Laws in Conflict by Cora Harrison Read Free Book Online Page B

this?’ Margaret spoke quickly. Her face when she looked at her husband was defiant and, somehow, angry.
    ‘Were you brought up here, Margaret?’ asked Mara, hoping to dissipate an awkward moment between husband and wife. ‘What a lovely place it is.’
    ‘On this spot, but in a much smaller place – Valentine is the one who knows how to make money. My father imported skins and leather but that was not so successful with a countryside in the hinterland full of cattle,’ said Margaret. Her voice was full of pride when she added, ‘When Valentine took over the business he started to import salt from Portugal. No one had thought of doing that before so it has been a huge success.’ she lowered her voice and whispered in Mara’s ear, ‘I’m hoping that he will agree to taking Walter under his wing.’
    Every topic of conversation came back to Walter almost immediately, thought Mara with a suppressed smile. She looked across at Valentine who, having shown his treasures, was teasing Jane Bodkin about having Hugh as her new young man – he had even brought a flush of colour to the old lady’s thin cheeks. Yes, Walter would probably get on better with his uncle than with the sour, thin-faced father.
    Nevertheless, thought Mara as she accepted a seat on the embroidered cushioned seat in front of one of the two windows beside Margaret, James Lynch is the man that I must turn my attention to. Valentine Blake, his expenditure and his personality, all that is really of no interest to me; it’s James Lynch that I need to woo if I am to rescue an unfortunate countryman of mine from the cruel and unjust courts of Galway.
    Mara furtively scanned the forbidding countenance of the Mayor of Galway, while listening to Margaret’s stories of Walter’s good nature and love of his mother with an attentive face and half an ear. What were his interests? she wondered. How can I open up conversation with him?
    ‘And your husband, James, what is his business?’ she asked when eventually she managed to find an opening.
    ‘Coal and fish,’ said Margaret merrily. ‘You must come and visit us, Mara. I can guarantee that you will never be cold and we don’t always have to eat fish!’
    ‘And Walter is not so interested in coal and fish,’ queried Mara, looking across at the handsome young man. He was chatting in a friendly way to Fiona. Fiona, of course, was a beauty who turned all heads, but he didn’t seem as interested in her as his uncle, Valentine, who was still eyeing her with an appreciative smile.
    A moment later Mara saw why Walter was not impressed by Fiona.

Four
Entry in the Papal Registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland Vol. XIV 1485–94
    The oath of allegiance to the king of England to be administered to all who live in Ireland:
    ‘I become faithful and true ligeman unto kyng Henry the viith kyng of England and of Fraunce and lord of Irland of lif and lym and erthly worship and feth and trought. I shall beer unto hym as my soveraigne liege lord to lyve and dye agentst all maner creatours so god help me and his seyntes.’
    T he steward had just announced the next guests, the Browne family. Valentine, his wife and his daughter went forward to greet them. Mara studied the newcomers with interest. Philip Browne had an amiable face – the usual dark hair and white skin of Galway people – his wife very much darker – this must the Spanish wife – one boy who looked like his father and another who looked as though he had come from southern Spain with the dark, almost Moorish colouring of that region.
    But Walter Lynch had eyes for only one person in the family party. He left Fiona abruptly.
    Catarina Browne was looking even more beautiful than she had done when Mara had met her on The Green. She was dressed in an elaborate Spanish gown made from red silks and satins and trimmed with the same colour of velvet, each individual cloth bearing its own shade. The effect was of a shimmering sweep of intense red light