“And do you know what this action hath cost me?” he thundered, livid with rage. “A knighthood and fortune. Was not the account long enough betwixt us that you must add this to it? To come here and play the spy in mine own house. ’Tis monstrous!”
“I did not come here of my own accord,” she reminded him becoming very pale. “If I have played the spy ’tis no more than thy daughter did for many months in our house. I will gladly relieve thee of my presence at any time that thee will let me go.”
“You shall not go—now or at any time,” he stormed, his voice shaking in its fury. “Moreover I shall put it out of your power to work any further harm here. Sir Henry Clinton leaves for the South in a few days. I shall go with him, and take you both with me.”
“Oh, father!” wailed Harriet. “Not me?”
“You too,” he answered. “You and this marplot of a girl, who hath spoiled a most feasible plan of ending the rebellion.” He glared at Peggy for a moment with a look that made her tremble and then stalked out of the room.
“Just see what you have done, Peggy Owen,” cried Harriet, her eyes ablaze with wrath. “Now we’ll have to go I know not how far away, to some old place where there is no fun. Just mind your own affairs after this, will you?”
“No,” replied Peggy stoutly, though her heart swelled at the thought of going upon a journey that would take her further away from home. Like most girls of the period she was hazy about the geography of the country, and the South seemed an indefinite somewhere a long way off. “No, Harriet, my affairs are those of the rebels, as thee calls them. If at any time I hear aught planned either against them or the general, and ’tis in my power to warn them, I tell thee frankly that I shall do so.”
“I shall go right to father with that,” cried Harriet, and in turn she flounced out of the room.
In spite of her brave words, however, Peggy’s tears fell like rain as she slipped down to the stable and flung her arms about Star’s neck.
“Oh, Star, Star!” she sobbed. “I’ll never see mother again, I fear me. Oh, what shall I do? What shall I do?”