“Oh, Lord.” Aiden St. Michael sighed, “Your sister Skyewouldbe away. What are we to do, Conn? I don’t have to tell you what your niece is like when she sets her mind against something. Why did Adam and Skye plan such a long voyage, before Velvet was settled in her own home?”
“They didn’tplanthe trip, my love. They were asked by Her Majesty to undertake this voyage in order to ascertain the possibility of England’s opening trade with the Grand Mughal. The Portuguese have a very strong grip on India right now, and its riches are beyond belief. Why should only the Portuguese, and the Spanish, who control them, profit? They are rich enough!”
“But why not send one of the large trading companies? Why the O’Malley-Small fleet?” Aiden was curious for she was descended from a family of London merchants.
“There were several reasons, I suspect,” Conn replied. “For one thing the O’Malley-Small shipping company is small and wealthy, but holds no official position with Her Majesty, so they won’t arouse the Portuguese’s suspicions. Also, the fact that Skye is a member of the old faith may be an advantage since the Jesuits are strongly involved in the Portuguese colony in India and have even insinuated themselves in the Grand Mughal’s court.”
“I still don’t understand why Skye and Adam had to go. Robbie Small has been doing all the voyaging for years now.”
Conn smiled at his sweet wife. “Robbie is growing old, and my sister had been landlocked since her return to England,” he said. “Up until they came home from France, Skye always lived near the sea, but a condition of her return was that she must live here in the heartland of England. The queen, wily wench that she is, would never again allow my sister to be a threat to her. Still, when this voyage was proposed, Her Majesty insisted that Skye go. Bess must have needed her badly,” Conn chuckled.
“More than likely the queen felt such a voyage with a beautiful noblewoman in evidence wouldn’t be considered threatening by the Portuguese, or even taken seriously,” Aiden remarked wisely.
“By God, you could be right!” Conn said. “Ah, William Cecil and the queen are a clever pair. But then Skye probably knew their motives but cared not as long as she could feel a deck beneath her feet again and smell the salt breeze in her nostrils. Besides, my sister always loved a good adventure, O’Malley that she is.”
“Her absence, however,” noted Lady Bliss, “leaves us with the problem of her wayward daughter. What are we to do, Conn?”
“Go after Velvet, my love, while I think this thing out,” Conn said, pouring himself a healthy dollop of good Archambault Burgundy, then lowering himself into a large comfortable chair by the fire so that he might consider this thorny new development. He didn’t even hear Aiden close the door behind her as she hurried off to find Velvet.
Lord Bliss ran a big hand through his hair and sighed. When his sister, Skye, and her husband, Adam de Marisco, had asked him to keep an eye on their only beloved child more than two years ago, it had seemed a simple enough thing. He knew that although Velvet was spoilt and headstrong she would be safe here on her parents’ estate. She had, in fact, spent most of her life atQueen’s Malvern, except for several long summers in France at her father’s chateau,Belle Fleurs.It hadn’t even been necessary for Conn to bring Velvet into his own home, the lands of which bordered those ofQueen’s Malvern.The child had stayed on in her own house with Dame Cecily, Robbie Small’s sister, her nursemaid, and all the servants who had known her since babyhood. Everything had run smoothly until that blasted letter had arrived!
Conn swallowed the remaining wine in his goblet, then absently twirled the bejeweled gilt cup in his hands as he puzzled out what to do next. He was a big, bluff man with midnight black hair and gray-green eyes. Born an O’Malley of Innisfana, he had come to England with his sister almost fifteen years ago. As the youngest O’Malley of them all, he had been wise enough to realize that there was nothing for him in Ireland. So with no more than his extraordinary good looks, his charm, and a quick wit to recommend him, he had arrived at Elizabeth Tudor’s court. These small assets had been enough, however, to earn him the queen’s favor, for Bess Tudor appreciated a handsome man with a silvery tongue. Conn had been appointed to the queen’s own personal guard, theGentlemen Pensioners, and from there he had begun his climb up the social ladder. The little share of gold he received from his elder brothers’ privateering ventures was invested in his clever sister Skye’s trading company. Soon he was a wealthy man.
Money and his position in theGentlemen Pensionersovercame the drawback of his Irish heritage in the minds of the members of court. Conn held the queen’s favor so strongly that even when he addressed her as “Bess” he was never reprimanded. He was charming and roguish without being unscrupulous. He was considered a very eligible fellow and actually had his pick of any number of lovely young ladies and restive matrons. But Conn, rather like a large bumblebee, spent a great deal of his time flitting from flower to flower rather than settling down.
Overconfidence, however, has brought many a man down, and suddenly Conn O’Malley found himself in the center of a rather naughty scandal involving a noble lady, her twin daughters, and an ambassador’s wife. With the injured gentlemen involved both demanding the queen’s justice, Elizabeth Tudor had no choice but to send“the handsomest man at court,”as Conn was known, from her charmed circle. Before she did so, however, she tempered her judgment with a final kindness. She married Conn to a royal ward, Mistress Aiden St. Michael.
Aiden was at court as a maid of honor, having been placed in the queen’s custody at her father’s death. When Elizabeth Tudor wanted a bride for her favorite, she had remembered that Aiden’s lands bordered those ofQueen’s Malvern, the estate to which she had exiled Conn’s sister, Skye, and her husband, Adam.
The St. Michaels were not of the bluest blood, nor were they considered of first-class eligibility in the marriage market. Aiden’s great-grandfather had been a wealthy London merchant who had done a great personal favor for Henry VII, and had been rewarded with a title and estate for his troubles. Three generations later Aiden St. Michael was all that was left of her family, and the one condition that her dying father, Lord Bliss, had begged of the queen was that the bridegroom she eventually chose for his daughter would take over his name. The queen had agreed, for it was not an unusual request, and as far as Conn O’Malley was concerned, it was a reasonable one. There were, after all, shiploads of O’Malleys. Conn would not be missed at all, and he would have a title in the bargain.
Aiden St. Michael was not a great beauty. She was taller than the average woman, and somewhat bigger boned. Her skin was fair, and she had copper-colored hair and gray eyes. She was educated far beyond most girls of her day, even more than her bridegroom. But Aiden was bright and amusing, and she loved Conn O’Malley with her whole heart. Their early years together had been difficult, but now they lived the kind of life Conn had always dreamed of living. They were wealthy and the parents of a fine family.
Life had gottentoocomfortable for them, he thought somewhat wryly. So comfortable that when they had agreed to look after his niece, he had believed that it wouldn’t disturb their peaceful existence. Conn grinned to himself. He really should have known better. Velvet was, after all, Skye’s daughter, and hadn’t his big sister been the hell-raiser of all time?
He shifted himself in the chair. The message addressed to Lord de Marisco had arrived only yesterday. Dame Cecily had brought it to him herself, for, having recognized the seal of BrocCairn, she suspected that it was an important communiqué. The old woman well remembered Velvet’s betrothal ten years before and how worried Skye had been about it. Skye, remembering her own childhood betrothal, which had culminated in a disastrous first marriage for her, hadn’t wanted to risk the chance that her daughter would suffer as she had. Still, Adam had wanted it so very much, and he had promised his wife that should Velvet and young Gordon not suit once she was grown, the match would be called off. Velvet was, he reminded his wife,his only child, his beloved daughter.Skye had at last agreed, for she loved her husband and knew he would never hurt Velvet.
Conn had debated about opening the missive addressed to his brother-in-law. Adam was probably still some months from returning, and the communiqué might be important. Conn felt that Adam would certainly understand. Breaking the seal Conn opened the parchment. Quickly scanning the message, he was shocked to learn that both the old earl, his wife, and his second son were all deceased. He was equally disconcerted to learn that Alexander Gordon, now twenty-eight, wished to marry Velvet as quickly as possible so that he might sire a male heir, there being no others in his family to carry on the Gordon of BrocCairn name. The letter was almost brusque in its tone.
Astounded by this turn of events, Conn nonetheless understood the gentleman’s position. Still, he didn’t feel he had the right to force Velvet into marriage with a virtual stranger. He was not her parent, and at that thought he heaved a mighty sigh of relief. He knew his sister’s feelings on the subject, and he also knew that Adam would not want his only child married off willy-nilly despite the official betrothal agreement. It was not Conn’s responsibility, and yet it was.
The earl would be arriving fromDun Brocwithin the next few weeks, but Adam and Skye were most inaccessible. The earl was within his rights to press for an immediate wedding, the betrothal having been officially celebrated. It was all very neat and quite legal. The only thing not considered or taken into account in the situation was Mistress Velvet de Marisco, a most unwilling bride.
“Uncle Conn?” Velvet had slipped quietly back into the room, and, coming across the floor, she settled herself into his lap as she had done so often when she was just a wee girl. He noted that she was no longer so wee, for she stood five feet nine inches tall in her stockinged feet.
“Ah, Velvet lass. Now don’t go trying to wheedle me, poppet. I’m in a quandary about what to do as it is.”
“But I don’t want to get married, Uncle Conn! I want to stay atQueen’s Malvernwith Mama and Papa.” Her reasoning still sounded like that of a protected child.
“All girls marry eventually, Velvet. You’re going to be fifteen in a week, sweeting. Remember that your mama was first married at fifteen. ’Tis no great thing.”
“Mama hated her first husband!” Velvet said explosively. “She says he was a horrible beast, and that is why I shouldnevermarry without love! Mama promised me, Uncle Conn! I will not marry without love, and I will not marry without my parents here!”
Conn shifted his niece in his lap so that he might look at her. God’s bones! he thought, startled. Her logic was childish, but she certainly didn’t look like a child! When had she gotten so beautiful? She had always been a pretty little girl, but the face now before him was incredible in its perfection. There was no sweetness about it as there was with his sister’s face. Velvet’s was elegant and oval in shape; her forehead and sharply sculpted cheekbones high; her nose her father’s long Norman one; her well-spaced eyes almost almond-shaped and green. They were marvelous eyes with sooty lashes so thick that they tangled amongst themselves; eyes that threatened to snare any man foolish enough to gaze into them too deeply.
Velvet’s chin was small and square, Conn noted. Her mouth was wide and sensual like her father’s, but she had Skye’s fair skin. He marveled at her hair, for though she had been dark as a child, it had become a deep rich auburn as she grew older. Her French grandmama allowed that her own mama had had auburn hair. Velvet’s hair was a luxuriant mop full of long, silky tresses that was greatly admired and envied by her cousins. Conn decided that though she had the family features she frankly looked more like herself than like either of her parents. He was also suddenly very discomfited to notice that she had developed a rather lush female form for all he still thought of her as a child.
“I’m sure your mother never meant for you to marry without love, Velvet. As I remember the marriage agreement, you were not to wed until you were sixteen. But the earl, because of the deaths of his father and brother, must marry quickly now and beget heirs,” Conn explained.
