"He, and your servant, Dame," answered one of the officers.
"Then I must needs do you to wit, Sir, that in this castle is neither
Lord nor Lady, and I trust our Lord the King wars not with little
children such as you see here."
"Stale news, good Dame!" answered Sir Thomas, with (as methought) a
rather grim smile. "We know something more, I reckon, than you,
touching your Lord and Lady. Sir Roger de Mortimer is o'er seas in
Normandy, and the Lady Joan at Skipton Castle."
"At Southampton, you surely mean?" said Master Inge, who stood at the
other end of the line whereof I made the midmost link.
The knight laughed out. "Nay, worthy Master Inge, I mean not
Southampton, but Skipton. 'Tis true, both begin with an _S_, and end
with a _p_ and a _ton_; but there is a mile or twain betwixt the
places."
"What should my Lady do at Skipton?" saith Dame Hilda.
"Verily, I conceive not this!" saith Master Inge, knitting his brows.
"It was to Southampton my Lady went--at least so she told us."
"Your Lady told you truth, Master Castellan. She set forth for
Southampton, and reached it. But ere a fair wind blew for her voyage,
came a somewhat rougher gale in the shape of a command from the King's
Grace to the Sheriff to take her into keeping, and send her into ward at
Skipton Castle, whither she set forth a fortnight past. Now, methinks,
Master Inge, you are something wiser than you were a minute gone."
"And our young damsels?" cries Dame Hilda. "Be they also gone to
Skipton?"