Chapter XLIV
No hopes of rising next morning alive, as a last chance—I get into bed.
Kathleen came in with fuel to light the fire, and looking rather hard at me, passed by, and was soon, busy blowing up the turf. She was a very handsome dark-eyed girl, about nineteen years of age, stout and well made. "What is your name?" said I.
"Kathleen, at your service, sir."
"Listen to me, Kathleen," said I, in a low voice. "You are a woman, and all women are kind-hearted. I have overheard all that passed between your mistress and you, and that M'Dermott has stated that I am a tithe collector and an attorney, with a warrant. I am no such thing. I am a gentleman who wishes to speak to Sir Henry de Clare on a business which he does not like to be spoken to about; and to show you what I say is the truth, it is about the daughter of his elder brother, who was killed when hunting, and who is supposed to be dead. I am the only evidence to the contrary; and, therefore, he and M'Dermott have spread this report that I may come to harm."
"Is she alive, then?" replied Kathleen, looking up to me with wonder.
"Yes; and I will not tell Sir Henry where she is, and that is the reason of their enmity."
"But I saw her body," replied the girl in a low voice, standing up, and coming close to me.
"It was not hers, depend upon it," replied I, hardly knowing what to answer to this assertion.
"At all events, it was dressed in her clothes; but it was so long before it was discovered, that we could make nothing of the features. Well, I knew the poor little thing, for my mother nursed her. I was myself brought up at the castle, and lived there till after Sir William was killed; then we were all sent away."