“Though I know you are tired,” he chuckled as they all shook their heads, “you must make the most of your short stay here. Upstairs, my sister has everything in readiness. Now, begone with you.” He dismissed them and turned toward the big fireplace to warm his hands.
“Why, Nan Sherwood!” Bess exclaimed as soon as they left the reception hall, “it’s a castle! And you are the princess!” Although Bess was fooling, she was very much impressed at all she had seen.
“You are my subjects and you had better behave,” Nan laughed as they were ushered into a group of big bedrooms with high canopied beds, huge chests, heavy rugs, thick damask drapes, everything dark and faded, the luxuries of ages gone by.
“Yes, princess of Emberon,” Laura made a brief curtsey. “We are at your command. Your ladies in waiting await your orders.” She took Nan’s hand and led her to a high-backed oaken chair where Nan seated herself for a moment.
“Your subjects, madame,” Laura waved her hand toward the others, and then added, “They don’t amount to much, but they are the best we have to offer at present.”
“That’s treason!” Amelia exclaimed, “treason! We’re loyal subjects and true. We are daughters of Scotland and defenders of the Blake clan.”
The girls were acting. It was their own version of a scene from a class play they had once acted in at Lakeview. The room’s setting had brought it all back to mind. But in acting they were prophesying too, prophesying something even more romantic than the scene the present brought to mind.
“Defenders of the Blake clan! Ah, how it needs you! Come, rally round!” Nan pretended to sound the call to battle as she left her regal seat and plunged into the job of unpacking.
The others followed suit. The stern faces of the ancient lairds of Emberon that looked down on them from heavy gilt frames on the wall never saw six more industrious girls than those in the Lakeview crowd as they unpacked and dressed.
Once Laura looked up at them. “I must say,” she said then to Nan, “that this isn’t a very cheerful looking bunch of ancestors that is watching us.”