Free A Rose in Splendor by Laura Parker Page B

veins. The others do not have it. ’Tis what sets ye apart.”
    Deirdre shook her head. “Once I thought I was destined to be someone special, but I do not feel it anymore, not as I did when I was a child. Do you remember?”
    Brigid looked away from her. How could she forget the dreams that had come to a wee lass too young to know their import?
    “I suppose I should be grateful the nightmares stopped,” Deirdre continued. “Still, sometimes I think that those dreams were more real than not. They made me feel alive. I seemed to know when something of great importance was about to happen. Strange. I wonder what became of them.”
    “Are you troubled by dreams now, lass?” she asked quietly.
    “Nae, Brigid. ’Tis only that I’m so confused and I cannot name the cause. Lady Elva urges marriage, but surely marriage should wait until I’ve found the cure.”
    “Perhaps marriage is the cure,” Brigid offered gently, but relief flowed through her with the knowledge that Deirdre was not eager to wed.
    Deirdre shook her head. “No marriage for me today. I’ve indulged my wayward emotions enough for one day. It must be Darragh and Conall’s return that sparks my perversity. I’m jealous, ’tis all. They pat me on the head and give Da their entire attention. There, ’tis said. I should be sent to bed without my pudding.” She smiled again, her soft green eyes suddenly bright with guile “You won’t do that to me, will you, Brigid, not when there’s gooseberry tart for dessert tonight?”
    “Get on with ye!” Brigid chided, giving the younger woman a gentle shove. “Ye’ve not changed a whit since ye were a bairn.”
    Deirdre sobered instantly. “I know you care for me, and you worry more than you should.”
    “We’ll be knowing that when ye’re settled, won’t we?” Brigid answered obliquely. “As for yer brothers, why do ye no slip into the study, quiet as a mouse, and settle in a corner to listen? They cannot mind that.”
    The light of hope flared and died in Deirdre’s face. “Lady Elva expects me to help her choose new fabric.”
    Brigid’s broad pale face became mobile at last. “Och, well, I can at last understand yer fears. ’Tis monstrous hard, her ladyship is, to be heaving such a burden on yer young shoulders. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn next that she’s banished ye to work in the scullery.”
    Deirdre smiled at herself, for indeed she did sound petty. “Oh, very well. I will go up to her for an hour. But then I will slip into Da’s study and listen to the menfolk.”
    Brigid watched Deirdre hurry toward the house, the girl’s ankles showing where she had lifted her skirts. “The lass may be nearly a woman, but she’s a bit yet to learn what life holds in store for her.”
    She touched the tiny flint stone that hung from her neck by a string looped through the natural hole in its center. It was a witch-stone, symbol of the Ever-watching Eye, said to protect one from dreams.
    Every night since their arrival in France she had tucked this stone under Deirdre’s pillow and the child had slept untroubled by the bewitchment of dreams. As a beanfeasa , a wise woman, she knew the words to make the stone obey her command.
    The magic of the stone was losing its power. Though Deirdre had denied it, Brigid saw signs in the girl’s restlessness that the dreams were returning. There were other signs, too, things that only Brigid had been chosen to see.
    The charm’s power was failing. It was an omen, a warning that it was time for Deirdre to return to Ireland, and Lord Fitzgerald must be made to accept it.

Chapter Four
    Deirdre gazed fondly but enviously at her brothers as they sat at the evening meal. Next to them in their emerald brocade coats with gold brandenburgs and lace-edged cravats, she felt like a dowd in her pale yellow-sprigged muslin gown. Nor did her coiffure compare in grandness with theirs. But about that, at least, she felt less ungenerous.
    Her eyes darted