should give away her cream to a prospective purchaser, and he decide he does not like it, then perhaps he will not want the cow, eh? Master Kieran is a man in every sense as several of the girls in this village will attest to, Fortune. You are but an inexperienced virgin. Save yourself until you have his ring on your finger else he lose interest.'
'I had not thought of it that way,' Fortune considered. 'I have allowed my passions to overwhelm me, and am behaving foolishly. You are right, Rohana. Best his ring is on my finger, and my ring in his nose before I give myself to Kieran Devers.'
Rohana chuckled. 'Aye,' she agreed. 'Tease him if you will to keep his interest up, and to keep him eager, but wait until your wedding night to let him get between your legs, child.'
'How can you know so much, and you still considered a maiden?' Fortune wondered.
'Why have you never wed?' Fortune asked her.
'Because I never wanted to marry,' Rohana answered. 'I like the freedom I have being
Fortune nodded. 'Will you tell Mama?'
'Nay. I know I can trust you, and that this conversation was just between us. Do not disappoint me, child,' Rohana said softly.
'It won't be easy,' Fortune admitted.
'I know,' came the sympathetic reply.
The next few weeks seemed to pass quickly. Fortune spent most her time out of doors riding Thunder. She saw Kieran but briefly now and again. Her appetite ceased. She was restless at night, and sleep, when it did come, was unsettled, and filled with confusing dreams that she could only just vaguely recall when morning came, but she could never really remember what she had dreamed. Toward the end of July Kieran and Fortune met at Black Colm's Hall.
'This will be the last time we see each other for awhile,' he told her. 'My brother will be home on the first. My dear stepmother is, as always, prompt and efficient. The Elliots will arrive from Londonderry on the fifth to finalize the marriage agreement, and the wedding plans. It will be impossible for me to get away, sweetheart. Every moment of my day will be taken up by my father and his wife in pursuit of the perfect wedding day for Willy and his cousin. I'll try and come if I can get away, but I'll be unable to send word. If you are not here, I will leave a message for you beneath our bench, held down with a large rock. You do the same.'
Fortune nodded bleakly. Weeping and bemoaning this turn of events wouldn't change anything. 'It will be hard, Kieran,' she said.
He took her in his arms, holding her against him. 'I know.' He kissed her lips softly. 'You have not attempted to seduce me in our last meetings, Fortune. Do you yet love me, or have you had a change of heart?'
'Do you think me that fickle then?' she demanded half-angrily. 'And what do you mean I haven't tried to seduce you? When did I ever attempt to seduce you, Kieran Devers? It is said that women are vain, but I think it is you men who are filled with conceit!'
He laughed wickedly. 'If I offered to make love to you now, this very minute, what would you say, sweetheart?' he teased her.
'I would say you are a pompous ass!' Fortune snapped at him.
He laughed all the harder. 'I love you, my wild wench,' he told her, 'and in a bit over two months you will be my wife. I can hardly wait, Fortune, and that is the truth.'
She pulled his head down to hers, and kissed him slowly and deeply. Her firm young body pressed itself seductively against him as her lips worked themselves against his lips. She ran her tongue over his mouth, then pushed it into his mouth to stroke his tongue sensuously, nipping at that tongue when he played too fiercely with hers. Her fingers kneaded the nape of his neck, and she rubbed herself suggestively against him. It grew more difficult to remember her promise to Rohana as each minute passed. Her riding trousers did not offer the kind of protection that her many skirts would have, and she could feel him, hard and eager, against her belly.
His head was spinning. He held her so tightly that he wondered if she could breathe, and yet she writhed and twisted in his arms easily, arousing his basest passions. It was all he could do not to push her to the ground, and ravish her as he desired her so terribly. He could feel the full softness of her young breasts, and the flatness of her tender belly pressing against his muscled body. He wanted her as he had never wanted any woman, yet he felt something was different. A month ago she would have succumbed to his erotic blandishments. Now, however, he sensed the steel in her. She would not seduce him, nor would he be able to seduce her. His arms dropped from about her, and Fortune stepped back.
'Remember me until we meet again, Kieran Devers,' she said softly, and then turning from him she mounted Thunder, and without a backward glance rode off.
He watched her go. She was his, he knew, and would eventually become more woman than any he had known, but he had been right. She would have destroyed his younger brother. Willy would be angry when he learned the truth of Fortune's passions, but Kieran Devers knew in his heart that Emily Anne Elliot was a better match for the heir to Mallow Court. His hand went to his groin, and he rubbed himself. The little witch who would shortly be his wife had roused him mightily. He walked slowly back and forth across the ruins of Black Colm's Hall, quieting his lust. His passions finally eased, he mounted his own stallion and galloped off towards his home.
In early afternoon on the first of August the Deverses returned to Lisnaskea, their coach rumbling down the drive of Mallow Court to stop before its front door. The footman hurried from the house to open the door, let down the carriage steps, and help his mistress from her traveling equipage. Jane Anne Devers looked about her with a pleased smile, and shook her skirts which had become crumpled within the confines of her vehicle.
'Welcome home, madame,' Kieran said, coming forward to greet his stepmother, a smile on his handsome face. 'I trust my sisters, and their families are all well. Will they be coming home for Willy's nuptials?'
'Unfortunately no as both of them are breeding again. They are more like Catholics than Protestants in their desire to have large, and rather unwieldy, families,' his stepmother replied. She glanced about. 'All looks in good order, Kieran. You have done well, and I thank you for husbanding your brother's patrimony so diligently.' She then swept past him into the house.
His father descended from the coach followed by his younger brother.
'Thank God we're home,' Shane Devers said. 'May I never have to go more than five miles from Lisnaskea ever again, laddie. Yer sister, Colleen, wrote well of ye, and as you can see, yer stepmother is pleased. Now, laddies, I want a good sup of my own whiskey.'
'The tray is awaiting you in the library, Da. Coming, Willy?' Kieran looked to his sibling who was oddly quiet.
'I'm marrying Emily Anne,' William Devers said dully.
