"Alack! how can I help?" said she. "Can a maid beg a man to wed her?"
"And fret not yourself too greatly over what Queen Eadburh may say or do. Her mind is evil, and all that she looketh upon doth take on for her the same ill hue."
"O Edric, good Edric, dear Edric, say to me that all must be well! My heart sinks within me. Tell me—tell me truly whether my father's court be fair and clean, as I have heretofore dreamed it to be!"
Edric turned away his face, and began to poke, with the staff which he always carried, in the rushes beneath a little table standing under one of the windows. A faint clink resounded. He stooped and picked up a small, finely-wrought key with a handle curiously bent.
"That is my mother's wry-necked key!" exclaimed Ethelfrith. "Great store sets she by it. Thou knowest she weareth it ever upon the chain at her waist."
"She leant much upon the board this evening, playing at chess with Ethelbert," said the old man, "Belike it was rubbed loose, or the chain broke."
"It openeth the garden door of the chamber, built down into the earth, beneath the Queen's bedroom," the Lady continued. "I have never been within, nor hath any that I have heard of. But Gymbert may go sometimes: he hath another key like unto this. Once, one of the maids did whisper…. But I will not believe it!"
"Neither have I ever seen into that chamber," said Edric the seneschal; and both together they uttered the same words:
"This night spake she into the ear of Gymbert, even as she left the hall!"
"O child, be strong!" said Edric. He stopped and coughed. "There would be no harm," he ventured, "in learning to be strong."