He accepted the wine, and then before she could attack, he did. “Just what is it ye want of me, Lady de Marisco? Ye come dangerously close to disobedience to the queen’s will coming so near to London.”
“I would have come into London proper if I thought it might help, sir! I have heard from my brother, but now I would hear from you just what ye did to involve my sister-in-law in some plot that has resulted in her disappearance.”
“There is no great mystery about it, madame. I asked Lady Bliss to go to Master FitzGerald, and pretend that her wealth was about to be confiscated by the crown for her husband’s alleged treasons. My theory was quite simple. I sought to learn if there really was a plot against the queen’s life, or if this Cavan FitzGerald was in fact merely attempting to rid himself of yer brother so he might marry his widow, and thereby inherit wealth. There was no danger.”
“There must have been,” snapped Skye, “for is Aidan not gone off the face of the earth, my lord? Where is Master FitzGerald? Has he turned up?”
“None of the three have been seen since the night that Lady Bliss disappeared,” said William Cecil.
“Three? There was a third person? Who was he?”
“The innkeeper at the Swan said he claimed to be a Frenchman, but that he had the dark look of Spain about him. Our agents have only discovered that the ex-Spanish agent, Antonio de Guaras, has a brother, Miguel, now in England. We believe that he and Master FitzGerald are involved, and warrants have been issued for both.”
“But why this elaborate charade of a plot?” fussed Skye. “The Spanish would not help the bastard get of an Irish priest simply out of the kindness of their hearts. I wonder . . .” She stopped for a long moment considering, and Lord Burghley smiled to himself. He could almost see her facile mind working. “My O’Malley half-brothers,” Skye began again, “have harried Spain hard in the new world. They have captured more of the dons’ rich galleons, and brought more treasure to England than Drake and Hawkins combined. It is possible this plot was devised in order to stop them? If England had executed Conn, would his brothers have been willing to enrich England’s queen?”
“You make a good point, madame,” William Cecil answered her, “and it is entirely possible, but I am satisfied that there was no plot against the queen, and that yer brother is quite innocent of any wrongdoing. That is the only thing that matters to me. If the Spanish have a grudge against ye and yers, Lady de Marisco, that is yer problem, and not the queen’s.”
“While that is comforting, my lord,” said Skye, her voice edged in sarcasm, “it does not tell us what happened to Lady Bliss. Have any bodies washed up from the river that could not be identified?”
“No, Lady de Marisco,” came the answer.
“What ships sailed that night from the London pool?” asked Skye.
“Ships? Why I do not know, madame. Do ye think that Master FitzGerald might have kidnapped Lady Bliss? What on earth for? She told him that she was penniless.”
“I don’t know what for, my lord, but Aidan seems to have disappeared. No trace whatsoever can be found of her here. Therefore the possibility exists that we cannot find her because she isn’t here. Ye’ve checked the werrymen up and down the river?”
“It is impossible to talk with all of them although we are trying, madame.”
“Have ye offered a reward, my lord?”
“
A reward
?” Lord Burghley looked startled.
“It is the only sensible thing to do, my lord. Ye cannot go to all the werrymen, but offer a reward for information, and more than likely the werryman who took the three will come to us.”
“Madame, I can no longer have anything to do with this matter personally. I must rejoin the queen at Long Medford where she is meeting with the French delegation with an eye toward marriage to the Duc d’Alençon. Yer family, however, will have the total cooperation of her majesty in yer search, and ye, madame, I will give leave to enter London if ye must, provided that her majesty is not there. Once this matter is resolved, however, yer banishment is restored until the queen lifts it.”
“Ye are too kind, my lord Burghley,” Skye said with a sweet smile that did not fool William Cecil for a moment. “We shall indeed deepen and intensify our search. So the queen seeks a French alliance again? The little duc is but half her age, but a charming boy.” Skye smiled again.
“Of all who know her, madame, myself excluded, I think ye know her better than any,” said William Cecil.
“There will be no marriage,” said Skye. “She seeks but a summer’s diversion. She is growing old as we all are, and she is momentarily frightened. She longs for her youth. What good would a marriage do at her age, my lord? Certainly she is not capable of bearing children?”
“The physicians assure us she can,” said Lord Burghley, “and I am not so certain this time that she is not serious about marrying. A legitimate heir of her body would end all these intrigues.”
“I look to be amazed,” said Skye dryly.
The faintest of smiles touched Lord Burghley’s lips, and then was gone so quickly that neither Skye, nor Adam, nor Conn was certain it had ever really been there. William Cecil took his leave of them, and they knew that whatever had happened to Aidan, it was now up to them to find her. They would not be hindered, but neither would they really be helped in any way.
Several criers were hired, and they paraded up and down the riverside offering a reward for any werryman who could tell them whether he had taken three passengers to a ship in the London pool on the night in late June. Adam had already contacted the portmaster, and obtained the information that five ships had left the London pool the night of the twenty-fourth. Several weeks went by, weeks in which no information at all was obtained, and Conn began to lose weight with his worry. Each day the criers repeated their offer, and each day the reward was sought by several werrymen, but none had the right combination of passengers, or the correct day, or had actually taken passengers meeting the correct descriptions to any ship. Skye was beginning to wonder whether her quarry had left London at all, or if they had left it by land rather than by sea, to depart from another English port.
Finally one day when a month had gone by a werryman came to the door at Greenwood, and claiming to have the information they sought was admitted. Hat in hand he had knelt before Skye, but she had urged him up.
“Did ye listen carefully to the crier, man? Do ye know what it is we seek?”
“Aye, m’lady. I took a lady and two gentlemen to a ship in the London pool on the night of June twenty-fourth, and strange I thought it was at the time, but a man like me don’t question his betters. One gentleman, he had a quick tongue he did, was Irish, I believe. The other, he didn’t talk loud enough for me to really tell, but he was a foreigner, of that I’m certain.”
“What of the lady?” said Skye.
“I couldn’t really see her, but she was unconscious. Her husband, the Irish fellow, said that she was unused to fine wine, and had gotten drunk. When they took her aboard the ship her hood fell back, and I could see that she had red hair.”
“It’s Aidan!” said Conn excitedly.
“What ship?” asked Skye.
“It was called the
Gazelle,
my lady.”
“It’s on the list,” said Adam. “It’s a merchant vessel out of Algiers.”
“Algiers?” both Skye and her brother exclaimed together.
“Do I get the reward, my lady?” the werryman asked hopefully.
“Aye,” said Skye, “ye do for ye’ve earned it,” and reaching into a casket upon the library table she drew out a purse, and handed it to him. “Have ye got a family?” she asked.
“Aye, m’lady.”
“Then give yer wife half of this before ye go out and get drunk,” she ordered him with a smile.
His eyes widened slightly at the weight of the purse in his palm, and with a bob of his head he thanked her, and was gone.
“Why would Cavan take Aidan aboard a ship bound for Algiers?” said Conn.
“It is possible that the ship was putting into several ports before it reached Algiers, Conn,” said Adam. “We must find out where the
Gazelle
was going before she reached Algiers, or if she was sailing straight for home.”
“Why take Aidan at all?” wondered Skye aloud. “And who was the other man in Cavan FitzGerald’s company? These are all questions that need to be answered. First let us find out if the
Gazelle
normally puts into London, and if it does perhaps we can learn something about its master.”
They were not, of course, happy with what they learned. The
Gazelle
normally traveled between her home port of Algiers and London with no ports of call in between. Although she brought fruit and morocco leather goods and plain leather to England, and carried away wool and tin, it was rumored that her master, a renegade Spaniard named Rashid al Mansur, also traded in young and fair girls. It could not be proved, but innuendo was there. Further digging brought them the name of a brothel keeper who when visited was at first reluctant, but upon the payment of gold coin, admitted that she had sold several blond virgins to Rashid al Mansur, one just several weeks ago before he sailed.
“I don’t understand,” said Conn when they returned to Greenwood. “Aidan is neither blond, nor a virgin, nor very young, nor a beauty. Why did Cavan FitzGerald take her aboard a vessel bound for Algiers?”
They had no answers, and then a clerk from the trading warehouse owned by Skye and her business partner, Sir Robert Small, arrived at Greenwood one afternoon, asking to see Lady de Marisco. He was shown into her presence, and given leave to speak said,
“One of the pigeons ye use as messengers arrived in the cote just a short while ago. It is not one of our usual birds, my lady, but when we removed its message we found it was addressed to ye. I was sent directly. Shall I await a reply?”
A prickle of excitement went through Skye, and she said, “Tell me, what color was the bird?”
“Brown and white, my lady.”
“ ’Tis one of the birds Robbie and Khalid el Bey kept when they were in partnership so that they might never be out of touch with one another. The birds had a cote at our house which is now Osman’s. What can Osman have to say to me? My ties are totally cut with Algiers now.” She opened the message, and unfolded it carefully, smoothing the parchment free of its creases. Slowly her eyes traversed the writing upon the page, and then looking up she said to the waiting clerk, “There is no answer now, but keep the bird that brought this message in readiness. It is to be well fed, watered, and rested.”
“Yes, m’lady,” said the clerk, and he backed from the room.
“What is it?” demanded Adam de Marisco of his wife.
“Aidan is in Algiers. She was brought in by our friend, Rashid al Mansur, and sold to the dey. He has sent her to Istanbul as a gift to the sultan. What a fool I am! Fair-haired and fair-skinned virgins are indeed prized in the East, but so too are women with fair skin, and red hair! But where are Cavan FitzGerald and his friend in all of this? We will have to go to Algiers!”
“Conn will have to go to Algiers,” said Adam quietly. “Ye cannot go, Skye, and ye know it.”
“Of course, I must go, Adam. I know Osman Bey, and I know the East.”
“Ye are forbidden from leaving England right now, Skye, and I will not allow ye to jeopardize our entire family by running off again. Remember our daughter, Velvet, and what of the promise ye made to yer daughter Deirdre never to leave her again? Conn must go to Algiers to learn more of this, and he can go with Robbie who will be returning from Devon tomorrow. Robbie knows Algiers as well as ye do, and he also knows Osman. Yer brother is a man, and this is his problem. Yer no longer the O’Malley, little girl. Yer first responsibility now is to yer immediate family.”
She bit her lip in vexation. “But, Adam, I want to help Conn!”
“Adam’s right,” said Conn speaking for the first time since his sister had read the message from Osman. “This isn’t yer battle, Skye. It is mine. Aidan is my wife, and I am going to have to go to Algiers, and learn what this is all about, and then if she is gone I will go to Istanbul, or wherever, but I will find my wife, and I will bring her home. Our child, too.”
Skye looked at her younger brother. “Sit down,” she said. “We must talk. We must talk about the East, and how it treats its women, and the fact that Aidan may be forced by another man. How will ye feel, Conn, should ye find yer wife in the sultan’s harem? Find Aidan the sultan’s newest plaything? Will ye still love her? Will ye still want to bring her home?”
“For God’s sake, Skye, what kind of thing is that to ask me?” he demanded.
“It is an honest thing, brother. By the time ye reach Aidan she will have been gone from ye many months. She wasn’t a virgin. What if Rashid al Mansur, the sea captain, availed himself of her? It could have happened. The fact that she was newly with child would not have deterred him should he have desired her. What if she catches the sultan’s fancy? What will ye do? How will ye feel?”
“I love Aidan,” he answered her. “If other men have used her I know it will not have been with her consent. How can I hold her responsible, Skye? I’d rather she’d submit than kill herself in shame. I want my wife back! I’ll go where I have to go; do what I have to do; but I will bring Aidan back home, I swear it!”
It was enough, thought Skye to herself. What could Conn know of how a woman really felt, or how she would react under duress, or passion? He could not know what went on in her mind, but it was enough that he wanted Aidan returned to him no matter what had happened to her. From her own experience in the East she believed the sea captain who transported Aidan would have valued her much too highly to have violated her despite what she had said to her brother. The dey would not have touched her since he was sending her as a gift to the Sultan of Istanbul. As for the sultan, there were so many women in his seraglio that there was probably a very good chance he would not see her for months despite her status as a gift from the dey. It was entirely possible that they would manage to retrieve Aidan unscathed. On the darker side was the possibility that they would not.