When Marian heard my lady so speak, methought she would have swooned in
verity; for she knew my lady's contempt for gossip. E'en for the first
time in all her life, Marian could not find a word to her tongue.
"La! my lady," said she, and then stopped and was silent. My lady
laughed at her, with her deep eyes; but as was her wont, her mouth was
wondrous solemn.
"Ay, nurse," quoth she, "thou thought'st me safe i' th' Land o' Nod, but
one hath ears to hear there as elsewhere." Then she reaches out one
hand and plays with Marian's ruff. "Go to, nurse," says she. "Dost thou
not see I am even i' th' same case with thyself? I too would gossip a
little. Come, word it--word it!"
So Marian told her all that she had heard, together with a little
prophesying here and there, which boded no good to my Lord Denbeigh. She
told how he had e'en been a brave lad, but how in Spain he had wed with
a wife who played him false; how then he had vowed vengeance on all
womankind, becoming a brawler and a haunter o' taverns; how death was in
his sword and lightnings in his eye.
My lady listened, and now and again she would pinch her eyelids softly
with her thumb and ring-finger, as one who is deep in thought. But when
Marian paused for breath, she turned to her, and quoth she,
"Nurse, thou hast often preached unto me; listen now to my preachings.
Thou shalt often hear a man abused, nurse, but chiefly for that which
he hath never done. This wild lord, I doubt not, hath been guilty of
sorry deeds. What man hath not? But the half that thou hast told me is
not to be believed."
Then went she to her room, taking Marian with her, but I saw that she
was moved.
It was but the next day that my lady's uncle, Sir John Trenyon, came
riding into the court. He often came in such wise, to bide for a day or
two with his niece. A most courteous gentleman; red of face, blue of
eye, and blithe of tongue. He had a jest for each tick o' th' clock, and
a kind word for all.
"Ah, Butter," saith he, "and where is thy mistress? And thy wife, the
good Dame Marian--where is she? And how about thy family? Hast thou no
better prospects than of yore?"
Whereat I looked sorrowful enough, I doubt not, for he did bid me take
heart, as my first-born might have had a hare-lip or a crook-back. Then
did he toss me his bridle-reins, and my lady, having heard his voice,
came forth to meet him.
"So, lady-bird!" quoth he, clasping her. "I am come for no less than
three reasons this time. First, to see thy bonny face. Second, to ride
thy bonny Robin. Third, to inquire and seek out a certain villain of
mine acquaintance, of whom you have doubtless heard;" and forthwith did
he say to her of how the wicked Lord Denbeigh was the son of a friend
and comrade, and of how he had known him when a lad, together with much
more, at which my lady pricked up her ears, as 'twere, having all a
lady's love for stories of wicked men who are not yet either old or
ill-favored.
"By my troth," declared the old knight in ending, "I will take but a
mouthful to stay me, and then set forth straightway in quest o' th'
rascal." So having dined right heartily, he rode forth again.
Now, having related this hap to Marian, she was devoured of so great a
curiosity that, as I am an honest man, I looked to see her consumed even
unto her bones, as some men who burn of drink. She would have it that I
must hazard a guess on the shape of Lord Denbeigh's nose, the color of
his hair, and the height of his body. She forced me to wonder whether he
were civil or rude of tongue. She pressed me to say whether I thought
there was aye a chance of his returning with Sir John. She questioned
me, in a word, until, having no answers, I was like to lose my wits, or
my temper, or both together. At last comes she and sits on my knee, and
tickles the back of my neck right playfully, as in the days of our
wooing.
"As I live, Tony," quoth she, "we are like to have a strange story under
our very noses. What if"--and here she takes my face in her two hands,
and sets her chin against mine, so that I see four round blue eyes
against her white brow, and am like to go blind with her
thoughtlessness--"what if it turns out that the Lord hath set upon our
lady to be the saviour of this wicked earl?"
"Ay," cried I. "And what if the Lord hath set upon me to be the founder
of a nation, like Abraham? What then?" At which she boxed my ears right
soundly. But I could not blame her, for in the wrong I was, without
doubt, although verily she had plagued me into it. So I sued for pardon,
and got it, and a kiss into the bargain. But she would not leave me in
peace concerning Lord Denbeigh.
When that same afternoon there comes Sir John a-riding past, and the bad
earl at his side, "What dost thou say now?" quoth Marian, a-plucking me
in a way that did not serve to increase good feeling betwixt us. "Ah
ha! Are not women prophetesses by nature?"
"Ay, by ill-nature," answered I; and for this quip I was not forgiven
for two days.
It was towards the setting of the sun when Sir John and Lord Denbeigh
rode up to the door of Amhurste, and my lady, knowing naught, came out
at the sound of the horses' feet, thinking only to greet her uncle. The
red light from the west shone on her, and dabbled her white kirtle as
with blood, and her face was like one of the red roses in her garden. So
she put up her hand to shield it, and saw the stranger standing at her
feet.
There was ne'er a nobler-looking man, for all he might outblack Satan in
his soul: straight of body, and strong of limb, and lofty of head. His
hair was the color of my lady's, and there seemed to be ever some
sunshine in it, as he moved his head. Methought his face was fair and
goodly to look upon, albeit his lips went downward at the corners, and
there was a droop in his broad lids. He was clad all in a close suit of
dark velvet, and in his hand he held a black hat with a knot of
heron-plumes.
My lady stood and looked down at him from under her long, white hand,
and he stood and looked up at my lady, as one looks upward at a fair
picture. And the evening light crept between them. I was ashamed of my
own folly, when I did catch myself remembering Marian's silly sayings;
but for all that, they did come back to me, as the words of a foolish
woman will return to the wisest of men. And in truth he did gaze up at
her, as though she were more holy than the heavens above her. And for
all her hand, the sunset found its way unto her cheek.
What I now relate was told me by Marian some three days after. 'Twas on
the night of the day on which Sir John had brought the stranger to
Amhurste, and Marian was carding out my lady's tresses before her
bedroom fire.
Quoth my lady, suddenly, "Nurse, didst thou see Lord Denbeigh ere he
went?"
And Marian said that she had seen him.
"He hath a strange face, nurse."
"How 'strange,' my lady?"
"Why, it seems to me that each feature in it doth contradict the other.
His brow is stern, and saith to his eyes, 'Ye shall not be gentle.' His
eyes say to his nose, 'Spread not thy nostrils so proudly.' His nose
commands his lips that they smile not; but, nurse, there was ne'er a
sweeter smile on the lips o' a saint!"
Marian fell a-thinking, and pulled my lady's hair. My lady heeded it
not, so Marian fell a-thinking yet more deeply.
"It is not a face that tells of a bad heart," continued my lady. "Rather
it speaks of rebellion and misfortune. A sad story--a sad story."
"What is, my lady?" asked Marian; but my lady was far away, whither
Marian could not follow.
"Nurse," she saith, presently, "that were a soul worth saving." Then got
she suddenly to her feet, and turned and took her nurse's hands with
hers. "It shall be saved," she saith, "God helping."
And she kissed Marian, and lay down upon her bed. But Marian did tell me
how that no sleep visited her lady's eyes that night. Through the
darkness she could hear her turn, first on this side, then on that; then
sigh and move her pillow, and sigh again.
Methought Marian would have split in sunder with importance, when Lord
Denbeigh took to coming sometimes to Amhurste. 'Twas never for even an
hour that he stayed; and 'twas always some question of business that
brought him. But my lady and he touched hands full oft during a week,
and always he would look at her with a different look from that which
his eyes did wear at other times. And she spoke to him e'er courteously
and kindly, even as though he had been a holy man and worthy of all
reverence.
One day it chanced that my lady rode the blue-roan out into the woods,
towards the hut of old Joan Gobble, who was crippled by reason of age.
My lady had me follow her on Dumble, th' white nag, with a pat o' butter
and some wine. I was taken up with pondering as to why my lady should go
in person to Dame Gobble's, seeing she might have sent me alone on
Dumble as well. Be that as it may, as we rode along by a brook-side,
under the thick leaves, whom should we come upon but my Lord Denbeigh.
He was kneeling beside the water, and holding down his hand into the
brook. As I looked I saw that his hand was befouled with gore, and that
the brown stream did rush away ruddily from beneath his fingers.
My lady did not wait for me to hold Robin Hood, but did swing herself
from her saddle, and was beside the earl in a trice. He looked up, and
seeing her, did start upon his feet.
"Nay," said she, putting out her hand, "but tell me if I can aid thee."
And he strove to hide his hand at his side, saying. "Tis but a scratch;"
but the blood ran down like water on the grass.
"Think not to spare me the sight o' blood," said my lady, "for I am
learned in bandaging wounds." And certes she was, seeing that every soul
at Amhurste did come to her for healing, let a cat but scratch them. And
she took his hand between her two fair hands (having drawn off her
gloves), and saw that his wrist was deeply severed as with a knife. But
she asked him no questions, telling him only to stoop while she cleansed
his hand sufficiently to bind it. And as she laid it in the water, and
pressed the lips of the wound together, he said unto her in a low tone,
not meaning that I should hear him,
"Would that thou couldst wash my soul as thou hast washed my hand!"
She looked straight into his eyes, with her own so clear and honest,
like a dog's (meaning no disrespect to my lady, as God knows), and she
answered him and saith,
"It were well worth the washing, my lord; but an higher than I must
cleanse it."