“Do you think we might adjourn to the house?” Michael O’Malley asked plaintively from the barge where he still sat, blocked from disembarking by the crush upon the quay. “Night air from the Thames is not particularly salubrious and is known to harbor bad humors.”
“Oh, Michael darling, yes!” Skye said. “I’ve not even thanked you for all your help!”
“Thank me inside, dear sister, and I can but hope you have some good peat whiskey to take the chill from my bones. I ran out months ago.”
“Aye,” replied Adam de Marisco, pulling his brother-in-law up from the barge. “I’ve a barrel, and for all you’ve done for us, Michael, you can bathe in the damned stuff if you want!”
They moved up the lawn from the river into the house, and Bran and Daisy took Pansy and her son off to their own rooms, while Adam, kissing his daughter good night, promised to come and see her first thing in the morning. Then he escorted his stepson, Murrough, and brother-in-law to his library for some of the promised whiskey.
Taking her daughter’s hand, Skye led Velvet upstairs to her apartments.
In Velvet’s room a large oak tub stood steaming with the hot water emptied into it by a line of footmen. “I thought that you would prefer to bathe yourself tonight,” Skye said quietly. “Pansy and Daisy need their time together, too. When was the little boy born?”
“Shortly after we arrived at Akbar’s court in Fatehpur-Sikri, Mama. I didn’t even know that Pansy was with child. She carried small, and she was afraid to tell me. The court physician informed me. Dugald had cajoled her into bed the night they were handfast.” Velvet removed her cloak and, turning her back, had her mother aid her with her bodice and skirt. “Have they brought my things from the barge yet?”
“They are in your dressing room, my darling.”
Velvet walked into the smaller room and, opening a leather-bound trunk, rummaged until she found what it was she sought, a small stone vial. Moving back into her bedroom, she uncorked the little bottle and, climbing up the steps to the tub, poured a stream of pale gold liquid into the hot water. Immediately the room was filled with an exquisite fragrance. Descending from the steps, Velvet pulled off the rest of her clothes.
“What is that?” Skye asked. “It’s absolutely lovely!”
“Jasmine, Mama. I prize its perfume above all others.” She rolled her stockings off her shapely legs.
Skye could not help but look at her daughter. She was simply gorgeous in her nudity. Velvet’s long legs rose up into a wide span of hips and taut, round, silken buttocks. Velvet had had no breasts to speak of when her mother had last seen her, but the dainty buds of childhood had become full and voluptuous with five years’ passing. Her belly was faintly rounded, not as maiden flat as it should have been. Suddenly Skye looked closely at her daughter, and Velvet, caught unawares, could not hide the sadness in her eyes. In that moment, Skye realized the truth.
“Was my grandchild a boy or a girl?” she asked.
“I have a daughter, Yasaman Kama Begum, Mama. Yasaman means Jasmine. She is one year old today.” Velvet climbed into her tub, leaving her mother speechless.
When Skye managed to recover from her surprise, she said, “Why is she not with you, Velvet?”
“Because her father and Uncle Michael would not let me bring her. Uncle Michael feared that Alex would never accept my bearing another man’s child. My lord Akbar said that Yasaman was all he had left of our love, and he would not allow me to take our daughter from him. They were quite agreed, if for different reasons.”
Skye nodded mutely, understanding but suffering for her beloved child, who was obviously in great pain over the loss of her own daughter, even if she hid it behind a calm and brittle exterior.
“How did you do it, Mama? How did you manage when you were my age to run your own life without interference? If there is a way, I want to know it, for never again will I allow anyone, man or woman, to rulemylife! I will be mistress of my own fate, for I can live no other way,” Velvet declared.
Skye sighed deeply. “I could tell you to grasp your destiny by the throat, Velvet, and in a way that would be true, but the real answer lies in my wealth. Wealth is power for a woman of independent spirit. But in the end everyone must answer to a higher authority. My authority has been Elizabeth Tudor.”
“She has used you shamefully, Mama.”
“And she has paid a high price for it, Velvet. The queen has had to answer to England all these years. I have served this English queen, but never have I been subservient to her.”
Velvet nodded, fully understanding her mother’s words. “I think I am rich,” she said, “although I have never bothered to learn about trading and investments as Willow has. I have brought back from India jewelry worth a king’s ransom. Those jewels, however, I shall not sell. They will be returned to India one day for my daughter when she is married. Akbar, however, did send with me certain items which I believe should make me a wealthy woman.”
“What are they?” Skye was frankly curious.
“There are five trunks of spices, one each of peppercorns, cinnamon sticks, nutmegs, cloves, and cardamoms; as well as three caskets of gems, one of Indian Ocean pearls, one of Ceylon sapphires, and the third of rubies, some of which come from Mogok and some from a mine near Kabul. I want to sell these things. Will they make me a rich woman, Mama?”
Skye nodded slowly. “Yes, my darling, they will make you quite respectably rich in your own right. The market for spices is, because of the Portuguese monopoly, quite high here in England. Spices are very much in demand. As for the jewels you have brought back, I will have to see them, of course, but your gems come from mines that are considered the best. Lord Akbar obviously held you in great esteem.”
“We loved one another, Mama. He is like no man that I have ever known.” She then ducked her head beneath the bath water and, coming back up, began to wash her hair.
Skye bit her lip. Her child was hurting, and there was nothing she could do to ease that hurt. In time, of course, the pain would lessen, but right now the wound was much too fresh. How was Velvet going to receive Alexander Gordon? Skye knew that she was going to have to send for him within the next day or two.
Finishing her bath, Velvet climbed from the tub and wrapped herself in a large towel. Seating herself by the fire, she began to dry her hair. “I do not want Alex to know that I possess great wealth. He will claim it for himself, and then I shall be powerless against him. Will you help me, Mama?”
“Yes, my darling, but I will aid you only if you promise me you will do nothing rash or foolish. Come what may, you are married to the Earl of BrocCairn, and unless he seeks to annul your union you will remain married to him until death. I know about the rash act that led to your separation. There is blame on both sides, and as Alex must accept his responsibility in this matter, so must you. Then you must both put the past behind you and start afresh, Velvet.”
