"Men's wits move like the snail does, methinks," she cried. "Am I less dear at Wildwater than Nell at Marsh? Send up to the Lean Man, sir, and say what dread things you will do to me, and see if he will not exchange his prisoner for yours."
Wayne looked hard at her, doubtful still and bewildered by the heedless devilry of her plan. "You have risked much for the honour of my house," he said slowly.
"Nay, for the honour of a woman who had little deserved the infamy they planned for her."
"But 'tis out of reason! You run too great a hazard, Mistress.—See, our plans are laid, and already the Cranshaw and the Hill House Waynes are on the road hither. Go back while you have time, Mistress."
"I shall not go back, sir, for I know how hopeless are your plans. They have guarded Wildwater securely against attack; and even if you seemed like to force an entry they would make sure—how shall I tell thee, Ned?" she broke off, lapsing to the old familiar speech and turning her eyes shamefacedly from his.
"They would make sure of Nell's dishonour. That is thy meaning, Janet? God's life, that is a true word. Yet—when they learn that this capture was all thy doing, not mine, thou'lt have a rough welcome home to Wildwater?"
"There is always danger for me there," she said, her voice deepening; "but that should not vex thee, surely, Wayne of Marsh?"
Shameless Wayne glanced neither back nor forward now. It seemed as if some hidden chord, frayed by the months of self-denial, had snapped on the sudden; her fearless strength, her man's power to frame a swift stroke of daring and to carry it through, her woman's fierce, unheeding tenderness—all these he understood at last—understood, too, that his love for her, nurtured in rough soil and inclement weather, had come to a hardier growth than pride. Before, he had lacked her, felt the keen need of possession; but now he loved her, and watched the old barriers crumble into unmeaning dust.
"Janet," he said quietly, not moving nearer to her yet, "dost think I care naught what chances to thee?"
"'Twould seem so, Ned. Twice I have told thee of the bargain made between the Lean Man and my cousins——"