"Ye're not being fair, Skye," Brian whined.
"Fair!" She looked scornfully at them. "I spent my youth building up the wealth of this family, for wealth, my dear brothers, is power! I was forced into making a foreign marriage, and so I left you, Brian, in charge of the O'Malley wealth. And what have you done with it? You've squandered it!"
"Money is to be spent!" Brian reasoned.
"Spent intelligently, not squandered, you dolt! What have you done to increase our wealth? Where did you think additional monies were going to come from?"
"Da had monies."
"Da had little," she replied. "He scavenged wrecks, some of which, I am certain, he caused. He preyed upon an occasional fat merchant vessel caught without protection. He was more pirate than I care to admit! He wanted better for you when he died."
"Died and left his authority to you, Skye," Brian said bitterly as his brothers, Shane, Shamus, and Conn, nodded in agreement.
"Ah, that's what rankles you, isn't it, Brian? Da left the authority to me. How you would love to be the O'Malley! Well, my little brother, you were barely six when Da died, and our brother Michael, only eight. There was no one else that Da chose to trust. He knew that I would not fail him. Authority, Brian, comes only to those who are willing to accept responsibility, and so far I have seen nothing on the part of any of you to indicate to me that you are willing to grow up! When I see maturity in any one of you, Brian, I promise you that I will pass on my authority. Until then I will continue to keep my faith with our father, may God assoil him."
Adam sat back quietly in the shadows of a window seat to watch and listen as Skye spoke with her four half-brothers. He understood the frustration the younger men must be feeling, but he was forced to agree with his wife in her judgments. The O'Malley brothers were not capable of handling responsibility.
"Dammit, Skye," Shamus O'Malley exclaimed, "it's embarrassing having to answer to a woman! 'Tis all right for children, but we're grown men!"
"Strange," Skye murmured. "You chafe under my very light authority over you, but you're quick to throw in with Grace O'Malley and her cutthroats. Don't tell me that our kinswoman doesn't issue orders to you, for I know if you sail with her you answer to her, Shamus." She looked piercingly at her four brothers, who shuffled their feet nervously, and then she sat down, waving the men to chairs also. 'Tell me, Brian," she said, looking hard at him, "tell me what you would do if you were the O'Malley of Innisfana?"
A huge grin split his face, and it was obvious that Brian had thought often about being the head of his family. "Why, I'd go apirating with Grace, and I'd fight the damned English right back across the sea to their own puny island! God's bones, what fun we'd have, eh brothers?!"
Shane and Shamus O'Malley nodded at their elder sibling, and each sported an identical foolish grin upon his broad face. Skye had the incredible urge to hit them, for despite their ages, they were terribly childish.
"How would you feed your peoples while you were gone?" she demanded. "Who would protect Innisfana from our marauding friends and neighbors, not to mention the vengeful English? Having nothing of your own, Brian, what provisions could you make for your family, and all the others for whom you would be responsible? I've seen the results of giving you even small authority."
"What in Hell is that supposed to mean?" Brian shouted.
"It means you wasted all you had, and now you have nothing! You delivered the management of this house into the hands of your wife, a nice enough girl I've not a doubt, but a slattern when it comes to household matters! You've no judgment, Brian! You don't look at the long run. You'd run off with Grace O'Malley, leaving Innisfana and its peoples unprotected and poverty-stricken. While you fought the English your neighbors would be making up to them, aiding them and taking your holding in payment for their treacherous service!
“The first rule of survival is to stay out of politics! The second is to avoid a situation in which you cannot win. The English are just that, Brian. Ireland will never be free of them until they can unite beneath the banner of one leader, and I see no hope of that. Therefore your first duty is to survive, and to aid this family in its survival! If you want to be the O'Malley then show me the qualities that make a good leader, Brian. God knows I'll be glad to pass on my authority! I'm tired of being responsible for you all! I'm tired of having to answer to an English Queen for your behavior, and I want to live my own life free of such encumbrances! I cannot be quit of you, however, until I am satisfied that you can really be a leader! Until then you'll obey me, for I am the O'Malley!" She looked directly at them, daring any of them to argue with her, but they avoided her gaze. She knew they resented her, but she also knew that she was right about them.
Suddenly Shane asked, "What do we do then, Skye? If we don't go pirating with Grace O'Malley, and fight the English, what do we do?"
For the first time that afternoon Skye smiled. Her brother's plaintive question was what she had been waiting for. She didn't want to have to order them about. She wanted them to want her aid. "Well, Shane, I think that you and your brothers should do what you do best, and obviously that is pirating. However, don't pirate the English, for they're not rich enough. The Spanish are."
The Spanish?"
"Aye! You want adventure? Then get yourselves letters of marque from the Queen, and harry the dons along the Spanish Main. You'll rebuild your wealth, and therefore your power base in no time."
"We need no letters of marque from the English," Brian boasted. "We can go on our own."
That's up to you, Brian, but go on your own and you're prey to anyone and everyone. Get caught, and you'll be hung for a common pirate. Carry letters of marque, and you're protected by a powerful queen, and you've powerful allies in every other ship sailing with Bess Tudor's blessing. Should you get caught by the French or the Dutch, you're more apt to be ransomed than hung." She smiled lazily at her eldest brother. "'Tis your decision, of course, Brian. Now get out! I've said all I am going to for now. I will see you later, for I've not come home to go away quickly, little brothers."
The four men shuffled to their feet and clumped from the room, pausing at the door to pull their boots back on before departing. When the door had closed on them at last, Skye moved across the room to settle herself in Adam's lap. "Kiss me," she demanded, and he was happy to comply, covering her mouth with his in a fiery possession that left her breathless. "Hmmmmm," she purred at him, slipping a hand around to caress the back of his neck.
"Do you really want to be quit of them?" he asked her as she sent wonderful little shivers down his spine and he moved a hand around to slip into her silk shirt.
"Yes," she said, and nuzzled him just below his ear.
His hand cupped her breast, the thumb stretching up to tease at the nipple. "What if they don't take your suggestion?"
Skye gently bit on the lobe of Adam's ear, and then blew softly into it. 'They will," she said with certainty, loving the warmth of his hand as he cupped her.
"And then what, little girl?" Adam could feel himself beginning to stir with desire as she nesded provocatively against him, kissing his face and neck with wonderful little kisses.
“Then, my lord, we will be finished with the Tudor Queen- and her court! We shall go home, wherever that may be, and I shall spend my days being a dutiful chatelaine, and my nights being your own personal wanton!" She turned his head with her fingers and kissed him passionately.
The beast within him leapt forth, crushing her within the iron of his arms, meeting her flaming challenge with a fire of his own that burned hot and fierce. He turned her so that she lay helpless within the enchantment of his embrace, her fair breasts half exposed, their little nipples pushing arrogantly forth to taunt him. With a groan of surrender he buried his face in the perfumed softness of her. "Dammit, Skye, I want you! I cannot get enough of you, and 'tis unkind of you to tempt me so now."