Besieged

wet with his tears.

Cullen Butler looked stricken, but Adali was far more pragmatic than the guilt-ridden priest. 'And if we had told you, Rory Maguire,' he said, 'what would you have done? What could you have done? Nothing! Who would have believed the manner in which my Lady Fortune was conceived? The knowledge of her true sire would have brought shame upon my princess, and the stain of bastardy upon Lady Fortune. You could have never expected to be a part of Lady Fortune's life, my lord Maguire. What happened twenty-one years ago was known to but four people. Madame Skye saw the truth, and questioned me. I did not lie to her. She is dead these seven years now, and only we three remain with our knowledge. What you did was a noble thing, my lord Maguire, and because I knew that you loved my princess I used you to save her. I felt no shame in my actions, nor should you have.

'I never knew my Lady Fortune would grow up as she did. I hoped that she would never see this place again, or you. But my princess has been determined for some years now to give this daughter Maguire's Ford. It was not up to me to tell her no, and it was only by unfortunate happenstance that you discovered the truth. I am sorry for you, my lord Maguire. 'Twill be a heavier burden for you to bear than any you have ever had before, but bear it in silence you will, or I will kill you myself. I will not have my princess, or her child, hurt by anyone. We will soon be returning to England, and that will be the end of it.'

'Aye,' Rory said quietly, 'there is nothing I can do but sigh over the daughter who doesn't know she is my daughter; but that will not be the end of it, Adali. You cannot expect me to go on as if none of this ever happened. In the future I shall expect a letter from you twice a year telling me about my daughter, and how she gets on. That is only fair under the circumstances.'

'Agreed,' Adali said. He was a practical man, and this was a sensible solution to a rather unfortunate incident. 'Remember, however, that my knowledge will not be firsthand once she is wed. There is talk that Lady Fortune and young Devers may go to a colony in the New World where all may worship as they choose. I will have to rely upon the letters sent to her mother, my lord Maguire.'

'Fair enough,' was the reply.

'I will pray for us all,' Cullen Butler said, 'especially you, Rory. Can you ever forgive me?'

'For what, Cullen Butler? You saved me from myself, and I fear Adali is right when he says I could never have been a part of my daughter's life without shaming both her and her mother.'

'Then it is settled?' Adali said briskly.

'It is settled,' Rory responded.

'And should you feel any bursts of foolishness overcome you, my lord Maguire, you will come to either me or the priest, eh?' A small smile creased Adali's brown face.

'I will,' Rory agreed. Aye, I will be practical, but you cannot prevent me from dreaming about what might have been, the Irishman thought to himself. You cannot prevent me from protecting my child if need be. I have missed all of her life but those first two months, and these past few weeks. I will take what little happiness I can before she is gone from me again, this time probably forever.

'I will return to the castle then,' Adali said, and turning he left his two companions.

'Stay, and have a bit of whiskey with me, Cullen Butler,' Rory said. 'You look as if you could use it. Strangely I think this is harder on you than on Adali and me.' He motioned the priest into the other chair by the peat fire, and pouring him a tumbler of whiskey handed it to him. 'Slanta!' he said, downing a goodly dollop from his own tumbler.

'Slanta!' the priest nodded, swallowing down half his portion. Then feeling stronger he said, 'You are truly content then, Rory?'

Maguire shrugged. 'What else can I do, good Father? God's blood, when I saw Aoife's face for the first time in all those years, and then recognized it as Fortune's face too! I thought at first I was imagining things. Then I realized I was not. So I do not die entirely alone one day. My daughter and her children will live on for me. It is a better fate than I had hoped for, Cullen Butler.'

'I am so sorry, my friend,' the priest said. 'That I should have been drawn into such a plot all those years ago still astounds me. Yet that plot saved my cousin's life though she knows it not. I remember asking my Aunt Skye how an action so wrong could be right. Do you know what she said to me? That the church was often wrong. That the laws to which they clung so determinedly were made by men, and not by God. She believed if mankind used more common sense we would be a great deal better off.' He smiled with his memory; then he sobered once again. 'But you were hurt by our actions, I know, Rory. I had thought it all behind us, and it might have been but that you sought out those miniatures. You must be discreet now, and I know it will be difficult for you for young Fortune is a willful lass.'

'So was Aoife,' Rory replied with a small chuckle. 'And now I know where Fortune gets her passion for horses from, for my sister had that same passion, and like Fortune was a marvelous horsewoman. She is not her mother, priest, but a headstrong Irish lass, I fear.'

'I will warn my cousin, Jasmine, to watch the lass more carefully,' Cullen Butler replied.

'And I'll be watching my daughter too,' Rory told him. ' 'Tis a good, if unfortunate, match she wants. Her desire for Kieran Devers has cost her Maguire's Ford. Still, I would not want her living under the constant threat of a charge of treason because of her husband's faith, which will happen if she remains in Ireland. When are the two young Leslie lads arriving to claim this gift from their mother?'

'Next spring,' the priest said. 'Jasmine has told me she wants to have them confirmed by the king in their rights to Maguire's Ford so that none can gainsay them. I am more than aware that Lady Devers has long had her beady blue eyes on this estate. She thought to gain it through Fortune, and while I will admit I thought William Devers suitable, I feared that woman's influence over her son. We may thank God that she herself has destroyed all chances of a match between Fortune and young Will; and we may praise God that Fortune is a wise lass who saw the danger in such a mother-in- law.'

'Aye,' Rory agreed, 'but she'll have made an enemy of that fine lady when her preference for Kieran Devers becomes public knowledge. Lady Jane will find it hard to stomach the fact that Fortune preferred her stepson over her son.'

'She cannot have her cake and eat it too,' Father Cullen answered him. 'She feared Fortune's influence while coveting the girl's dowry. Now she'll have neither, and my cousin, Jasmine, will make certain she does not gain Maguire's Ford and Erne Rock by foul means when she could not acquire them by fair.'

'I hope yer right,' Maguire said, 'but she's a determined woman, Jane Devers, for all the fact that she's English.'

Cullen Butler laughed. 'Now, Rory, my friend, even the English have their good side, or so I'm told, although the holy mother church might disagree.'

'And there's one time I'd be in agreement with the church myself,' came the dry reply. ' 'Twill not hurt to keep an eye on the Deverses when they return from England. Remember, the Leslie lads will not come until next spring, and they are young. We'll have to watch them closely lest that woman attempt to cause any mischief.'

'We'll watch together, you and I, my friend,' the priest said. 'We'll watch together.'

PART II