"I heard that Lady Jane and her good husband had quite a row over the marriage here," Rory noted. "The undercook at Mallow Court was given a silver piece to obtain all the information she could from her kin here. Now they say Sir Shane and his wife do not speak to each other except when they cannot avoid it. It should get a bit more interesting when young Willy comes home with his bride."
"Surely he won't make a scene," Fortune said.
"You turned him away, and married his brother, lass," was the answer. "Kieran can tell you, young Willy has never been one to easily let go of something he wanted."
"We'll talk, my brother and I," Kieran said.
Maguire raised a sandy eyebrow. "If you can get within shouting range of him, Kieran Devers, for he'll be out for blood unless that simple lass he has married has been able to turn his heart."
"Do you think he's dangerous?" Fortune asked her husband later that evening as they lay abed. They were naked, and seated, he against the pillows, she against his chest. His big hands played with her sweet round breasts, teasing them lightly.
"I don't know," he answered her, one hand moving to push her hair aside so he might kiss the soft nape of her neck. "I've never seen him driven so far as he was with you." He nipped at her, then soothed away the sting with his wet tongue.
She took his other hand from her breast, and mouthed the fingers, finally taking one finger into her mouth and sucking on it seductively. Her tongue swirled about the finger in an almost thoughtful motion, and then releasing it she said, "Does his wife have the ability to rule him as his mother did? Perhaps we should try to make our peace through Emily Anne."
"I am not certain it will be possible for Emily Anne loves Willy with all her heart, and she is yet very young. She will say and do what she believes will please him. Nay, I think there is little chance of a reconciliation between me and my family."
"Your father will not desert you," Fortune reminded him.
"Nay, he won't, but neither will he do anything else. He must live with my stepmother and my siblings long after we have gone."
"Than we shall ignore them all," Fortune said. "I see no other way. In six months' time we shall be gone, and with the winter coming, I see little chance of your stepmother causing difficulty."
He turned her about so he might kiss her, but did not answer her. His bride did not know Jane Devers as he did. Even now her troublesome mind would be twisting and turning in an effort to find an excuse to make mischief of some sort for the Leslies of Glenkirk, and to justify that wicked behavior as right, based upon her religious beliefs. Not that the Catholics weren't as bad; for they were. How they could all excuse their viciousness toward one another, and still claim God favored them alone defied logic, Kieran thought.
Toward the end of October Maeve Fitzgerald rode over from Lisnaskea to tell her half-brother that William Devers and his bride were expected home that same day. "Da says to be on your guard as that woman he's wed to is surely plotting some deviltry."
"I had heard Da wasn't at Mallow Court a great deal now," her brother remarked.
"He's there enough," Maeve said sharply.
Kieran put an arm about his half-sister. "What is it, lass?"
Maeve sighed deeply. "I don't want to leave our mam, and yet she wants us to go with you in the spring, and the truth is that she is right. There is nothing here for us. We're being driven from our home by the likes of Jane Devers, and her Protestant ilk. And what will happen to Mam when we are gone?"
"Da will protect her," Kieran said in an effort to comfort his half-sister.
"And when Da is gone? Do you think your younger brother will respect the fact that Da built Mam her house, and gave her an income? He'll drive her from it, and send her from Lisnaskea, the only place she's ever known, and all because she's a Catholic. God help her!"
"We'll make a plan," Kieran promised her. "If that should ever happen, she will come to us in the New World, Maeve."
"I hate the Protestants!" Maeve declared. "They may hold sway here in Ulster now, but they'll all burn in the fiery pits of hell one day for their impiety and false religion. I'm glad for it!"
"My wife is a Protestant," Kieran reminded Maeve.
"Fortune is different, and at least she was once baptized a Catholic. With your help, Kieran, she'll return to the true church one day, especially when you have children," Maeve reasoned.
"Don't waste yourself in hating, little sister," he told her. Then he sent her back to Lisnaskea, and went to tell his in-laws that William Devers would shortly be home.
He came early the next day, riding through Maguire's Ford as if the devil himself was on his heels. He stormed into Erne Rock Castle, pushing past a startled servant. He found the family in the Great Hall, breaking their fast of the previous night. They did not see him until pointing a finger at Fortune he shouted at her, "Whore!"
Before James Leslie, Kieran, or the two younger Leslies might respond, Fortune was on her feet, coming down from the high board to stand in front of William Devers. She slapped him with all her might. "How dare you insult me?" she demanded of him. "Who do you think you are, William Devers, to come into my mother's house, and slander me? You have no rights over me, and you certainly never did!"
"You were to marry me!" he cried, taken aback by her fury. His mother and his wife had spent all the previous evening telling him what an affront Fortune Lindley's marriage to Kieran was. He had right on his side, damn it!
"There was no marriage contract between us, or our families, Master Devers. I came to Ireland to seek a husband, and you were the first candidate for my hand presented me. I refused you."
"So you might whore with my bastard brother!" he accused her. "All the time I courted you so tenderly, you were thinking of him!"
Fortune slapped him again to his surprise. "If you keep calling me foul names, and maligning my husband, Master Devers, I shall go to the local magistrate and register a complaint. Do not think that because Kieran is a Catholic I shall be ignored. I shall not. I am a Protestant, and my brother is the king's well-loved nephew. As for the king, his wife is a Catholic. Whose side in such a matter as this one do you think the king will favor, Master Devers? That of a very unimportant Irish landowner's son, or mine?"
"I loved you, Fortune." His voice was low.
"You were fascinated by me. What you loved, Will, whether you knew it or not, was Maguire's Ford, and this castle. Even as your mother had taught you," Fortune said with devastating effect.
"Kieran shall not have it," William Devers said, his voice now hard, his eyes filled with anger and hate. "My bastard half-brother shall not have Maguire's Ford and Erne Rock. I will not allow any Catholic to lord it over me, madame!"
"You know the disposition of this estate, Will," Fortune said. "It is to be equally divided between my brothers who even now sit at the high board, their daggers at the ready to slit your throat," she mocked. "Now, apologize to me, and to your brother, who is my husband. There is no reason for strife between us."
"Go to hell, you bitch!" he snarled, and turned to go.
At that moment Kieran Devers leapt from the high board, and dashed across the floor to beard his younger brother. Grasping him by his doublet he said fiercely, "I'll not kill you lest I have the sin of Cain upon me, Willy, and because I promised my wife I should not; but if you ever insult either of us again, little brother, I will forget my promises, and the consequences be damned. My father's marriage to my mother was a legitimate one even as his marriage to your mother is. If I were the bigot you are I should claim otherwise for is not the Holy Catholic Church the one true church? Some say it is so, Willy, although the Protestants would disagree. Like Fortune and her family I desire no animosity between us, but so help me God I shall beat you senseless if you ever come to Erne Rock again uninvited to cause trouble!" He loosed his hold on the younger man. "Now, get the hell out of here, Willy!" Spinning William Devers about he applied his boot to the seat of his antagonist's breeches, and pushed.