Hardcastle was no easy man to live with these days. His temper was brittle as a file, and here was the pedlar’s girl, cross-questioning him after the turmoil he had gone through.
“I was a fool,” he said.
“And why?”
“To get my heart into my mouth because——”
“Because, Hardcastle of Logie?”
“Rebecca told me you’d gone out alone, as if there were no Wilderness Men skulking round the house.”
“And you cared to go in search?”
“I was a fool,” said Hardcastle again.
She glanced at him once, in the light of the young, keen moon—and laughed at him with quiet derision—and went indoors, to find Rebecca waiting.
“Back, are you? Well, it’s time. The Master’s been daft about you—and Jonah sits atop o’ your shoulder now, instead o’ mine—so I’m getting jealous all ways. What made you go?”