The piper grinned broadly, well pleased by her words, which he would repeat to all when he returned to Glenkirk. Perhaps by the time the earl brought his bride home to Scotland she would already be ripening with the Leslie’s heir. That would certainly please everyone.
“Now that you have heard the piper,” Skye said softly to the bridal couple, “would you not like to depart the hall?”
“But Grandmama, have you not planned for dancing, and for other entertainments?” Jasmine said, surprised at their dismissal.
“Darling girl, do you really wish to remain here when your new husband is in such a state of lust for you?” her grandmother asked, laughing. “Granted I have more years than anyone else in this room tonight, but my memory is still quite intact. A wedding night, be it the first, or the third—no matter you have been lovers before—is still a wonderful night. I remember all of mine in exquisite detail, even the unhappy ones. While it is true that being June it is still quite light out of doors; and the night when it comes will last but a short time, would you not prefer to spend that time alone with James Leslie? I know that if I were you, I should!”
The earl of Glenkirk arose from the highboard, drawing his countess up with him. He bowed to the countess of Lundy and, taking her hand in his, he said, “Madame, you are a woman of the utmost sensitivity. I salute you!” Then he kissed Skye’s hand. “I am content to withdraw with my bride from this magnificentcelebration that you have given us.” He then released her hand and, bowing again, departed the hall with his blushing bride in tow, the cheers of his new relations ringing in his ears.
Skye watched them go, her Kerry blue eyes misty, a smile of remembrance upon her lips.Well, old man, are you satisfied now?she said silently.I have gotten her safely wed to Lord Leslie, and by this time next year we shall probably have another descendant for me to dote upon. God’s boots, I wish you were still here with me, Adam! They say that time softens the pain of death, but I probably miss you more tonight than the night you left me so suddenly. And there is time for me yet before I can join you, Adam. I sense it. I don’t know whether to be happy or sad about it.
She felt an arm go about her shoulders, and smiled up into her son Robin’s handsome face. He bent his head and kissed her cheek.
“He would be pleased, Mama. This is what he wanted for Jasmine,” the earl of Lynmouth said. “He wanted her safe, and now she is.”
“I know,” Skye answered her son.
“But?”he queried her.
“I do not know,” she said softly. “There is something. I sense it, Robin. Yet I do not know what, and I cannot imagine what.”
“Perhaps it is just your fancy, Mama. It has, after all, been a difficult year for you, beginning with Adam’s death, and then your travels to France. You are not, after all, as young as you once were.”
“You sound like Willow,” she accused him.
“God forbid!” the earl of Lynmouth exclaimed.
“Nay, Robin, there is yet some shadow lurking about Jasmine,” Skye told him. “It is not the imaginings of an old lady.”
“Then when it comes, Mama, we shall, as this family has always done, rally about our own and solve the problem,” Robin Southwood said.
Skye smiled up at her third son. “Aye, my dear, I suppose we shall. Until then I intend enjoying the summer with both my daughter and my granddaughter about me. And come the autumn I shall be just as glad to see them return to Scotland, as I was to see them come to Queen’s Malvern,” she chuckled. “Then Daisy and I shall settle down to a quiet winter, which I know will please my old friend. I was always too much for her, Robin, and I fear she has grown too old to cope with me.” Skye chuckled. “She is nearer to eighty than I am.”
“Boredom has never pleased you, Mama,” he said. “You will find some mischief to get into, I have not a doubt.”
Skye O’Malley de Marisco laughed at this observation. “Aye,” she agreed with him, “I probably shall, Robin.”
Scotland
Autumn 1615–Autumn 1618
Chapter Thirteen
Jasmine Leslie saw Glenkirk Castle for the first time on a sunny late-August afternoon. Of dark gray stone, it was battlemented and had four towers, one at each of the major compass points. It sat upon the crest of a hill, surrounded by forested hills. Its great oak drawbridge was down, welcoming her, and Jasmine Leslie knew in her heart as sure as she had ever known anything that she had come home. It was an incredible revelation for a princess, raised at the Imperial Indian court, who had known far greater palaces than the small stone edifice, topping the uneven green hill. And yet she knew!Glenkirk was home!How long had it been waiting for her? Her heart soared, beating just a little faster, and then she heard Adali say but one word.
“Yes.”
She turned and saw that he, too, felt the magic, and she smiled at him even as he smiled back.
“What do you think?” her bridegroom asked nervously. “Can you be happy here for almost half a year each year, darling Jasmine?”
Seated upon her stallion she turned her head to him, and nodded. “Aye, Jemmie, I can be happy anywhere as long as I am with you. The castle is beautiful. It’s a wonderful place for the children.”
“You are seeing it at its best,” he told her. “I did warn you that the autumn is Scotland’s best time. There is much gray and rain and mist the rest of the year.”
“I don’t care,” she said. “It is the land, the castle, the forest, they all sing to me, my lord. Rain or shine, it will matter not to me.I have come home.”
The earl of Glenkirk’s handsome face split with a wide smile. He could not have been happier to hear her words. He had always loved his home, but after Isabella and the children had died it had seemed such an empty place and was suddenly unfamiliar. Yet this was where he had been raised with his three younger brothers, and his five younger sisters. It had, for many years, been a warm happy place. Now it would be again with Jasmine and her children and the children they would have together. His spirits rose, and his smile broadened once more.
