"Yes, m'lady," came the prompt reply.

"Dolly, follow along, and come meet the children," Fortune said.

"Cow!" Comfort said when her master and mistress had gone.

"Ye'd best behave, wench. Her ladyship will be patient to a point, but then ye'll find yerself in a kettle of hot water. The master ain't for you, and he ain't never going to be," Mrs. Hawkins said.

"If she really loved him she would have come with him when he arrived in Mary's Land," Comfort said. "It's been almost two years since they've been together. Why didn't she come sooner if she loved him? Do you see how he looks at me? He wants me. I knows men."

Mrs. Hawkins sniffed scornfully. "Yer a fool, Comfort Rogers. The master don't look at you in any special way, if indeed he has looked at you at all. Her ladyship didn't come at first because she was with child. Then Governor Calvert ordered that no more women and children come until there was decent shelter for them. We had no choice in the matter being bondservants, but the master wanted her ladyship and his babe safe." She smiled slyly. "There'll be another babe born in this house within a year, I can tell you. Tonight, and for many nights to come, master will be plowing a good furrow with his lady."

Comfort glared at the older woman. "I hate you," she said.

Mrs. Hawkins cackled, pleased to have tweaked the uppity wench's temper. The girl was trouble, and had been from the start. Sadly the poor master couldn't see it, but then men were never very clever where women were concerned. But the mistress had seen it right away. Comfort Rogers would not get her own way with the master now.


***

Dolly and the children took to one another almost at once, leaving Rois free to help her mistress unpack a few things.

"I'll live out of the trunks until we get the plaster done, and the furniture properly placed," Fortune told her serving woman. "Let's go and see the cottage Kevin has built for you."

Rois's new home was located within sight of Fortune's Fancy. It had two rooms, and a loft. The floor was packed dirt. There were two fireplaces and three windows covered with oilpaper, each with its own shutter. A small dormer window had been installed in the loft. The heavy wooden door was hung with stout iron hinges. Rois walked about her new home, well-pleased, nodding at the small brick oven built into the side of the main fireplace, and the iron pot arm that could be swung about above the iron grate. The cottage, however, was empty for Kevin had not dared to place his wife's furniture which stood out in the yard.

"Let's bring it inside," Fortune suggested. "You can't leave it out in the night air." She picked up a small wooden chair.

"Oh, m'lady, you shouldn't be doing that," Rois cried.

Fortune smiled at her servant. "And who else is there to do it if we don't, Rois? I haven't been raised to be so fine a lady that I can't bring a small chair into a house. Come on!"

Working together the two women lugged several chairs, a trestle table, and a wooden settle into the main room of the cottage. Then they brought in the bed with its head, foot, and rope springs. Looking for his wife, Kieran Devers saw what the two women were doing. Calling to Kevin, they joined their wives, putting the bed together, bringing in the mattress and featherbed, as well as Brendan's large oaken cradle, which was set by the small hearth in what was to be the bedchamber.

Suddenly Rois stopped, and looking distressed said, "What am I to cook for dinner? I have no pots unpacked yet, or food to feed us."

"You'll eat with us," Fortune said quietly. "Mrs. Hawkins said she was roasting a turkey."

"But, m'lady, it isn't proper that we sit at table with our betters," Rois worried. "What would yer mam say? What would my grandmam say for that matter? It isn't right."

"Rois," Fortune said patiently, "this isn't England, or Scotland, or Ireland; and Fortune's Fancy certainly isn't a castle, or the fine mansion it will be one day. This is Mary's Land. I will wager my husband hasn't been sitting in isolated splendor all these months at his meals. He's eaten with Kevin, and whoever else came to table." She looked to Kieran, and he nodded. "You see," Fortune said. "Now, no nonsense about it. In time I'll have an elegant room for dining, but for now it is the keeping room for all."

Mrs. Hawkins had roasted a large bird that she served with yams that had been baked in the coals, new peas, fresh bread, butter, and cheese. Afterward there was a dessert made of dried apples and honey. Fortune ordered that a small barrel of October ale that she had transported be broached for them to enjoy. The four bondmen sitting at the far end of the trestle, thanked her. They had not tasted good English beer in a long time. The two mothers cut tiny pieces of turkey to feed their children along with mashed yams, and bits of bread and cheese. Both Aine and Brendan already had a few teeth, and were eager to use them. Dolly proved most helpful, giving her mistress and Rois opportunity to eat while she kept the two little ones amused. Comfort Rogers, however, did not sit at the trestle for Mrs. Hawkins had her busy helping to serve the meal.

"When do I get to eat?" Comfort whined. "There'll be nothing left by the time they finish."

"If there's no turkey, you can have a nice bowl of corn mush," Mrs. Hawkins said cheerfully. "It'll fill you up right enough."

The meal over, the bondmen departed for their quarters in the barn. Kevin picked up Brendan, who was already half asleep, and putting an arm about Rois headed for their cottage.

"I'll put the wee mistress to bed, m'lady," Dolly said. "She's asleep already, bless her."

"Thank you," Fortune said.

Kieran reached out, and took her hand in his. "Come," he said. "I want to show you about before the sun sets."

They walked out, and Fortune saw that the house was set on a small bluff above the bay. She could see the meadows with the horses, and at least two fields planted with some kind of crop. The air was soft with early summer, and it was so different than England. And far warmer too, she noted.

"I have so many questions," she said. "What are we growing in those fields?"

"Tobacco," he told her. "It's an excellent cash crop for us, and we need it for Mary's Land is not quite the civilized society it will be one day. The horses we raise are not the sort to pull wagons, but rather the kind a gentleman or a gentlewoman would ride, or race. Perhaps we shall sell some of our animals into Virginia, but not yet."

"Are we growing food?" she asked him.

"Aye, for by Mary's Land law we must. There are three crops the Indians have introduced us to besides corn. There are beans, squash, and pumpkins. And we have found our seed grows in this soil. Peas, carrots, beets, marrows. And native yams, of course. 'Tis a bounteous land."

"When we rebuild the house with brick," Fortune said, "it must face the bay. The view is so beautiful. I have never before seen anything like it." She turned, and looked up at him. "Thank you, for our home, Kieran."

"I have missed you so very much," he said softly, his fingers touching her face gently. "How many nights I lay awake longing for you, Fortune, wondering if this place we have come to would suit you as it suits me. Can you be happy here in Mary's Land, so far from your people?"

"You are my people," she told him. "You, and Aine, and the other children we shall have. Aye, I will miss my family, but as long as we are together I can bear it. As for this place, it is where I belong. Where you belong. I felt it as we sailed up the bay from the sea to St. Mary's Town. I knew it deep within me. This land called us, Kieran."

The sun was setting behind them, and the stars beginning to come out above them as they walked back to the house hand in hand.

"I am going to have a bath," Fortune announced. "Somewhere among all my possessions is a large oak tub. Have the men find it and fill it for me. It can be set up in our bedchamber. I shall go and find Mistress Hawkins so she will set the water boiling. I haven't had a bath in six weeks, Kieran, and my skin is sticky with the sea wind, and the salt. I must have a bath. And then"-she smiled at him seductively, and knowingly-"we will have to become reacquainted, sir."

He grinned happily at her. "I'll see the tub is found, madame. I may even join you, or play the maid, whichever will please you."

Fortune laughed happily. It was beginning to feel as if they had never been apart, and she could see from the eager look in his eyes that he felt the same way too.

The tub was found, and set up in the bedchamber. Buckets of water were brought to fill it. Finally they were alone. A small fire burned in the corner fireplace for the evening air had turned chill. The curtains were drawn. The candles flickered softly. Kieran knelt before his wife who sat on the edge of their bed. He pulled her boots off, and then rolled her stockings down her legs, remembering first to slide the rosetted garters off. Fortune stood, and turned her back to him. He unlaced her bodice as she undid the tabs holding her skirts up. The skirts and bodice were carefully laid aside upon a chair.

Fortune now stood facing him in her chemise and petticoats. The petticoats were swiftly discarded. Raising her arms she gathered up her flaming red hair, and pinned it atop her head. He could see the outline of her breasts as she performed this simple task, and felt his desire rising. Reaching out he deliberately began to undo the narrow pink ribbons holding the halves of the chemise together. When the fragile cambric garment was undone at last, he pushed it over her shoulders so that it fell to the floor. Then he stepped back, and breathed a sigh of pure pleasure.