“You fool, how should I speak? His Grace is not a child, for all you and that precious crew he has about him treat him as though he were! I hope it may be a lesson to you, for how he has borne it all these years I know not!”
“Master Gideon, have you thought that his Grace may have been murdered?” Nettlebed demanded.
“I have not. His Grace is very well able to take care of himself.”
Nettlebed wrung his hands. “Never in all the years I’ve served him has he done such a thing! Oh, Master Gideon, I blame myself, I do indeed! I should never have allowed myself to take offence at what—But how could I tell—And he went out, not telling Borrowdale when he meant to come back, and we waited, and waited, and never a sign of him! Borrowdale, and Chigwell, and Turvey, and me, we were sitting up all night, not knowing what to think, nor what to do! Then I thought as how he might have been with you, and I came round on the instant! Master Gideon, what am I to do?”
“You will go back to Sale House, and you will wait until his Grace returns, as he no doubt will do,” replied Gideon. “And when he does return, Nettlebed, see to it that you do not drive him into flight again! You, and Borrowdale, and Chigwell, and Turvey and a dozen others! My cousin is a man, not a schoolboy, and you have so bullied him between you—”
“Bullied him!” exclaimed Nettlebed, his voice breaking. “Master Gideon, I would lay down my life for his Grace!”
“Very likely, and much good would that do him!” said Gideon. He sat up. “Now you may listen to me!” he said sternly, and read his cousin’s stricken henchman a short, telling lecture.
If Nettlebed attended to it, he gave no sign of having done so. He said distractedly: “If only he has not been set upon by footpads! I should go round to Bow Street, perhaps, only that I do not like—”
“If you do that,” said Gideon strongly, “neither his Grace nor my father would ever forgive you! For God’s sake, man, stop flying into a pucker for nothing!”
“It is not nothing to me, sir,” Nettlebed said. “I am sure I ask your pardon for having disturbed you, but it did seem to me that his Grace would have told you—or come to you—but if he did not, then I am wasting my time, and I will go. Captain Ware, sir!”