“It was a big sacrifice, child-heart,” he said softly, and kissed her.
“May I ask you something,” she said, “even though it does make you sad: but I would rather learn from your own lips? You know you have not told me who you are. Who are you?”
He paused a moment, while he continued gently stroking her hair. “I am now the Duke of Ochil, little one.”
Aline rose from his knee and crouched down on the hearth again. She gazed up at him wonderingly. In after years as she looked back she understood her feelings; but at the time they were a perplexity even to herself. So far from being pleased that he was a duke, she resented it. It seemed to put a barrier between them;—his Grace, the Duke of Ochil, could not be the same as her dear friend Ian.
Ian saw the expression on her face and half-guessed its meaning. “It does not please you, heartsease,” he said.
She looked up quickly and then said simply,—“I do not know. It is strange.”
CHAPTER XXVI
THE BATTLE OF LIDDISDALE
THE days slipped by and when Hawick had mustered two thousand foot and some 300 horse he decided to move northward up Liddisdale. The Duke of Ochil nominally commanded the cavalry, but was really the guiding spirit of the whole.
Angus, that is Aline, acted as Ochil’s page or squire and was soon very highly in favour with all the officers. She was, however, very uncommunicative and kept herself to herself, the which she found much easier, in that there was a reserved hauteur about Ian when dealing with those that were at all his equals, which he never displayed when dealing with inferiors. At the same time every one’s respect for him was very marked and his power over the men was immense. This new aspect of his character interested Aline not a little.