“Aye, m’lord, but then me mum did warn me what life was like with Mistress Skye. They say a daughter is most like her mum, and if me lady is like Lady de Marisco, then I hope I am like me own mum and can keep up with her.” She smiled her gap-toothed grin, and Lord Lynmouth chuckled, for she was so very much like a young Daisy, and he remembered Pansy’s mother when she was not much older than Pansy herself right now.
They rode south into the heartland of England, and Velvet suddenly noticed that the days were growing shorter and the air cooler. The trees were almost bereft of their leaves now, and the land was beginning to have a wintry look about it. For two days they rode in freezing rain, and the road was awash in a sea of mud that eventually froze into deep, hard ruts that would undoubtedly remain until spring, thawing and refreezing over and over again. Velvet did not know which was worse, the mud or the dust they had encountered on their earlier journey to Scotland.
Although the pace was quick, they stopped each evening in a suitable place, either a respectable inn or the house of one of Robin’s many friends whose homes were scattered throughout England. There the horses were rested and well fed, as were their riders. The queen had sent twenty-five Gentlemen Pensioners along with Southwood to escort Velvet and Alex back to London. There were also the fifty clansmen who had come fromDun Brocto be with their chief. Such an enormous party was certainly safe upon the darkest and loneliest of roads, but it was not easy to house them all.
Several days after they had left Scotland Velvet suddenly began to recognize the landscape about her. “We are nearQueen’s Malvern!”she cried.
“We’re going to stop there tonight,” said Robin. “Father Jean-Paul will marry you and Alex there.”
“But I thought we were to be married in London on the eighteenth in the queen’s presence,” Velvet protested.
“By the archbishop of Canterbury,” replied her brother. “If, however, you are to be married in the faith in which you were raised, little sister, it will be atQueen’s Malvernby your old confessor. I sent word to him before I came to fetch you, and by now the banns have been properly published.”
“Jesu!” said Alex. “Two marriages in Scotland and two in England! Surely we’ll be the most married couple of all time, Rob.”
“It all could have been avoided if you had but waited for our mother to return in the spring, instead of taking matters into your own clumsy hands, Alex,” replied Robin sharply.
“Ye’re three years younger than I am, Rob, and ye’ve three children already, and the possibility of another on the way. I have no bairns to bear my name.”
“I have three daughters,” came Robin’s grim answer, “and the possibility of more. My father’s first wife bore him six girls before she died and he married my mother who gave him sons.”
“There was a son from the first marriage, too,” Velvet reminded her brother. “Mama told me that he died in the same epidemic that killed your father’s first wife and three of his daughters.”
“Are you defending this plunderer of your virtue?” Robin demanded. “I thought you hated him.”
“He is to be my husband,” Velvet answered primly, although her green eyes were dancing with mischief. “Is it not proper for a wife to cleave to her lord, brother?”
“Dammit, Velvet, make up your foolish female mind! Either you love him or you don’t.”
“Of course I love Alex. How could you even think otherwise?”
Robin glowered at her. “I wish to heaven Mother had not left England leaving me charge of our damn difficult family.”
“Ah, but she’s in my charge now,” said Alex.
“I am my own mistress,” countered Velvet.
The two men glanced at each other across the distance that separated them. Then they both looked at Velvet, who rode between them, her eyes straight ahead, her hands light on her reins. She raised her head, turned first to Alex and smiled sweetly, and then turned her face to her brother, smiling again. Both gentlemen burst out laughing and laughed until the tears ran down their faces.
“God help you!” Robin chortled.
“Aye, God help me, brother, for no one else will!” wheezed Alex.
In that moment their old relationship was completely restored, and by late afternoon when they sighted the chimneys ofQueen’s Malvernit was as if they had never quarreled. Riding up to the door of her childhood home, Velvet felt a lump insinuate itself into her throat, and then the door was flung open and dear old Dame Cecily came hurrying out. Several quick tears slid down her cheeks, which she swiftly wiped away. Slipping from her saddle without waiting for aid, Velvet wordlessly flung herself into the old woman’s open arms. Dame Cecily hugged her tightly, tears running down her worn face as well. Velvet pulled away at last and wiped the old lady’s face gently with her hand.
Dame Cecily finally mustered a smile and, regaining control of herself, said briskly, “Well, now, you bad thing, you’re home again!” Her eyes moved to Alex, who had dismounted with Robin and stood waiting to be introduced. “And is this great craggy man your husband?” she demanded, and Velvet nodded. “He doesn’t look at all like a devil to run from, child, but then you always were willful and would have your own way.”
“I haven’t had it this time.” Velvet chuckled. “He kidnapped me off to Scotland and tricked me into marriage before I knew what was happening.”
“You don’t look any the worse for wear,” remarked Dame Cecily. Then she looked with snapping eyes at Robin. “Introduce me, you mannerless scamp, fine milord though you may be!”
Robin laughed warmly. “Alexander Gordon, may I present to you Dame Cecily Small, sister to our mother’s trading partner, Sir Robert, and adoptive grandmother of all the children of Skye O’Malley. Dearest Dame Cecily, the Earl of BrocCairn, Velvet’s husband.”
Dame Cecily curtsied as low as her stiff joints would allow her to, but Alex put out his hand and raised her up. Kissing the old, gnarled hand with its beautiful diamond and sapphire rings, he said, “I can see ye’re one of the few good influences my wife has had, madame. I hope that even though we will live in Scotland ye’ll continue to be a part of our lives.”
Dame Cecily’s eyes sparkled with delight. “You’re a rogue, my fine Scot! That I can certainly see! Nevertheless, I suspect you’re well matched with my girl. Come in now! Come in! ’Tis far too cold out here, and I’ve several warm fires going in the house.”
Her eyes lit on Pansy. “You, girl! Your mother wants to see you, and then hurry and draw a hot bath for your mistress. There’ll be time enough later on to flirt with that evil-looking Scot with the naked knees you keep eyeing!”
