It was this carefulness to be at hand when any domestic work was going forward that made Miles look for her expectantly, when he saw her sister in the garden gathering herbs, for it was this side of Cicely's character that he knew. It was the quiet thoughtfulness that reminded him of his sister, and had won his attention and regard, which so slowly and imperceptibly changed into love, that he knew not that it was there until his father's over-anxious eyes detected it.
It may have been that some prying Court gossip had also penetrated their secret, and warned the Queen that if her little nun of the Court was ever to be a veritable nun of the convent, there was no time to lose in placing her within its shadow; for the arrangements had been pressed on by the Queen in great haste at last, and there was little time given to consider the momentous step that was to be taken.
When Sir Harry came home from his duties at the palace, and heard from his wife the state of affairs, he was greatly concerned.
"Witless knave that I am!" he exclaimed, "I might have guessed that the little wench would smile on such a gallant as Master Miles."
"But what good would it have served?" asked his wife, "even if Master Miles had told us three months agone that he loved her; you forget our word to the Queen, that she should go to the convent as soon as time served."
"I am not likely to forget my duty to the Queen, good dame; but my duty to my child lies even closer than that, and I should have made suit to the Queen, that my promise and yours was given without Cicely's consent, and how she had by her own unwitting love for this man made it impossible for me to carry it out."
"But you are not sure that Cicely does love him," said his wife.
"Ah dame, I wish I could believe she did not, for what you now tell me has made clear to me several things that I noticed in our little wench before she went away. Would to God I had known of this earlier, and I would have saved her from our rash promise, even though I offended the Queen, and had to give up my post at Court for it."
Lady Guildford looked at her husband, and wondered whether she was prepared to go to such a length as this. They were not wealthy people, and their rank imposed upon them many expenses they could not afford before they came to Greenwich, where they could now live in ease and luxury, instead of almost pinching poverty, as they had to do before.
This might be the price they would have had to pay for holding their daughter back from the convent, in the face of the Queen's wish that she should go there; and in the silence that followed both were asking themselves whether they were prepared to pay such a price for their child's future happiness.