Lost Love Found (27 page)

Lady de Marisco smiled warmly at her son. “Good!” she said. “Make no mistake about it, I want Valentina as a daughter-in-law, Padraic. I have asked little of you in your lifetime, but this I demand of you. Do not fail me, my son.”

“Fail you, Mother?” he teased her. “I would sooner fail the queen than fail you.”

She grinned back at him. “ ’Tis a wise son who knows his own mother, my boy,” she told him, and the two men laughed heartily. Skye O’Malley de Marisco, for all her sixty-one years, still had the ability to both fascinate and command.

Part III

T
HE
Q
UEST

W
INTER
–S
PRING
1602

Chapter 6

T
he door to the queen’s privy chamber opened and Lady Scrope announced, “ ’Tis Lady Barrows here to see you, madam.”

Elizabeth Tudor looked up eagerly. She had been feeling despondent, for it was now eleven months since the Earl of Essex’s rebellion and his subsequent execution. She could not forget Essex, though publicly she appeared unmoved by his death. “So, child, you have returned to me after all,” she cried as Valentina hurried into the room and sank into a graceful curtsy.

“I could not go off without seeing you, dearest madam,” Lady Barrows replied.

“And you must go?” the queen inquired, grieved to be losing her.

Valentina nodded. “I have no other choice, dearest madam, as I told you in my letter. When old Mag spoke those fateful words, she set my course for Turkey as surely as if she had led me there by the hand.”

“And what of your two swains?” asked the queen. “Will they be content to wait for your return?”

“They go with me, dear madam.” Valentina laughed, and her lovely eyes twinkled.

“Both of them?” The queen’s eyes widened, first with surprise, then with amusement. “Why, bless me, my dear, you’re a sly one!”

“I would as lief they both stayed at home,” Valentina told the queen, “but my family was in an uproar over my going, so Padraic volunteered to escort me. That calmed them a trifle. Then the Earl of Kempe insisted that he go also so that Padraic could not gain an advantage with me. I have accused them of behaving like children squabbling over the last slice of jellycake, but I cannot shame either of them into behaving. They will carry on their rivalry for me despite my objections!”

The queen laughed heartily. “My dear child, I know just what you are going through,” she said. “Once, gentlemen fought over me in such a fashion. Tis flattering, but ’tis annoying as well. You’ll be in close quarters on your vessel, and there will be no escaping them, I fear.”

Valentina laughed herself. “Perhaps, if they prove too randy for me to control, I shall have the captain clap them in irons,” she said. The queen cackled appreciatively.

A bit later, when her women had joined them, the queen lowered her voice so that only Valentina could hear her.

“I am dying, my child. I sense it. Oh, not yet, not yet. I’ve a good year. Perhaps two. But no more. Had I wed and had a daughter, you are what I would have wanted in my own child. Hurry about your business, Valentina, and then come home to me. I do not want to take my final journey without knowing the end of your story. I would see you happy, my child.” Elizabeth Tudor shook her head. “I have become the old fool they accuse me of being behind my back, have I not?”

“May I be such a fool one day, dear madam,” Valentina said passionately. “If you are weak now, you are yet stronger by far than any of them.”

“I will miss you, child,” the queen said wistfully. “You’re good for me. But I will tell you, your little sister keeps me well amused these days. What a naughty minx she is!”

“The maids are my one regret, dear madam. Who have you chosen to look after them in my place?”

“No one,” the queen said emphatically. “I have told my ladies that we must all be responsible for the maids, and I have taken other measures as well. I have taken your advice about bringing in biddable young maids. Margaret Dudley’s marriage is set for the end of this month, and she will be replaced by your cousin, Anne Blakeley, who is only thirteen. Penelope Howard leaves after Easter to be married. Gabrielle Edwardes’s younger sister, Joanna, who is twelve, will replace her. I do not expect Honoria de Bohun to be with me much longer, for your brother courts her slyly when he thinks I am not watching. I know he will not seduce her, however. He is Conn’s son, and a true gentleman.”

“Nay, he will not seduce her,” Valentina said. “I know he means to make her an honorable offer. With Your Majesty’s permission, of course.”

“I thought as much,” said the queen. “Well, when that happens, I shall replace mistress de Bohun with another little girl. You were correct, my dear child, when you suggested I take only very young girls as my maids of honor. The gentlemen do not seem interested in unripe fruit.” The queen chuckled. “I have also told the families of the girls who serve me that I will hold them personally responsible for any wanton behavior on the part of their daughters. Such behavior will cost them dearly in fines to the crown. Also, I have assigned two sharp-eyed gentlewomen to sleep in the Maidens’ Chamber each night. The maids of honor are well-chaperoned and, I think, safe from seduction.

“Personally, I do not think much of the young men who come to court these days,” she went on. “Perfumed fops, all of them, and, God’s foot, their blood runs thin. ’Tis true that one can live too long, my dear. I remember the fathers and grandfathers of these mincing creatures. They would not have tolerated such offspring in earlier times.”

“ ’Tis a new century, dearest madam, and with the years come changes, some pleasant, some not so, but we cannot stop change, can we?” Valentina observed.

“When I was young, there were moments so wonderful that I thought I wanted to stop time,” the queen told her quietly, “but my years have given me the advantage of retrospect. I know now that, as the Bible says, there is a time for everything.” She held out her arms to Valentina, who hugged the queen. “Now,” said Elizabeth Tudor, “it is time for you to go, dear child. It seems to be the fate of women in your family to go adventuring, beginning with that impossible aunt of yours. She, her daughter, your own mother all have come home safe. I know you will, too.” The queen kissed Valentina on both her cheeks. “Goodspeed, my dear! God bless you! I shall miss you, my dear!”

Lady Barrows curtsied low to the queen and backed from the room. There were tears prickling behind her eyelids as the door to the queen’s privy chamber closed and she had her last glimpse of Elizabeth Tudor in her white velvet gown, with her flaming red wig and her sunken bright pink cheeks. The queen did not look well at all, and Valentina wondered if she would have a year or two, as Elizabeth believed. Outside the royal apartments her two gallants awaited her.

“Come, divinity!” The earl took her by the arm.

“Aye,” Padraic said. “You took your time with the queen, Val. Our captain wants to sail with the early tide, and we shall just make it.” He grasped her other arm.

Lady Barrows stopped dead. Shaking them both off, she said, “I am capable of walking by myself, my lords. You must stop this rivalry between you. We shall have no peace, any of us, if you do not! Listen to me, both of you. You have each made it clear that you would have me to wife. Today, this fifteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord 1602, we set off on an adventure together. I will make no decision regarding either of you until we return to England. If, knowing that, you still wish to accompany me, you may do so—provided that you will cease this constant competition between you. If you cannot do that, then do not come. If you come and still cannot cease this behavior, I will have you either put off at the nearest port or thrown overboard—whichever is more convenient for the captain!” So saying, Valentina hurried off toward the palace water stairs. Her two suitors followed meekly behind her, glancing at each other.

It seemed a good omen to Valentina that her ship was called
Archangel
and that the two accompanying it were
The Royal Bess
and
Homeward Bound. Archangel
was captained by Padraic’s older brother, Murrough O’Flaherty. Of all of Lady de Marisco’s children, Murrough was the only one with a taste for the sea.
The Royal Bess
was captained by Michael Small, a foundling who had been rescued as a child by Sir Robert Small, the de Marisco’s trading partner. Sir Robert had raised him.
Homeward Bound
was captained by Rory McGuire, a great-nephew of Lady de Marisco’s first senior captain, Sean McGuire, long dead. Skye was taking no chances with the safety of her niece and son. The ships were all as sound as possible, very modern, eminently seaworthy. Their crews were the most experienced men in the O’Malley-Small trading fleet.

At the foot of the water stairs, the Greenwood barge was awaiting them. It quickly whisked them downriver to the London Pool, where their vessel lay at anchor. The tide was rising fast, and they just had time to “shoot the bridge” before it would become impossible to do so for several hours. Climbing up the sturdy rope ladder from her barge to the ship’s deck, Valentina realized for the first time that she was truly off on an adventure, the kind that ladies of her station rarely saw. For the briefest moment, she wondered if she was doing the right thing.

“Just in time, lass!” Murrough O’Flaherty said as he lifted his cousin onto the deck. He was a handsome man, who, of all his mother’s children, looked the most like her. His eyes were the same Kerry blue, and his thick, wavy dark hair and well-cut, short beard were the same blue-black as Skye’s hair. “We’ve but five minutes to spare. Welcome aboard! Ye also, my lord, Padriac! Young Geoff will show ye to the main cabin while I get us underway.” Captain O’Flaherty turned away from them and began shouting orders to his first mate, Peter Whyte.

Geoff O’Flaherty, Murrough’s fifteen-year-old third son, bowed politely to the passengers and led them away from the scene of activity. “Yer servant has already settled ye, Cousin Valentina,” he said shyly.

“You didn’t tell me anyone was coming with you,” Padraic said. “Tom and I were both told by Mother that we could not bring our servants with us because it would shorten the crew by two.”

“You are both quite capable of taking care of yourselves,” Valentina said. “Have you not campaigned with Essex and Ralegh? Surely you did not travel with servants then, my lords. I, on the other hand, am but a helpless woman. As such, I need a servant of my own sex, not simply to aid me but for company as well.”

“Ho, madam, you toy with us!” the earl teased her.

“Indeed, sir, do I?” Valentina said.

Geoff escorted them into a large cabin with a huge window that filled the entire rear of the vessel. A pretty young girl with bright black eyes and dark hair in two neat plaits came forward and curtsied.

“Welcome aboard, m’lady. I have unpacked everything as Mother instructed me. I hope it will meet with your satisfaction.”