All the Sweet Tomorrows

'Conn?' she gasped. 'A member of your personal guard?'

'Aye,' Elizabeth replied. 'He's a rogue, 'tis true, madam, but he has a good heart, I've found. Be sensible, my dear. Your brother is. What is there for Conn O'Malley in Ireland? Not only is he the youngest son, he is the youngest child of your father. He has neither lands nor wealth to recommend him. He must make his own fortune, and what better place to make it than here in my service?'

She had known that the Queen was right with regard to her brother, and after she had spoken with him Skye decided to do as the Queen suggested and make Michael O'Malley the head of the family. The Queen had made it very clear that she would no longer tolerate Skye in such a position of potential power; power that could be used against her.

'I do not mind your dabbling in trade, madam, but I will not give you shelter and then have you use your O'Malley ships against me.'

There was a time when Skye would have rebelled against such an edict, but not now. She was wonderfully content with Adam and all her children, and she wanted peace in her life at last. She wrote to her brothers in Ireland telling them of her decision to appoint Michael the O'Malley. To Michael and to Anne, she wrote the reasons for her decision. To her three younger brothers, she explained her decision simply by saying that they had too much to do rebuilding their wealth to be bothered with the care of their people. With her letters went the Queen's patents for privateering that the O'Malley brothers had desired.

Several days after Twelfth Night Skye and Adam had left London with Deirdre and Velvet to travel to their new home. Bran Kelly intended to sail in convoy with Robbie to the Far East, a voyage that would keep them out of England for two to three years. Daisy, therefore, decided to stay with Skye, and packing up her two sons and her elderly mother-in-law, she came along. Dame Cecily, also getting along in years though she vigorously denied it, was persuaded to close up Wren Court and come to live with the de Mariscos.

'Haven't you always been mother to me and grandmother to my children since I arrived in England?' Skye had demanded. 'I would worry myself to death if you stayed alone down in Devon.'

'I have stayed alone most of my life, dearest Skye,' the old woman protested weakly.

'But I need you, Dame Cecily,' Skye replied, and she smiled coaxingly.

'Well, if you are sure you need me…'

'Oh, I do!'

'We both do,' Adam had said, putting an arm about Dame Cecily.

Skye now smiled to herself as she remembered how the tears had filled Dame Cecily's eyes. They were all so fortunate to have each other! She stood before Queen's Malvern, and she knew with certainty that she had at last come home.

'You're happy,' Adam said quietly.

'Yes,' she answered, taking his hand. 'I’m happy, Adam, my darling. Do you realize that this is our first real home? We are home at long, long last, my Adam!'

'Yes,' he replied. 'Our home! Our home for now, and for all the sweet tomorrows!' Adam de Marisco bent and kissed Skye with a deep and passionate kiss. Then sweeping his wife up into his arms, he carried her through the open door of Queen's Malvern and into their home. Their home for now and all the sweet tomorrows.

***

O wind-drifted Branch, lift your head to the sun,
For the sap of new life in your veins hath begun,
And a little young bud of the tenderest green
Mine eyes through the snow and the sorrow have seen!

O little green bud, break and blow into flower,
Break and blow through the welcome of sunshine and shower;
'Twas a long night and dreary you hid there forlorn,
But now the cold hills wear the radiance of morn!

– Ethna Carbery

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bertrice Small is the best-selling author of The Kadin, Love Wild and Fair, Adora, Skye O'Malley, Unconquered, and Beloved. She lives in the oldest English settlement in the state of New York, a small village on the eastern end of Long Island. She is called 'Sunny' by her friends, and 'Lust's Leading Lady' by her fans; but her son insists that to him, she's just plain 'Mom.'

Mrs. Small works at an antique desk in a light-filled pink, green, and white studio overlooking her old-fashioned rose and flower garden. It is furnished in what she describes as a mixture of office modern and Turkish harem. Mrs. Small's only companions as she writes creating her handsome rogues, dashing renegades, and beautiful vixens are her typewriter, Rebecca, and Checquers, a black and white kitten with big pink ears, who has recently joined the family and is trying very hard to fill the large niche left by the departure of Ditto, who died after 15V2 happy years. As Ditto so often said:

Man can live without pandas, gorillas, or frogs;

He can live without chickens and live without hogs.

He can live without sparrows and live without bats,

But civilized man cannot live without CATS.

– Hiram and Other Cats, by Lawrence Dwight Smith, Grosset and Dunlap, Inc., New York, 1941

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

When Skye O'Malley was published in October of 1980 the overwhelming response to its heroine was nothing short of incredible. No one was more surprised than I was, for although I had created Skye, I had never expected her to assume such larger-than-life proportions. The one question asked of me over and over again was: 'Will there be a sequel?' Quite honestly, at the time I did not think so. Four husbands, five living children, and all those passionate adventures seemed quite a feat for a sixteenth-century Irish lady who wasn't even thirty when the novel ended.

What I had not reckoned on was that although I was through with Skye, Skye was most assuredly not through with me! My characters do have a way of taking me over. I hope you have enjoyed this sequel to