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neat and quite legal. The only thing not considered or taken into account in the situation was Mistress Velvet de Marisco, a most unwilling bride.
    “Uncle Conn?” Velvet had slipped quietly back into the room, and, coming across the floor, she settled herself into his lap as she had done so often when she was just a wee girl. He noted that she was no longer so wee, for she stood five feet nine inches tall in her stockinged feet.
    “Ah, Velvet lass. Now don’t go trying to wheedle me, poppet. I’m in a quandary about what to do as it is.”
    “But I don’t want to get married, Uncle Conn! I want to stay at Queen’s Malvern with Mama and Papa.” Her reasoning still sounded like that of a protected child.
    “All girls marry eventually, Velvet. You’re going to be fifteen in a week, sweeting. Remember that your mama was first married at fifteen. ’Tis no great thing.”
    “Mama hated her first husband!” Velvet said explosively. “She says he was a horrible beast, and that is why I should never marry without love! Mama promised me, Uncle Conn!I will not marry without love, and I will not marry without my parents here!”
    Conn shifted his niece in his lap so that he might look at her. God’s bones! he thought, startled. Her logic was childish, but she certainly didn’t look like a child! When had she gotten so beautiful? She had always been a pretty little girl, but the face now before him was incredible in its perfection. There was no sweetness about it as there was with his sister’s face. Velvet’s was elegant and oval in shape; her forehead and sharply sculpted cheekbones high; her nose her father’s long Norman one; her well-spaced eyes almost almond-shaped and green. They were marvelous eyes with sooty lashes so thick that they tangled amongst themselves; eyes that threatened to snare any man foolish enough to gaze into them too deeply.
    Velvet’s chin was small and square, Conn noted. Her mouth was wide and sensual like her father’s, but she had Skye’s fair skin. He marveled at her hair, for though she had been dark as a child, it had become a deep rich auburn as she grew older. Her French grandmama allowed that her own mama had had auburn hair. Velvet’s hair was a luxuriant mop full of long, silky tresses that was greatly admired and envied by her cousins. Conn decided that though she had the family features she frankly looked more like herself than like either of her parents. He was also suddenly very discomfited to notice that she had developed a rather lush female form for all he still thought of her as a child.
    “I’m sure your mother never meant for you to marry without love, Velvet. As I remember the marriage agreement, you were not to wed until you were sixteen. But the earl, because of the deaths of his father and brother, must marry quickly now and beget heirs,” Conn explained.
    “Marry? Beget heirs? Uncle, I haven’t even been to court yet! I know that Mama meant for me to have a little time at court before I married. I’ve never been anywhere or done anything in my entire life! My whole world has been here at Queen’s Malvern , or at Belle Fleurs , or at my grandparents’ chateau at Archambault. My whole social life has consisted of family parties. I’ve never been to London, nor have I even seen Paris! I will not be rushed willy-nilly into marriage before I have had a chance of doing these things! This wild Scotsman will not carry me off to that cold, wet land of his to imprison me in some damned dank castle simply to have babies! I won’t go! I won’t! You cannot let him take me! We must wait until Mama and Papa get back. It won’t be long now, I’m sure!” Her young voice was edged with panic.
    Conn understood her plea. She had been very sheltered by her parents who adored her so very much. Velvet’s very birth had been a miracle, and until this trip neither Skye nor Adam had been content to let her out of their sight.
    “We will explain everything to the earl