“He is very beautiful,” Lady India Lindley said.
“Handsome,” her mother corrected. “A man is handsome, a woman beautiful, my poppet.”
India shook her head. “He is past handsome, Mama.
He is beautiful!
I am an heiress, and I would marry him without a title if he would but ask me.” She looked admiringly after George Villiers.
“I do not like his eyes,” Lady Fortune Lindley said.
“Why not?” Jasmine asked her younger daughter, curious. It was, she thought, a rather interesting observation for a little girl.
“They are like your black pearls, Mama. They reflect the light, but I can see nothing in them,” Fortune remarked.
“You are such a fool, Fortune!” India mocked her. “I think his dark eyes, like a velvet night, filled with stars.”
“Gracious!” Jasmine note. “You are a very romantic child, India. I think I am going to have to keep a sharp eye on you from now on, miss!” She found her two young daughters' observations on George Villiers interesting. While she found him amusing, and certainly useful, she tended to agree with her younger daughter, but then Rowan's posthumous daughter had always been sensible from her birth, she considered thoughtfully. India, on the other hand, had a streak of willful wildness very much like Jasmine's brother, who was now the Grand Mughal of India. It was to be hoped that she would outgrow such tendencies.
Prince Charles asked that his small nephew be allowed to stay in his apartments at court with him for a few days. It would have been ungracious of Jasmine to refuse, and Charlie-boy was most anxious to remain with this newfound uncle of his. Adali personally delivered a trunk of the child's clothing to the royal apartments. The prince, serious in his religious devotions, began teaching his nephew his prayers and his letters. The little child, who had a quick mind, was an excellent student, much to his royal uncle's great pleasure.
“It is like your father's court in that the courtiers scramble for the king's attention and favor,” Adali wisely observed. “I suppose all royal courts are alike, my lady. Our littlest child fits in quite well, and is very much at ease with his princely uncle.”
“Both of his grandfathers are kings,” Jasmine observed, “and both of his uncles are or will be kings. If my not-so-royal Stuart had been born his father's heir, he would have been a king one day.”
“He will have far less grief in his life being a duke,” Adali said with a small smile, and his mistress laughed.
“How can you be so happy when I have been away?” James Leslie said, entering the room and surprising them both.
“Jemmie!”
Jasmine squealed, and flung herself into his arms. “You're back! Ohh, now we can leave London, and go home to Queen's Malvern! Hooray! Hooray!” Then she kissed him hard, molding her body against his. “Did you miss me, my lord?” she murmured softly, nuzzling against the side of his neck. It was damp, and he had the aroma of horses about him, but beneath it she could scent James Leslie, her Jemmie.
She felt wonderful in his arms. God, he had missed her! He tipped her face up to his, saying, “Another kiss, madame. I am weary with longing for you.” Then his mouth descended on hers, tasting the softness of her lips, her perfume, the night-blooming jasmine, enveloping him in its seductive scent. She yielded so sweetly in his arms, and, when he finally released her, his head faintly spinning, he grinned happily. “May I take it then that you have missed me, madame?”
She nodded. “And I have sent the marquis of Hartsfield packing, Jemmie! Most publicly, too. He will not come near me again, I vow.”
“The king?”
His tone was just slightly concerned.
“Ohh, the king understood perfectly once I explained it to him,” Jasmine replied breezily. “And the children are all here! Charlie-boy has been at court with Prince Charles, who has taken a great liking to our little laddie; and Henry, India, and Fortune have made very good impressions on everyone. Why I've had a number of very serious inquiries regarding marriage for them; but now we can go home!”
The earl of Glenkirk turned to Adali. “What should I know?” he asked the household steward. “Or rather, what hasn't she told me?”
“Jemmie!” Jasmine looked somewhat aggrieved.
Adali grinned, then chuckled. “Actually, my lord, it is just as she has said. You were scarcely gone when the marquis was on our doorstep. He came to take my mistress on an outing. Naturally I accompanied them. Then my good lady caught a chill out on the river that turned into an ague, and could not see the marquis for several days.”
Glenkirk snickered. What a clever wench Jasmine was.
“Then the queen had a masque,” Jasmine took up the tale, “and the marquis aroused my ire by luring me into an alcove, and putting his hands all over me as if he owned me! I was forced to take drastic action, Jemmie.”
The earl of Glenkirk winced, imagining the action she had taken to disengage her unwanted suitor. “Did you geld him forever?”
“Only temporarily,” Jasmine replied. “I went immediately to the king and asked him to release me from St. Denis's unwanted attentions.”
“She knelt,” Adali told the earl. “She prostrated herself before Their Majesties, her skirts spread all about her. It was quite dramatic, my lord, and the king was very moved. Even I could see it from my place at the back of the hall.”
“Jasmine!”
James Leslie didn't know whether to be angry or not.
“Well, it wasn't fair!” Jasmine declared. “I'm in love with one man, and planning to wed him in just another two weeks, and I'm saddled with an unwanted suitor, Jemmie, who leers at me constantly and paws at me like a stableboy with a dairymaid. I've had enough of everyone telling me what to do! When I leave London I'm never coming back again! I hate the court with all its pretentions! And I don't enjoy most of the people who inhabit the court either. I didn't like my father's court, and I like this one little better, Jemmie. I just want to be your wife and a mother to my children. And, of course, I want to involve myself in Grandma's trading company. We must bring tea to England, and make it popular as the Spanish have done with chocolate, which I think a nasty drink. And there are the horses being raised at MacGuire's Ford to consider. And there is your own Glenkirk Castle to be looked after, too. We have so much to do together, Jemmie, and there can be no time for court and all its attendant silliness. And somewhere along the way we must have several bairns of our own,” she finished.
“Aye,” he agreed with her. “We must indeed have several bairns, madame. I am glad you have remembered that wifely duty amid all your wonderful plans for importing tea and raising horses,” he chuckled.
“Ohh, Jemmie, the bairns come first, I swear it!” she promised.
“Good!” he replied. “Now, Adali, I want a hot bath and a good dinner, and I want to see the children. Then, madame, it will be an early night for us,” he finished meaningfully.
“The children first, my lord,” Adali said wisely. He knew that once the bath and the dinner came, there would be no time for anything but passion between Jasmine and James Leslie. Bowing, he hurried off to gather up Henry, India, and Fortune, who were delighted to learn that the earl of Glenkirk had returned from his trip to Scotland.
Racing ahead of Adali, they dashed into the library, where their mother and the earl were awaiting them. “Papa! Papa!” they squealed, flinging themselves at him simultaneously. Laughing, the earl bent down, and gathered them into his embrace. “So, my wee trio of rascals, you are glad to see me, are you?” he said with a broad smile. “Well, I've missed you, too!”
“We've been to court, Papa!” Henry said. “Charlie-boy led us in, and the king greeted us personally. He looks so sad, but I like him. And I bowed, just like you taught me!”
“And the girls curtsied beautifully,” Jasmine said, making certain that her daughters did not feel left out.
“Did you bring us a present from Scotland, Papa?” India asked.
“Papa was on the king's business, greedy one,” Henry said. “There is no time for presents when a man is on king's business.”
“Oh?” The earl feigned surprise. “Then you do not want the gift I have brought you, Henry?”
“You really brought us gifts?” Henry Lindley's face was all boyish excitement. “What did you bring us?”
“A fine dirk for you, Henry, and silver thistle necklaces for my lasses,” the earl said, producing the items from his pocket.
“Nothing for me?” Jasmine teased him.
“I will give you your gift in private later,” James Leslie said, his green-gold eyes meeting her turquoise ones. Then he carefully fastened a thistle necklace first about India's neck, and then Fortune's. “See, lassies, each thistle has a tiny amethyst for a flower head.”
“I will keep my necklace always,” Fortune said adoringly as she looked up at the man who was to be her father.
He gave her a little hug and kissed her cheek gently.
“You chose well,” India noted. “I like jewelry, Papa.”
“Most ladies do, I have found,” he replied, giving her a hug and a kiss, too. His eye then went to Henry Lindley, who was delightedly examining the small silver dagger with the carved bone handle.
The boy looked up. “ 'Tis a fine weapon, sir,” he said slowly. “Will you show me how to use it? And you won't forget my fencing lessons?”
“We shall begin them when we reach Queen's Malvern,” the earl said. “And this winter, when we are at Glenkirk, you shall have lessons every day except Sunday, Henry.”
“Come along now, children,” Adali said. “Your papa has ridden far and is tired. He wants a bath, his supper, and his bed. Bid your parents a good evening.” He shepherded them from the library.
“How good you are to them,” Jasmine said. “It makes me love you all the more, Jemmie Leslie. I shall give you fine sons, for you are a man who obviously loves children.”
“I have a painted ball for Charlie-boy I found in a street stall in Edinburgh,” he responded. Then, reaching out, he pulled her into his lap as he sat down by the fire. “I missed you,” he told her simply, “and I agree that there is really no need for us to come to London again. Will you truly be happy if you don't, Jasmine? I love you so deeply that the very thought of your unhappiness gives me pain, my wild lassie.” He nuzzled the top of her dark head.
Safe.
The word popped unbidden into her head. She was safe at last, Jasmine realized. But then she had been safe with Rowan until his life had been snuffed out by a madman. She had lost two husbands to violence, and a young lover to an unnecessary and premature death. Surely this time it would be all right. Had not her own grandmother lost five husbands before she married Adam de Marisco?
It would be all right.
“You stink of horses, and now so do I,” she said, sliding from his lap. “Adali certainly must have your bath ready, or at least being prepared.”
“I don't have to go back to Lynmouth House then?” he teased.
“I will never be separated from you again, Jemmie Leslie,” she told him and, taking him by the hand, led him upstairs to her own apartments, where the large old iron-bound oak tub had been set up before the fire in the dayroom. “I shall maid you, sir,” she told him, and began pulling his boots off, then his damp, knit woolen stockings.
“And I you,” he replied, seating her and drawing her shoes from her narrow, high-arched feet.
Jasmine stood and removed his doublet and his shirt. He removed her bodice and her chemise, pulling her against him for a brief moment to feel the softness of her breasts against his darkly furred chest. Drawing away reluctantly, Jasmine unbuttoned his breeches and slid them over his narrow hips, past his shapely calves to his ankles. He stepped from the garment and kicked it away. Then he undid the tapes of her skirt first and the several petticoats she wore beneath it, lifting her from them when they puddled about her ankles. Naked now but for her stockings, Jasmine pulled his drawers off, and he kicked them too across the chamber. Kneeling, he slipped her garters down her legs, then rolled her silk stockings off, sliding them from her feet as she lifted each one in turn.
He pressed his face against her smooth belly, his breathing very ragged. Then, standing, he took her face between his two hands, and said, “I can't wait, darling Jasmine. I must take the edge off my appetite for you. It has been the longest month of my life!”
“Mine also,” she told him, reaching out to caress him. He was rock hard and practically throbbing with his desire. Jasmine drew him down to the floor between the fireplace and the tub. Lying upon her back, she opened herself to him in sweet invitation, reaching out to draw him into her embrace.
With a groan he pushed himself into her, finding to his delight that she was hot, and wet, and very, very welcoming. “Ahhh, God!” he moaned thickly as his manhood slid deep, and she wrapped her legs about him, encouraging him onward. His hunger for her seemed to increase rather than ease as they found the passionate rhythm of love together.