'It is very certain that you can not serve my lord with such a firebrand to your tail,' he said. 'I will find him an errand.'
'But not where he shall be killed,' she said again.
'Why,' he said slowly, 'I will send him where he will make a great fortune.'
'A great fortune would help him little,' she answered. 'I would have him sent where he may fight evenly matched.'
He laid his hand upon her wrist.
'He is in as much danger here as anywhere. This is not Lincolnshire, but an ordered Court.'—A man drew his sword with some peril there, for there were laws against it. If men came brawling in the maids' quarters at nights there were penalties of losing fingers, hands, or even heads. And the maids themselves were liable to be whipped.—He shook his head at her:
'If your cousin hath so violent an inclination to you I were your best friend to send him far away.'
It was in his mind that if they were to breed this girl to be a spy they must keep her protected from madmen. Something of mystery in his manner penetrated to her quick senses.
'God help me, what a dangerous place this is!' she said. 'I would I had never spoken to you of my cousin.'
He eyed her solemnly and said that if she were minded to wed this roaring boy they might both, and soon, earn fortunes to buy them land in a distant shire.