Chapter Eleven #2
More interesting, however, was the knowledge that her husband’s mistress had been at the festivities with her two bastards.
And that they had all spent the night at Erne Rock.
While Shane knew it not, she had seen those two young hussies in Lisnaskea on several occasions.
And she had made it quite clear to the Reverend Mr. Dundas that no respectable family should take either of those two woods colts to be a wife for their sons.
They were baseborn. They were Catholics.
But that Shane should have consorted with them publicly at Kieran’s wedding was an insult she would not forget.
He would pay for his misbehavior. Kieran would pay for his treachery as well.
She hardly saw her husband at all now. They had had separate bedchambers for years.
They only met over the dinner table, except that Shane was away in the evening more often than not of late.
Probably with his blowsy whore and her two brats.
Consequently there was little exchange between them anymore.
She didn’t care. William would be home soon with Emily Anne, and then they would decide what was to be done about Kieran and the estate at Maguire’s Ford.
No matter that Shane said Kieran was not to have it.
She didn’t believe him. Why wouldn’t the duchess give the lands given her by her late husband to the child born of that marriage?
Surely she would. She wouldn’t give it to sons born of another husband.
Jasmine Leslie would use her influence with King Charles to give Maguire’s Ford to her daughter and Kieran.
Bringing her two youngest sons from Scotland was but a ruse.
Well, it wouldn’t work, and Kieran Devers wasn’t going to have the chance to lord it over her son!
Blissfully unaware of Jane Devers, Kieran and Fortune spent the days following their marriage making love and riding out together.
Their passion for each other was so great that they could scarcely wait to leave the hall each evening.
Finally Jasmine told them to not even bother coming into the hall, but to have food sent to their bedchamber to eat when they realized another hunger other than the one they had for each other’s bodies.
“Mama!” Fortune blushed, embarrassed, but Kieran just laughed.
“I thank you, madame, for your understanding,” he said with a rakish grin, and a wink.
Both the duke and Rory Maguire chuckled at his reply, and Father Cullen hid a smile.
“The quiet from Lisnaskea is a wee bit deafening,” the duke noted.
“I heard that Lady Jane and her good husband had quite a row over the marriage here,” Rory noted.
“The undercook at Mallow Court was given a silver piece to obtain all the information she could from her kin here. Now they say Sir Shane and his wife do not speak to each other except when they cannot avoid it. It should get a bit more interesting when young Willy comes home with his bride.”
“Surely he won’t make a scene,” Fortune said.
“You turned him away, and married his brother, lass,” was the answer. “Kieran can tell you, young Willy has never been one to easily let go of something he wanted.”
“We’ll talk, my brother and I,” Kieran said.
Maguire raised a sandy eyebrow. “If you can get within shouting range of him, Kieran Devers, for he’ll be out for blood unless that simple lass he has married has been able to turn his heart.”
“Do you think he’s dangerous?” Fortune asked her husband later that evening as they lay abed. They were naked, and seated, he against the pillows, she against his chest. His big hands played with her sweet round breasts, teasing them lightly.
“I don’t know,” he answered her, one hand moving to push her hair aside so he might kiss the soft nape of her neck. “I’ve never seen him driven so far as he was with you.” He nipped at her, then soothed away the sting with his wet tongue.
She took his other hand from her breast, and mouthed the fingers, finally taking one finger into her mouth and sucking on it seductively.
Her tongue swirled about the finger in an almost thoughtful motion, and then releasing it she said, “Does his wife have the ability to rule him as his mother did? Perhaps we should try to make our peace through Emily Anne.”
“I am not certain it will be possible for Emily Anne loves Willy with all her heart, and she is yet very young. She will say and do what she believes will please him. Nay, I think there is little chance of a reconciliation between me and my family.”
“Your father will not desert you,” Fortune reminded him.
“Nay, he won’t, but neither will he do anything else. He must live with my stepmother and my siblings long after we have gone.”
“Than we shall ignore them all,” Fortune said. “I see no other way. In six months’ time we shall be gone, and with the winter coming, I see little chance of your stepmother causing difficulty.”
He turned her about so he might kiss her, but did not answer her.
His bride did not know Jane Devers as he did.
Even now her troublesome mind would be twisting and turning in an effort to find an excuse to make mischief of some sort for the Leslies of Glenkirk, and to justify that wicked behavior as right, based upon her religious beliefs.
Not that the Catholics weren’t as bad; for they were.
How they could all excuse their viciousness toward one another, and still claim God favored them alone defied logic, Kieran thought.
Toward the end of October Maeve Fitzgerald rode over from Lisnaskea to tell her half-brother that William Devers and his bride were expected home that same day. “Da says to be on your guard as that woman he’s wed to is surely plotting some deviltry.”
“I had heard Da wasn’t at Mallow Court a great deal now,” her brother remarked.
“He’s there enough,” Maeve said sharply.
Kieran put an arm about his half-sister. “What is it, lass?”
Maeve sighed deeply. “I don’t want to leave our mam, and yet she wants us to go with you in the spring, and the truth is that she is right.
There is nothing here for us. We’re being driven from our home by the likes of Jane Devers, and her Protestant ilk.
And what will happen to Mam when we are gone? ”
“Da will protect her,” Kieran said in an effort to comfort his half-sister.
“And when Da is gone? Do you think your younger brother will respect the fact that Da built Mam her house, and gave her an income? He’ll drive her from it, and send her from Lisnaskea, the only place she’s ever known, and all because she’s a Catholic. God help her!”
“We’ll make a plan,” Kieran promised her. “If that should ever happen, she will come to us in the New World, Maeve.”
“I hate the Protestants!” Maeve declared. “They may hold sway here in Ulster now, but they’ll all burn in the fiery pits of hell one day for their impiety and false religion. I’m glad for it!”
“My wife is a Protestant,” Kieran reminded Maeve.
“Fortune is different, and at least she was once baptized a Catholic. With your help, Kieran, she’ll return to the true church one day, especially when you have children,” Maeve reasoned.
“Don’t waste yourself in hating, little sister,” he told her. Then he sent her back to Lisnaskea, and went to tell his inlaws that William Devers would shortly be home.
He came early the next day, riding through Maguire’s Ford as if the devil himself was on his heels.
He stormed into Erne Rock Castle, pushing past a startled servant.
He found the family in the Great Hall, breaking their fast of the previous night.
They did not see him until pointing a finger at Fortune he shouted at her, “Whore!”
Before James Leslie, Kieran, or the two younger Leslies might respond, Fortune was on her feet, coming down from the high board to stand in front of William Devers.
She slapped him with all her might. “How dare you insult me?” she demanded of him.
“Who do you think you are, William Devers, to come into my mother’s house and slander me?
You have no rights over me, and you certainly never did! ”
“You were to marry me!” he cried, taken aback by her fury. His mother and his wife had spent all the previous evening telling him what an affront Fortune Lindley’s marriage to Kieran was. He had right on his side, damn it!
“There was no marriage contract between us, or our families, Master Devers. I came to Ireland to seek a husband, and you were the first candidate for my hand presented me. I refused you.”
“So you might whore with my bastard brother!” he accused her. “All the time I courted you so tenderly, you were thinking of him!”
Fortune slapped him again to his surprise.
“If you keep calling me foul names, and maligning my husband, Master Devers, I shall go to the local magistrate and register a complaint. Do not think that because Kieran is a Catholic I shall be ignored. I shall not. I am a Protestant, and my brother is the king’s well-loved nephew.
As for the king, his wife is a Catholic.
Whose side in such a matter as this one do you think the king will favor, Master Devers?
That of a very unimportant Irish landowner’s son, or mine? ”
“I loved you, Fortune.” His voice was low.
“You were fascinated by me. What you loved, Will, whether you knew it or not, was Maguire’s Ford, and this castle. Even as your mother had taught you,” Fortune said with devastating effect.
“Kieran shall not have it,” William Devers said, his voice now hard, his eyes filled with anger and hate. “My bastard half-brother shall not have Maguire’s Ford and Erne Rock. I will not allow any Catholic to lord it over me, madame!”