Free Besieged by Bertrice Small

Lindley is like her mama? I shudder to think of the unhappiness she would cause our son.”
    “The girl appears lively, I will grant you, but there is nothing wrong with high spirits among the young, Jane,” he answered her.
    “Why could she not find a husband in England, or Scotland, Shane? Answer me that! Perhaps she already has a bad reputation that we do not know of, here in our little backwater, and will learn about only when it is too late!” She drained her goblet nervously.
    “Adali, more wine for Lady Jane,” Jasmine chirped.
    “Show a wee bit of mercy, lass,” James Leslie murmured softly to his wife. “The poor woman hae already been beaten to her knees.”
    “This is a mistake,” Jasmine said. “I don’t want my daughter married to that woman’s son. You don’t know what I learned this morning.”
    “But ye’ll tell me, I’m sure,” the duke chuckled. “Forget about Lady Jane, darling Casmine, and look to yer daughter. She and young William are getting along quite well. This isn’t our decision, it is Fortune’s. She’s going to be twenty years old in a few months, and hae already turned down half-a-dozen perfectly respectable young men in England and in Scotland. Every one of them was titled! If this is the young man who will suit her, then so be it.”
    “We shall see what we shall see,” Jasmine responded, but her eye had indeed turned to William Devers and her daughter. He looked nothing like his mother but for his light blue eyes. That in itself boded well, Jasmine decided. He had charm, she could see, but then Fortune would not be dazzled by even the greatest charm. Still, he seemed genuine in his interest towards the girl, and Jemmie was right. Fortune had been uncommonly fussy about choosing a husband. I’ll buy them a house in England, Jasmine decided. There is nothing that says they must live here at Erne Rock. I’m sure young Master Devers would enjoy living in England. Perhaps somewhere near Queen’s Malvern, or by Cadby where Henry makes his seat. I could be certain of seeing them every year, and it would certainly be as simple for me to come to Fortune’s lying-ins as it is with India. Yes! I shall give them a beautiful house in England as a wedding present, along with Maguire’s Ford.
    “Ye hae that look in yer eye,” her husband observed. “What are ye about, my darling Jasmine?”
    “Nothing,” she murmured back. “I am just deciding that I can possibly have my cake and eat it too, Jemmie.”
    “God help us all,” he rejoined.
    Jasmine again became the consummate hostess. “Dear Lady Jane,” she said, “you know, of course, our good Samuel Steen. And this is my cousin, Father Cullen Butler.”
    “My lady.” The priest bowed politely.
    She gave him the barest nod, and then turned her head away.
    “And it is good to see you again, Shane Devers,” Cullen Butler said, ignoring the woman’s snub. He knew of her reputation, and was not in the least offended. How it must pain her to have to sit quietly in the same room with him, he thought wickedly. I must give myself a penance for my mean spiritedness, he considered. Three Aves at most.
    “Father,” came the greeting from Sir Shane. “I suppose you’ve seen Kieran recently.” It was said almost bitterly.
    “I see him,” was the answer. No use rubbing salt into that wound. He wasn’t responsible for Kieran Devers’s decisions, nor was the church.
    “The young people seem to be getting on quite well,” the Reverend Steen noted cheerfully.
    “Aye,” his companions responded.
    “They make a handsome couple, don’t they?” Reverend Steen said.
    More murmurs of assent followed this observation.
    “There should be more to a good union than just two pretty faces,” Lady Jane said sharply.
    “In that I certainly concur,” Jasmine agreed.
    “Perhaps,” Cullen Butler said, “Lady Fortune would like to take Master William for a ride about the estate.”
    “What a good idea!” Fortune said. Sir