Bedazzled

misadventures. Her intended had agreed to all the conditions laid down by the Leslies of Glenkirk in order to protect their daughter and her personal wealth. The large dowry had already been paid, but here it was the beginning of May, and the bride was nowheres fit to travel south to her new lord. Indeed, she grew thinner and paler with every passing day. A large-eyed, dark-haired wraith whose only show of spirit was the look of hatred she fastened on her parents whenever they came into her view.

'I tried to stop him,' Jasmine attempted to explain to her eldest child as she sat with her one afternoon, trying to reach her. 'For the first time in all our marriage, I could not reason with him, India. I am attempting to find out where they have taken your son. When I do, I swear to you that the lad will lack for nothing!'

'Except his mother,' India responded bitterly. 'How could you, madame? You of all people, who was forcibly taken from her own natural mother. How could you rob me of the only thing I had left of Caynan Reis? At least my grandmother had the comfort of knowing that you were with your father, and your foster mother was her dear friend, Rugaiya Begum. I have no such comfort. My lawful husband is dead in an uprising, our son is stolen from me, and I am to be sent as wife to some stranger. I want my child returned to me!' She had not spoken so much, or so very passionately, since they had brought her back to Glenkirk from A-Cuil.

'I do not know where Rowan is,' Jasmine repeated. 'I am trying to find out, India, but I am not capable of miracles. Jemmie has been most adamant in this matter. As for your betrothed husband, you have little time left to dissemble on the subject. Your marriage has been arranged, and you will go to England as soon as you can travel. No later than the end of the month, your father says.' She caught her daughter's hands in hers, and looked into those dreadful, dead eyes India now possessed. 'It is a good match, India, and he agreed to all our terms. Considering your age, we are very lucky.'

'I was content to take my child, find my own home, and live a quiet, discreet life, madame,' India replied. She was ready at last to voice her anger.

'How would you have explained Rowan?' her mother asked.

'Why would I have to explain my son?' India snapped. 'Did not my great-grandmother return from Algiers enceinte? And who dared to challenge her story of a Spanish merchant who had been her husband? Aunt Willow was accepted to polite society. She even served the old queen as a maid of honor, and married quite well, too. Why was I not believed? Why was my son ripped from my breast just hours after his birth and hidden away as if he was something shameful?'

'There has never, ever been any question regarding my aunt's parentage,' Jasmine said defensively.

India snorted derisively. 'I suppose it was a simpler time,' she said mockingly. 'It would have been better if I had lived then rather than now. Then I should have my child with me.'

'I am doing my best,' Jasmine wearily told her daughter.

'Your best is not good enough, madame,' India answered her coldly. 'You should have prevented your husband from kidnapping my son.'

'India, your father did what he thought was right to protect you!' Jasmine cried.

'James Leslie is not my father, madame. Rowan Lindley was my father. As for you, you may have given me life, but I should have been better off being raised by a she-wolf as by you. You, who played the strumpet before the whole court with Prince Henry and bore his bastard openly and proudly. You, who kept the child of that liaison, yet, I, who was lawfully wed to my husband, has been robbed of our child. Now you want me to marry a husband of your choosing, and go off to England as if everything is perfect so the bloody Leslies of Glenkirk, and their overproud duke, will not be put to scorn and shame. Well, madame, I shall indeed go, and do your bidding, but for one reason, and one reason alone. To get away from you and James Leslie. You will never be welcome in my home. I never want to see either of you again once I have departed this place!'

Jasmine staggered back as if her daughter had physically assaulted her. India's words, cold, hard, unforgiving, battered her. Her chest felt tight, and she could barely breathe with the pain.

'Who is he?' India demanded.

'What?' Jasmine croaked the single word.

'Neither you, nor your husband have bothered to tell me who this paragon is that I am to wed,' India said. 'Who is he?'

'The earl of Oxton,' Jasmine began, only to be interrupted by a screech from her outraged daughter.

'The earl of Oxton? Adrian's father? He is a dying man, and he has a wife!' India shrilled.

'Adrian's father is dead. He died some months ago,' Jasmine murmured. 'His second wife, the Italian woman, was returned to her family by the current earl, Lord Deverall Leigh.'

'Adrian's brother? The murderer? 'Really, madame, this is too much, even for you and your husband to have done!' India was outraged to her very core. They would marry her to a murderer?

'Lord Leigh has been cleared of all the charges concerning Lord Jeffers's death,' Jasmine began hesitantly, waiting for India to shriek again, and when she didn't, continued hurriedly. 'He returned to England several months ago with the information that exonerated him, and the king gave him a pardon. He was reunited with his father, who died shortly thereafter. The dowager countess was then sent to Italy, banished by royal command from ever entering England again. Lord Leigh saw you at court when you were a child. He inquired regarding your marital status, and when he learned you were not wed, offered for you. It is an ideal arrangement, India. Despite the royal pardon, he is slightly tarnished by the matter that threatened his good name for so long. Respectable families will not consider him as a son-in-law. As for you, while there is no firm ground upon which you may be charged with misbehavior publicly, there are too many suspicious, and enough wagging tongues who remember your less-than-discreet conduct regarding Adrian Leigh, which renders you equally difficult to match no matter your vast wealth and excellent connections,' Jasmine concluded.

'You would not let me marry Adrian, but you will allow me to marry his wastrel half-brother? I am confused,' India said sarcastically.

'The earls of Oxton are a reputable family,' Jasmine explained, ignoring her daughter's caustic tone. 'Deverall Leigh's mother was Susanne Deverall, daughter of the marquise of Whitley, another eminent family. The unfortunate Adrian had a foreign mother of less-than-distinguished lineage. According to Lady Stewart-Hepburn, the di Carlo family in Naples were merchant-traders less than two generations ago.'

'Both the Leslies and the O'Malley family are in trade,' India said. 'What makes us any different from the di Carlos?'

'Really, India,' Jasmine answered her daughter, surprised. 'Our families were noble first, and merchant-traders only because we enjoy it, and the gold that flows into our coffers from our endeavors. Had the di Carlos not helped some duke avoid a scandal, they could not have climbed as high as they did, and they have come no further. Had not their daughter's youth and beauty captivated the late Lord Charles Leigh, who knows what would have happened to her. As it was, she was no better than a whore in her behavior, which undoubtedly drove poor Lord Charles to his death. His eldest son, however, is a very suitable match for you. He is, I am told, a pleasant-looking man, whose youthful exuberance has been long since tempered by his adventures.'

'It matters not,' India said stonily.

'He wants children,' Jasmine said softly.

'Do you think another man's child will make me forget my firstborn?' India replied icily. 'Did Grandmother really ever forget you, madame? How many tears did she weep in hidden silence? I will weep far more not even knowing the fate of my son.'

'I will find him, I swear it!' Jasmine promised her daughter.