Skye O'Malley

Niall sat on the edge of the bed and drew her into his arms.?”You’ve been weeping.” It was a statement.

“It was easier when I thought you’d betrayed me,” she said softly,?believing he would understand.

“For me also, my darling.” He reached out and caressed her dark?hair.

“Your wife-T She had to ask.

“Is keeping one of her interminable vigils in the chapel. She does?it to avoid me, but I care not. Bedding her is like bedding a dead?thing.”

“Oh, Niall…” Her voice broke, and she buried her face in his?shoulder.

“Skye! Ah, love, don’t weep! Damn, Skye, you’ll break my?heart!” His mouth gently found hers. Sighing deeply, she slid her?arms about his neck, and gave herself over into his keeping. His hand found the swell of her breast, and it seemed so natural, so?right. She pulled her lips away from him long enough to whisper,?”Yes, Niall! Oh, please love me!” Then her mouth fused fiercely?to his again, and she was lost in a burst of searing passion that swept? over her body instantly, nearly rendering her unconscious.

His hand gently caressed the ripening mound. “I wish to Heaven?he were mine,” he muttered huskily. “God! You’re so beautiful with?the babe growing in you, like one of the old Celtic fertility god-?desses.”

“I prayed so hard,” she whispered. “When I was at St. Bride’s?I prayed you’d gotten me with child. How I wept when I found it?wasn’t so. Eibhlin says they feared for my sanity. Then Dom?came…” her voice trailed off.

“I’ll kill him,” Niall said quietly.

“And what of your poor wife? Would you kill her also? What?harm has that unfortunate creature done to either of us? You say she?was to be a nun, and from what you tell me she had a true vocation.?Has she not been harmed as deeply as we?” Skye drew a deep breath?and pulled away from him, her blue eyes intent. “Niall! Oh, Niall,?my love! We are inescapably wed to other people. There is no hope?for us. I love you, Niall, but when I return to Ballyhennessey I want?never to set eyes on you again. I cannot see you and keep my love?for you from the world. Dom is already suspicious. I want no trouble?between the two of you, for he is foolish and apt to be treacherous.?I am not so innocent as to beg that you forget me. We will not?forget, either of us, but we must part.”

He pulled her back into his arms. “I cannot bear to lose you?again,” he said brokenly.

“Oh, my love, you never really had me,” she answered sadly.

For a few minutes longer they clung to each other, unwilling for?the bittersweet interlude to end. Then, kissing her tenderly, he laid?her back against the pillows. “I’ll find other times during this visit?when we can talk,” he said. “Promise me one thing, though. Promise?me you’ll ask my help should you ever need it. I will not rest easy?if you do not give me your word, Skye, and swear to it. I’ll not?have O’Flaherty mistreating you.”

“I do not fear Dom. As long as I play the beautiful and docile?wife for him in public, his vanity is fed enough.” She would not tell?him the truth, tell him of her husband’s degrading ways in their bed,?for it would only infuriate Niall and there was nothing he could do?about it. “Sit with me but a moment longer,” she begged. Smiling,?he took her hand. She closed her eyes. Soon she was asleep. Gently?drawing the featherbedding over her, he unbolted the door and?slipped from the room.

Making his way back to the banquet hall, Niall dismissed his?page for the night. Then, turning to seek his own quarters, he almost?collided with a young squire. “Your pardon, my lord, but the?MacWilliam would see you.” Niall nodded and immediately sought?the old man’s rooms.

He found his father sitting up in bed, a nightcap upon his leonine?head. His gouty foot was freshly bound, and he held a goblet in his?hand. Niall bent and sniffed the cup. “I thought malmsey was bad?for your foot,” he noted.

“That quack of a doctor tells me everything is bad for my foot.?I suppose if I could still fuck he’d tell me that was bad for my foot?also,” was the flinty retort. The MacWilliam paused. “I would say?that the beauteous young Lady O’Flaherty is bad for more than your?foot, Niall, my son.”

The two men eyed each other, and the MacWilliam sighed. “I?was wrong to force you into marriage with the O’Neill lass. I can?see O’Malley’s girl would have made you a better wife. Christ! Wed?seven months, and already with child! And she carries the babe well.?What a breeder! She’ll give O’Flaherty a houseful of sons, and still?have a waist a man could span with his two hands. And what a?beauty… that hair, and those Kerry-blue eyes, and those marvelous?tits! Damme, I wish I weren’t so old!”

Niall laughed, but his father now continued in a more serious?tone. “Keep away from her, Niall. O’Flaherty won’t wear the horns?of a cuckold gracefully. He’d kill you if he catches you with his?wife. I know you were with her in her bedchamber tonight while?her husband lay drunk in the hall. Be careful, lad! You’re my only?son, my heir, and I love you. Until you get a legitimate son, we’re?not safe.”

“Rest easy, Father. Skye and I but talked. If we had done it in?public the gossips would have had a field day.”

“You talked?! God’s nightshirt! If I were twenty years younger?and alone with that beauty, it would not have been talking I’d have?been doing!”

Again Niall laughed. “Come, Father, she’s six months gone with?child.”

“There are ways, boy.”

“I know, and perhaps if the child were mine-but it’s not. Be-?sides,” and here Niall eyed his father firmly, “finding out the trick?that you and O’Malley played to separate us has made Skye very?vulnerable. I would not hurt her further. I love her.”

“If she lost the babe then she’d be free of O’Flaherty,” said the?old man slyly. “His wife, yes, but free to come to you… and she would. I’d recognize any bastards she gave you as my heirs, for I?strongly doubt the O’Neill girl will ever conceive.”

“Don’t tempt me, Father. If you think Skye worthy to bear our?heirs, then surely she is worthy of our name as well. You see her?as nothing but a brood mare who will secure our immortality, but?I love Skye. I have never wanted any woman but her for my wife.”?He took a deep, ragged breath. “But O’Flaherty is strong and healthy.?He will probably live forever. She and I have no hope.”

“His death could be arranged… but you’re too noble for your?own good, Niall! Love has made you a weakling. If you don’t mean?to claim the woman for your own, then keep away from her else her?husband kills you in a fit of jealous rage,” growled the old man.

“Or I kill him,” mused Lord Burke quietly.

Chapter 6

Skye’s son, Ewan, was born in early spring. Eibhlin helped?deliver her new nephew, having come to the O’Flahertys’?immediately after Twelfth Night. Eibhlin was shocked by the?poverty of the O’Flahertys’ tower house. Anne had, of course,?repeated Skye’s descriptions of her home, but the nun had assumed?that Skye’s bitter disappointment over her marriage caused her to?exaggerate. Now she saw that everything Anne had reported was?dismayingly true.

The masonry of the tower house was in poor repair and there?were drafts everywhere. The floors were covered by nothing except?dirty, much-used rushes. The few wall hangings were threadbare?and virtually useless for warmth, let alone comfort. The furniture?was sparse as well. Eibhlin was puzzled. She knew that her father?and stepmother had sent a number of fine pieces along to Skye, but?when she questioned her younger sister all she got was a mumbled?answer about Gilly and Dom and their endless debts.

Having her sister with her made it a happy winter for Skye.?Ewan’s birth was a relaxed and easy one, and Eibhlin left four weeks?afterward. She returned within several months to aid her sister once?again, for Skye’s second son, Murrough, was separated from his?brother by but ten months.

Murrough made his entry into the world during a brutal midwinter storm. Fortunately this birth was also an easy one, for Eibhlin had?other factors beside the baby to contend with. The strong winds had?blown so hard that the floors of O’Flaherty House were covered?with half an inch of snow in some places. It had blown through? cracked walls and the sheepskin-covered windows. The fires had?gone out several times, and Eibhlin had been hard-pressed to keep?her sister and the newborn boy warm and dry. Eibhlin was angry.?She was ashamed that her sister should live this way. Skye’s dowry?gone to pay gaming debts, or for wine, or to buy gifts for the women?Dom and his father amused themselves with. Eibhlin made herself?a vow: Skye would have no more babes, especially so