Bertrice Small - A Love For All Time

The "reigning queen of romance," New York Timesbestselling author Bertrice Small

delivers a sweeping historical epic chronicling the lives of two lovers separated b

y the

deceptions and intrigues of I6th-century Europe______

Under the command of Britain's Queen Elizabeth, Irish nobleman Conn O'Maley and heiress

Aidan St. Michael are married. Once a carefree rogue who believed his desire for seducing women

could never be sated, Conn now finds himself enchanted with his new brideas a passion ignites

between them to form a bond of everlasting love.

But a cruel plot makes Conn a prisoner of the queenand Aidan the harem slave of a Turkish

sultan. To be reunited with her true love, Aidan must use al of her seductive charms to outwit her

captors and free herself....

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TA

CONTENTS

CONTENTS

AT WHICH

IT BEGINS

I577

THE

PA

QUEENS

WARD

I577-I578

LO

L RD

PA

BLISS

SEA

LO

L V

O E

AFTER 20

O E FROM THE

AUTHORS LETTER

TO

IN ENGLAND

Aidan St. MichaelThe heiress of Pearroc Royal

Payton St. MichaelHer father, the third Lord Bliss

Conn O'Malley, later Conn St. Michael, Lord BlissThe youngest brother of Skye O'Maley,

and a favorite of the queen

Elizabeth TudorQueen of England, I558 to I603

William Cecil, Lord BurghleyThe queen's Secretary of State, and her greatest confidant

Elizabeth ClintonAidan's cousin, the Countess of Lincoln

Edward ClintonHer husband, the queen's Lord Admiral

Robert SouthwoodThe Earl of Lynmouth, a son of Lady de Marisco, the queen's favorite page

RobertDudleyThe Earl of Leicester, the queen's favorite

LetticeKnollysThe queen's cousin

Skye O'Malley de MariscoConn's famous elder sister

Adam de MariscoHer husband

Sir RobertSmallTheir business partner in a trading house

Dame CecilyHis elder sister

Mag Feeney and ClunyThe servants of Aidan and Conn

Wenda and NanNurse maids

Lady Glytha HoldenA lady of the court

Grace and FaithHer twin daughters

Master NortonThe queen's chief dungeon master

PeterHis assistant

Miguel de Guaras-A Spanish agent

IN IRELAND

Brian, Shane & Shamus O'MalleyConn's elder brothers, buccaneer captains

Rogan FitzGeraldAidan's grandfather

Cavan FitzGeraldHis bastard nephew

Eamon FitzGeraldHis son and heir

Henry SturminsterLord Glin of Glinshannon

IN THE EAST

Murad III The Turkish sultan

Nur-U-BanuHis mother, the sultan valideh

Safiye KadinHis first wife, the mother of his heir

llban BeyThe agha kislar

Osman BeyA famed Algerian astrologer

The Dey of Algiers The sultan's governor in Algiers

William HarborneFirst English ambassador to the Sublime Porte

Prince Javid KhanThe Crimean ambassador to the Sublime Porte

Esther KiraThe head of the House of Kira, a family of bankers and merchants

JinjiAidan's eunuch

MartaAidan's waiting woman

Iris & FernHer daughters

SadiraEnglish favorite of the dey

ZoraAn ikbal of the sultan

Rosamund & PipereCaptive English sisters

TulipAidan's cat

P

R

O

L

O

G

U

E

A

U

G

U

S

T

I

Lord Bliss was dying. It had been a slow though painless process, but now as the summer was

waning in a burst of apple-scented air and Michaelmas daisies he knew he had not much time left. If

he had any regrets at al it was that he was leaving behind but one descendant, his daughter, Aidan.

Even now she sat by his bedside, her fingers busy with her needle, his dear and dutiful daughter, a

silent reproach to the selfishness of his deep love for her, for Aidan should have been married long

ago. He, however, had been unable to part with her, the child he loved above al people.

He had waited so long for her birth. She had been everything that he could have hoped for in a

child, and more. It was easy to forgive Aidan her female gender for her mother would give him other

children, strong sons to match the healthy daughter. When she did not, it didn't matter, for he had

already given that part of his heart that wasn't his wife's to his daughter. Now she would be alone,

and what would become of her? he fretted to himself.

Would the queen to whom he was entrusting the wardship of his precious child realy see to

Aidan's happiness? When he had been, able to clearly face his fate he had written to the sovereign

placing Aidan's keeping in her charge, askirig that Elizabeth Tudor see his daughter safely married to a

good man of at least equal rank. He had only recently received a reply that impersonaly agreed to

his dying requests. Nonetheless, he had been enormously relieved.

He was leaving his daughter an heiress of great wealth both in lands and in monies. That wealth,

however, had not been able to overcome the stigma of his less-than-noble name. Most good matches

were made in the cradle, and he found to his regret that great names married great names. Then there

was his daughter herself. Aidan was no great beauty. Oh, she was pretty enough when she worked at

it, but most of the time her hair flew about in a hoydenish manner, and more often than not her face

was dirty. When he remonstrated with her about it she always laughed, and replied, "I cannot oversee

these vast tracts of lands that you and my grandfather persisted in amassing without riding about

them, and riding is a dusty business, father."

He protested more often than not. "Leave it to the bailiff, my child. It is his duty to see to such

things, and his family was on these lands before we were."

"The bailiff," replied Lord Bliss' daughter wisely, "responds best to a light rein, father, but

nonetheless he must feel that rein. Besides, it does our people good to see me riding about. I know

them al. Their names, their children, their problems, their aches and pains." She smiled at him. "They

can only be loyal to the master they see, father."

When she smiled it was as if the sun had come from behind a cloud. Aidan was not the true and

pure beauty that her mother had been, but beneath the tangles and smudges the prettiness