Quicksilver Passion (96 page)

Shawn shook his head.
Shadow felt drawn to fight on the other side and I told him to go with my blessings. A man does what he feels in his heart he must; that is, if he’s a
real
man.”

Cherokee looked up suddenly and realized Shawn was staring at him keenly. At that moment, he had a distinct feeling that Shawn knew he had been betrayed.

And your son?”

Fine. Though ‘tis a disappointment to me that the boy seems to take more after the St. Clairs than the O’Bannions. But then Savannah coddles and spoils him so.”

Cherokee didn’t say anything. He knew that the couple disagreed on the rearing of the young blond son.

Shawn sipped his whiskey.
You didn’t tell me why you left so sudden or where you went.”

Felt that Evans urge to go looking for the rainbow,” Cherokee said.
Maybe I’ve just got the wanderlust like my father. He had that claim up in Colorado that I’m working with his old partners.”

Shawn held up his glass in a toast and beamed at him.
Here’s hopin’ you strike it rich as I did in California. Then you, too, can own a big plantation and everything that money can buy.”

Including a young, elegant, blue-blooded wife like Savannah St. Clair, Cherokee thought. Something about Shawn’s expression made Cherokee blurt out without thinking,
And are you happy with all that your money has bought?”

Shawn looked startled; his green eyes stared into Cherokee’s a long moment.
I dreamed of being among the landed gentry from the moment I got off the boat,” he said softly, as if he were thinking aloud.
There was a high-born lady that a poor, Irish boy couldn’t have . . .”

Cherokee waited for him to continue, but the expression on the handsome Irish face told him O’Bannion was thinking of some other time long ago.
Well, Shawn, by damn, you showed them, didn’t you? You’ve got everything that success can buy—even the lady.”

Not
the
lady,” Shawn whispered, and then he seemed to realize he had said too much and came to attention briskly.
So now we’ll be into a war and I may have to kill men who’ve done me no harm to hang on to the way of life I love.”