“I asked to see you,” he answered, respectfully, “because I ride with tidings that may touch you. I am newly from Cambridge.”
Brilliana’s eyes widened.
“What do you carry from Cambridge?” she asked; then swiftly added, “But first, I pray you, be seated.”
She pointed to a chair on one side of the great table, and to set him the example seated herself at another. Halfman bowed and took his appointed place, resting his hat upon his knees.
“Lady,” he said, “there was at Cambridge a certain Parliament man who plays at being a soldier, and though he should be no more than plain master, those that would do him pleasure call him Captain or Colonel Cromwell.”
Brilliana frowned a little. “I have heard of the man,” she said. “He talks treason at Westminster; he is the King’s enemy.”
Halfman leaned a little nearer to her across the table and spoke with a well-managed air of mystery.
“Captain Cromwell is not only the King’s enemy; he is also the enemy of the Lady Brilliana Harby.”
Brilliana shook her dark head proudly, and Halfman thought that her curls glanced like the arrows of Apollo.
“Any enemy of the King is an enemy to me, but not he, as I think, more than another.”