“Agreed,” Adali said. He was a practical man, and this was a sensible solution to a rather unfortunate incident. “Remember, however, that my knowledge will not be firsthand once she is wed. There is talk that Lady Fortune and young Devers may go to a colony in the New World where all may worship as they choose. I will have to rely upon the letters sent to her mother, my lord Maguire.”
“Fair enough,” was the reply.
“I will pray for us all,” Cullen Butler said, “especially you, Rory. Can you ever forgive me?”
“For what, Cullen Butler? You saved me from myself, and I fear Adali is right when he says I could never have been a part of my daughter’s life without shaming both her and her mother.”
“Then it is settled?” Adali said briskly.
“It is settled,” Rory responded.
“And should you feel any bursts of foolishness overcome you, my lord Maguire, you will come to either me or the priest, eh?” A small smile creased Adali’s brown face.
“I will,” Rory agreed. Aye, I will be practical, but you cannot prevent me from dreaming about what might have been, the Irishman thought to himself. You cannot prevent me from protecting my child if need be. I have missed all of her life but those first two months, and these past few weeks. I will take what little happiness I can before she is gone from me again, this time probably forever.
“I will return to the castle then,” Adali said, and turning he left his two companions.
“Stay, and have a bit of whiskey with me, Cullen Butler,” Rory said. “You look as if you could use it. Strangely I think this is harder on you than on Adali and me.” He motioned the priest into the other chair by the peat fire, and pouring him a tumbler of whiskey handed it to him.
“Slanta!”
he said, downing a goodly dollop from his own tumbler.
“Slanta!”
the priest nodded, swallowing down half his portion. Then feeling stronger he said, “You are truly content then, Rory?”
Maguire shrugged. “What else can I do, good Father? God’s blood, when I saw Aoife’s face for the first time in all those years, and then recognized it as Fortune’s face too! I thought at first I was imagining things. Then I realized I was not. So I do not die entirely alone one day. My daughter and her children will live on for me. It is a better fate than I had hoped for, Cullen Butler.”
“I am so sorry, my friend,” the priest said. “That I should have been drawn into such a plot all those years ago still astounds me. Yet that plot saved my cousin’s life though she knows it not. I remember asking my Aunt Skye how an action so wrong could be right. Do you know what she said to me? That the church was often wrong. That the laws to which they clung so determinedly were made by men, and not by God. She believed if mankind used more common sense we would be a great deal better off.” He smiled with his memory; then he sobered once again. “But you were hurt by our actions, I know, Rory. I had thought it all behind us, and it might have been but that you sought out those miniatures. You must be discreet now, and I know it will be difficult for you for young Fortune is a willful lass.”
“So was Aoife,” Rory replied with a small chuckle. “And now I know where Fortune gets her passion for horses from, for my sister had that same passion, and like Fortune was a marvelous horsewoman. She is not her mother, priest, but a headstrong Irish lass, I fear.”
“I will warn my cousin, Jasmine, to watch the lass more carefully,” Cullen Butler replied.
“And I’ll be watching my daughter too,” Rory told him. “’Tis a good, if unfortunate, match she wants. Her desire for Kieran Devers has cost her Maguire’s Ford. Still, I would not want her living under the constant threat of a charge of treason because of her husband’s faith, which will happen if she remains in Ireland. When are the two young Leslie lads arriving to claim this gift from their mother?”
“Next spring,” the priest said. “Jasmine has told me she wants to have them confirmed by the king in their rights to Maguire’s Ford so that none can gainsay them. I am more than aware that Lady Devers has long had her beady blue eyes on this estate. She thought to gain it through Fortune, and while I will admit I thought William Devers suitable, I feared
that
woman’s influence over her son. We may thank God that she herself has destroyed all chances of a match between Fortune and young Will; and we may praise God that Fortune is a wise lass who saw the danger in such a mother-in-law.”
“Aye,” Rory agreed, “but she’ll have made an enemy of that fine lady when her preference for Kieran Devers becomes public knowledge. Lady Jane will find it hard to stomach the fact that Fortune preferred her stepson over her son.”
“She cannot have her cake and eat it too,” Father Cullen answered him. “She feared Fortune’s influence while coveting the girl’s dowry. Now she’ll have neither, and my cousin, Jasmine, will make certain she does not gain Maguire’s Ford and Erne Rock by foul means when she could not acquire them by fair.”
“I hope yer right,” Maguire said, “but she’s a determined woman, Jane Devers, for all the fact that she’s English.”
Cullen Butler laughed. “Now, Rory, my friend, even the English have their good side, or so I’m told, although the holy mother church might disagree.”
“And there’s one time I’d be in agreement with the church myself,” came the dry reply. “ ’Twilll not hurt to keep an eye on the Deverses when they return from England. Remember, the Leslie lads will not come until next spring, and they are young. We’ll have to watch them closely lest
that
woman attempt to cause any mischief.”
“We’ll watch together, you and I, my friend,” the priest said. “We’ll watch together.”
Chapter
7
M
idsummer’s Eve on June twenty-first marked the halfway point in the growing season between May Day and Lammastide on August first. In Ulster this year it dawned unusually sunny. Kieran Devers rode that day from Erne Rock to Mallow Court to make certain his father’s estate was being managed properly in his absence. He was very surprised to find his sister, Lady Colleen Kelly, in residence.
“When did you get here?” he asked her, giving her a kiss.
“Mama wrote from England that I should come and check on you,” she told him with a smile. “Where have you been, Kieran? I have been here three days already, and the servants were most mysterious.” She was a pretty young woman with black hair like her brother’s, and fine blue eyes. “Mama is still smarting over the fact that Willy was turned down by Lady Lindley, and yet she is already planning his wedding to Emily Anne. She says he is coming around, which of course means she has finally badgered him into submission.” Colleen laughed. Then she said, “Was Lady Lindley really as awful as Mama says she is?”
“Fortune Lindley is independent, headstrong, intelligent, clever, and beautiful,” he replied. “She would have made Willy absolutely miserable, for he would have found himself torn between her and his mother. She was wise enough to see it, and so she sent him away, albeit gently for she is not unkind.”
“You seem to know her well, big brother,” Colleen Kelly said softly, her blue eyes curious.
“I’m going to marry her, Colleen,” came the surprising reply.
“Oh, Kieran,”
his sister said breathily, her hand flying to her heart with surprise.
He put an arm about her shoulders. “I know, Colleen, I know. Fortune and I have done the unthinkable. We have fallen in love. We will not be forgiven by Lady Jane, or Willy, for our recklessness, but there it is. It is impossible to control the direction of the heart as I have found much to my surprise.” He smiled at her wryly.
“Mama has had her eye on Maguire’s Ford ever since she learned from the Reverend Steen it was owned by a duchess with an eligible daughter. For you to steal that girl from under her nose is an insult she will never forgive, Kieran,” his sister warned him.
“Once she met Fortune she didn’t even like her, and did all in her power to remove Willy from the girl’s influence,” he replied.
“But for you to acquire Maguire’s Ford, which is so much bigger, and more prosperous than Mallow Court, after Willy has been sent down by this heiress is a terrible affront. You know it as well as I, big brother. If Mama would not allow you to inherit Da’s holding one day unless you became a Protestant, do you really think she will be content to sit by while you snap up a larger and richer estate from under her nose?”
“Maguire’s Ford does not belong to Fortune,” Kieran told his younger sister. “It belongs to her mother, the duchess of Glenkirk. It was only to be Fortune’s if she married a Protestant. Lady Leslie is no fool, Colleen. Fortune and I will go to England, and from there we will probably go to the New World. Neither of us has ever felt at home in any place we have lived.”
“Why can you not simply become a Protestant? Just think if your Fortune managed to bring you to our church how frustrating it would be for Mama after all her years of trying,” Colleen chuckled.
“You know why I will not convert,” he said quietly.
“Kieran, our mother has been dead these twenty-seven years. You have made your point. I hate it that you will have to leave Ireland! We will never see you again. If you did not have that tiny miniature of our mother you would not even remember what she looked like,” Colleen told him desperately.
“She looked like you, Colleen,” he replied with devastating effect. “She was fair with her blue eyes, and raven’s wing hair, and she was but twenty years old when she died birthing you. I do not blame you for what happened, Colleen. You were only two when Da remarried. I do not blame Moire, for she didn’t want to be cut out of Da’s life. As for me, I made my decision long ago. I see no reason to change it.”
“But you aren’t even particularly devout, or prayerful,” his sister noted. “Why you even care is beyond me.”
“Come with me over to Erne Rock Castle, and meet Fortune,” her brother said. “The Leslies are very hospitable folk.”
“Nay,” Colleen said, shaking her head vigorously. “If I go I shall have to tell Mama I knew what you were up to, and I don’t want to do that, Kieran. You recall our mother, but remember that Lady Jane is the only mother I have ever known. She made no distinction between me, or Mary, or the children she bore our father. And even when I disappointed her by marrying an Irish Protestant rather than an English one, she never deserted me. Even Mary loves her. You were the only one of Da’s offspring who could not get on with her, Kieran.”
“You’ll be going back home,” he wheedled her, “and not see our dear stepmother until Willy’s wedding to Emily Anne. By then it will be known that Fortune and I are to be wed. Our stepmother will be so torn between her joy over getting Emily Anne as a daughter-in-law, and her outrage at my own marriage, she won’t think to wonder if you met the Leslies while you were here in Ulster checking up on me. She will assume I slyly kept it from you because you would certainly have told her had you known. You’ve always been so good, Colleen; our stepmother would never suspect you of a subterfuge.” He grinned mischievously at his younger sister, then grew serious again. “It will probably be the last time we see each other, Colleen, and the only opportunity you will have to meet Fortune. I want you to know the girl who is to be my wife. You are my favorite sister, and our true mam’s last gift to her family.”
“Damn you, Kieran,” she said, tears in her eyes. “You have the tongue of the devil himself. Very well, I will come and meet your lass, and then I shall flee south to my own home. Mama will be home shortly after Lammastide for Willy’s wedding which is planned for Michaelmas.”
“I need a few hours to go over the estate books for Da,” he told her. “I’ll remain the night, and then tomorrow we’ll ride over to Maguire’s Ford.”
“I’ll have to pretend I’m departing for home,” Colleen said. “I don’t want Mama’s servants gossiping when she returns, and they will. It doesn’t matter to you, I know, but it does to me, Kieran.”
“Aye,” he replied. “I really do understand, Colleen, but I wanted you, of all my siblings, to know that Fortune is not the terrible creature Lady Jane claims she is.”
“God’s blood, Kieran,” his sister swore softly. “You’re in love! Really in love! I would have never thought it of you.”
“Catholics fall in love, too,” he remarked dryly.
She laughed. “Now, big brother, do not paint me with the same brush you do Mama. I am not that close-minded thanks to you.”
He chuckled. “If Lady Jane ever knew that you occasionally attended the mass with me she would have disowned you entirely. And worse, you met our half-sisters, and Da’s kind Molly. I knew I could trust you. Not Moire, for she would have never done anything to earn our stepmother’s disapproval, but you had a bit of an adventurous spirit unlike the others.”
“It’s a wonder I wasn’t caught. I almost was when Bessie was eight. She got very curious about where you and I used to roam. I told her we were searching for a leprechaun and his gold. She was so like Mama, and made fun of me for believing in such things, but it quelled her curiosity. Not Mary, however. She followed us one day when we went to visit Molly and the girls. When I got back she threatened to tell Mama. She was so mean! I said if she did, you would put an Irish curse on her, and she would grow a wart on the very tip of her nose so she could never find a husband. She scoffed at me, but she was afraid, I know, for she never told Mama.”
“So that is why you never went back to Molly’s,” he said.
Colleen nodded. “I thought it better I didn’t. Mary was never certain if the visit she spied upon was a one time thing, or not. It was better that way.”
That evening brother and sister watched as the bonfires were lit upon the hills in honor of Midsummer’s Eve. There would be dancing and feasting in the nearby villages. Kieran gave his permission for the servants to celebrate if they chose to do so. Without the presence of Lady Jane, or her disapproval, the house was emptied by late afternoon. A cold supper had been left for the siblings in the larder. Colleen had instructed her coachman and her maid that they would be returning south the following day, and she should like to leave as early as possible.
In the morning they departed Mallow Court, but no sooner were they out upon the high road than Colleen signaled her coachman to stop. Exiting her carriage she untied her mare from the rear of the vehicle, mounted it, and said to her driver, “I have a stop to make before we go south, Joseph. Just follow along after my brother and me.”
By midafternoon they were within sight of Maguire’s Ford. Fortune came to meet them, riding her great gray gelding, her red hair flying as she galloped across the hills to greet them. They stopped to await her as Fortune drew Thunder to a halt.
“If this is your wife, and you’ve lied to me, Kieran Devers, I’ll cut your black heart out!” she said to him, grinning.
“ ’Tis my sister, Colleen, and I’ve brought her to meet you so at least someone in my family could defend your reputation. Now, however, you bad-tempered wench, you’ve disgraced youself,” he teased her back.
Fortune’s blue-green eyes swung to meet Lady Colleen Kelly’s gaze. “You’re Mary Maguire’s last child,” she said. “Welcome to Maguire’s Ford, m’lady. You’ll remain a few days?”
“I think I will,” Colleen heard herself reply.
“Good!” Fortune responded. “Come on, you two, and I’ll race you home. I hope you’re better at racing than your brother. He always whines, and cries foul when he loses, which is more often than not.”
“I never whine,” Colleen said, and kicking her mare she raced off down the road away from them.
With a delighted whoop Fortune followed her. Shaking his head Kieran dashed after the two young women, catching up to them only when he arrived in the courtyard of Erne Rock castle where they stood, already dismounted, laughing madly, their arms about each other.
“I suspected you were two of a kind,” he said, sliding from his saddle.
“Come into the house,” Fortune said, linking her arm with Colleen’s. “My parents will be delighted to meet you.”
Jasmine and James Leslie were in the hall of Erne Rock. She seated by the fire, and he standing next to the stone mantel. Introductions were made, but Fortune suddenly realized that her parents seemed rather subdued and perhaps even a bit distracted.
“What is wrong?” she asked. “Is everything all right?”
“Your mother has some rather startling news,” the duke said, putting a hand upon Jasmine’s shoulder, and giving it a small squeeze.
“Mama?” Fortune’s beautiful face was concerned, and she knelt by her mother’s side.
“Perhaps this is not a good time for uninvited guests,” Colleen said.
“Nay, my dear, you are more than welcome,” Jasmine said. “It is just that I have gotten a bit of a surprise today. It seems that I am going to have a baby.”
“What?”
The color drained from Fortune’s face. “Mama! It cannot be! You are much too old to have another baby!”
Jasmine laughed, and patted her daughter’s cheek. “ ’Tis exactly what I thought, poppet, but it would seem I am not too old after all.”
“And I am certainly not too old,” James Leslie replied.
Fortune blushed, clearly embarrassed by her parents’ behavior, and yet the thought of another baby was rather nice. It would keep Mama and Papa from missing her too much when she and Kieran went away. “When is this baby to arrive?” she asked her parent.
“Sometime in November,” Jasmine said.
“Madame, you have my warmest felicitations,” Colleen said. “I have three of my own.”
“How can you be certain?” Fortune asked.
“I am certain because I have borne eight children previously,” Jasmine said, “although I will admit when my moon link broke, I thought it was the autumn of my years come upon me. But then I noticed . . .” She stopped. “I do not think this is a conversation for mixed company, poppet. Let us just say I am certain, and Bride Murphy, who acts as the village midwife, has confirmed my suspicions.”
“Then we must go back to Glenkirk right away,” Fortune said.
Jasmine shook her head. “Nay. Bride has advised me against traveling because of my age. This baby will be born here as you were. I have already sent home for Adam and Duncan to come so the people of the estate can learn to know them even sooner. Your brother, Patrick, will have to remain at Glenkirk on his own. I have sent down to Edinburgh for Uncle Adam and Aunt Fiona Leslie to come and watch over him. He enjoys their company, and will not feel quite so bereft of his family with them there. I know Adam and Fiona have grown quite bored with the city in recent years. I believe they will welcome the chance to return to Glenkirk. So, my dears, we must settle ourselves in for a bit of a stay here,” Jasmine concluded.
“Then Kieran and I must wed immediately,” Fortune said. “Colleen tells me the Deverses will return from England by Lammastide. Will is to marry his cousin Emily Anne at Michaelmas.”