. And there in the windy mountain pa.s.s, they kissed, clinging together, their love as wild and unrestrained as the land below them.

EPILOGUE.

A snow fell Christmas Eve, blanketing Killara in a pristine cover of white. The frozen crystals whispered down on the land that the Delaneys had fought and died for through the years, coating the sagebrush and cactus until they looked like glistening Christmas ornaments.

The Delaneys and their own were gathered inside Killara's Gothic chapel. Candles offered soft, golden illumination. Shamrocks, flown in from Ireland, had been entwined with white lilacs, white orchid sprays, and white roses, and were all tied together with golden ribbons to decorate the Spanish olivewood altar railing.

A radiant Bria walked slowly down the aisle on her father's arm, wearing the dress in which her mother had married her father. The long skirt of the ivory satin gown was embroidered with shamrocks that were sewn from s.h.i.+mmering threads spun from gold. Her floor-length veil trailed behind her. Made of yards of antique lace, it was strewn with diamonds brought from Kantalan and worn by many Delaney brides before her.

Love surrounded Bria as she walked toward Kells. There was her uncle Rafe, his arm around the woman he would forever call his la.s.s, her aunt Maggie. Beside them was her beautiful uncle York, holding hands with the love of his life, her aunt Siena.

The three women the family had always called the Australian girls and their husbands lined other rows. There was the exquisite Sydney and the darkly handsome Nicholas Charron. Behind them was Manda, alight with exuberance, and Roman Gallagher who had somehow managed to grow more interesting looking with age. And then there was Addie, as always deceptively delicate looking, and her husband Shane Marston, every inch the aristocrat.

Cougar, his hair completely white now, but still full and hanging to his waist, sat beside Bridget, her hair amazingly fiery red and bound into a regal coronet for the occasion. Kathleen was beaming as if she had orchestrated the whole romance. And Deuce Moran tenderly held the hand of his lady, the exotic Mandarin.

Scattered around the chapel were her cousins, Dominic, Erin, and all the others.

Beneath his tuxedo. Burke's shoulder was bandaged, but he stood proud, straight, and strong as he linked his daughter's hand with Kells's and uttered the words that for all time would give his beloved daughter to the man she loved. Then he turned and went to join Cara, the silver-haired, silver-eyed, quicksilver woman who had captured his love so many years before and who still controlled his every heartbeat.

Patrick, tall and handsome, a picture of Burke when he had been the same age, was the couple's only attendant. With a special smile for him, Bria handed him her bouquet. Then she turned to Kells and, directed by the priest, they repeated the vows that joined them as husband and wife.

When Kells slipped a diamond and gold band on her finger, Bria's eyes brimmed with tears of pure joy. And when she and Kells sank to their knees on the aged silk and gold-threaded pet.i.t point kneeling cus.h.i.+ons, she whispered a prayer of thanksgiving that the Delaney luck had held and that she was going to spend the rest of her life with a man she loved without limit and who loved her without reservation.

"Don't worry about the other clothing and furniture and all that, darling," Cara said to Bria the day after Christmas as she helped her finish packing. "Your dad and I will oversee the s.h.i.+pping of your things to Brisbane."