JOHN LEE'S FATHER
A week after his latest recorded ride with Grace, John Lee
visited Siward's Cross, to find his grandmother in a black
and savage temper. Not only had she lost her money, but all
chance of making more, because the Americans now firmly
believed that Lovey Lee was the traitress, since she alone, beside
the Seven, knew of their project and the time determined for it.
This woman was quite innocent; yet now, indeed, her sole regret
centred in the fact that she had not betrayed them. But an
unknown spy had taken the Government's money, and was richer
by twenty guineas, while Lovey went poorer every way. How to
regain the confidence of the prisoners was the problem before
her, and she had not solved it on a day when John Lee came to
her cabin. With him he brought some of his wages, and the
silver served to comfort Mrs. Lee. She was half tempted to tell
him her grievance, but natural caution arrested her. She held
her peace concerning her private affairs; then, by a sudden
question, unconsciously led him into his.
"How do Malherb get on with Norcot? You can tell him
from me that thicky chap be built to be his master."
"'Tis the daughter he wants to master, not Mr. Malherb.
She's promised to him. 'Tis all cut and dried in every mind but
Miss Grace's."
"They won't ax her."
"To think of such a maiden being flung to a man she hates!"
"Stuff! She'll come round same as her betters afore her.
He'll make her like him. Ban't he made o' money? Us all
know that he be."
"She's wept tears against him a thousand times. She's a
Malherb too, with all her father's strength of will and fifty times
his sense. She won't wed against her heart for any man."
"What do you know about her heart, Jack Lee? You'll be
wise not to open your mouth so wide; else you'm like to lose
your job."
"I'm not blind to hideous injustice."
"Nor me neither. The man who would rob the poor would
sell his darter to the rich. His damn stone walls stretch out all
around yon valleys now, an' my cows get the fat of the pasture
no more. I wish I could fret the flesh off his bones for it."
"Mr. Malherb has got his troubles and so much the more he
wants to have his daughter off his hands and be free of her. The
madness of the man! I learned from Kekewich, who is a very
good friend to me, that he has already asked Norcot for his
first-born to make him master of Fox Tor in the time to come. He
looks that far ahead."
"The fool!"
"It shan't be while I live and can stand between her and the
ruin of all her young life. I'm a man now--I----"
"Since when did you larn to talk so fine? An' who taught 'e?"
"Miss Malherb has been pleased to polish my speech. We--we
are very good friends, thank God."
Lovey reflected over this curious remark. Then the matter in
her mind was suddenly echoed upon his tongue and he put the
familiar question.
"Grandmother, when are you going to tell me my father's
name? I weary of asking you."
"You'm travelling fast," she answered; "long rides, an'
mended speech, an' what else? She finds you're fair to see--'tis
natural. Yet 'twill dash this crack-brained foolery when you
know what you crave to know. For years I've kept that secret,
hoping there was money hanging to it. But I don't see none."
"'Tis your duty to tell me now that I am a man."
"As to that-- Do she want to know, or do you?"
"We both--at least----"
She caught him up.
"Ho-ho! An' what be you to her that she should care a rush
who your faither was?"
"Well--a secret understanding----"
"Unknown to her faither?"
"'Tis so, but for God's sake, grandmother----"
"Say it out, then, or I'll peach. Come now----"
"Will you swear before heaven to tell nobody--not a breath to
any living soul?"
"I'll swear hard and fast--may my liver rot if I whimper it,"
said Lovey, already speculating what the lad's confession might
be worth to Maurice Malherb.
"And you'll tell me my father's name?"
"As to that, yes. We'm prone to hunger after more truth
than's pleasant to taste. An' what you want to know won't make
you more light-hearted, nor yet that maiden, if she's been so daft
as to turn her eyes to you. Your mother was my daughter Jane.
Your faither was Norrington Malherb, the younger brother of
Maurice Malherb, as died long since. So you stand cousin,
wrong side the blanket, to that girl."
She watched his face grow pale and heard him groan.
"Only his faither, my old master, knowed, and that was why he
paid me anything at all--cussed miser that he was. You wince,
as if I'd thrashed 'e like I did when you was a boy. You'd
better have bided ignorant."
"No, by God!" he swore. "'Twas right that I should know.
My only grief is that you hid it so long. 'Twill break her heart."
Lovey jeered.
"If that's all your trouble, you can laugh again. Maids as
ban't hardly growed to see their bosoms rounded don't break
their hearts for men. You tell her, an' she'll find it very easy to
forget you."
"She has promised to be my wife!"
"My stars! The moonshiney madness there is in children!"
"She loves me--she always will. We can't be more than
mistress and man now. But she'll never think no worse of me;
for this is no fault of mine."
Lovey Lee did not answer, but her mind worked busily. She
was wondering whether she might be able to pluck profit out of
this folly.
"You'm a proper man--none can gainsay it. Have 'e the
pluck of a man? A church service an' the mumbo-jumbo of the
parsons never yet kept the rickets out of a weakly babe, nor
made the child of healthy folks more fair to see. Cuss the
world, as must needs drag God A'mighty in by the ears to their
twopenny-ha'penny plans an' plots an' marryings! Nature's made
you a fine, shapely mate for any female. Maybe this wench----"
"No," he said; "I'm a gentleman at least. I cannot marry
her now, and I will not. Fate has cast me into the world and
has given me good blood, but it has denied the only thing that
makes blood worth having. She can never be my wife; yet I
may fight for her against the world; I may serve her well, please
Heaven."
"Bah! What's the use of that knock-kneed twaddle? 'Tis for
you to fight for yourself against the world and beat it at its own
dirty games, not to whine about fate, just 'cause your faither an'
mother didn't happen to be yoked but by their own healthy
passions. Be a man! Ban't it better to have noble blood in 'e,
even o' the left hand, than wake and find yourself a labourer's
son--heir to nought? Here's such a chance as might find you
master of Fox Tor Farm in twenty years or less, if you was built
of fighting stuff. What's the bar? None at all to any but a fool.
There be Dukes of the Realm whose forbears comed in the
world when a King of England cuddled an actress. Larn what
happens an' take a big view of things. If you'm ashamed of
yourself, then slink away an' cut your throat comfortable behind
a haystack, an' get out of it. But if there's a pinch of your
faither in you--not to name your gran'mother--then pick up the
cards an' play 'em for all they be worth. Oh, I could almost
wish I was a pretty lad like you be, to have the living of your
life."
"I'm in a maze. I must get away with my thoughts; and I
must speak to her."
"But don't speak what I've told you. Don't be such a born
fool as that. Run away with her if there's one drop of lover's
blood in you. Marry her; then play for Fox Tor Farm after;
an' mind there's a lew corner by the fire for your poor starving
gran'mother come she gets old."
He left her and went out with his head hung low and abiding
grief upon his face. The woman's talk had not fired him; the
thought of fighting and conquering the world did not quicken his
pulses. He only saw the gulf for ever fixed between himself and
Grace Malherb, and he was crushed. He felt not even curious
to find out how she would receive the news. His own mind
assured him that his determination could not waver. He must
leave the farm, and that immediately. He debated whether he
should vanish away without a word. But such a step appeared
both cruel and weak. Therefore he decided to tell Grace
everything and then depart.
Lovey Lee meantime flung herself into the matter with great
mental zest and an itching palm. Come what might, a lively
promise of money rose out of this remarkable accident, and she
foresaw encounters such as her soul loved between the strong and
the feeble. Peter Norcot and Maurice Malherb were upon one
side; Grace and the boy upon the other. Her natural instinct
drew her to the powerful and the rich; then she reflected that in
the long run Grace Malherb herself might prove the best mistress
to follow. All depended upon the young woman's attitude
towards John Lee's information; for that he would tell her the
truth Lovey perceived, and that the girl's decision would presently
reach her own ears she was also assured. Dismissing the matter,
therefore, she returned to her former problems, and speculated
how to convince the American prisoners that she had acted in
good faith, and that the traitor to the enterprise must be sought
inside the War Prison, and not outside it.