"Good faith," replied the hot young nobleman, "it is not for me to say whether you did or not. It is mighty strange, however, that you could discover her in the twinkling of an eye, as soon as her relations were gone."
"Not half so strange," said Lucy, interposing once more in terror for the result, "as that you should show yourself so ungrateful, Alured, for his having found me. Instead of giving him deep thanks, which are his due both from you and me, you seem as angry as if you had wished me to remain and perish in the forest."
"Well, well," said Alured de Ashby, a little ashamed perhaps of his irritable heat--"this is all waste of words!--Where were you? What was the cause of your being taken away? What has happened to you?"
"Three questions in a breath," exclaimed Lucy, "each of which would take an hour to answer fully, even if I could answer them all. As to the first, then, I have been in the forest; as to the last, I reply, a good deal has happened to me, of which I will tell you at leisure. As to the middle one, Why they took me away? my answer must be very short,--I do not know."
"Perhaps you do, sir?" said her brother, turning to Hugh. The young nobleman looked him straightforwardly and somewhat sternly in the face, answering, "I do."
"Then pray explain," said Alured.
"You will excuse me," replied Hugh, "I shall first explain the whole to your father, as he is the person who must act in the business, and as I bear a message to him of which he alone can judge."
"Mighty mysterious, my good lord," cried Alured--"But as I am now present here, and am going with all speed to overtake the Earl of Ashby, my sister will no longer need your kind protection."
"But as we take the same road," said Hugh de Monthermer, "it will be safer for all, if we travel it together."
"Fie! Alured; in common courtesy----" exclaimed Lucy.