"Kieran isn't a bad penny," Fortune said indignantly. "He is a man of strong principles."
"Unfortunately my principles are not those of my stepmother," Kieran Devers said with a wry grin.
Colleen laughed. "Nay, they are not, brother."
In the morning, Lady Kelly departed Erne Rock Castle for her home outside of Dublin. "I may offend Mama, madame," she told Jasmine, "but if Kieran's wedding to your daughter is shortly after our brother Willy's wedding, then I would be there to see it. Will you write, and let me know what date they have chosen? If I am not mistaken, Papa will be there with me. He says nothing for he does love Mama, but he loves Kieran too, even though my older brother's intransigence hurts him deeply."
"I will write," Jasmine promised.
Lady Kelly's coach moved out of the courtyard and across the little drawbridge. Kieran and Fortune rode alongside of the vehicle as far as the Dublin road. There the coach stopped for a minute while brother and sister bid each other a tender farewell, and Fortune kissed Colleen's cheek lovingly. Then the carriage rumbled away, Kieran and Fortune waving after it until it was out of sight around a bend.
The late June morning was cloudy and warmish. It was obvious that a storm would threaten by late afternoon. They rode a ways without speaking, heading for their favorite place, the ruins of the hall of Black Colm Maguire. Fortune had asked Rory about it after the first time she and Kieran had sheltered there. Black Colm had been so called not for his dark hair, but his black heart. When he carried off the wife of his chieftain, and raped her, his enraged relations had finally had enough of him. They had stormed Black Colm's hall one moonless night. He had disappeared, however, gone to his master, the devil, so it was said. He was never seen again. His unfortunate victim was rescued and brought back to her home, but never again did she speak a word to anyone to her husband's sorrow. Black Colm's hall was pulled down and razed.
" 'Tis an unhappy place," Rory said, but Fortune did not find it so, for it was here she and Kieran might be alone, free from spying eyes. To her the ruined hall was a place of happiness. The summer rain came suddenly with a small rumble of thunder. It poured down in sheets, obscuring the lough, and the hills beyond. The horses huddled beneath a wide stone arch, almost dry. Nearby Fortune and Kieran sat within their sheltered alcove, arms about each other.
"We should choose a wedding day before you leave me," she said.
"You need but tell me, sweetheart" he replied, "and I will be there." He kissed the top of her red head, his arm tightening about her.
She snuggled against him, rubbing her cheek against the leather of his doublet. "October," she said. "As soon as possible after Willy marries his cousin. October fifth?" She looked questioningly up at him.
"It sounds as good a day as any, my love." He brushed his lips against hers softly. "Sweet, sweet," he murmured low.
"Kieran, I cannot bear it that you are to leave me," Fortune whispered. "I am behaving like a child, I know, yet the thought of not seeing you every day is hard." Her hand cupped his dark head, and drew him to her so she might kiss him softly.
"It is not forever, my love," he soothed her, nibbling on her lower lip. She was so damned exciting in her innocence.
"Could we not meet here where there is no one to see us?" she cajoled him sweetly, her tongue sweeping around his lips.
"The family is due back at Lammastide, and that is just a little over a month away, Fortune. Once they return it will be difficult for me to disappear too often without rousing suspicion. When my dear stepmother orchestrates a family celebration, we are all pressed into her service, and expected to be at her immediate beck and call. Willy's wedding will be the triumph of her life to date, for he is the heir to Mallow Court. If poor Emily Anne thinks it is to be her day as the blushing bride, she will find herself sadly mistaken, and overshadowed by her mother-in-law," Kieran chuckled. "We can meet here several times a week until the preparations begin. After that I cannot say when I will see you, sweetheart."
For a long moment Fortune felt overwhelmed with her disappointment, but then she laughed. "I suppose I will be so busy preparing for our own wedding that I will not miss you at all. Well," she amended, "almost not at all. Won't they be surprised when we marry just a week after Will and his Emily?" Her eyes danced wickedly.
"Shocked is more like it," he said with a grin. "You don't want to give them any warning?"
"Nay, Kieran! There is simply no good time to tell your family. 'Twould but spoil Will's wedding, and cause such an uproar that we would be the focus of everyone's attention, and I do not think that would please Lady Jane. Besides, while I dislike your stepmother, I do like Will, and would not deliberately cause his unhappiness."
"Our marriage will not please my stepmother," he said.
"Nay, it will absolutely not, but then it is not really her concern, is it?" Fortune said with complete logic. "You are not her son, and she has, in her bigotry, done you a great disservice, stealing your inheritance from you for her son. I hold no sympathy for Lady Jane."
"You are so strong and so fierce," he said, wrapping her in his embrace, and kissing her hard so that her lips felt almost bruised.
"Make love to me, Kieran," Fortune murmured into his ear. She tickled it with the pointed end of her tongue, and breathed softly into the whorl of it even as she moved her body provocatively against his. "You want me, Kieran. I know that you do." She slid a hand up to caress the back of his neck, entwining her fingers through the thick dark hair at the nape. It felt silken yet rough to her touch.
"You're a wicked wench," he told her through gritted teeth. He could feel his male member beginning to stir with serious interest.
In response Fortune took her other hand, slipped the buttons on her doeskin doublet, and unlaced her shirt front. She smiled as, unable to help himself, he slid his hand into her blouse and cupped her breast within it. "Ummmmm," she murmured as he fondled her. "Ohhh!" she squealed as he teased at her nipple, pinching it lightly.
He backed her hard against the stone wall of the alcove. "You mustn't tease me, Fortune. You don't know what you are doing," he told her. He was beginning to throb with his need for her.
Her head was spinning with the nearness of him. "Yes, I do know exactly what I am doing, Kieran," she told him breathlessly. "I am tired of being a virgin! Make love to me!"
"No," he said. "You will come to me on our wedding night a proper virgin, Fortune, but since you are so damned curious I will offer you a small lesson in passion. I wonder if you are brave enough to manage it." Then before she might answer he pulled off her doublet and her shirt, baring her to the waist. "Ahhh," he breathed. "How lovely you are, sweetheart." His big hands encircled her waist, and he lifted her up onto the stone bench where he might view her at his leisure.
Fortune was surprised at first, but then she smiled very seductively down into his handsome face, and loosening her belt she pulled her breeches down, letting them fall to her calves where her boot tops stopped them. "Just how brave are you, sir?" she asked him.
"Jesu," he groaned, seeing her, for all intents and purposes, naked. Her skin was pale and flawless. Her Venus mont was hairless. He had heard that great ladies denuded themselves in this manner but he had never seen such a sight before. His country lovers had sported curls where her mound was pink and smooth. Her cleft was mauve shadowed, a long tempting slash that seemed to beckon him to his destruction. "Cover yourself," he begged her. "You are too beautiful, Fortune." He could not restrain himself. His hands reached up and caressed her.