***
The sergeant at arms, nursing a headache, scratched his sprouting shadow of a beard. He was still struggling to accept that the baroness, missing her head kerchief and showing signs of hasty putting-together, seemed to have invited the blackguard who surely had violated her to accompany her on her way. His men were still goggling at the two of them, riding up there before them as dignified as if the rogue had been the Duke of Infantado, whom the sergeant had once served.
An errant breeze carried back their words to him. They seemed to be politely arguing. "I didn't say I still loved you..." the lady protested, but swaying toward her companion as if drawn by an invisible cord.
"Can you say you don't," came the rejoinder. "Come then, say it and say it clearly so I will know whether you will walk before the good Talavera with me or whether I shall have to truss you up like a goose and carry you to your wedding."
"You are the most high-handed, infuriating, arrogant..."
The rest of her speech was lost as the little breeze went on its way, but there was a delighted trill of laughter, and the sergeant spied his lady gladly suffering to put her hand in the paw of the common blackguard who was flashing white teeth at her in an arrogant smile.
The sweating soldier shrugged and entertained in his mind a good-natured, envious wink and a few bawdy thoughts. Ay, mi madre, what puissant, brute charm these illiterate bandits from the hills had for simple-minded women, eh? It scarcely paid, in any terms, to be an honest man these days. Scarcely paid.
Historical Note
The gate through which Boabdil left Granada for the last time was, at his request, walled up and never used again. Pining in the barren mountain land to which he was exiled, Boabdil sold the domain back to the Spanish monarchs. He took his family and few followers to North Africa and soon after fell in battle in the service of a princely cousin. "A wretched man," wrote an Arab chronicler, "who could lose his life in another's cause though he did not dare to die in his own. Such was the immutable decree of destiny."
The solemn surrender guaranteeing to Granada full religious and civil liberty was abrogated in 1502, when Their Catholic Majesties, pressed by the Church under Cardinal Cisneros and by pockets of Moorish rebellion, issued an edict forcing their Moslem subjects to choose religious conversion or exile.
Those who chose to convert then became subject to the attentions of the Inquisition.
Author's Note
In addition to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, and Abu Abdullah, Grand Sultan of Granada, called Boabdil, many of the characters in this book are based on historical personages, among these Don Iñigo de Mendoza, Count of Tendilla, the Bishop of Talavera, the Marquis of Cadiz, Hernan del Pulgar, and the generals Reduan Venegas and Muza Aben Gazul. A scholar named Pietro Martire, Queen Isabella's secretary, historian, and tutor to her children, served as model for Pietro di Lido.
Francisco de Granada-Venegas and Dolores de la Rocha were drawn from those exciting, passionate, and spirited lovers found in every century, everywhere.
Gentle Reader:
I so much hope that you have enjoyed this book and that it gave you as much pleasure in reading it as I had in creating it. Dolores and her Francho, my first romantic fiction lovers, will always have a very special place in my heart.
So I would like to invite you to write and share your thoughts on Jasmine with me. I promise to respond, to thank you for taking time out from your busy schedule to provide the feedback we ofttimes-cloistered writers find so valuable.
With all best wishes,
Mallory Dorn Hart
Box 626
Lenox Hill Station
New York, N.Y. 10021
Table of Contents
PART ONE: Castile
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
PART TWO: Granada
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
PART THREE: Andalusia
Chapter 32
Hart, Mallory Dorn Page 81
