Gift of Gold

glare. “Thanks. You certainly know how to hand out a compliment.”
    “It’s the truth,” she said more seriously. “You look right at home in that outfit. Everyone else in the room looks as if he’s wearing a costume. You look real.”
    Verity’s eyes moved leisurely over the costume Jonas had chosen. It consisted of a full cut white shirt gathered at the neck and cuffs, a black velvet tunic that ended above his knees, and, yes, a pair of black tights.
    The tunic was belted with black leather studded with a lot of showy metal and a few false jewels. An equally flashy dagger sheath complete with a dull-edged fake blade hung suspended from the belt. Jonas had chosen a short black cloak to wear over the outfit. It fell to a point just below his waist. He had selected his costume and the one Verity was wearing because both had touched some responsive chord in his memory. He had seen people wearing clothes such as these when he had prowled the psychic time corridors.
    “I am real, and don’t you forget it,” Jonas growled. “But I can’t say the same for this costume. They didn’t have zippers in the Renaissance. Or elastic. And back in those days the dagger would have been a legitimate weapon, not a piece of aluminum.”
    “At least you didn’t wear that damn knife you carry around in your duffel bag.”
    “I’m wearing it.”
    Verity stared at him. “You are? Where?”
    “On my hip. The cloak hides it.”
    “Good grief. Are you really expecting trouble tonight?”
    Jonas shrugged. “I don’t know what the hell is happening and that makes me nervous. The only consolation so far is that Kincaid hasn’t arrived.”
    “Maybe he isn’t coming after all,” Verity mused. “I don’t know what Caitlin will do if he doesn’t show. She’s been building herself up to this for so long that if things don’t go the way she’s planned them, I’m afraid she might go a little crazy.”
    “She’s already crazy, if you want my opinion.”
    Verity’s eyes flashed with sudden annoyance. “Just because you’re a man doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be able to understand her need for vengeance. Can’t you imagine the kind of emotional scars she’s been carrying all these years? Can’t you imagine what a woman must feel after being raped and brutalized?”
    Jonas studied her intent expression. “I have a good imagination, Verity,” he reminded her softly. “And I understand the need for vengeance. I know damn well what I would do to any man who tried to do to you what was done to Caitlin.”
    She searched his face and Jonas knew the exact moment when she saw the promise of hell in his eyes. Her own eyes widened for a moment and she trembled in his arms.
    “
Jonas?
”
His name was barely a whisper.
    “That’s right,” he said softly. “I would slit his throat. So don’t tell me I don’t understand vengeance. Caitlin is entitled to hers if she’s telling the truth about what happened to her. What I don’t like about this whole thing is the elaborate plot and the way she’s involving you. She has no right to do that.”
    “I’m her friend! And I know she’s telling the truth. It’s there in her painting.”
    “I also don’t like the way this friendship between the two of you materialized out of nowhere a few weeks before she planned her grand scheme. And I don’t like the way Kincaid found out about us. And I don’t like the way that joker in the camouflage shirt showed up at the cabin with a gun. There are a lot of things I don’t like about this scene, but most of all I don’t like the fact that I can’t talk you into leaving right now.”
    “Jonas, I would if I could. But I can’t walk out on her. She needs me. She said so.”
    “She’s got Tavi. Apparently that’s the only person she’s needed until now.” Jonas saw the stubbornness in Verity’s face and gave up the battle he knew he could not win. He tightened his hold on her and swung her around so that her blue velvet skirts shimmered in the soft light. “Oh, hell, forget it. We’re here and it’s going to be over soon. We’ll stick it out and hope like the devil that Evanger knows what she’s doing. In the meantime, I don’t want you leaving this crowd unless I’m with you. Got that?”
    “You don’t think I’m in any danger?” she asked, clearly amazed by the notion.
    “I don’t know what to think,” he admitted. “So I’m not taking any chances.” A movement in the arched doorway caught his eye.