Bedazzled (34 page)
“She will hae nae choice, Jasmine,” he said.
“If you do this thing, I will never forgive you!” the duchess of Glenkirk threatened her husband angrily.
“I do what is best for India,” he countered. “If ye hae let me make a match for her in the first place, instead of allowing the lass to run wild, we would hae nae of this trouble, Jasmine. Now I will do what I know is best for our daughter!”
“What am I to do?” Jasmine despaired to her mother-in-law.
“Do not allow this situation to divide your house,” Cat advised wisely. “I know you love your daughter, but you and Jemmie love one another, too. India has made her own fate, and now must deal with it herself. You cannot protect her forever, my dear.”
“You agree with Jemmie?”
“Nay, I do not, but I know my son well enough, and so should you, Jasmine. You surely understand you cannot push him in a direction he does not choose to go. To get him where you will have him, you must draw him first down this path, and then the other, until you reach the destination that you wanted all along, and he is none the wiser.” She laughed. “He is as stubborn as I was in my youth, and as heedless of the consequences of his actions as was his father, God assoil his soul. Jemmie is not an easy man, Jasmine. I know that, and so do you. Do not let your daughter and her problem blind you to the fact that you love your husband. India will recover from her broken heart sooner than later, marry and leave you and Jemmie. You do not want an estrangement between yourselves when that time comes.”
“But India’s child. What will become of that child if it is fostered out, and we do not know where?” Cat fretted.
“Just make certain you know where the bairn is,” Cat said. “Do what you must, but learn where that child is. Then visit the cotter’s wife who has it, and make certain she knows of your interest in the child and its well-being. It is the best you can do. Later you can educate it if it is a lad, and even tell of its heritage. If it is a lass, then educate her and see she has a respectable match one day. But
never
allow Jemmie to know of your interest, or your involvement.”
never
allow Jemmie to know of your interest, or your involvement.”
“And India?”
“Tell her only one day when she is happy again so that her broken heart may be completely mended,” Cat replied.
“I wish you would stay with us,” Jasmine said, teary-eyed.
Her mother-in-law laughed heartily. “Nay, my dear, I far prefer the quiet life I now lead in Rome and Naples. I am not used to all this agitation, aggravation, and uproar any longer. Adventures aplenty I had in my youth, but now I simply enjoy sitting in my gardens, or watching the sea, or dining with friends, or reading and writing letters from family and friends. India is your problem, and while I was happy to help where I could, I shall be delighted to depart for Aberdeen tomorrow, and then home to Villa Mia, which with luck I shall reach by February.” She patted Jasmine’s hand comfortingly. “You are a clever woman, Jasmine, but you have allowed your mind to stifle here in the safety of Glenkirk. Use your wits to help India now!”
Lady Stewart-Hepburn departed the following morning, her coach rumbling over the drawbridge of the castle and down the hill to the high road. Ten days later, a message arrived from Calais to say her voyage had been uneventful, and she would write from her daughter’s château outside of Paris before she departed for Rome.
The weather was getting colder, and the rains icy and more frequent. One morning as India lay abed, her father came to her. They had managed to exist without shouting at each other in the time since Cat’s departure, but neither spoke to each other unless it was necessary.
“Are ye well?” he asked her gruffly.
“Well enough,” she replied.
“You’re leaving Glenkirk, India,” he told her. “I’ll hae no gossip about yer big belly, and if ye remain any longer, we’ll nae be able to disguise it. Ye hae to go.”
To his surprise, she agreed, saying, “Aye. If Fortune is to have a decent husband, there can be no scandal about me.”
“I’m glad ye understand,” he said, relaxing his stern attitude just a little. “I’m happy to see ye thinking of yer sister before yerself, India. I’m nae angry wi ye anymore, lassie, but I must do what is best for ye now.” He reached out to pat her hand, noting it was cold.
“Where am I to go, Papa?” she queried him. “To Edinburgh wi Great-uncle Adam and his Fiona? Or to Queen’s Malvern? None come there now except in the summertime when my brother is in residence.”
“Ye’re going up to A-Cuil, India. Meggie will go wi ye, and Red Hugh’s younger brother, Diarmid,” the duke of Glenkirk told India.
“I’ll freeze to death in that place!” India said. “Are you attempting to kill me then, Papa?”
“The house is stone,” he said, “and there’s a good fireplace in the main room, and yer bedchamber as well. Ye’ll nae freeze, but ye’ll be isolated, and yer shame well concealed. Nae one will know of the bairn. Diarmid will light a signal fire when yer time hae come, and yer mother will come to ye then.”
“What will happen to my child?” India asked bluntly.
“We’ll worry about the bairn when it’s safely born,” he soothed her, then put an arm about her. “Lassie, lassie, I just want to protect ye. Ye’re my daughter, and I hae only wanted what’s best for ye.”
India suddenly began to cry. “Ohh, Papa, I am so unhappy!
I loved him, Papa!
I loved Caynan Reis! I should be in El Sinut, in the palace with Baba Hassan and the lady Azura, happily sharing the joy of our child with us.” She looked up at him. “Papa, I don’t even know what has happened to him! They said he was killed in the rebellion. What has happened to the ladies of the harem? To Baba Hassan and Azura? I should have been with them! If I had been, then maybe this would not have happened. Azura always said I was the stable influence in Caynan Reis’s life.”
I loved him, Papa!
I loved Caynan Reis! I should be in El Sinut, in the palace with Baba Hassan and the lady Azura, happily sharing the joy of our child with us.” She looked up at him. “Papa, I don’t even know what has happened to him! They said he was killed in the rebellion. What has happened to the ladies of the harem? To Baba Hassan and Azura? I should have been with them! If I had been, then maybe this would not have happened. Azura always said I was the stable influence in Caynan Reis’s life.”
The arm about her tightened, and then the duke said, “If ye hae been wi them, India, ye might hae been killed, or, worse, shipped off to some other man’s harem, or sold on the block. Thank God ye are home safe wi yer mother and me than wi that rebel!”
“You don’t understand, Papa! My husband was not a traitor,” she explained, her face tear-streaked. “The janissaries were plotting against the sultan, and it was my husband who warned the valideh, and her son of the plot. He took a great chance, but he did it for us and our children. The valideh was certain to reward him for his loyalty, and he was going to ask for autonomy for El Sinut. The people of El Sinut would not have revolted. They were a peaceful, contented, and prosperous people. It is surely the janissaries who have killed my husband!”
“And there is nothing ye can do about it, lassie,” he told her. “The man is gone, God help him, but ye’re alive. I cannot weep for a man I dinna know, who took my daughter from me and got her wi bairn. I must protect ye, India. Tomorrow the weather will be fair, as it always is after two days of gray and rain. Ye’ll go up to A-Cuil then, lassie. Dinna fret, for ye’ll hae all the comforts ye want. I’ll nae hae my lass uncomfortable, India. I just want ye where there will be nae gossip.”
“Yes, Papa.” What else could she say? India thought sadly. She would be twenty in the summer, but had had only a small control over her personal fortune before she fled England with Adrian Leigh. Now she had not even that. They had made certain she had no access to her wealth, but for pin money, and she would not now until she married. Where could she and Meggie go without funds? She was trapped, and for the time being forced to cooperate with her parents. Let them think she was doing it willingly. And when they were lulled into believing her complacent, she would take her son, and find a safe haven where no one would care about her or her child. Eventually they would have to relent. There had to be someplace in this world where she could go. She would sell her jewelry to give them a new start. There had to be someplace where she could raise Caynan Reis’s son in safety.
The duke of Glenkirk kissed his daughter’s forehead. “I am glad ye’re being reasonable, sweeting. I know ye’ve had a terrible misadventure, but dinna fret, sweeting. Papa will make it all right for ye just as I always hae done, eh?”
God’s boots
, India thought, as he left her,
does he really still think of me as a child?
Certainly he saw the woman she was, or did he? James Leslie had been a wonderful father. He loved all his wife’s children. The three she had had by her second husband, Rowan Lindley; the son she had had by Prince Henry Stuart; the sons she had given him. He loved them so well that not one of them but India had left the comfort of their family.
, India thought, as he left her,
does he really still think of me as a child?
Certainly he saw the woman she was, or did he? James Leslie had been a wonderful father. He loved all his wife’s children. The three she had had by her second husband, Rowan Lindley; the son she had had by Prince Henry Stuart; the sons she had given him. He loved them so well that not one of them but India had left the comfort of their family.
Since her departure, however, her brother, Henry, the marquis of Westleigh, had made the decision to live at his seat at Cadby in England, but the rest of them were still at home. Papa might complain about Fortune’s not being able to go to her estates in Ireland and seek a husband, and he might blame India’s disappearance for it, but he didn’t really seem too enthusiastic about sending Fortune off next summer. James Leslie was a patriarch, and he obviously enjoyed having his children about him.
But he would not welcome his first grandchild, India knew. What he meant to do with her child she had no idea, but she would have time to make her escape once the baby was born. Mama would protect them, she was certain. For now she knew she needed rest, and the security of knowing that she would be safe and well cared for while she carried Caynan Reis’s son.
Who was he?
she wondered not for the first time. While she had been with him, it hadn’t mattered at all, for he was Caynan Reis, the dey of El Sinut. But he had been someone else before he had been Caynan Reis, and now she desperately wished she knew who that someone was. She wanted a name for her child who would never know his father.
she wondered not for the first time. While she had been with him, it hadn’t mattered at all, for he was Caynan Reis, the dey of El Sinut. But he had been someone else before he had been Caynan Reis, and now she desperately wished she knew who that someone was. She wanted a name for her child who would never know his father.
The next day dawned bright and cold, as James Leslie had predicted. The small caravan was prepared by midmorning, and ready to depart. India had decided to accept the comfort of a cart as opposed to riding her horse. A baggage wagon was ladened high, as was another wagon with enough provisions to last them the winter. Jasmine was very teary, for she didn’t approve of sending her daughter into the mountains to the family’s hunting lodge. A-Cuil was small, she knew, for she had spent time there herself, but it was far more isolated than Jasmine would have wished. What happened if India’s child decided to come in a snowstorm? How could she get to her daughter?
“Please, Jemmie, don’t send her to A-Cuil,” she begged her husband at the last minute.
“Mama, it’s all right,” India said. “I am quite content to go. Meggie will be with me, and Diarmid will do the heavy work, such as cutting us wood for our fire and hunting for our game. I won’t be the cause of spoiling Fortune’s chances in the marriage market. My situation is rather unique,” she finished with a wry smile.
“The lass hae more sense than ye do, darling Jasmine,” her husband chided his weeping wife.
“And I’m going, too,”
Fortune announced suddenly.
Fortune announced suddenly.
“You most certainly are not!” Jasmine snapped.
“Aye, I am, Mama,” Fortune declared with a toss of her red head. “Come, Mama, we are very isolated here at Glenkirk. Who will know if I am here at Glenkirk, or in Edinburgh, or wherever? I want to be with India. I lost my sister once, and I’ll not lose her again.”
“There!” Jasmine cried to her husband. “Are you satisfied now, Jemmie? I will lose both my girls because of your stubbornness and excessive pride.”
He knew better than to argue with her. He knew better than to argue with Fortune. “Go along, Diarmid, and take yer party of ladies up the ben.” He looked to his second daughter. “Dinna come down the ben alone, lassie. If ye go, ye stay. Would ye miss Christmas and Twelfth Night at Glenkirk? ’Twill be yer last if I let ye go off to Ireland next year.”
“I’ve enjoyed many a Christmas and Twelfth Night at Glenkirk, Papa,” Fortune said quietly. “Now I would be with my sister, for I believe she needs me more than you do.” Then Fortune climbed upon the large gray gelding she favored, and followed after India’s little train.
Jasmine swallowed back her tears, saying to her husband, “Does she know what you intend doing with her child, Jemmie?”
“Nay,” he said. “There was nae need to distress her. Ye saw. She was almost herself again. I dinna want to spoil it.”
“Aye,” Jasmine agreed. “You were wise not to do so.” She looked after her two eldest daughters, and thought she heard India laugh as Fortune caught up with the cart.
“Is Mama still weeping?” the younger asked her elder sibling as the gelding danced dangerously near the wheels of the vehicle.
“No, she stopped,” India replied. “What made you come with me?” she asked Fortune. “Have you ever been to A-Cuil? It’s tiny, old-fashioned, and dull, not to mention very small. We’ll probably end up killing each other.”
“I’d rather be with you than stuck at Glenkirk all winter,” Fortune responded. “You can tell me all about your adventures, and what it’s like to be loved by a man. I have that ahead of me next summer.”
“If Papa lets you go,” India said.
“Mama won’t let him stop us this time,” Fortune replied. “So you noticed it, too; how suddenly he does not want to let his lasses go away.” She laughed. “Poor Papa. He really does love us all, doesn’t he? But by this time next year, you and I will have husbands. Henry is already settled at Cadby, and the king has written to Papa that after this winter, Charlie must become part of the court and take his rightful place at Queen’s Malvern as the duke of Lundy should. He’ll just have to be content with Patrick, Adam and Duncan.
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