“It was an accident, my Lord, I think,” she said.
“‘You think?’ Is there some doubt, then?”
No one answered him but Ademar. “Pardon me, my Lord; I was not present.”
“Then I ask one who was present. Dame Heliet?”
“I hope there is no doubt, my Lord,” answered Heliet. “I should be sorry to think so.”
The bushy eyebrows, which were the only blemish to the handsome Plantagenet face of the Earl, were lowered at this reply.
“What am I to understand by that?” he asked. “Did the child throw herself down of her own will?”
“Oh, no, my Lord, no!”
“Did any one push her down?”
Dead silence.