Lost Love Found Read Free Page B

rebellion, and Ireland cannot win that war. In the end, the O’Malleys of Innisfana will be worse off than in our grandfather’s time.”
    “And England, too, Anne,” put in Anne’s twin, Colin. “The Earl of Essex mismanaged the whole bloody affair, lost twelve thousand men and over three thousand pounds!”
    “But all of this has nothing to do with me,” wailed Anne.
    “Yes, it does,” Valentina said a bit sharply. “Does it not seem wrong to you, with all the hardship our country is facing, to have a large and ostentatious wedding?”
    “Our tenants are not starving,” snapped Anne. “Papa’s monopolies on nutmeg and cloves have kept the estate solvent, and when the old queen dies, things will be better. Once we have a king again, England will prosper. Robert says so.”
    “Elizabeth Tudor is the greatest monarch, man or woman, that England has ever had,” said Colin St. Michael vehemently. “I only wish I had been old enough to participate in those glorious days that Papa speaks of so fondly. It is the war that weakens our country, not the queen.”
    “The queen is old,” Anne replied staunchly.
    “Because she is old does not mean she is unable to govern well,” Valentina said.
    “None of which has anything to do with the fact that my wedding is ruined!” snapped Anne.
    “I am glad my wedding is not until autumn,” said Bevin St. Michael a touch smugly.
    “You will be lucky if you have a wedding at all, as you are marrying an Irishman with Irish lands,” Anne said spitefully to her younger sister.
    “Henry’s father, Lord Glin, is English, and the Glins of Glinshannon are loyal to the queen. Henry says there has been no fighting in or about their lands, and his father said last summer in the thick of it all that nothing would stop his son’s marriage to me. So there, Anne!”
    “I shall have the grandest wedding of you all,” announced twelve-year-old Margaret St. Michael airily.
    “How can you be certain of that, little Maggie?” asked Colin, ruffling his littlest sister’s copper-colored curls fondly. “Was it not you who swore to me only last year that you intended to be a holy nun like our Aunt Eibhlin?”
    “Aunt Eibhlin is of the old church,” said Maggie. “The one that gives its allegiance to a foreign power in Rome. We are members of England’s own church, and no longer have nuns in convents. Nay, Colin! I shall marry a great man one day and have the best wedding of all. Val has already had her wedding. Anne’s is to be a quiet affair. That leaves only Bevin, and whatever Bevin has, I shall have twice as much of, I vow it!” Her green eyes sparkled with malicious triumph. As the youngest daughter she was usually last, but here was one place where being last would give her the advantage, and Maggie was quick to see it.
    “But what if Val marries again?” Colin teased, laughing. “She is still young, and the most beautiful of you all.”
    “And an old maid at heart,” Anne sniped. “She married Lord Barrows to escape spinsterhood. Who will have her now?”
    “I married so that you and Bevin would not have to wait any longer to wed!” said Valentina spiritedly. “I shall never forgive myself for doing it, either. Had I not settled on a husband to please you, Anne, perhaps Edward Barrows would still be alive! All I have ever wanted is a man to love, one who would love me as Mama and Papa love each other. So many around me have found that kind of love. Why can I not? Why?
    “How dare you whine at me that your wedding has been spoiled, and by me? Next week you will marry the man you love, Anne. Do you not realize how fortunate you are? I cannot believe you to be so self-centered and so blind. If you cannot see your good fortune, if all you desire is to be important for a day and to wear pretty clothing, then you are a bigger fool than I have believed you to be all these years. A supreme fool!”
    “ I? A fool? ” Outraged, Anne St. Michael flushed