Besieged

The other women in the party, and the children, would remain in Ulster until the following summer when the Cardiff Rose would return for them, and then travel in company with the Highlander, the vessel which would contain the horses, and other livestock. It was planned that over the winter a house would be built for the Deverses as well as the others so that when the women arrived they and the children could be properly sheltered from the elements.

Once the men reached their destination on the far side of the sea, they would buy in Virginia oxen, a milk cow, and a horse for Kieran. That way come the spring they would be able to plow. They had already heard the Virginia colonists were not particularly friendly, being jealous of Mary's Land's special status. Fortune knew, however, that enough coin could overcome most reluctance, and advised her husband to make the best bargain he could, but to obtain what he needed at any price for their success, or failure, depended on it.

'You are so sensible,' he told her one day as they went over a list of what had already been obtained. 'I am sorry you cannot come with me, sweetheart.'

She smiled up at him. 'I want so very much to go with you,' she said, 'but I realize now it is better I don't. You must place your entire concentration on preparing our estate to be profitable, Kieran. I would be a burden to you, for you would fret over me in my current condition.'

He placed his hand on her belly which had only recently begun to round slightly. 'I hate that I will not be here when our son is born,' he replied. 'I remember my da, God assoil him, saying that the midwife took me from my mam's womb, and placed me directly into his hands. I wish I could be here to do the same thing, sweetheart.' He caressed her stomach tenderly. 'My son,' he said, almost awestruck.

'Our child,'' she corrected him gently. 'This could be a lass, or a lad, Kieran. I care not as long as the bairn is healthy.'

He kissed her mouth softly. 'I agree, Fortune.' He kissed her again, and this time his kiss was a bit more passionate. 'Just think. This time last year we were falling in love.'

She laughed, and it was a happy sound. 'You are the most sentimental man I have ever met, Kieran Devers,' she told him. 'I knew I was right to love you even if it did cost me Maguire's Ford.'

The summer ended. Jasmine, along with her baby daughter, Autumn Leslie, came south to England to Queen's Malvern. The duke and his eldest son would remain at Glenkirk, but the duchess could not be dissuaded from being with her second daughter when she was with child. As Autumn was almost a year old now, she was able to travel more comfortably. Kieran felt better knowing Fortune's mother would be with her when their child was born.

'You are both wise,' Jasmine said, 'to have delayed Fortune's going. With first babies one can never be certain when they will come. It is better that Fortune remain here with us. Charlie will be off for court shortly, and we will have Queen's Malvern all to ourselves.'

Charles Frederick Stuart celebrated his twentieth birthday. His brother, Henry Lindley, marquess of Westleigh, his older sister, India, countess of Oxton, and her husband, Deveral Leigh, came from their homes to help the not-so-royal Stuart commemorate the occasion. Jasmine looked about the hall that night. Here were her four eldest children. Once they had been so close. Now they were all grown, and making a great fuss over Autumn Leslie, the youngest of them all.

She looked at her Stuart son. 'You are your father's image,' she told Charlie. 'He was twenty when he died. Thank God you have a stronger constitution. When he was born in Scotland they treated him like some Indian idol in my native land. He was carried about by his servants until he was four. He told me once that when they left him alone for the night he would creep from his bed, and run up and down his room. If he had not done so his poor legs would have been as weak as his baby brother's. Your poor Uncle Charles was less venturesome, and had a terrible time learning to walk. You may notice, Charlie, that even today he strides with an odd gait.'

'I wondered where that had come from,' Charlie replied. 'You were older than my father, Mama, weren't you?'

'By three and a half years,' Jasmine said, 'but no one thought a great deal about it. I think they were relieved he had finally taken a mistress, thus proving his manhood. You know the rumors that always swirled about your grandfather, King James.' She smiled, and patted his hand. 'And you, my son? Has any lady yet stolen your heart?'

Charlie flushed. 'I am the king's nephew. No matter I was born on the wrong side of the blanket, I am still his nephew, and the ladies are always most kind,' the not-so-royal Stuart replied, a twinkle in his eye.

'Too bad Mama wasn't married to Prince Henry,' Henry Lindley observed. 'You'd be king now, and a better king, I think, than poor old royal Charles. If there is one thing he's certain of, 'tis his stature, but he cannot make any decision having to do with governance without mulling it to death. And do not dare to disagree with him. He takes neither suggestion, nor criticism, lightly.'

'He is not a bad king,' Jasmine defended the monarch.

'Aye, he is,' the marquess of Westleigh said, 'even if he does mean well, Mama. Still, at least our Charlie is spared Henrietta Marie as a wife,' he chuckled. 'An overproud, and pious little Catholic. Her very existence causes difficulties.'

'Henry! Remember that your brother-in-law is a Catholic. I did not raise you to voice, or even consider, such prejudice,' Jasmine admonished her oldest son.

'Mama, I am not anti-Catholic. I am practical, and speak the truth,' the marquess said. 'I would say the same if she were a pious little Puritan. Extremism is not healthy for a country, or its government. England is changing, and I am not certain I like the change.'

'The English have shown a one-sidedness in religion for centuries,' Kieran spoke up. 'Perhaps not the people, but its rulers.'

'The people too,' Henry Lindley said fatalistically.

'I thought you had all come to celebrate my natal day,' Charlie said with a grin. 'I don't want to discuss politics, or religion. We are together as we will never be again. Soon our sister will leave us for this new world of hers. I want to eat, and drink, and reminisce tonight. Do you remember when we all fled to France because my grandfather, King James, and my grandmother, Queen Anne, decided that Jemmie Leslie was the perfect husband for Mama?'

'And it took him two years to find us because no one would tell him where we were,' India laughed.

'Until Madame Skye hinted so broadly that he would have had to be a dunce not to find us, and he did,' Charlie chuckled.

'He only found us because he followed our great-grandmother to France when she came to tell Mama our great-grandfather had died. But,' Fortune said, 'Papa was just the right husband for Mama, and the perfect father for us!'

'Except when he is so bull-headed that he cannot be reasoned with at all,' India said.

'God's blood, India,' Henry Lindley said to his eldest sister, 'you're not still holding a grudge against poor Glenkirk? I thought you had forgiven him long ago. He did what he thought right.'

'Oh, I've forgiven him,' India replied, 'but I was just remembering how he almost cost Dev and me our firstborn.'

'I'd rather think of our childhoods,' Fortune said. 'What times we had when Mama was at court, and we got to stay with Madame Skye and Grandfather Adam. Remember the black pony he got you, India?'

India giggled. 'I had been begging for that pony since you were born,' she said. 'In fact I remember telling him I should rather have a black pony than a baby sister. Do you remember when you were three, Fortune, and you managed, although to this day we don't know how, to clamber on that