Bertrice Small - Besieged

"Nor have I. My cousin, Cullen Butler, has written to me of how you have begun a small weaving industry here in the village, and that you have taught your Catholic neighbors this trade as well. I am very pleased by your initiative, Reverend Steen. And tomorrow I shall see if you are a good judge of bridegrooms," Jasmine smiled.

"I have seen the young lady riding with Master Maguire. She is a pretty child. Young William will make her a fine husband," he responded, returning the smile.

"If they suit," Jasmine replied. "I am a modern parent, and will not force my daughter into an unhappy alliance, Samuel Steen."

He looked a trifle startled, but the Protestant minister said nothing. He was certain that the young couple would like each other. Besides, in the end all the parents would have their way, and the marriage would be celebrated. "Your daughter is a Protestant?" he inquired.

"She was born here at Maguire's Ford, the posthumous child of my second husband, and she was baptized by my cousin. However, she has been raised in England's church," Jasmine explained.

"Perhaps I should baptize her a Protestant," he suggested. "Sir Shane and his wife are very strict, and may be upset by this knowledge, my lady. I mean no offense, you understand."

"One baptism is quite enough for any good Christian, Samuel Steen," Jasmine told him. "If the fact my daughter was baptized a Catholic distresses them then perhaps their son is not for Lady Fortune. My daughter is, after all, a great heiress. She can have her pick of husbands. It does not have to be William Devers. It is providential that Fortune considers him at all." She smiled sweetly at the minister.

She was a strong-willed woman, the minister thought, but he was not in the least put off by it. He hoped her daughter was as strong, for Fortune Lindley's future mother-in-law, Lady Jane Anne Devers, was as tenacious as the duchess of Glenkirk. She was an uncompromising Protestant who had already spoken to him about removing the Catholics from Maguire's Ford when her son became its master. Young William, of course, was more flexible, and if the young couple made Erne Rock their permanent home, he would be under his wife's influence rather than that of his mother, which Samuel Steen suspected would be a better thing. He saw no reason to dispossess the Catholics of the village for their religion. Everyone got on well. If there was no one to interfere, they would continue to get on well.

On the morning that the Deverses were due to arrive, Fortune bathed with the help of her new maidservant, Rois, who was Bride Duffy's youngest granddaughter. She was a slender girl of eighteen with dark braids, large blue eyes, and porcelain skin lightly sprinkled with several freckles across the bridge of her nose. Rois was soft-spoken and diffident towards her mistress. Her grandmother had been training her for several months for this coveted position in what was to become Lady Fortune's household.

"Have you ever had a suitor, Rois?" Fortune asked as she stepped from her tub to be enfolded within a soft, warm towel.

Rois blushed prettily. "Kevin Hennessey and I would like to walk out, my lady, but grandmother says we must keep our attention on our positions. In a year, or two, we may be allowed to court."

"What does your Kevin do?" Fortune was fascinated. It would seem that her servant had no more freedom than she had.

"Kevin helps Master Maguire with the horses," Rois said.

"Does he like what he does? Is he good at it?" Fortune probed further. God's bones! Getting information from Rois was like pulling teeth.

"Aye, he loves the beasties, as he calls them," Rois said, warming now to her subject. "And he is very good with them. They say that one day he may take Master Maguire's place, but that, of course, is a very long way off, my lady."

"Have you ever kissed him?"

Rois blushed again, this time a far deeper hue than previously. "Ohh, my lady," she squeaked. "You shouldn't ask me such a thing."

"That means you have!" Fortune pounced. "Good! What is it like to be kissed? I never have, except by my relations. It is far different with a suitor, I expect, isn't it?"

Rois nodded her head, working furiously to dry her mistress. She wasn't quite certain what to say. "When Kevin kisses me," she said, and then quickly amended, "if he did kiss me, my heart beats a tattoo like a drum, and my whole being feels filled with light. It's hard to describe, but it is wonderful. If, indeed, it actually happened."

Fortune giggled mischievously. "That doesn't tell me a whole lot, Rois," she said frankly. "I guess you have to experience a kiss to know what it's like. I wonder how long before William Devers tries to kiss me. I wonder if I will like this kissing."

"Women usually do," Rois replied. Then she slipped a clean chemise over her mistress's head.

"My mother certainly does," Fortune remarked, straightening the lace edging about the chemise's low-cut neckline, and on the balloon sleeves that came just below her elbow.

Rois rolled a pair of cream-colored silk stockings up Fortune's slim legs, gartering them with gold rosettes. Then she helped the girl into several silk petticoats. Next came the outer skirt of heavy deep green silk, the skirt falling in simple folds with its fullness toward the back, and open in the front to display the skirt petticoat of cream and gold brocade.

"Sit down, my lady, and let me do your hair," Rois said. She unpinned the fiery mass from atop Fortune's head and brushed it out vigorously, parting it in the middle, and coiling it into a flat knot at the nape of her mistress's neck. She tied the single lovelock by Fortune's left ear with a pearl-studded gold ribbon. Stepping back she observed her work, and then smiled. "Come on now, and let's get into your bodice, my lady," she said. She helped Fortune into the square-necked green garment, pulling the cloth down firmly so that the lace from the chemise showed; fastening the sleeves, which came to just below the elbow as did its undergarments, at the armscye, drawing down the lace from the chemise sleeves so that they showed. It was a simple gown, but an obviously expensive one. "You do look nice," Rois said with great understatement. "Shall I bring you your jewelry box, my lady?"

"Aye," Fortune said. When the maidservant opened the case, Fortune chose a long single strand of creamy pearls and slipped them over her head. They lay glowing and perfect upon her gown. About her left wrist she affixed a bracelet fashioned of a double strand of pearls. About her other wrist she wore a bracelet of gold links, each of the rounds studded with an emerald. Contemplating her rings Fortune chose a large baroque pearl, a round emerald, and a simple gold ring with the Lindley family crest, two swans with their necks intertwined to form a perfect heart. "There," she said with a small chuckle. "That should be impressive enough for a first meeting."

"Yer so naughty, my lady," Rois giggled, and taking the jewelry case stored it away.

There was a soft tapping upon the door, but before Rois could answer it, the door opened to admit the duchess of Glenkirk who was garbed in rich burgundy silk, a necklace of pigeon's egg rubies about her neck with matching earbobs that fell from her lobes, several rich bracelets, and her hands heavy with elegant rings. Her hair was done as was her daughter's save that Jasmine wore no lovelock.

"How lovely you look," she complimented both daughter and maidservant with her words. "The green is quite suitable for your hair, eyes, and skin. You have Irish skin like the O'Malleys, poppet. It is very fair."

"Merci, Mama," Fortune replied. "I see you are dressed for battle," she chuckled. "Is it really fair to intimidate poor Lady Jane at our first meeting? The duchess of Glenkirk is really quite grand."