When it was necessary to approach a town harbor to anchor from a storm, she was locked in the cabin. Thus she spent one month, longing night and day to be free, until the roses faded from her cheeks, and the love light from her eyes. Ever did Sir George protest his affection for her, begging that she would but give him a little hope. But never, even by a turn of the head, did she admit that she heard him, for, after the first few days when she demanded that he set her free, she held her peace and spoke no words to him.
This was the tale Lucille related to me, as we sat under the ledge of rock by the waters I had saved her from. And, as the story grew, I longed for the morrow, that I might fight for her honor and my own. I put some driftwood on the fire, and it blazed up.
Of the storm, which blew the craft out to sea until the voyagers thought it would never return, Lucille told. Then provisions ran low, and for three days Sir George had nothing but a small crust of bread, and Simon had as little, because they put all aside for her. And this she never knew till after they had reached the vicinity of a town again, when by the ravenous hunger of Sir George and his man, she saw they had been near death.
It seemed strange to me that this man could endure so much for love, could battle so to win it, and yet could not master himself. Of a truth, he was one who might have been great, had not his life been turned in the wrong direction.
The last storm which blew had started the seams of the Eagle, and this had compelled Sir George to put in shore sooner than he intended, for he was near to his journey’s end.
The remainder of the tale I knew, having seen the sinking of the Eagle.
“And now tell me of yourself, Edward,” commanded Lucille. “Tell me how you escaped from Salem gaol, and how you happened to be here, so far away, just as I was about to give myself up for lost. You must have had a wearisome search for me.”
“I forget the weariness of it, now,” I whispered, “for I have found you,” and I held her close to me.
“Mayhap, only to lose me again,” replied she, with a touch of sadness in her voice.
“Not if there is still strength in my arm or temper in my sword,” I answered, cheerfully, for I am not one easily downcast, when I have a fight before me.