Besieged Read Free Page A

them with much interest, in the end he founded his own personal religion, but no one other than he was asked to follow it. Faith, my dearest, is a matter between you and God alone. Let no one tell you otherwise.”
    “So men use God to pursue their own ends, Mama,” Fortune said thoughtfully. “I think it very wicked.”
    “It is,” came the reply. “I have raised you to be tolerant of all people and faiths, poppet. Do not allow anyone to change you,” Jasmine advised her daughter.
    “I won’t,” Fortune said firmly.
    “If you fall in love, you may be influenced by your lover,” her mother said.
    “I will never fall in love, then,” Fortune replied quietly. “Most men today are not, from my small observation, like my stepfather. He respects you, and listens to your counsel. That is the kind of man I would marry, Mama. I hope William Devers is like that.”
    “Your father respects me because I have made him respect me, but as for listening to my counsel, he may listen, but seldom takes my advice. Men are stubborn that way, Fortune. You must learn to work around them in order to get things done,” Jasmine said with a smile.
    “I have seen you wheedle Papa,” Fortune replied with a rich chuckle. “When we were small, India and I used to wager how long it would take you to get him to do your bidding.”
    “Did you?” Jasmine said dryly. “Which of you won the most often?”
    “I did,” Fortune answered a trifle smugly. “India was always in too much of a hurry to win. I, however, bided my time, as did you, Mama. Patience can truly be a virtue when dealing with a man.”
    Jasmine laughed aloud yet once again. She caressed her daughter’s cheek tenderly. “I never realized you were such a wise child, Fortune,” she said, chuckling. “I fear William Devers may have more of a woman than he is anticipating.”
    “The only thing William Devers is anticipating is my dowry,” Fortune said sharply. “He will get quite a surprise when he learns that I intend keeping my own wealth. He may not be willing to have such a girl for a wife, Mama.”
    “Then he will be a fool,” came the answer.
    “Who will be a fool?” James Leslie, the duke of Glenkirk, joined his wife and stepdaughter at the ship’s rail.
    “Oh, we were just speaking of men,” Fortune said airily.
    “ ’Tis nae particularly flattering, lassie,” the duke answered. “Are ye excited, my pretty? In just a short time, a few days at the most, ye’ll meet the young man who will probably become yer husband.”
    “We will see,” Fortune said quietly.
    James Leslie drew a slow, deep breath. What was it about his stepdaughters? He had raised them since they were little girls, and they had, for the most part, been amenable lasses until it came to the matter of marriage. Still, he remembered his breach with the eldest, India, only just healed. He had promised India that he would not doubt any of his children ever again. It was a promise he meant to keep. “Aye, yer right, lass. Yer right. We will see. Why the young fellow could turn out to be a terrible dunce, and I’ll nae hae my lass wed wi a fool, or a villain,” the duke said.
    Jasmine Leslie smiled. She had seen the look in her husband’s eye, and knew his patience was being tried. He had done the right thing, however. Perhaps it was possible to teach an old dog new tricks.
    “We had best go to our cabin, poppet,” the duchess said, “and see if all is in readiness for the remainder of our trip.”
    “Let me stay, Mama, and continue to view the land,” Fortune pleaded prettily.
    “Very well,” Jasmine said, and taking her husband’s hand drew him to her side. “She wants to be alone, Jemmie.”
    He nodded, and together they left the main deck of the vessel.
    Fortune continued to lean against the ship’s railing lost in thought. This was the land of her birth, yet she had been but a few months old when she had left it. Ireland meant naught to her at all. It was the name of a