“Then there is nothing to do but to wait and see. We are young, Alaine, my sister, and we are very happy here in this little village.”
“Yes, I am, or I would be if I could know my father were well and safe. You, Gerard, would be happy if it were Mathilde whom you were to bring home. I understand, my brother, that it would not be so hard to marry Alaine if Mathilde were promised to another, but she is not, you see, and therefore I think we will say no more on the subject at present. I do not wish to do wrong to Papa Louis and Mère Michelle, but we can wait. Yet I am afraid of yonder man who lies ill at home, and I think so is Mère Michelle.”
“Not M. Verplanck; the other, you mean.”
“The other who swears that whither I go he will follow. And there is also Étienne.”
“Myself, Pierre, M. Dupont, and Étienne.” Gerard counted on his fingers. “How many more, Alaine? Shall we add M. Verplanck?”
She blushed and looked down, but laughed. “You tease me, Gerard. I will tell you how it is. Of them all it is Pierre alone who loves me. Étienne, maybe, has a pride in uniting the estates, for I believe if I were to return it would be that they need not be confiscated, so Michelle says. He also hates the Protestants, and thinks if he could win me back it would be a great achievement. He loves me in a way, but only to the advantage of himself. He desires to rule, to have his way, and he cannot bear that a girl should prevent that. You, yourself, Gerard, are my brother, my dearly loved brother; that is enough. M. Dupont I cannot understand; he professes to adore me, yet there is something behind it all. I do not understand, I only fear.”
Gerard took her hand and stroked it softly. “Do not be afraid, little sister. You have left out M. Verplanck,” he said, after a moment’s reflection.
“M. Verplanck but performed a knightly deed in escorting me, a lost maiden, to her home; he defended me as he would any other in distress. He will return to his family when he has recovered, and that will be the end of that. One thing troubles me, Gerard: why did those men seek to lure you to a certain spot through me?”
“They are French spies, we think, and seek to learn something to their advantage through the emissaries sent out to the various villages and settlements. We uphold Jacob Leisler, the friend of the people, the upholder of a Protestant king. We have the confidence of those who believe in him rather than in those aristocrats, Bayard and Van Cortlandt and Phillipse. There is much that you do not understand, my sister, and I am not at all sure but that we have enemies nearer home than France, enemies who would work the ruin of any belonging to our party.”
“And you will not go with messages to warn the settlements of danger from the French?”