Mystic Mountains

hands."
    "Fell into your hands?" Gareth interrupted, his cheeks matching his red hair. "Selena, that's hardly fair. The poor woman was nearly killed by the horse." He turned to tell Tiger, "She was injured, you see. I took her to Selena's as it was near the spot where she fell. Isabella decided to stay of her own free will, old fellow. No one coerced her. The way I saw it she was better off there than working the wharf area, which is what she would have ended up doing if Selena hadn't taken her in."
    "Yes, Selena has a big hea rt." Tiger sneered. He still gripped Fergus's arm—tightening his hold when Fergus tried to free himself.
    Fergus sighed, then ran his free hand down his perspiring face. "Look, this may be of great importance to you, but I 've spent good money on the wench. When you've all finished wrangling I'd like it to be known that the chit is warming my bed this night."
    "I 'll unhand you, but you'll not lay another finger on the woman in question. Not as long as I have breath in my body."
    "In that case I 'll have to knock all the breath out of your body, won't I?" Before Fergus could raise a hand Tiger's fist knocked him to the floor.
    "Unfortunately Selena will have to reimburse you, old fellow. Isabella goes with me." Tiger pointed a finger at Selena and she took a step back. "Try a nother trick like that, and you'll be up before the magistrate."
    Tiger turned to stare at a portly man who stood watching the proceedings with interest a few paces away. He had snickered as Fergus hit the floor.
    "Well, well, the wench certainly is a magnet for trouble," he remarked in a cynical drawl.
    "What business have you with her?" Tiger felt anger spiraling in him. Here was another who would feel the touch of a fist if he besmirched Bella's name. Even though it was the truth; trouble drew her like a flame enticed a moth.
    "The wench and I have unfinished business. I 've travelled half the world to seek revenge." He jerked a misshapen thumb in front of Tiger's face, and Tiger knew in an instant this was the man who'd instigated her downfall. Damned if he wasn't sorry she hadn't unmanned the cur as she'd intended.
    "A word of warning to you all." Tiger pointed a finger at each of them. "Isabella O 'Shea is bound to me for the term of her sentence. I own every hair on her head and every part of her. Any man touches her only after passing me; and I'm a formidable barrier."
    Selena tittered. "She ran away from you, Tiger Carstairs, and doubtless will again. Would you watch over her every minute of every day? Seems to me you 'd do well to let her go; she likes the life of a paramour, was born to it, it seems. Why not admit defeat and allow her to follow her own path?"
    "I repeat, madam, Bella is mine to do with as I please. Stay away from her. All of you."
    Tiger strode off, ignoring Selena's blasphemies, and the abuse Brunt hurled at his back.

 
     
     
    Chapter Twenty
     
    Tiger stormed through Prince's house, ignoring the calls of people he passed.
    "Paul, the young lady who came with Selena Drake, have you seen her?" he asked a man who leaned indolently on the doorjamb, surveying the room with a bored air.
    "Ah, you mean the delightful wench who arrived on lucky Fergus's arm, eh?" Paul's air of boredom vanished, his eyes taking on a gleam of interest. "The lady in question left in a mighty hurry a while ago. I asked if I could be of any assistance. Her reply wasn't meant for my dainty ears." He guffawed as Tiger charged past him.
    Tiger scanned the garden, but Isabella was nowhere in sight. He cursed; she could be anywhere by now. A group of carriage-drivers sat beside one of their vehicles. "Did a young lady with dark red hair and a gown of ivory silk ask one of you to take her anywhere?" he asked them. "Is Miss Drake 's driver among you?" he demanded when they looked at him vacantly.
    "Aye, I dropped Miss Drake and the two Lieutenants off, sir. The wench who came with them just ran off that way." The man pointed down the driveway.
    "Thank you."
    "I told 'er to come back, sir. It ain't no place for a lady to be wandering about at night all alone, I told 'er, but she took no notice of me," the man shouted, but Tiger was already on his way to saddle Satan.
    He set the stallion straight into a canter. He hadn 't gone far when he saw a flash of silver some distance ahead. Slowing Satan, he looked left and right, but there was no one in sight. "I know you're there, Bella, so you may as well show yourself," he