“There was naught amiss about that,” he remarked with a relieved expression. “Nor about the food either, if that was all there was to it.”
“But was it all?” queried Harriet. “The servants said that Peggy was over-solicitous anent the fellow.”
“Peggy!” Colonel Owen faced the maiden abruptly. “Let us have this matter settled at once. You usually speak truth. Do so in this instance, I beg of you. Was the wood and feeding the man all there was to the affair?”
Peggy did not reply.
“There is more then,” he said. “Your silence speaks for you. I demand now to know if this fellow was responsible for the failure of our plan to captivate the rebel general?”
But Peggy was not going to betray Drayton’s disguise if she could help it, and neither would she speak an untruth. So she met her kinsman’s glance with one as direct as his own as she answered, “I am to blame for thy plan going amiss, Cousin William.”
“You?” he exclaimed incredulously. “Why, you knew naught of it. I was careful that even Harriet should not know it.”
“I was in the drawing-room,” she told him boldly, “when thee and thy commander were discussing the plan. I heard the whole plot. While the dinner was being served I slipped out and sent word to the general.”
“By whom?” he asked controlling his anger with difficulty. “By whom did you send word?”
“That, sir, I will not tell,” responded she resolutely.