NAN COMES INTO HER OWN
"Wait!" Dr. Prescott gave the command as the old Scotsman raised his arm
to pull the chord. "Someone's coming!"
With one impulse, everyone in the room turned toward the door. They were
all tense as it was opened from without and a group of villagers entered
with Robert Hugh Blake in their midst!
"I tell you," he was protesting, "I don't know where the lassie is." His
eyes were wild and staring as he spoke. "I tell you I don't--" He
broke off his sentence when his eyes lighted on his brother. His whole
attitude changed. "James, I don't know where she is," he almost
whimpered.
James Blake stepped over to his brother's side. He motioned to the
others in the room to keep quiet.
"There, there, Bobby," he spoke as he would to a child, "Of course you
don't know where she is now. But where was she when you last saw her?"
"Down in the old gatehouse at the foot of the hill." Robert Blake
answered. He was accustomed to obeying his brother. "But I didn't hurt
her, not at all." His voice was earnest as he spoke and so sincere, that
even Dr. Prescott, worried as she was, believed him.
"I was there playing on the bagpipe," he continued, "as I always do,
when she came in through the door. I swear that that's the truth. She
sat and talked to me for a long time. She's a sweet little lassie. Then
I excused myself and went out for something, telling her that I would be
right back. But I locked the door behind me. I was going to keep her
there until it was too late for you to find her, but I had forgotten
something--" he paused as though he couldn't remember what it was.
"Your bagpipe," James Blake supplied.
"Yes, that was it. It was my bagpipe," he went on looking at his brother
throughout his confession. "When I opened the door again, she wasn't
there! How she got away I don't know."
"Well, I do!" James Blake's exclamation fell like a thunderbolt on the
rapt listeners. "I know where she is," he repeated, "And I'll have her
here in a minute now!"
"Have who?" Everyone look around startled. It was Nan's voice!
James Blake went over to her side. "Then you found it, lass! You found
it!" His voice rang out through the Hall. "I might have known you would
find it!" In his joy, he forgot completely that the assembled crowd
didn't know what he was talking about.
"Found what?" Dr. Prescott asked the question everyone had on his
tongue.
"The passage, the secret passage from the old gatehouse to the castle
here," he answered. "Only a few know of its existence. Evidently my
brother here has forgotten. How did you find it, lass?"
"I scarcely know," Nan admitted. "When I found myself locked up, I tried
all sorts of ways of getting out without any success at all. I was
standing on a chair and trying to climb to that window high above--"
"But that's impossible, lass," James Blake interrupted.
"I know," Nan agreed, "but I was so anxious to get out of there that
nothing seemed impossible. Climbing up as I did, I felt closer to the
outside anyway. I thought, too, that there was a slight chance of my
getting hold of those rough stones that the walls are made of in such a
way that I could climb up to the window.
"I couldn't, of course, but in trying, my foot slipped into a nick of
some kind in the wall. I pressed down hard on it, hoping to boost myself
up. I couldn't. I slipped. I fell. When I picked myself up, I saw that a
sliding panel on the opposite wall had moved to one side leaving a great
opening.
"I went through. It closed then. I walked on through the dark, and after
what seemed ages, I came to the end. I groped around, knowing that there
had to be something to make another panel move. Finally, I found it."
"That you did, lass," James Blake was beaming on her now, "and there's
not another in England or Scotland or America either that would have
found the same. I am proud of you, so proud of you that I'd like to have
you stay here always. But that's not to be. Already there are things
afoot that require your presence and the presence of your friends in
London."
"In London! I know, but we're not leaving here yet, are we?" Nan's voice
was almost pleading. "Not when we've just come."
"Yes, lass, that you are." James Blake was regretful, too. "But you'll
be coming back."
"But why, why must we leave so soon?" Nan had learned just enough in
her morning adventures about the grounds to make her want to explore
every inch of the old castle. She had even considered, on her walk down
the road and through the fields to the fateful gatehouse, the
possibility of staying in Emberon through the coronation.
She had toyed with the idea of giving up the great London celebration so
that she could live in the castle for a while. She had dismissed the
thought, of course. Mr. and Mrs. Mason and Walter were to be in London.
She was to meet the friends she had made on the boat there, and the
London celebration at the crowning of the new King and Queen would be,
she knew, grander than anything she had ever seen.
She wanted to go on to London and she wanted to stay here in Emberon,
too! These things all rushed through her mind as she stood in the great
old Hall talking to James Blake.
"Yes, lass," he repeated, "you've got to go. There's something waiting
there for you that's far greater than anything that's ever happened to
you before.
"You, in America, I don't know what you play when you are wee tots, but
the children here are kings and queens when they play. A wooden box is
their throne. With a lace curtain as a train for the queen then, and
gold paper for a crown, they have all the trappings of royalty. All take
part. Some are aids to the king. Others, to the queen.
"They live and breathe this from the time they first begin to notice
things around them. So when the old king dies and the new king and queen
come to live at Buckingham Palace and go to Westminster Cathedral to
have the state crowns, gold with all sorts of precious jewels in them,
put on their heads and the state swords put in their hands, then all the
wee tots pretend they are ladies-in-waiting to the queen or gentlemen
attendants of the king.
"When they see the grand pictures every place of the crowning at
Westminster, they imagine themselves giving a sword to the king or
helping to arrange the train of the queen. Aye, in imagination they are
all there in that beautiful Cathedral helping with the service.
"But actually, only a few are so honored in real life. The privilege to
assist at the crowning of the English king is passed down by great
families from generation to generation." He paused here to let the young
lassies get the full importance of his words.
Nan looked from him to her friends. What was this all about? What did
it have to do with her going to London? Dr. Prescott seemed to know! She
was smiling down at Nan. The other girls, did they know, too? They
seemed to understand. Their faces were radiant as the old Scotsman
spoke, for the truth is, they were understanding for the first time what
James Blake had meant an hour before. He had said something then about
the privilege of taking part in the coronation going across the water.
Could he have meant--
Now they all looked up at him as he concluded. "Nancy dear," he said,
"as you know, the old Blake line has died out. Those who would have
carried out the ancient privilege of assisting at the present crowning
in London are dead. However, under terms of the will of the late Hugh
Blake, you" he spoke low and slowly now, but very distinctly, "are
chosen to act as a lady-in-waiting to the queen, God bless her soul!
That is why you must be off to London now."