“Specter? Here, boy. Where are you? Specter? Over here, boy.“
A soft, answering whine came from the trees. Diana smiled as the animal materialized from the woods. He appeared decidedly reproving. “Look at him. He probably wonders if we’re finished acting like a couple of humans.“
Colby chuckled. “
I
think we embarrassed him.“
“I wouldn’t be surprised. Specter has a great sense of dignity.“
“Unlike you when you’re going up in flames in my arms.“ Colby gave her a lingering kiss. “But it was good, lady.
And I have a feeling it’s going to get better and better.“ He got to his feet and tugged her up beside him. “Hurry up and get dressed. That sun will be in just the right position in another minute or two.“
He helped her with the buttons of her shirt, and then she stepped quickly into her jeans and running shoes.
“Here we go. This is the best place to see the effect.“ Colby led her quickly to an outcropping of granite that gave a clear view of the thundering water. The mist boiled up into the air and settled lightly on Diana’s tangled hair.
She looked down as the fading sun began to paint the sky. “It’s beautiful,“ she said in surprise, as first the mist and then the cascading water turned a vivid gold. “I thought it would be red.“
“Watch.“ Colby leaned forward intently, one foot braced on a chunk of rock.
Diana glanced at him curiously, wondering at his fascination. “You must have seen this hundreds of times.“
“I used to come up here nearly every evening during the summer months when I was a kid.“ He didn’t look at her.
His whole attention was on the waterfall. “There. It’s happening. See it? Like blood pouring out of the mountain.“
Diana felt a distinct chill down her spine as she obeyed him and turned her gaze back to the falls. “My God, you’re right,“ she whispered. “It’s unbelievable.“
“It’s the blood of a dying warrior.“
She wanted to ask him what he meant, but now wasn’t the time. She stared in amazement, as fascinated as Colby was. The gold mist gradually shaded to orange and then to deep scarlet red. The effect lasted only a moment or two, and then the sun disappeared behind the mountains. The waterfall returned to its normal silver and white. Diana and Colby stood in silence for a moment. Then Colby reached out to hook an arm around her shoulders.
“Interesting, isn’t it?“ he asked a little too casually.
“It’s weird,“ Diana retorted with feeling.
Colby laughed softly. “Yeah. Weird. Did I tell you there’s a cave behind the falls? You can’t see it because of the water, but if you know your way around down there, you can get to it.“
“A cave?“
“Chained Lady Cave.“
Diana leaned down to pick up the remnants of their picnic lunch. “How did the falls and the cave get that name?
Chained Lady. It’s strange.“
“It’s from an old legend.“ Colby folded the blanket and started to lead the way down the steep path to where the Jeep was parked.
“An Indian legend?“
He shook his head. “The Indians told it to the first settlers in the area, but they always swore the legend had nothing to do with their tribe. They claimed there was another race here before them. A fierce warrior people who had long since vanished.“
“And the legend dates from that time?“
“Right.“
“Tell me the story.“ Pebbles clattered under her feet as Diana hurried to keep up with him. She was suddenly keen to hear the tale of Chained Lady Falls.
“The way I heard it when I was a kid was that the warriors who inhabited this area had a habit of acquiring their wives through the time-honored procedure of kidnapping them.“
“They sound like a typical bunch of male chauvinists.“
“Don’t look at me like that,“ Colby said with a sardonic glance over his shoulder. “I haven’t kidnapped a woman in years. At any rate, it seems that one of the greatest of the clan’s warriors decided he deserved the best. He wanted a woman who could give him a strong son. He hunted far and wide before he made his selection. Then he swooped down and grabbed the young lady one day while she was out picking berries. He carried her home and proudly installed her in his bed. But he’d made a slight miscalculation.“
“The lady didn’t like being kidnapped and carried away from her home and family?“
“She took strong exception to the whole situation. Under normal circumstances, her feelings on the subject would have been disregarded by all concerned. But in her case, her new husband couldn’t totally overlook her opinion because she came from a very unusual clan. One in which the women were warriors. Not only that, but the females of the clan had learned how to control their reproductive cycles.“
“Aha. In other words, she knew something about birth control and she refused to get pregnant. Good for her.“
“Wait until you hear the end of the story before you start applauding.“
Diana frowned at his back. “Is it going to have a happy ending?“
“No, it’s not. Listen well, my sweet, and learn that female stubbornness doesn’t pay off in the long run.“
“Spoken like a modern-day chauvinist warrior type,“ Diana muttered.
Colby ignored her. “When several months of nightly effort on the part of our valiant warrior did not pay off, he finally realized his new bride was deliberately sabotaging his big plans to produce a mighty son and heir.“
“And he was annoyed?“
“To put it mildly. He tried the usual beatings and threats, and when that didn’t work, he decided the lady would come to her senses if she spent a little time alone in the cave behind the falls.“
Diana’s eyes widened. “He chained her in that cave you told me about?“
Colby nodded. “So the story goes.“ He leaped lightly down to another rocky ledge and had to dodge Specter who was bounding down the hillside ahead of him. “Out of my way, you dumb dog,“ Colby muttered through his teeth.
Specter paid no attention.
“Stop maligning my dog, and tell me the rest of the story,“ Diana demanded.
Colby reached back to steady her. “Well, he stuck her in the cave and told her that she could come out only when she conceived.“
“How awful.“
“Every day just before sunset he came to her. He brought her food and made love to her and then he left her to face the darkness alone.“
“You mean he raped her on a daily basis!“
Colby’s eyebrows rose thoughtfully. “Yeah, that’s probably what it amounted to, because the lady still refused to allow herself to become pregnant. And after a time she even refused to eat the food he brought her. All the while she was plotting, trying to figure out a way to get rid of her unwanted husband. One evening she saw her chance.“
Diana looked up. “A chance to escape?“
“No,“ Colby said grimly. “A way to kill the warrior. She set a trap for him by pretending to surrender. He was so relieved to think he’d finally quelled her stubborn resistance that he apparently forgot just what kind of female he was dealing with. In his haste to get started on making a son, he got careless. Inexcusably careless, considering he was supposed to be a hotshot warrior.“
“What happened?“
“The lady got hold of his hunting knife and she used it on him just as he was, uh, reaching the grand finale.“
“She stabbed him to death while he was forcing himself on her,“ Diana concluded in awed wonder. “What a woman…“
“This story isn’t over yet,“ Colby warned. “I told you that it doesn’t have a happy ending.“
“Finish it,“ Diana urged, anxious to hear the conclusion.
“The warrior died at her feet, his blood running out of the cave entrance and mingling with the waterfall. With his last breath, he cursed the woman. Told her that her spirit would remain chained in the cave forever until a child was conceived and born there.“
“Then he croaked, and she managed to get out of the cave?“ Diana demanded.
“She was still chained, don’t forget. She had no way to get free after she’d killed the warrior. She died there, and the legend says her spirit is still trapped in the cave. After all, what are the odds that a baby is going to be created and born in Chained Lady Cave?“
“Pretty poor, I imagine.“ Diana glanced back at the impenetrable veil of the falls, trying to envision a hidden cave behind the wall of rushing water. It made her uneasy even to imagine it. “So that’s the end of the story?“
“More or less. But for as long as I can remember, kids from around these parts have always had a lot of fun scaring each other to death with rumors that the Chained Lady is still waiting inside the cave. They say she’ll kill any other male who dares to enter. The theory is that she’s still got her husband’s knife, you see.“
“What do the adults say?“
“For the most part they laugh the whole thing off, naturally. But whenever something strange or unsettling happens anywhere in the vicinity of Fulbrook Corners, you can bet someone’s likely to blame it on the restless spirit of the lady in the cave.“
“I can see you were one of those kids who got off on that story,“ Diana said with a rueful amusement. She paused.
“Tell me something. Did you ever risk going into the cave?“
He flashed her an unreadable glance. “What do you think?“
She tilted her head to one side, considering the question. “Oh, I think you probably did. You wouldn’t have been able to resist the challenge. After all, you were the toughest kid in town, right? You had a reputation to protect.“
Colby’s smile was ironic. “You’re right. I spent a night in Chained Lady Cave once when I was in my teens. Eddy Spooner and I were supposed to do it together on a dare. But when evening came and the falls turned red, Spooner lost his nerve. He opted to spend the night at a campsite down by the river.“
“But you stayed, of course.“
“Had to,“ Colby said with patently false modesty. “Like you said, I had a reputation to protect.“ His smile came and went.
“Were you terrified?“
The smile vanished. “I’ll tell you the truth. I’ve never told any other living soul, not even Eddy Spooner. I’ve never been as scared in my life as I was that night. The only other time that I even came close to being that terrified was the night Brandon ran a fever of a hundred and five, and I had to rush him to emergency. But even that fear was a different kind than what I experienced in Chained Lady Cave.“
The quiet forcefulness of that confession startled Diana. She had the feeling she had just looked through a window into a very dark, very private corner of Colby’s soul.
“Colby?“
But he had reached the flat terrain at the base of the falls where the Jeep was parked, and he had turned his attention to other matters. “Look at that idiot dog of yours,“ he said in disgust as he strode toward the vehicle.
“Sitting right up there in the front seat as if he owned it. Talk about nerve.“
“Love me, love my dog,“ Diana said lightly, unthinkingly. It wasn’t until Colby glanced back at her with a level, searching expression that she realized just what she’d said.
“Let’s compromise,“ he said with a slow drawl. “I will
make love
to you. I will
tolerate
your dog.“
“Let’s hope he’s willing to go on tolerating you for a while longer. Specter is a very opinionated dog.“ Diana slipped into the Jeep, and pushed Specter into the back seat. The dog went willingly enough. She hoped the act of maneuvering the animal’s large, furry body hid her faint flush.
How long would Colby want to continue making love to her? And how long would she fool herself into thinking that making love was close enough to the real thing to make the compromise worthwhile?
“Is this where you used to stage your midnight drag races?“ Diana asked as Colby swung the Jeep out onto River Road.
“Yeah, this is it. I won a lot of cash out here.“
Diana’s brows drew together disapprovingly as she studied the narrow road that twisted and curved to follow the river. “But this would be a very dangerous road to drive at high speeds. If a car went out of control around some of these curves, it would wind up in the river.“
“Diana, my sweet innocent, I hate to break this to you, but the fact that the road is a little treacherous is what made the racing exciting. It’s also why I won most of the time. No one knew this road as well as I did. I made a scientific study of every curve and straightaway.“
“Somehow I can just imagine you doing that.“
“I knew exactly how fast I could go into every turn and when to start accelerating on the way out. The races always started about a mile from here and finished at the falls. If I hadn’t managed to shake the competition by the time I reached that hairpin turn in the road near the bridge, I almost always lost them at the curve near the falls.“
“Your teenage years were certainly a lot more exciting than mine were,“ Diana murmured. “But I don’t want you to go to the trouble of recreating them for me. Mind slowing down a little?“
Colby flashed her an apologetic glance. “Sorry.“ He eased off the Jeep’s accelerator. “Does my driving bother you?“
“Not really,“ she said honestly. “You always seem to be in complete control.“ That much was true. Colby drove with a smooth precision that struck her as unusual. “It’s just that I’m accustomed to a slightly more sedate pace.“
“You want sedate – you get sedate.“ He grinned at her. “This evening your wish is my command.“
“So accommodating… Amazing what a little sex will do for a man’s mood.“
“The little sex we had this afternoon was the best I’ve ever had, lady.“
Diana blushed warmly, aware of the lingering aftershocks that were still rippling through her. She’d flown into a whirlwind and survived but she didn’t think she would ever be the same again.
Specter sat with his head hanging over Colby’s shoulder for the entire drive back to Diana’s cottage. The dog’s tongue lolled between his teeth and moisture dripped from it in a steady stream. By the time the Jeep pulled into the small driveway, there was a large, wet patch on Colby’s denim shirt.