“I am Lord Arden,” said Edred, “and when I grow up I’ll do what you say. I shall be in the House of Lords, I think, and of course the House of Lords would have to pay attention to me when I said things. I’ll remember everything you say, and tell them about it.”
“You’re not grown up yet,” said Richard, “and your father’s Lord Arden, not you.”
“Father’s dead, you know,” said Elfrida, in a hushed voice.
“How do you know?” asked Richard.
“There was a letter——”
“Do you think I’d trust a letter?” Richard asked indignantly. “If I hadn’t seen my daddy lying dead, do you think I’d believe it? Not till I’d gone back and seen how he died, and where, and had vengeance on the man who’d killed him.”
“But he wasn’t killed.”
“How do you know? You’ve been hunting for the beastly treasure, and never even tried to go back to the time when he was alive—such a little time ago—and find out what really did happen to him.”
“I didn’t know we could,” said Elfrida, choking. “And even if we could, it wouldn’t be right, would it? Aunt Edith said he was in heaven. We couldn’t go there, you know. It isn’t like history—it’s all different.”
“Well, then,” said Richard, “I shall have to tell you. You know, I rather took a fancy to you two kids that Gunpowder Plot time; and after you’d gone back to your own times asked Betty Lovell who you were, and she said you were Lord Arden. So the next time I wanted to get away from—from where I was—I gave orders to be taken to Lord Arden. And it——”