“Are you jealous?’’ she teased him.
“Aye!”
She laughed, pleased. “Jamie is a boy,” she said. “I have a man!”
He was flattered by her quick reply, but still he said, “He may be a lad, but he’s got a man’s hard cock already, and he well knows how to use it, Arabella Stewart. Remember that lest ye ever underestimate him.”
“I shall be safely at Dunmor, my lord,” she said sweetly. “The prince shall be gone from my life, even as Jasper Keane is gone from my life.”
The king acceded to their wishes to return home to Dunmor, though he would not see either of them, so deeply did he mourn his Margaret. He remained for most of the time within his own apartments, praying for his late wife’s soul and generally ignoring the business of his realm. A treaty for a solid peace with England was being negotiated between the two countries in London, and James III was little needed elsewhere. There was no army to lead against the age-old enemy, and if there was discontent among the Scots nobility, it was, for the time being, set aside out of respect for the late queen.
The Earl and Countess of Dunmor came home to the border country on a bright mid-August day. They had been away eight months. The Flemings of Glen Ailean were there to greet them, both Ailis and Meg plump and close to delivering their first children. Happily, Arabella confided her suspicions to them all. Her mother-in-law, after asking her several pertinent questions and discussing Arabella’s habits with Flora and Lona, confirmed her son’s verdict. In the early spring of the new year, Dunmor would have an heir.
“Or heiress,” Arabella said stubbornly, “and if it is a little girl, I will call her Margaret after the queen, God assoil her sweet soul.”
“Ye will nae name her after yer own mother?’’ Lady Margery inquired.
“Nay,” Arabella said shortly.
‘‘Surely ye hae forgiven the poor woman,’’ Margery Fleming said.
“Aye,” Arabella answered, “but I cannot forget what she did when she allowed herself to become involved with Sir Jasper. She was not a bad woman,belle mere, but she was a foolish and a silly one, I now realize. She might have refused Sir Jasper. It was her right, but she did not. I should never allow any man to use me so!”
“Pray God ye will never find yerself so vulnerable, my child,’’ Lady Margery told her daughter-in-law.
“A woman is only vulnerable if she allows herself to be,” the young countess answered with all the assurance of her youth and inexperience.
“Everyone is vulnerable at some time in their life, Arabella,’’ Lady Margery said quietly. “Everyone. Man or woman. There is nae crime in it, for it is the way of the world, my dear.”
Arabella shook her head vehemently. “I have been vulnerable to others in the past,belle mere, but I will never again allow anyone to dictate to me how I will live my life. I must be my own mistress! Why is it a man may chart not only his own course, but a woman’s as well?”
“Men are the natural rulers of the earth,’’ Lady Fleming said.
“Why?” Arabella demanded.
For once the usually wise lady was at a loss for words, and her daughter and other daughter-in-law looked totally confused by Arabella’s simple question.
“Perhaps because God intended it that way,” Father Colin finally said.
“How do we know that?” Arabella said, totally unfazed by the church’s opinion.
“Because men are naturally wiser than women,” Donald Fleming said, his tone just a trifle belligerent. He was still not over his suspicion of Arabella, and these questions of hers only confirmed his mistrust of her.
“Indeed, Donald? Just why is that so? Because they are bigger than women, or perhaps that temperamental little worm that dangles between your legs leads you to think so? I was not aware that a man’s cock added to his intellect.”
Lord Fleming burst out laughing. Not only did her words amuse him, but the look on his second son’s face was more than comical. Donald, who always had something to say and an opinion on everything, was finally and truly at a loss for words. “Arabella,” he said, when he finally managed to gain a hold on his own humor, “I vow yer more a Scot than ye are English. The women of our race are noted for their outspoken ways, and ye certainly dinna attempt to conceal yer thoughts or yer feelings from us, do ye, lassie?”
“I do not mean to be bold, my lord,” Arabella answered him, “it is just that I do not see why women cannot rule their own lives as men do. Should I not know better than any what is right for me?”
The earl put an arm about his young wife. “It is tradition, madame, that the earls of Dunmor care for all those in their charge. Their wives, however, rule the family and all that concerns it.”
“But it is your word, Tavis, in the end that can supplant mine. It is your will that can overrule mine should you so desire it,” Arabella said passionately. “I would rule my own life!”
“I will never impede ye in that desire, madame,” the earl told her, “unless, of course, yer desires endanger me or mine. In return I would expect the same of ye. I think that is a fair bargain I offer ye. Do ye nae?”
“Aye, my lord, I do,” she answered him, a smile brightening her beautiful features.
“Bah!” Donald Fleming said irritably. “If she were my wife I’d take a stick to her. Ye spoil the wench, Tavis, and she’ll make a fool of ye yet for it!’’
