Chapter Thirteen #4
Rory held Fortune tightly in his arms, for a moment, savouring the sweetness of her, his daughter.
Then he said, “I would not leave the people of Maguire’s Ford when my family departed Ulster with the earls all those years ago, lassie.
I will not leave it now, though I thank you for the offer.
” He kissed her cheek. “You’re leaving with a fine husband, Fortune Mary, and that is, after all, what you came to Ulster for, didn’t you?
” He set her back from him, and smiled into her beautiful face.
“Go with God, and go in peace and safety,” he said.
“If you were to send me a missive now and again, I should not mind, and I might even answer it.” Then holding her by the shoulders he kissed her a final time upon her smooth forehead.
Fortune felt a terrible sadness suddenly overwhelm her, and her eyes filled with tears. Looking momentarily into his eyes she saw that they, too, were filled with moisture. “Ohh, Rory, I shall miss you! And I will write, I promise you!” she half-sobbed.
“Take your wife, Kieran Devers, for she is about to weep all over my good doublet,” Rory said gruffly as he handed Fortune off to her husband.
Kieran Devers put a protecting arm about Fortune while holding out his other hand to the Maguire. “Farewell, Rory Maguire. You know what I would have of you, don’t you?”
Maguire nodded. “Aye, laddie, I’ll watch over the graves, I swear it,” he said, shaking the younger man’s hand.
Now James Leslie came, and bid Rory Maguire goodbye. “Watch over my lads,” he said. “I know you’ll teach Adam well, Maguire.”
“I will, my lord,” came the expected answer.
Bride Duffy, still weepy, bid them all a farewell. Fergus Duffy would be driving the coach to the coast where their ship was waiting.
Jasmine had a final word with her cousin, Cullen Butler. “Tread lightly, Cullen. I want no martyrs on my conscience,” she cautioned him. “‘Tis a very delicate part of me, and I’ll not have the ghost of Mam rising up to chide me.”
“Have I not done well all these years, little cousin?” he said.
“Times have changed even in the year we have been here, Cullen,” Jasmine reminded him.
“The militant Protestants become more vociferous with each passing day. England rules Ireland, and in England the king himself is struggling with the Puritans to maintain order. He must be very careful lest his French Catholic queen be accused of influencing him. It is not an easy time, and it does not appear things will be getting any easier soon. Foresight, even in a priest, is not a bad trait.”
“God will watch over me,” he said quietly.
“God helps those who help themselves,” she said with a small smile. “Watch over my lads, but if anyone would force your hand, remember, the duke of Glenkirk is the final authority in any matter concerning his sons, Cullen.”
The priest kissed her hand. “God bless you, Cousin,” he said. “Now, depart, else you meet yourself returning.”
The Leslies and the Deverses departed for the coast. The great baggage train they had brought with Fortune the year before had now increased in size, and gone ahead of them the day before.
There was a single travel coach, but for now it held only their necessary luggage, Rohana, and Adali.
The two other servants, like their masters, preferred to ride rather than be confined to the coach.
They avoided the Appleton estate on their return journey, traveling a bit longer distance so they might stay at Mistress Tully’s Golden Lion Inn overnight.
Reaching the coast they found their baggage carts already upon the docks, and being loaded upon the ship that would return them back to Scotland. Slowly the carts were emptied, the trunks and the boxes being carried up the gangway to be stowed in the ship’s hole.
“‘Tis fortunate you warned us to come empty, my lady,” the ship’s captain said with a grin, “but at least the young mistress got what she came to Ulster for, eh?” He chuckled.
The duchess of Glenkirk smiled. “Aye,” she said in reply. “Fortune has probably gotten more than she bargained for, captain.”
The voyage was a short one. Seeing the coastline of his native land disappearing Kieran Devers had a mild pang, but he felt no regrets.
They were doing the right thing in leaving, and he relished the adventure ahead.
He had never in all his life been out of Ireland, unlike his young wife for whom travel was a commonplace thing.
He wondered what awaited them. He wondered what they would do if Lord Baltimore would not have them.
He hoped his father-in-law’s small influence would aid them, and if it did, what would this New World be like?
Kieran Devers looked to the coast of Scotland that was now in his view after two days at sea. His arm rested lightly about Fortune’s slender shoulders. She smiled up at him.
“‘Twill be all right, Kieran, my love. I feel it in my heart. The New World is where we belong, you and I. There is where we will carve out a grand life, and a wonderful future for ourselves, and for our children. Lord Baltimore will have us. How can he refuse?”
“I have never before in my life felt such responsibility as I do now, Fortune,” Kieran admitted to her.
“All my life I was answerable for no one but myself. I lived in my father’s house, safe and secure.
Now it is all different. I have you to love, but we have no place that we may call our own, where we may live together.
I am not afraid, yet I am concerned, my love. ”
“You needn’t be, Kieran. I told you that in my heart I know what we are doing is the right thing. The world is ours!” And her confident smile convinced him that all would truly be well.