“This is Candra’s house,” said Akbar. “Candra is the name by which your niece is known here. It comes from the ancient Sanskrit language and means ‘Moonlight.’ I have told her only that I wish her to meet a visiting Christian priest. I have arranged that you will leave Lahore toward dawn. You will travel to the coast under my own personal protection as quickly as possible.”
“You said there was a child …” began Michael.
“Our daughter, Yasaman Kama Begum,” said Akbar.
“I am not sure about taking the baby, my lord. I do not know how Velvet’s husband will take the news of another man’s child.”
“Do you think I would expose my daughter to your European bigotry?” thundered Akbar.“Never!My child remains here with me.”
“How will my niece take such a plan?” Michael was worried.
“We will convince her, priest, you and I. Come now. Candra awaits us.”
Seeing her close up, Michael was once more astounded by Velvet’s beauty. Her creamy skin was flawless, and he could understand why the emperor had renamed her Candra.
“This is the priest I was telling you about, my Rose,” Akbar said.
She looked up at him with her emerald green eyes, and then as recognition dawned her eyes widened with disbelief.
“Uncle M-Michael?”
“Yes, Velvet, it is I.” Michael O’Malley held out his arms.
“Dearest uncle!” She flung herself at him. “I had never thought to see any of my family ever again! Oh, how wonderful that you are here!” She hugged him hard and then stood back to look up at him. “You are the answer to a prayer, Uncle! Now I can send my poor Pansy and her little son home! She has tried so hard to adjust, but she really misses her Dugald, and it isn’t at all fair that he not know his son.”
“Sweet child, I have come to takeyouhome,” said Michael O’Malley.
Velvet laughed merrily, and then, reaching out, she drew Akbar to her side. “No, Uncle Michael. I am not returning to England. When you tell my parents how happy I am they will understand, and I know that my lord husband will allow them to come visit me here at Lahore or at my palace in Kashmir. They must see their granddaughter. Pansy! Pansy! Come quickly!”
Another young woman hurried into the room, and Michael vaguely thought that she resembled Skye’s Daisy. “Yes, m’lady?”
“Pansy, this is my uncle, Michael O’Malley, the bishop of Mid-Connaught. He is going to take you and little Dugie home! Isn’t that wonderful?”
“Oh, m’lady, I can’t leave you!” Pansy protested.
“Yes, you can! Oh, Pansy, you’re not like me, widowed and beginning a new life. Dugald is alive, and you both have the right to your happiness together. Little Dugie has the right to know his father. You have tried for my sake, I know, but you are not happy here. I want you to go home with Uncle Michael.”
“Oh, m’lady …” Pansy began to sniffle.
“She’s Daisy’s daughter,” said Velvet to her uncle. “She is as loyal to me as her mother is to my mother. It will pain me to part with her, but it is for her own good. Her little boy does not tolerate well the heat of our summers.”
“Velvet, my child, you have not heard me,” said Michael O’Malley. “You, too, must return with me to England. Your husband is alive and anxious for your corning.”
“My husband is by my side, Uncle.”
“It is not this great king to whom I refer, Velvet, but to your lawful husband in the eyes of our church. It is Alexander Gordon who awaits you.”
“Alexander Gordon is dead, Uncle Michael. He died two years ago. He wasted his life for the honor of a strumpet,” Velvet said sharply.
“No, my child, Alexander Gordon is very much alive. He was only badly wounded, but in the excitement that followed his injury someone was heard to say he was dead, and your brother, Padraic, without verifying the facts, rushed to tell you that you had become a widow.”
“No!”Velvet’s hand flew to her mouth in shock. “No! He is dead!He is dead!”
Akbar caught her to his chest and held her close. “Don’t, my beloved, do not make this harder than it already is. This man is your uncle, the brother of your mother. Has he ever been a man of deceit, of subterfuge? Would he lie to you about something so important?”
She shook her head and then, looking up at Akbar asked, “What does all this mean to us? I was only wed to Alex Gordon three months. I have been your wife for over a year. We have a child. I will not leave you!” Her eyes were filled to overflowing with her tears.
“I cannot take the wife of a living man for my own wife, Candra. You are no longer mine. You arehis, and I must send you back to your own people, to your own land. I must do it though it be my death blow.”
