Besieged Read Online Free PDF Page B

my lord,” Maguire responded.
    The morning brightened, and the fog slowly lifted, but there was no sun, and it rained once again. Strangely the gray only made the countryside greener by comparison. The green hills over which they traveled rambled gently. The rolling landscape was broken only rarely by a gray stone tower, usually in a state of ruin, or a small village. There were fewer villages, Jasmine noted, than when she had first come to Ireland. Some were deserted and falling into decay; others were gone entirely, their former existence attested to only by a broken and pulled-down Celtic cross in a weed-strewn square. Ulster, never heavily populated to begin with, was now even less populated it appeared.
    “What has happened here?” Jasmine asked Rory Maguire.
    “Not all landlords are like you, my lady,” he replied. “You know the penalties placed upon those who follow the Catholic faith. Many have been driven off their lands because they will not convert to Protestantism. It is that simple.”
    “But these landlords are not even in Ireland,” Jasmine said. “What difference does it make to them as long as the land is worked properly and is prosperous for them?”
    “They appoint agents who follow the letter of the law,” he explained. “Most are English as are the settlers. We have Scots landlords too, but for now the Scots remain in Scotland, except for those who are able to give up their clan ties to seek lands of their own.”
    “What happens to the people?” she queried him.
    “They go to relations in parts of Ireland where the laws are not so assiduously followed. They flee into the more remote regions, living a more primitive existence. They die. A few emigrate to France and Spain. There are no other choices.”
    “It is the way of the world,” Fortune said quietly, surprising them. “I have learned this in my studies, and Mother has often said that it is so. One tribe conquers another, and another, and so forth. Nothing remains the same forever. Like my mother, however, I see no necessity for what is happening in Ireland. Bigotry is wrong, and it is cruel.”
    “There’s just as much of it on one side as the other,” Rory told the girl. “At Maguire’s Ford we are fortunate to have two men of religion who are liberal and open-minded, but such a thing is unique. For as many Protestant ministers who tell their flocks that Catholicism is a wicked, idol-worshipping faith, there are an equal number of Catholic priests howling that the Protestants are dirty heretics who ought to be burned, and if not here on earth, then surely in hell, for they are the devil’s own spawn. Such thoughts do not lead to understanding, or tolerance, my lady. There are, I fear, and am sorry to say, far more John Appletons upon this earth, than people like yer mam.”
    “You like my mother, don’t you?” Fortune observed, moving her gelding next to his.
    His heart contracted in his chest, but Rory Maguire flashed her a casual grin. “Aye, my lady, I do. I always have. It must be the Irish in her for she’s got a big heart, does the lady Jasmine.”
    “My mother says if I remain in Ireland I should keep you on because you can be trusted, and few men can,” Fortune said.
    “Perhaps yer husband will have other ideas, lady,” he replied.
    Fortune looked at him as if he had lost his mind. It was a look he recognized, but it was certainly not her mother’s look. “My husband will have no say in the management of Maguire’s Ford,” Fortune said. “If I marry William Devers, he will not be in possession of my lands. He has his own. The women in my family do not give over their wealth to the men they wed. It is unthinkable!”
    He laughed aloud. “Yer mam has raised you well, my lady Fortune,” Rory Maguire said, vastly amused, but also relieved when she continued.
    “If I wed William Devers, you will retain your place, Rory Maguire,” Fortune said. “Besides, I will need you to teach me all about the