Now as the day for their departure came near the duchess of Glenkirk grew sad. When her second daughter had gone she would have no children left at home but Patrick Leslie, but he was sixteen, and while he loved his mother, and tolerated her concern, he considered himself a man. And her wee Autumn Rose, who was growing so quickly Jasmine could almost feel life speeding by her, and she was helpless to stop it.

Fortune sensed her mother's mood, and attempted to cheer her "She's only a baby, Mama. 'Twill be years before she leaves you. You can devote yourself to her as you never really could to the rest of us. I think Autumn is very fortunate to have you, Mama."

"Aye," her mother answered, brightening a bit. Fortune was very astute, but then she had always been the practical child. When she and her siblings were young I was at court, Jasmine thought. I did not have the time for them I shall have for this daughter. "I will miss you," the duchess of Glenkirk said softly.

"I will miss you, Mama," came the reply. "On one hand I am so excited to be going to the New World, but on the other I am a little afraid. It is such an adventure, and as you know I have never been one for adventure. I did not ever plan to have one. Yet here I am, setting off into the unknown with my darling Kieran. If only people would tolerate each other's religions, I should have never had to leave Ulster." She sighed deeply. "Do you think this Mary's Land will really be a place of toleration, Mama? What if it isn't? Where will we go then?"

"You will come home to Glenkirk where we will protect you," the duchess said firmly. Then she took her daughter into her arms, and they hugged one another. "You know, Fortune, that you and Kieran will always be welcome here. AIways!"

It was so difficult leaving, Fortune thought, the day they departed Glenkirk. There was a strong likelihood that she would never see this childhood home of hers ever again. An ocean would separate them, and having crossed it once, Fortune was not certain she would have the courage to cross back over it again. As she had always said, she was not one for adventure, and yet what was this she was doing? This place they were going to was a wilderness. There were no castles, no houses, no towns, or shops. How would they survive? Yet what other choice did they have?

Fortune put on a brave face, and said good-bye to all those whom she loved. Her stepfather, James Leslie, her mother, Jasmine, her brother, Patrick, her baby sister, Autumn. Her mother's lifelong servants for the first time since she had known them were teary. They were, she noticed for the first time, growing older. I will never see them again, she realized suddenly. She put her arms about Adali, her mother's majordomo. There were no words to say what was really in her heart. He hugged her wordlessly, then turned away, but not quickly enough for she had seen his tears. Rohana and Toramalli hugged and kissed her, and unable to help themselves wept fulsomely.

They left Glenkirk, Fortune's great train of possessions behind them, protected until they reached Queen's Malvern by an armed troop of Leslie men-at-arms. The trip was, as it usually was, uneventful, but for Kieran, Rois, and Kevin it was as much of an adventure as their voyage from Ulster had been. For Fortune it was just another trek into an English summer.

Charles Frederick Stuart, the duke of Lundy, was awaiting them on their arrival at his home, Queen's Malvern. The estate had been given to his great-grandparents by Elizabeth Tudor, and passed on to him with the blessing of his grandfather, King James. It had therefore cost the canny king nothing to bestow a dukedom upon his first grandchild, a bargain he well liked. Charlie, as his family called him, was a tall, slender young man with auburn hair, and the Stuarts' amber eyes. He looked far more like his father, the late Prince Henry, than he did like his mother's family. He would be twenty in September, and was as polished a courtier as his Great-Uncle Robin Southwood, the earl of Lynmouth, had been at his age.

"You're looking particularly lush and well satisfied," he greeted his elder sister with a wicked grin. " 'Tis obvious marriage agrees with you, Fortune." He kissed her heartily, and gave her a hug.

"A Stuart first, as Mama likes to say," she responded with a chuckle. "Here is my husband, Kieran Devers. Kieran, Charlie, the not-so-royal Stuart in the family."

The two men clasped hands, sizing one another up, and immediately decided they liked one another.

"Henry will eventually be over from Cadby," Charlie told his sister, and then said to Kieran, "the revered eldest brother of us all."

They moved into the house, and into the family hall where the servants were quick to bring refreshment. Settling themselves about the fire, for the June day was chill, they talked.

"Papa said you would know how to contact Lord Baltimore," Fortune said to her brother.

"He's at Wardour Castle down in Wiltshire," was the reply.

"How do we get there?" Kieran asked.

"Fortune will remain here," Charlie said. "You and I will ride down in a few days' time. I'll send ahead to gain an appointment with him, for this expedition of his is extremely popular, and he is besieged by those who are interested in going. Many, of course, are only interested in gaining lands, and then leaving them to their colonists while they return to England to live well. Cecil Calvert, like his father before him, wants responsible colonists who will remain in Mary's Land. I think you will qualify, and that, along with your ability to support yourselves, will weigh heavily in your favor. And of course because I am the king's dear nephew, and want a place for you," he teased them both.

"And we have our own vessels," Fortune said. "I'm going with you, Charlie. You aren't going to leave me behind while you two have all the fun, little brother."

"Wardour will be no place for a woman," he protested. "An important expedition is being set up there. It will be full of men, Fortune, and you are a respectable married woman now, for God's sake."

"Doesn't Lord Baltimore have a wife, Charlie?"

"Aye, Lady Anne Arundel," was the answer.

"Is she there?"

"Of course! It's her father's home," he replied.

"Then I shall go," Fortune said. "You're a courtier, Charlie, and you don't really know a great deal outside of the court. And my husband is a country gentleman from Ulster, unfamiliar with English ways. I have to go. I'm the only one of us with a practical nature, and we'll need my skills at negotiation."

"She's right," Kieran said with a chuckle, "but I'll not mind her company at all, Charlie."

The young duke thought a moment, and then he grinned. "Damn me if you aren't correct as always, sister. I'd forgotten that you are the sensible one among us. Aye, come along, but we're going to ride, Fortune. No servants, and no fancy clothing. Wardour at Tisbury is several long days' ride from Queen's Malvern. Perhaps on the way back we'll go by way of Oxton, and see India and her family."

"Ohhh, I should like that!" his sister responded enthusiastically.

They sent word to Cadby to Henry Lindley that they were leaving for Wiltshire, and would see him when they returned. Rois and Kevin were left in the care of the Queen's Malvern servants, and the trio rode out one fine June morning. Kieran was surprised to find how capable his wife was in caring for herself. He had not realized it before, and it struck him suddenly how little he really knew Fortune. They reached Wardour Castle several days later. Fortune had never seen a building such as Wardour before. It was hexagonal in shape, and its Great Hall was laid out over its entrance.

Cecil Calvert greeted them personally. "Charlie! 'Tis good to see you, my lord. The king is well?"

"I haven't been at court in a month," Charlie replied. "I've come today to ask a favor of you, Cecil. This is my sister, Lady Fortune Lindley, and her husband, Kieran Devers. Kieran was heir to a lovely little estate in Ulster until his English stepmother decided her son, Kieran's half-brother, would make Mallow Court a better master."

"You're a Catholic?" Lord Baltimore said, his look sympathetic.

"Aye, my lord, I am," Kieran said quietly.

"They want to go with you, Cecil," Charlie said.

Lord Baltimore looked distressed. "We already have more people than I had anticipated," he said.

Now it was Fortune who spoke up. "We have our own ships, my lord," she said. "My own two trading vessels. The larger I'll use for our transport. The other I intend using for the horses. We have colonists, too. Fourteen men of whom five are farmers, two fishermen, two weavers, and one each, a blacksmith, a cooper, a tanner, a shoemaker, and an apothecary. The five farmers have wives, and several children among them. All are healthy, devout, and of good character. And we have a physician, Mistress Happeth Jones, plus my two servants. We can provision all our people as well as the ship, my lord. Please, let us come with you. There is nowhere else for us to go, for while my husband is a Catholic, I am an Anglican. They say you will practice toleration of all faiths in your Mary's Land. It would seem the perfect place for us."

Cecil Calvert looked at the lovely young woman before him. While she was dressed for riding, rather outrageously in doeskin breeches, her garments were expensive, and elegant. Her hands were the hands of a lady. Her speech refined. "It will not be an easy place to settle, Lady Lindley," he told her. "You will have to build your own home, and it will be nothing, I will wager, like that which you are used to for it is a wilderness. There are other dangers too. Some of the natives are not friendly, and as prone to war as the French and the Spanish, although I hope to negotiate a peace treaty with them. You must bring everything that you need with you, and if you find you are in need of something you do not have, you will have to do without it. You will be bereft of your family, for I know from Charlie that yours is a large family. You will not see your brothers and sisters for years, if indeed you see them ever again. Are you truly certain that you would make this great journey, and live in this new world?"