I listened, but no sound reached my ear save the hum of insect life around me and the sough of the wind in the whispering trees. Yet who was the man who had recently passed along this path? And why should a trooper be wandering in the woods?
The more I thought of this, the more it puzzled me. I could hazard no conjecture as to the man’s identity, still less as to his purpose. Only, with a growing uneasiness, I loosened my sword in its sheath and advanced more cautiously, searching the bushes on either side.
It may have been for some quarter of a mile I had proceeded thus when, upon drawing near to the little clearing, on a sudden I heard the sound of a man’s deep voice and a woman’s startled cry.
At the sound I slipped amongst the bushes on my left, and forcing my way through their tangled growth, at the turning of the path I parted the leafy screen before me and gazed across the little clearing.
Two figures met my eyes. In the woman standing with her back to me I had no difficulty in recognising my lady; but, dazzled by the sunlight, I was forced to look twice at the man who faced her at the head of the bridge, barring her progress—the man dressed in the uniform of the Tangier Horse—ere I clearly perceived his features. It was De Brito!
De Brito! The sight of him came as a revelation to me. For at once I remembered that I had not seen him at the village when the regiment rode in, though in the incidents following our arrival this fact had escaped my memory. But the explanation of his presence in the manor woods I had yet to learn, and I bent my attention on the scene before me.
What had already passed between them I could only guess, but my lady was now speaking.
“Are you aware, sir, that this is private ground?” she said clearly.
“Private?” De Brito answered mockingly. “Aye, aye! A sweet spot for a meeting. But seeing that the recreant lover is but a laggard, why, you should thank me, mistress, that I am here to take his place.”
“Whoever you may be I do not know,” my lady answered, her figure trembling with surprise and passion, “but be assured of this, your insolence to me shall not go long unpunished. And now, stand aside.”