name your lover! Who will you say?it is, Claire? One of the serfs? I think not. You’re far too proud a?bitch to admit to fucking with a serf. Who then? There is no one?else! No one ever comes to visit you. No one! Perhaps you could?claim the Devil for your lover. In a sense, you’d be speaking the?truth.”
Skye’s father-in-law looked suddenly old, and defeated. Claire?wept helplessly. Skye’s next words held a finality. “I am going home?to Innisfana,” she announced. “And I am taking my sons with me.?I will not be back. Since Claire loves her brother so deeply she will?remain here to care for him for the rest of his life. I will see that? Da withdraws her dowry. She has no chance of a decent marriage?without it, and I would not, knowing what I do now, see her wed?with some poor unsuspecting lad. She will be fed and clothed at my?expense, or she may go with what she has. The choice is hers.
“Frang the bailiff will run the estate for me, and answer to me?alone. This is, after all, to be Ewan’s inheritance someday and I?want it turned over to him in good condition.
“Gilly, you will be taken care of, but my father’s lawyers will?shortly have a paper for you to sign that will prevent you from?gambling away any part of the estate. Mark me well, Gilly. I will?not pay for your wines, your women, or your gambling debts!”
“Father! Are you going to let her do this to us!?”
Gilly stared straight ahead and Skye smiled triumphantly. “Yes,?Claire, he is! He knows the alternative. I will bring
“I love him!” Claire screamed.
“You were his
“I loved him,” Claire repeated, “From the time we first bedded?when I was but a maid of eleven. I was the only woman who ever?really satisfied Dom.”
Skye looked pityingly at Claire. “In the years that Dom has left?we will see how much you really love him.”
In the morning Skye bid her husband an unemotional farewell.
“I hope you enjoyed what you and your sister did the other night,?for the memory of it will have to last you a lifetime!”
“Bitch!” he snarled at her. “What kind of a woman are you to?leave me?”
“A better woman than you ever knew or appreciated, Dom. Your?conduct with your sister has wiped free any obligation on my part?toward you. Farewell.”
He struggled to rise. “Bitch! Come back! I command you, Skye!?Come back!”
She never turned back. His voice, alternating between curses,?threats, and pleas, followed her until the sound became quite un-?intelligible and finally faded altogether.
Skye rode away from the O’Flaherty house, Ewan before her on?her saddle. Behind her were the carts carrying her younger son, the?two nurses, and her household goods.
But when Skye reached lnnisfana several days later there was no?peaceful haven there. Dubhdara O’Malley lay dying, having been?badly injured by a falling mast in a storm as he was bringing his?ship home. A stubborn man, he had refused to die until he reached?his home, and until he had seen his youngest daughter. The mes-?senger he sent to Skye had found her as she took ship for lnnisfana?Island.
She was barely in time to bid her father a final farewell. Tearful,?she kissed his cold and sweating brow. “I’m back for good, Da.”
He nodded. Explanations were unimportant now. “Your brothers?are too young for the ships yet,” he gasped weakly. “You’ve got to?take charge for me.”
It never crossed her mind that he was thrusting a huge respon-?sibility upon her. She answered simply, “I will.”
“You’re the best of them, lassie. Even the boys.”
“Oh, Da,” she whispered. “Oh, Da, I do love you!”
“Skye, lass, this time follow your heart,” were Dubhdara?O’Malley’s last words to his favorite child. He died a few minutes?later, holding her hand.
Her beautiful blue eyes overflowing, she looked wordlessly to?her uncle Seamus. “I heard him,” he said, “and I’ll uphold your?rights, Skye. You’re the new O’Malley, and may God be with you?for you’ll be needing all the help you can get.”
Skye looked to her stepmother. “I heard him, and I trust you,”?said Anne. “You’ll do right by us all. Besides, it’s your full brother?Michael who is the next male in line, not my lads.”
“In this family,” answered Skye, “it’s not necessarily the eldest,?but the most competent. At least two of your boys show more promise than Michael. He’s most like my mother, lord help him.?He’s more likely to follow Our Lord Christ than the sea. Am I not?right, Uncle?”
Seamus O’Malley nodded. “He’d asked me to talk with Dubh.?He wants to enter St. Padraic’s and become a priest.”
Skye turned to Anne. “You see. It rests with Brian and Shane?now.”
As quickly as the family of the O’Malley chief could be assem-?bled, they determined the length of the wake and the date of the?funeral. With Seamus O’Malley and Anne to back her, Skye was?reluctantly recognized as the new O’Malley by her brothers-in-law?and her very shocked sisters. Her clansmen and vassals came quickly,?almost joyfully, to pay their homage to Skye, the new O’Malley.
The next step was a journey to the MacWilliam’s stronghold to?pledge him her fealty. Only Anne, Eibhlin, and her uncle knew the?truth behind her leaving her husband. All three were horrified, but?swore to keep the secret. Seamus O’Malley added to his niece’s?mystique by claiming that she had returned home because of a dream?in which her father called her from over the waves. The men who?had sailed with her father and with her when she was a child cir-?culated once again the old tales of her bravery and skill. The?MacWilliam would have been hard pressed indeed to deny Skye her?inheritance.
She rode into his stronghold with all her captains escorting her.?Niall Burke watched her arrival from one of the towers of the castle,?and wondered what would happen between them now. She rode?astride, as she had in the old days, and upon the black stallion, Finn.?She was dressed in Lincoln green hose, over which she wore high? brown cordoba leather boots, and a mid-thigh-length doeskin jerkin?with silver buttons. Beneath the jerkin was a cream-colored silk shirt?with small pearl buttons. Her glorious blue-black hair was parted?in the center and twisted into a smooth coil at the nape of her neck.?Her gardenia skin was a little flushed. Upon her left hand he could?see a blue flash, and knew she wore the great sapphire ring that had?been her father’s seal of office.
He descended from the tower, and strode swiftly to his own?quarters. To his surprise Darragh was waiting for him. The three?years of their marriage had been a bad joke, and he rarely saw her,?let alone cohabited with her. It was obvious that she would never?conceive him a child. She had never come to him willingly, and?each time he had taken her it had been a battle in which she yielded?to the flesh and then did penance for her weakness. She had had?coarse brown robes made up for herself, robes that resembled those worn by her old religious order. She rarely bathed, believing it a?concession to the flesh. For over a year now she had spent her days?and nights in constant prayer. He no longer went near her. Her?personal habits disgusted him, and attempting to claim his rights?seemed now like raping a nun, a thing for which Niall Burke had?no taste.
He greeted her courteously, and she replied, “Lady O’Flaherty?is here to see your father, Niall. Why has she come?”
“Her father has died, Darragh, and it was his deathbed wish that?she take over his duties until her brothers are grown. She is now the?O’Malley, and she has come to pledge her fealty to her overlord.”
“And what of her husband? I have been given to understand that ?she tried to murder him and then left him, taking his sons with her.?He lies paralyzed for life with only his loyal sister to care for him.”
“Where did you obtain this information, Darragh?” He kept his?voice quiet and level.
“I have a letter from the unfortunate Lady Claire O’Flaherty?begging me to intercede with the MacWilliam on her poor brother’s?behalf.”
“I do not believe the tale, Darragh. I have never known Skye to?be anything but generous and thoughtful.”
“Those are not the qualities that made the O’Malley leave her in?charge of his small empire,” noted Darragh shrewdly. It was an?unusually sensible observation for Darragh.
“Skye would never harm anyone. I refuse to believe it!”
“Of course you do not believe it. You lust after her, but for the?sake of your immortal soul you must not yield to
