Read A Love for All Time Online

Authors: Bertrice Small

Tags: #Fiction, #Romance, #Historical, #General

A Love for All Time

Table of Contents
New American Library
Published by New American Library, a division of
Penguin Putnam Inc., 375 Hudson Street,
New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.
Penguin Books Ltd, 27 Wrights Lane,
London W8 5TZ, England
Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood,
Victoria, Australia
Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2
Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182–190 Wairau Road,
Auckland 10, New Zealand
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices:
Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England
Published by New American Library, a division of Penguin Putnam Inc.
First Signet Trade Paperback Printing, July 1986
First Signet Mass Market Printing, January 1987
First New American Library Trade Paperback Printing, September 2001
Copyright © Bertrice Small, 1986
All rights reserved
REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA:
Small, Bertrice.
A love for all time / Bertrice Small.
p. cm.
ISBN : 978-1-101-54962-9
I. Title.
PS3569.M28 L677 2001
813’.54—dc21
2001030887
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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A Love for All Time
is dedicated to my past, to the future,
and to my here and now
To Snoggy with love until we meet again—and we will,
And for her legacy to us, our son, Thomas Small,
And for my husband, George, who knows and loves us all,
For what would any of us be without love?
THE PLAYERS
IN ENGLAND
Aidan St. Michael
—The heiress of
Pearroc Royal
Payton St. Michael
—Her father, the third Lord Bliss
Conn O’Malley
, later
Conn St. Michael, Lord Bliss
—The youngest brother of Skye O’Malley, and a favorite of the queen
Elizabeth Tudor
—Queen of England, 1558 to 1603
William Cecil, Lord Burghley
—The queen’s Secretary of State, and her greatest confidant
Elizabeth Clinton
—Aidan’s cousin, the Countess of Lincoln
Edward Clinton
—Her husband, the queen’s Lord Admiral
Robert Southwood
—The Earl of Lynmouth, a son of Lady de Marisco, the queen’s favorite page
Robert Dudley
—The Earl of Leicester, the queen’s favorite
Lettice Knollys
—The queen’s cousin
Skye O’Malley de Marisco
—Conn’s famous elder sister
Adam de Marisco
—Her husband
Sir Robert Small
—Their business partner in a trading house
Dame Cecily
—His elder sister
Mag Feeney and Cluny
—The servants of Aidan and Conn
Wenda and Nan
—Nurse maids
Lady Glytha Holden
—A lady of the court
Grace and Faith
—Her twin daughters
Master Norton
—The queen’s chief dungeon master
Peter
—His assistant
Miguel de Guaras
—A Spanish agent
IN IRELAND
Brian, Shane & Shamus O’Malley
—Conn’s elder brothers, buccaneer captains
Rogan FitzGerald
—Aidan’s grandfather
Cavan FitzGerald
—His bastard nephew
Eamon FitzGerald
—His son and heir
Henry Sturminster
—Lord Glin of Glinshannon
IN THE EAST
Murad III
—The Turkish sultan
Nur-U-Banu
—His mother, the sultan valideh
Safiye Kadin
—His first wife, the mother of his heir
Ilban Bey
—The agha kislar
Osman Bey
—A famed Algerian astrologer
The Dey of Algiers
—The sultan’s governor in Algiers
William Harborne
—First English ambassador to the Sublime Porte
Prince Javid Khan
—The Crimean ambassador to the Sublime Porte
Esther Kira
—The head of the House of Kira, a family of bankers and merchants
Jinji
—Aidan’s eunuch
Marta
—Aidan’s waiting woman
Iris & Fern
—Her daughters
Sadira
—English favorite of the dey
Zora
—An ikbal of the sultan
Rosamund & Pipere
—Captive English sisters
Tulip
—Aidan’s cat
Prologue
AUGUST 1577
L
ord Bliss was dying. It had been a slow though painless process, but now as the summer was waning in a burst of apple-scented air and Michaelmas daisies he knew he had not much time left. If he had any regrets at all it was that he was leaving behind but one descendant, his daughter, Aidan. Even now she sat by his bedside, her fingers busy with her needle, his dear and dutiful daughter, a silent reproach to the selfishness of his deep love for her, for Aidan should have been married long ago. He, however, had been unable to part with her, the child he loved above all people.
He had waited so long for her birth. She had been everything that he could have hoped for in a child, and more. It was easy to forgive Aidan her female gender for her mother would give him other children, strong sons to match the healthy daughter. When she did not, it didn’t matter, for he had already given that part of his heart that wasn’t his wife’s to his daughter. Now she would be alone, and what would become of her? he fretted to himself.
Would the queen to whom he was entrusting the wardship of his precious child really see to Aidan’s happiness? When he had been able to clearly face his fate he had written to the sovereign placing Aidan’s keeping in her charge, asking that Elizabeth Tudor see his daughter safely married to a good man of at least equal rank. He had only recently received a reply that impersonally agreed to his dying requests. Nonetheless, he had been enormously relieved.
He was leaving his daughter an heiress of great wealth both in lands and in monies. That wealth, however, had not been able to overcome the stigma of his less-than-noble name. Most good matches were made in the cradle, and he found to his regret that great names married great names. Then there was his daughter herself. Aidan was no great beauty. Oh, she was pretty enough when she worked at it, but most of the time her hair flew about in a hoydenish manner, and more often than not her face was dirty. When he remonstrated with her about it she always laughed, and replied, “I cannot oversee these vast tracts of lands that you and my grandfather persisted in amassing without riding about them, and riding is a dusty business, father.”
He protested more often than not. “Leave it to the bailiff, my child. It is his duty to see to such things, and his family was on these lands before we were.”
“The bailiff,” replied Lord Bliss’ daughter wisely, “responds best to a light rein, father, but nonetheless he must feel that rein. Besides, it does our people good to see me riding about. I know them all. Their names, their children, their problems, their aches and pains.” She smiled at him. “They can only be loyal to the master they see, father.”

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