"She is certainly not shy about asking for what she wants, is she?" Cat said to her son. "She has been, I imagine, quite a handful to raise, Jemmie, eh?"

The duke of Glenkirk smiled. "She is nae worse, Mother, than any other girl," he told her. "She hae always been an obedient lass."

"Give her what she wants, and then find her a good husband," was his parent's advice. "She will not be obedient much longer, I think."

"I agree with your mother," Jasmine said. "There is a wild streak in India that I have never really recognized before. Perhaps I have not wanted to see it because it reminds me of my brother, Salim. But suddenly I see familiar traits in India, and I remember that my father indulged Salim, even when his disobedience was unforgivable. And yet our father forgave him. Drunkenness, lechery, theft. Even murder. There was only one thing my father would not forgive him."

Curious, Lady Stewart-Hepburn asked, "What?"

"Salim desired me as a man desires a woman. My father could not countenance it, and I was married to my first husband, Prince Javid Khan. Salim had him murdered, and knowing he was near death, my father smuggled me out of India. When I was India's age I was about to be wed to my second husband, who was India's father."

"Then you must find a husband for India," Cat said. "It is obvious it is time for her to be settled before she causes a scandal. I wish I knew a suitable match for her in Naples."

"Oh, no!" Jasmine cried. "I should not want her so far away from us. Like my grandmother, I want my family about me, and we have all our family in England and Scotland, madame. All but my Uncle Ewan O'Flaherty, who lives in Ireland. And, you, madame, who remain in the kingdom of Naples. Jemmie has told me of your, ah, difficulty with the late king, but now that James Stuart is dead and buried, would you not consider coming home to Scotland again? There is a place for you at Glenkirk always."