Lost Love Found (26 page)

“Bitch, you will drive me mad,” he said. “I hope I’ve put my bairn in your belly so that you’ve no choice!”

“Do not say so, my lord, for the child will be nameless. I have warned you that I will not be forced to the altar by any man. I did not seek this interlude with you, Padraic—for all I do not regret it. You have used your experience in these matters to cajole me, and ’tis not fair!”

He laughed ruefully. “I will do what I have to, madam, to make you mine. Only tell me what you desire of me.”

“What I desire at this moment, my lord, is to return to my own chamber
unnoticed
. Have you destroyed my gown?”

Again he laughed. “The bodice, perhaps, in my enthusiasm, but I only loosened your skirt and petticoat tapes. You will find them in good repair, madam,” he said, “for I am expert in the art of disrobing a woman.”

“Is that something you should brag about, Padraic?” she teased, rising shyly from the bed to dress herself. She drew her lower garments on and fastened them carefully about her slender waist, feeling horribly self-conscious.

He chuckled at her look, and rising from the bed, walked across the room to pick up his cloak. He draped it about her shoulders. “Here, Val. This should get you to your room in a state of decency, but what Nan will say when she sees the condition of your bodice, I do not know.”

“Nan, thank God, is in bed with a toothache,” Valentina said with some humor, “else I should refer her to you, my lord.” Suddenly she realized that she was feeling better than she had ever felt in her entire life. Boldly, she let her eyes slide over him. His body was slender, but he was tall and beautifully formed. She reached out and touched his shoulder, rubbing her fingers over the marks her teeth had left in his skin. She had not expected a man to have such soft skin. “I did not mean to hurt you,” she apologized. “I do not know why I bit you.”

“Your passion overcame you, Val. I will treasure the mark, hinny love. May it be the first of many such marks you make upon my helpless body.” He caught her hand and placed a warm kiss in her palm.

Color flooded her cheeks, and Valentina fled from his bedchamber to her own. She was grateful for the lateness of the hour, and the fact that all her siblings but Jamie were away. She was in no mood for chatter or to explain her disheveled appearance.

She slept badly that night, the memory of her passionate interlude with Padraic half haunting, half pleasing her. His remark about putting a child into her belly frightened her. Remembering vaguely some gossip about her aunt, she rode out at dawn for Queen’s Malvern.

“God’s foot!” Lady de Marisco exclaimed. “You are an early riser, my girl. What brings you out at such an hour on this cold morning?”

“I believe you have a potion …” Valentina began, then burst into tears.

“God’s foot!” Skye exclaimed again, and sat Valentina down by the warm fire. “What has happened? I want the whole truth, my girl!” she growled.

Between sobs, Valentina told her aunt the entire story. Her pathetic, unhappy marriage. The competition between Tom Ashburne and Lord Burke. Lord Burke’s seduction of her. His wish that she bear his child. “I will not be forced to the altar this time, Aunt Skye. I will not!”

“But you admit that making love with Padraic is totally different from making love with Lord Barrows,” Skye reasoned.

“Aye!” Valentina sighed. “As different as night and day, but ’tis not the point. I would make up my own mind this time, free of encumbrances of any kind. I cannot be happy unless I make my own life.”

Skye nodded. “I understand, Valentina. I truly do, and if Padraic has not already impregnated you, then I will see that you have my special elixir.”

“Is it different with different men, Aunt Skye?” Valentina asked Lady de Marisco shyly.

Skye chuckled. “Aye, for each man is different. Your late husband, for instance, seems to have been a good and decent man, but passionless. My first husband was a pig,” Skye said bluntly. “I hated him. He was filled with a dark passion that he could not control. He gained pleasure, not just from making love, but from having the power of life and death over his lover. My fifth husband was a sensual, tortured man, who, until I taught him better, could gain pleasure only through pain. As for my other four husbands and various lovers, they were tender and passionate men, but for one. Men are indeed different, Valentina, but so are women. Why did you marry Edward Barrows, if I may ask?”

“I did not think the love that exists for others would exist for me. I was facing my twentieth birthday. Anne and Bevin were desperate to wed their own lovers, and Mother kept insisting that I wed first.” Valentina shrugged. “He seemed a good man with whom I might live in peace.”

“Do you love my son?” Skye asked her bluntly, eyeing her shrewdly.

Valentina thought for a moment. “I am not certain, Aunt. Padraic is my friend. Now, of course, I am forced to think of him differently.”

Skye nodded. “You’re honest, my girl, and I am glad for it. I would not have Padraic hurt. I can see you’re not the kind of woman to hurt a man, not purposely anyway. Do you love Tom Ashburne, perhaps?”

“Nay, I think not, but then I do not know him well enough to make that judgment, do I?” Valentina smiled. “He is most handsome, is he not?”

“And even now you’re wondering whether or not he can make you feel like Padraic can—or even better,” Skye observed mischievously.

“
Aunt!
” Valentina looked shocked.

Skye laughed aloud. “ ’Tis no crime to be curious about such things, my girl. ’Tis honest curiosity. Do you not think men wonder such things about women? Well, I can tell you that they do!”

Valentina allowed herself a small chuckle. “I did suspect it,” she admitted. “Do not tell Mama and Papa the purpose of my visit, Aunt, please. I would not distress them, nor raise their hopes about another son-in-law, either. Mother is terribly worried about my coming venture, and I cannot calm her fears.”

“Her time in Turkey was a frightening one, except for the little interlude with her prince,” said Skye. “The sultan’s treatment of her was brutal and it has colored her memories more sharply than anything else.”

“Was your time in the East a terrible one, too?” Valentina inquired, genuinely interested. She had never felt, before now, that she should ask.

Skye’s blue-green eyes grew misty with her memories. “The first time I spent in Algiers, I had lost my memory. I knew nothing of myself but my first name. Your cousin Willow’s father was a most wonderful man, and my life with him was a happy one. The second time I was in the East, I went to try to rescue Padraic and Deirdre’s father, Niall, from captivity. To do so, it was necessary that I pose as a slave. My old friend, Osman the Astrologer, helped me. The man who was my master was a terrible sensualist. He was killed. I escaped and helped Niall to escape, too. But he died aboard my ship of the excesses that had been forced on him during his captivity.

“Your mother has explained to you that the East is a dangerous place where women are valued as possessions and nothing else. Knowing that, you are far better prepared to deal with whatever may arise than either of us was. You go of your own free will, and you will be protected by your own ships and by two men who love you. But be warned! All that may not be enough. Life offers many surprises we cannot even begin to anticipate.

“Still, if you are prudent, you will return from your venture unharmed. You are less innocent than Aidan was when she was taken to Turkey. I do not fear for you, my girl.” Skye stood up and stretched. “Go home now, Valentina, and tell my son I want him to come to Queen’s Malvern to visit with me until it is time for you to leave for the East.” She smiled. “Unless, of course, you would rather have him remain at Pearroc Royal.”

Valentina shook her head. “Another night like last night, Aunt, and I shall be helpless in the face of Padraic’s will. Your son has the most amazing effect on me!”

Skye chuckled, nodding. “A man can do that to a woman. But let me tell you something, Valentina.
You
can do the same thing to
him.
”

“I can?” Valentina was shocked. What did her aunt mean?

“Aye, you can.” Skye smiled, amused by her niece. “You have been allowing him to kiss you, but I will wager you have not made a serious effort to kiss him back. You have been taking, not giving. Do so, and you will be amazed to learn of the power you possess, my girl! Now go home, and if there are no ‘difficulties’ from your adventure last night, then I will see that you have not only a supply of my special potion but the recipe for it as well.”

While Lady Barrows rode back across the brown-and-beige late-autumn fields for her home, Lady de Marisco returned to her bed to find her husband awake and curious.

“Who dragged you from our bed at such an early hour?” he demanded, drawing her into his arms and nuzzling her neck lovingly.

“Valentina. Padraic seduced her last night, and she wants my elixir.”

Adam de Marisco’s deep chuckle rumbled through the room. “He took his time finding a woman to love, our Padraic, but now he desires to waste no more time. Good for him, I say!”

“Just like a man!” Skye punched her husband on his big shoulder. “Valentina had an unhappy first marriage, it seems. She married to please everyone but herself, so this time she wants to be certain. I have worried about Padraic for years and, God only knows, his cousin would make him a perfect wife. But I’ll not have her forced to it by him or by circumstances created by him. They must both be content to wed, and if they are not both content, then it must not be, Adam. Not just for Valentina’s sake but for Padraic’s as well. I want them happy, as we are happy.”

“All right, all right, little girl. I have not a doubt that you’ll get your way in this as you do in everything you set your mind to,” her husband said. “For now, however, I would have
my
way with
you.
” His hand slid up beneath her green silk robe.

“You’re a randy old man,” Skye said softly, kissing his mouth.

“You’re a randy old woman,” he said, chuckling, “and glad I am of it!”

Lord Burke could not have imagined such a scene between his mother and his stepfather of twenty-nine years. When he faced them later in the day, they seemed most formidable to him, and he felt like a boy again, not like a grown man of thirty-two.

His mother wasted no time in coming to the point. “Could you not have kept your cock in your breeches a bit longer, Padraic?” she demanded tartly. “Sometimes you are just like your father! Careless of others! Heedless of the consequences! If you understood Valentina at all you would know that she
must
unravel the mystery of her birth before she can make a new life for herself with another husband! But, no, all you could think of was that, having finally decided that you love her, you must have her! Damn you for a fool, my son! I thought I had taught you better than that,” said Skye.

“Are your ears so big, Mama, that they stretch to Pearroc Royal?” Padraic demanded hotly, flushing. “How the hell did you find out about last night? I am still not quite certain that what happened between Valentina and me was not a dream.”

Skye snorted. “You seduced your cousin most boldly last night, my son, and she came to me this morning for reassurance and aid. A man is hardly likely to forget a thing like that, unless, of course, Valentina was so unmemorable a lover.”

“She is magnificent!” he defended his cousin. Then, seeing the amused look in his mother’s eyes, Lord Burke flushed again. His stepfather grinned, though Adam attempted to check himself.

“You will remain here with us at Queen’s Malvern until you sail, Padraic. There will be no repeat of last night,” his mother told him firmly.

“Damn, Mother, I am not a child!” Lord Burke exploded. “You cannot force me to your will as if I were. I love Val, and I want to be with her.”

“You will be with her soon enough and in very close quarters for several months, which should give you more than enough time to plead your case, Padraic,” Skye said calmly.

“Aye, and so will Tom Ashburne!” Lord Burke replied irritably.

“Surely you are not afraid of a little competition? If you press her, you will drive her right into his arms,” Skye warned her son. “Do not be a fool, Padraic. You’re behaving like the child you claim not to be. You see something and want it. Not tomorrow, but now! You cannot have Valentina now, Padraic. She must resolve the mystery of her birth before she can decide whether she will have you or the Earl of Kempe, or neither. Do you remember the last time you acted in haste? I do. Your rash action sent your sister Velvet running off to India and into the Grand Mughal’s arms.”

“No harm came of it,” he replied sullenly. “Velvet was returned to us unscathed.”

“
Unscathed?
Nay, Padraic, my son, she was not returned to us unscathed,” Skye said quietly.

“Skye!” Adam warned. “You cannot tell him.”

“I must if he is to understand, Adam. It will not go beyond this room, for Padraic would not hurt his sister willingly.” Skye looked at the youngest of her four sons and said quietly, “Velvet had a child by the Grand Mughal, Padraic. A daughter whom she was forced to leave behind. The little girl is now eleven. Though Velvet never speaks of the child, I know she has never forgotten her. No woman forgets her own child, whether she raises that child or not. That is what your actions cost your sister, my son. Do you understand now why I caution you to be more careful?”

Lord Burke was pale. “My God, Mother. How could she leave her child? What have I done?”

“There is no need to feel useless guilt, Padraic,” Skye told him. “What is done is done and over, and has been for years. As for Velvet’s daughter, neither the mughal nor your Uncle Michael believed it wise to bring the child to England where she would have been an outcast. In India she is a royal princess and honored as such. She is the child of a legitimate marriage according to the laws of that land.”

Padraic Burke nodded, beginning to comprehend what had happened to Velvet. “It will not be easy,” he said, “being patient with Val, especially now, but I promise you, Mother, that I will be. And I will not speak of this to Velvet.”