Darling Jasmine. Bertrice Small

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СКАЧАТЬ he has never remarried,” Jasmine said thoughtfully.

      “His family has certainly implored him to,” Skye replied. “It has been fifteen years since his wife and children died. His sons would have been grown by now. ’Twas a terrible tragedy he suffered.”

      “Grandmama, when the king first ordered me to wed with the earl I remember that James Leslie told me he had come to Greenwood to ask your permission to court me after that tiny scandal we caused several days earlier. He said you sent him away because you had already arranged my marriage to Rowan. He said you told him it was best I not even know he had been there. Is that true, Grandmama?”

      “Aye,” Skye admitted without hesitation. “The earl does not lie.”

      Jasmine looked reflective, then she sighed. “I’ve been very foolish,” she admitted. “I should not have run away.”

      “Do not distress yourself, my darling girl. You needed more time than it appeared James Leslie was willing to give you. Where you made your mistake was in staying away so long,” her grandmother told her. “And I hold myself responsible for that. Instead of enjoying myself helping you to intrigue against the earl, I should have offered you wise counsel and insisted you return home. The deed is done, and now there is help for it. You must win James Leslie over if you are to have a happy marriage. To that end you will agree with my plan of action, Jasmine. Shall I take the children and wend my way home?”

      “Stay at Belles Fleurs a bit, Grandmama, then we shall spring this little idea of yours upon the earl as if we had just thought of it,” Jasmine said. “If he does not agree, we cannot do it, I fear.”

      “And he is apt to say nay if we spring it upon him too soon,” Skye agreed. “We will, however, have to keep the little ones out of the way while they remain here. I know! We shall find them a tutor, and they shall begin their lessons. That way they will be well occupied while I help you to soften up the earl. Then, when he is susceptible, we shall gain his permission, and I shall take the children back to Queen’s Malvern. Left alone, you may seduce the handsome devil, darling Jasmine, and once he is under your sweet spell you’ll wed and live happily ever after,” Skye finished triumphantly. “Ahhh, how such a strategy takes me back to my own youth!”

      Little girl, little girl! Do not interfere so.

      Skye stiffened. She had heard his voice! She had distinctly heard Adam’s voice. Or had she?

      “Grandmama?” Jasmine’s look was a concerned one.

      Skye shook off the eerie feeling. “ ’Tis nothing,” she said, wondering if she was going mad. Then she pushed the sensation far into the back of her consciousness as, filled with new enthusiasm, she began to design in her head new schemes to help her favorite grandchild. Enchanting a man and stealing his heart was not all that difficult, and when a woman was as beautiful and as clever as Jasmine, why it would be almost too easy, the old lady considered. A rival! Yes, the earl of Glenkirk definitely needed a rival for Jasmine’s affections. There was nothing like another man, eager and ready to woo, to make a prospective bridegroom even more anxious. Of course Jasmine could not know, for if James Leslie needed to fall in love with Jasmine again, so Jasmine needed to fall in love with James Leslie as well.

      It would have to be a very handsome man, but a man who was perhaps a trifle shallow and nowhere near as principled as the earl. Her granddaughter was no fool, Skye knew, and would not be taken in by a less honorable man. And just to be absolutely certain Jasmine would not fall in love with the wrong man the rival should be married. Aye! It was a brilliant plan!

      “Run along now, my darling girl,” Skye told Jasmine. Then to Daisy, “Is that bath finally ready, or am I to wait until Michaelmas for it?” She shifted herself from the bed, waving Jasmine off as she did so. “God’s boots! I had forgotten how damp this château gets in the winter. Put more wood on the fire, Daisy. I’m chilled to the bone.”

      “Can’t go home soon enough for me,” Daisy grumbled.

      “ ’Twill be soon enough,” her mistress promised. “I just have one or two little things to do, and then we’ll be off.”

      “You’ve got that look in yer eye,” Daisy said. “I haven’t seen that look in twenty years, I haven’t!”

      “What look?” Skye feigned innocence.

      “That look,” Daisy replied. “His lordship wouldn’t be pleased at all, he wouldn’t. I always knew that once he was gone you’d be up to yer old tricks again, my lady. Now why can’t ye settle back and enjoy the years left to ye with yer grandchildren and great-grandchildren?”

      “I’ll outlive you, you nosy old busybody,” Skye said.

      “Aye, ye probably will,” Daisy agreed, “and when I’m gone there’ll be none to keep ye in check.”

      “I want my bath,” Skye snapped.

      Daisy shook her head. “We’re both too old for this,” she said.

      “Maybe you are, but I’m not,” her mistress replied. “I’ll not curl up my toes just because I’m an old woman, Daisy Kelly.”

      Daisy shook her head again. Perhaps she should have let that slovenly Martha come with her lady this time. Heaven only knew what mischief she was up to and how it would all end.

      Chapter 4

      “Ma chérie!” Alexandre de Saville, comte de Cher, greeted his sister-in-law with a kiss upon each of her cheeks. “I had not thought to see you again in this life, for I love Archambault and scarcely leave it; and for you it is the same with your beloved Queen’s Malvern.”

      “Adam is dead,” Skye said without further preamble, allowing the servants to take her fur-lined and trimmed wool cloak.

      “Ahhh, ma pauvre soeur,” the count said, his face collapsing with his sadness. “But he was not ill?”

      “He was old, Alexandre,” Skye replied. “Thirteen years older than you, and ten years older than me.”

      “When?” The count escorted his guest into a bright salon, where a warm fire burned, and seated her. Almost immediately a servant was at their elbow with wine.

      “Twelfth Night,” Skye answered him. “Nay, he was not ill, and he was in the midst of his family. One moment he was laughing at a jest, and the next he was gone. It was quite a shock for us all, and for Adam most of all, I imagine,” she finished with a small touch of humor.

      “ ’Twas a beautiful death as you describe it,” the count said. “God assoil my brother’s good soul.” He bowed his head a moment.

      Skye sipped her wine, marveling at the delicacy of the vintage.

      His silent prayer over, the count raised his silver head, and looked at his sister-in-law. “It was kind of you to bring us this news personally, but I imagine ’tis not your only reason for being in France. You have come to take Jasmine and her children back to England, have you not, ma soeur?”

      Skye nodded. “ ’Tis past time, Alexandre.” Then she went on to explain how Lord Leslie had followed her to Belle Fleurs. “Once he loved her, but now I do not know,” she concluded. “At least he is fond of the children, and that is a beginning, I think.”

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