‘With me. He has his nurse. Madge was at home here more than there.’
‘Why do you go back?’
‘I am of use to my brother.’
‘Forgive me—in what way?’
‘He has enemies about him. They are the workmen of Lord Levellier. They attacked Lekkatts the other night, and my uncle fired at them out of a window and wounded a man. They have sworn they will be revenged. Mr. Wythan is with my brother to protect him.’
‘Two men, very well; they don’t want, if there’s danger, a woman’s aid in protecting him?’
She smiled, and her smile was like the hint of the steel blade an inch out of sheath.
‘My brother does not count me a weak woman.’
‘Oh no! No one would think that,’ Fleetwood said hurriedly and heartily. ‘Least of all men, I, Carinthia. But you might be rash.’
‘My brother knows me cautious.’