Bedazzled

Henry Lindley, the nineteen-year-old marquis of Westleigh, arrived the following morning. 'I've come to stay until we escort India to her new husband at Oxton,' he announced, kissing his sister soundly on both cheeks. 'You've grown thin, lovey. Tell me what has happened.'

They sat together in the family hall at Queen's Malvern eating baked apples and clotted cream while India told Henry what she had told Charlie the evening before. Her brother listened, his handsome face impassive but for his eyes, which mirrored his emotions.

'You've had a hard time of it,' he said when she had finally concluded her tale. 'I agree that our stepfather was harsh, but I can also understand his fear that you not be considered marriageable after such an adventure. Times have changed since our great-grandmother and her contemporaries' day. The Puritans are gaining power. They would call you a fallen woman, and make your life and your son's a misery, India,' he concluded with a small smile. He was a very handsome young man with his father's tawny hair matching his Van Dyke mustache, and their mother's turquoise blue eyes.

'I might have known you would take his side,' India said, half angry.

Henry Lindley shook his head. 'I take no one's side, sister. As a man, however, I understand the duke's difficulty. If the truth had been known, both you and the child would have been ostracized. Your son ain't no royal Stuart, after all, and Mama barely got away with it herself, but that Prince Henry's parents were soft-hearted.' Reaching out, he patted her hand. 'Set your mind to making a new start, lovey, and mayhap you will get your child back if this husband you've taken falls in love with you, which he is bound to do if you will but smile and half try.'

'And just when do you plan to take a wife, brother dear?' India cooed at him.

The marquis of Westleigh rolled his eyes. 'God's blood, lovey. I ain't ready to settle down yet. Charlie and I have a few more oats to sow,' he chuckled.

'You've been to court?' India was surprised.

'The winters are dull at Cadby,' the marquis pronounced. 'Aye, I spent the winter at court, and what a time of it it was. The parliament and the king constantly fighting over the muck-up that's been made in the war with Spain, and the fact that parliament don't think enough has been done to help the French Protestants. I sat in Lords a few times, and what I've heard was enough to keep me down here in the country in the future. Charles Stuart is a good man, but a terrible king, I regret to say.'

The duke of Lundy nodded. 'I fear for my uncle,' he said. 'It isn't just those who hate Buckingham, India, it's the fanatics as well. The king likes the Anglican service in church. He is accused of advancing and elevating the high churchmen, whom the Puritans call Arminians, over those churchmen who they prefer.'

'What's the difference?' India asked him. 'Church is church.'

'Nay, Sister, not in the minds of those men. The high churchmen believe in free will rather than predestination to achieve salvation. They hold to a more Catholic ritual and rites in the church service. Their sermons are mightily long, and they are given to impromptu prayers. For the Puritans everything must be plain and hard, and just so. God's mercy extends only to those who do exactly what they say must be done. Ritual and rite are forbidden. It's all quite ridiculous on both sides.'

'And then there was the Petition of Rights that was drawn up,' the duke of Lundy said. 'Lords concurred. We disapprove of forced loans to the royal treasury, which are never repaid. We dislike having the king's soldiers billeted in our homes without reimbursement, and we are against arrest and imprisonment without just cause. The king accepted the petition, but it is unlikely he'll abide by it. He dissolved the parliament when it threatened to impeach Buckingham for the mess in Spain. That's when Henry and me excused ourselves, and came home.'

'There's going to be trouble sooner or later,' Henry Lindley said darkly, 'and I'd just as soon be safe at home when it comes.'

***

For the next few days, India and her brothers forgot that they were grown now, and romped happily together. They hunted and fished. They rowed on the lake. They sat in the gardens of Queen's Malvern talking. They knew it would never be this way again for them. They voiced their sadness over the fact Fortune was not with them, and wondered what would happen to her in the next few months.

'She'll not accept any man she doesn't want,' Henry said wisely, and his siblings agreed.

Finally they could delay no longer. It was less than a day's ride over to Oxton Court, and India knew she had to go. A dozen Glenkirk men would escort her before Red Hugh took his troupe north again into Scotland. Charlie Stuart and Henry Lindley rode with their sister. Diarmid and Meggie had gone on ahead the day before to tell the earl of Oxton that his bride would be arriving.

The respite from her travels had done India good. Her brother's servants had fed her and cosseted her for almost a week. Her eyes had lost their lackluster look, and sparkled golden again. She wore a rich blue silk riding outfit, trimmed lavishly in lace, and in cream-and-gold braid. Topping her dark curls was a blue velvet cap with two soft white plumes. She rode astride as she was accustomed to doing, but her full, long skirts were draped modestly to prevent any show of leg above her leather boots.

They left the hour after sunrise, stopping at a small inn to rest themselves and their horses at the midday hour. They reached Oxton Court in early afternoon. Red Hugh had sent a rider on ahead to warn the earl of their impending arrival. On the hill above Oxton, India looked down into the valley where the house was set. It was very beautiful. Her new home was of weathered old brick, the four wings built about a quadrangle. Sheep grazed placidly in the green meadows. She could see her horses browsing contentedly in the verdant pastures. A splash of color on one side of the house indicated gardens. It was a large and lovely old house with a slate roof that obviously had been built around the same time as Queen's Malvern. A small village with a church was clustered at the far end of the valley. India and her party began their descent.

The road wound through lush orchards, whose trees were already heavy with half-grown apples and pears. It was all very peaceful, and a wonderful place to raise children, India thought. Please God, she prayed. Let the earl be a kind man who will allow me to bring my son to live here. I will be a good wife to him, I promise. Just let me regain my wee Rowan again. He is all I have left of Caynan Reis.

They drew nearer to the house, and suddenly, from the courtyard, a man came walking, stopping just past the archway into the quadrangle. She strained to see his face, but the sun was in her eyes. All she could tell was that he was formally dressed in black to greet her. India shivered. What if they did not like each other? What if they could not come to some sort of arrangement? The horses stopped before the man, and, reaching up, he lifted India from her mount. She gazed shyly up at him, and was terrified by what she saw. A long scar ran from his left eye to the left corner of his mouth, and his blue eyes were icy. Unable to help herself, she shivered.

Her brothers had quickly dismounted, and Henry, stepping forward, held out his hand to the earl of Oxton. 'I am Henry Lindley, sir, the marquis of Westleigh,' he said. Then he drew his younger sibling forward. 'And this is my brother, Charles Frederick Stuart, the duke of Lundy. We have brought our sister, Lady India, your bride, home to you, my lord.'

Deverall Leigh shook hands with both young men. 'I thank you, my lords,' he said. 'Will you stay the night with us?' He offered India his arm, and began to escort her through the archway into the courtyard.

'Thank you, my lord,' Henry spoke for them both, 'but we must return to Queen's Malvern so I may go home to Cadby tomorrow.'

'You will take a cup of wine with us, though, gentlemen,' the earl said. 'Oxton Court is known for its hospitality, and I would not want it said I sent my bride's brothers on their way