This Heart of Mine (60 page)

Padraic Burke, sprawled upon the floor, looked up apprehensively at his elder sibling. Murrough was totally right, and he knew it. Desperately he tried to explain his actions. “How could I tell Alex what a fool I had been running back to Velvet to announce his death, when if I had waited a few more minutes I would have learned he was merely badly wounded?”

“My death?” exclaimed Alex, who had gone white when Murrough had said Velvet was in a harem. “Ye told Velvet I was dead?”

Now the earl looked as if he wanted to hit Padraic as well, and the young man, seeing the dark look on his brother-in-law’s face scrambled to his feet and moved closer to his mother.

“You sneaking little coward!” snarled Murrough, stepping threateningly toward Padraic again.

Skye leaped up and stood between her sons. “Am I to understand that Padraic told you and Velvet that Lord Gordon had been killed? Why would he do such a thing?” She looked at Alex. “What do you know of this, m’lord?”

“ ’Twas a duel,” he muttered.

“A duel that needn’t have been fought!” snapped Murrough. “And my sister begged you not to, but would you listen? Nay!”

“Stop this bickering!” snapped Skye, who was becoming irritated and anxious to learn exactly what had happened. “You were injured in a duel, Alex, and Padraic, believing you dead, took it upon himself to inform Velvet. Is that correct?”

Padraic nodded.

Skye turned back to her elder son. “What I would like to know, Murrough, is why
you
took it upon yourself to remove your sister from London and take her on such a hazardous journey? You didn’t even allow her time to bury her husband. Why?”

“Because she begged me,” he said weakly.

“Because she begged you?”
Skye was astounded. “Murrough! You’re a grown man, the father of children yourself. Your eldest son is only a few years younger than Velvet! How could you do such a thing?”

“Mother,” he said brokenly, “you don’t understand. She was totally hysterical when she learned Alex had been killed. Hysterical and unreasonable. Robin and his wife weren’t here to help me, nor were Willow and James. My little sister begged my aid, and I could see no other way of handling it than the
manner in which I did. She believed that Alex would want to be buried at
Dun Broc
, and she could not bear to make her first trip to what was to have been her home in order to bury her husband. She kept sobbing that Alex’s line had ended and that it was all her fault because she was not with child yet. There was simply no reasoning with her! I thought it better to take her with me than to leave her to God knows what mischief.”

Alex’s mouth compressed itself into a grim line. How typical of Velvet to run to her parents in a crisis. She hadn’t grown up at all.

Skye slumped back onto the settle next to her husband. She didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry, and she could tell from his face that neither did Adam. People could make the most ungodly disasters of their own lives and those around them by their headstrong actions. Murrough thought he had done the right thing for Velvet, but it was, in the end, the wrong thing. He should have checked Padraic’s facts, for he knew his younger brother was often careless in his reports. Though Murrough had not waited, she knew, for fear of losing another day and missing the favorable winds across the Indian Ocean in his rescue mission of herself and Adam. How could she possibly upbraid him for what he had and hadn’t done? If anything she blamed Alex Gordon, who would fight a duel that needn’t have been fought, and Padraic, who had run off to his sister like Henny Penny to shout the sky down.

“All right, my sons, I believe I now understand this ridiculous muddle, and I blame all of you, including Velvet, whom I believed I had taught to face life better than that. Now we must consider what we have to do to regain her release and that of Pansy. At least the girls are together, for I know the people of the East and they would not separate Velvet from her tiring woman.”

“What will happen to them, m’lady Skye?” quavered Daisy, and Skye, looking at her faithful servant and friend, was shocked. Never in her entire life had she seen Daisy lose heart, but then this time Daisy’s fears were for her child, not for herself.

“Velvet, I imagine, has already been made a concubine of this Akbar,” Skye told her. “As for Pansy she will not be harmed. She will simply continue to serve her mistress, Daisy. You need have no fears for her.”

“My wife, some Turk’s concubine? You speak about your daughter’s fate quite matter-of-factly, madame,” said Alex grimly.

“Akbar is the Grand Mughal of India, Alex, not a Turk,” said Skye in an amused tone of voice. “If I speak matter-of-factly it is because I have been at one time in my life in the same position in which Velvet now finds herself. It is not always an envied position, Alex, but Velvet is my daughter, and she will survive! It could be far worse. We might not know where she was, or she might even be dead.”

“Perhaps it would be better if she were dead than in another man’s bed,” said Alex bitterly.

Adam was at his son-in-law’s throat in an instant. “You young whelp!” he snarled at the startled Scot, his knee on Alex’s chest pinning him in his chair. “Your father was my friend, but you’ve turned into a smug, selfish bastard. You came out of your Highlands when our backs were turned and forced my child into your own bed. Don’t think I don’t know the
whole
story of your scandalous courtship of my daughter, for I do!

“Once long ago I watched my beloved Skye be bartered into marriage with a stranger. Then I saw her almost destroyed by another man in her attempt to rescue Padraic’s father, her first love. At no time did I stop to consider that she had known other men. It was not important to me as long as she loved me, and it wouldn’t be important to you either if you really loved my daughter, but I’m not certain that you do. I believe you consider her naught but a possession, some sort of brood mare. I’ll not have it! If when we get her safely home you don’t want her, and frankly I’m not sure you deserve her, then an annulment will be arranged!” He stood back and glowered fiercely at the young earl, and Alex shifted uncomfortably.

“Adam!” Skye chided her husband gently. “Alex is upset as well he might be. In his own way he has been as sheltered as Velvet.” She gently separated the two, then took Alex’s hand in hers. “I understand your distress, Alex, but whatever has befallen Velvet I know she still loves you. She is not a girl to give either her heart or her body wantonly, but I don’t have to tell you that for you know it, don’t you?”

“I can’t bear the thought of any other man touching her, madame,” he said, low.

“Yet you’ve known other women, Alex.”

“ ’Tis different, madame,”

Skye smiled wisely. “Any man can have her body, Alex. Only you can possess her heart.”

He looked down at her and thought that she was probably one of the most beautiful women he had ever known. The beauty, however, was not simply limited to her face and form.

She had a great heart. He sighed. “We Scots are hard men, madame. I don’t know if I can be as generous of spirit as Adam.”

“Let us bring Velvet home first, Alex,” she said, “and then we will see.” He was very concerned with his own feelings, she thought. He did not stop to consider that Velvet, believing him dead, could easily fall in love again. She looked at Murrough once more. “You say that the Jesuits have some influence with Akbar?”

“Aye, there are two at his court, and he has allowed the order to have several priests in the country who work toward converting the huge population. Of course the two priests at court hope to convert the emperor himself. Father Ourique told me Akbar is amazingly intelligent, an enlightened ruler, and quite kindly in his character.”

Skye pondered her son’s words for several long minutes. The situation did not sound too discouraging. Praise from the Jesuits was not lightly given. They were a young order, having only been founded fifty-six years ago, but already they were wealthy and powerful. The motto of the order was
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam
—To the Greater Glory of God—and their primary object was to spread the faith of the church. Working through the Jesuits, it just might be possible to regain Velvet’s freedom. Skye turned to her tiring woman.

“Daisy, find Bran and tell him I want him to go to Ireland and fetch my brother, Michael.”

“What can Michael do?” demanded Adam.

“As bishop of Mid-Connaught, Michael will go to the Jesuits in Paris where an old friend of his is high in the order. We need to gain their cooperation in the rescue of our child. After all, my darling, ’twas it not a Jesuit who demanded that outrageous ransom from us? A ransom that was paid. Was it not a Jesuit who placed our child in the care of that dreadful man, Marinha-Grande, who then sent her, a good and loyal daughter of the church, to an infidel lord for immoral purposes? Adam, my darling, if the Jesuits hadn’t meddled, then our child would be safe today.

“The way I see it is that the Jesuits owe us for this terrible travesty. We shall, of course, show our further gratitude once Velvet is safely returned to us, but they must first use their influence to get Michael to the Grand Mughal; and once he is there, they must aid him in convincing Akbar to release Velvet into her uncle’s care so that she may be returned to her family, and to her husband whom she believed dead.”

“It is possible,” pondered Adam. “It’s just possible that such a thing might work.”

“What if it doesn’t?” asked Alex.

“To my knowledge,” said Skye, “Akbar is a Muslim. No true believer would keep in his harem the wife of a living man. I am certain that once Akbar is told that Velvet’s husband lives he will give her her freedom.”

“I want to go with your brother,” said Alex.

“No,” said Skye quietly. “Velvet will have suffered more in the last year than she has ever done in her entire life. She will need the time during the voyage home to rebuild her physical and emotional strength, Alex. She will need to be alone. Your strong presence would only result in a heavy burden of guilt upon her. I will not allow you to do that to my daughter. Go home to Scotland. You have been gone from your lands for well over two years, and your people need to see you. We will send you word when Velvet’s arrival is imminent. It will be well over a year from now, Alex.

“The voyage itself is of several months’ duration each way. Once Michael is in India, he must travel hundreds of miles inland to Lahore and the Mughal’s court, present his plea, and travel back to his ship. Yes, it will take well over a full year if not more. Go home to your Scotland. It is better that way. Here there is nothing for you to do.”

What Skye did not say to her son-in-law was that she was more than aware that he had taken a mistress, pretty Alanna Wythe, the daughter of the silversmith whose house the wounded Earl of BrocCairn had been carried to after his duel and who had nursed him in Velvet’s stead. Skye believed it would be best to separate Alex from his
chère aime
before her daughter returned home. Oh, Alex might amuse himself with the girls on his estate, something he had no doubt done in the past, but Alanna Wythe could become a much more serious threat to her daughter’s happiness should Alex become attached to her. Sending him back to Scotland would end the relationship, and Mistress Alanna would look for another protector.

“I’ll go,” said Alex finally. “My men are anxious to be home again and have waited almost a year for me to make this decision. You are right. There is nothing for me to do here in London. There is one thing your Daisy should know, however. My man, Dugald, pledged himself in handfast to her daughter Pansy a month before she disappeared with Velvet. He’ll be happy when we learn the lass is safe and coming home. He really loves that saucy little wench.”

Skye smiled. “I’ll tell her and Bran. I think, too, that Dugald should speak with them, to ask their blessing out of courtesy. Bran Kelly loves all his children, but Pansy as the eldest girl was always a particular favorite with him.”

Alex nodded. “I’ll see to it,
belle-mère.”

“Go along with you now, all of you. Murrough, make your peace with Padraic. I’ll have no more of your brawling. What’s done is done.”

“There’ll be no more fighting, Mother, but I’ll not make any peace with Padraic until Velvet is safely home,” growled Murrough, glaring at his youngest brother.

“ ’Twas not me who rushed Velvet out of the country,” muttered Padraic, flushing hotly.

“ ’Twas not me who gave her a fit of hysterics by insisting that her husband had been killed,” countered Murrough, his fists clenching and unclenching at his sides.

“Enough!” roared Adam de Marisco at his two stepsons. “Your squabbling isn’t going to bring my daughter back. Get out, the pair of you!”

The two brothers bowed politely to their stepfather and then, still throwing black looks at each other, quickly left the room.

Skye opened her arms to her husband, and for a long moment they stood clinging to each other. If they had made one mistake with Velvet it was that they had loved her too well, and had overprotected her. Finally Skye said quietly, “She’ll survive, my love. Is she not made up of a little bit of us both? Are we not survivors ourselves, my darling Adam? Velvet will come home to us! I know it!”

“Do you know what she’s going through?” He groaned. “My God, Skye! She’s so innocent!”

“She’s a married woman, Adam,” Skye reminded her husband. “She’s no longer totally innocent.”

“My little girl,” he murmured, “my poor little girl.”

“Adam!”
Skye’s voice pierced through his distress.

He looked down at her, and there were tears in his smoky blue eyes.

“Oh, Adam,” Skye said softly, “she’s my little girl, too, and as precious to me as any of my children, perhaps even a little more so because her birth was such a miracle for us. She will come back to us! I am certain of it!”

A knock upon the door brought Bran Kelly, Skye’s senior captain, into the room. “Daisy’s told me,” he said, looking every bit as haggard as Adam did. “It’ll be quicker if I ride for Devon and ship from there, m’lady.”