“Oh yes, I could do that. They have gone to their room; but they asked me to bring them some hot water—to drink, I suppose, but it seems a funny thing to want—and I could take them a letter with it. My mother told me to tell you that they would have the room of my three aunts—that is the first door in the passage which turns off from this one at the back of the house. You have the guest-room, which is nearest to this door.”
“The arrangements of your dwelling seem a little complicated,” observed Cyril.
“Ah, that is because my grandfather has been obliged to build on a fresh piece so often when my uncles got married. But we have more rooms than any other house in the district. We are not like the people who have only one sleeping-room, and share that with the cattle—pigs, I call them.”
“Far from it,” returned Cyril. “But in England we should have given the guest-room to the ladies.”
“And put you and your servant in the worse room of the two? What a funny idea—to treat women better than men!”
And she broke into a long noiseless fit of laughter, during which Cyril tore a leaf from his pocket-book, and scribbled on it a message to the Queen:—
“Read this when none of the people of the house are with you. Some of them suspect us, and we must escape to-night. Put on the Thracian dresses you have bought, and lie down in your clothes. Get some sleep if you can; we will inform you when it is time to start. Carry your boots in your hands when we call you, and bring your own clothes in a bundle, as well as the luggage you brought. Don’t be frightened; there are friends even here. The girl Olga and her mother are to be trusted.”
He folded up the paper, and passed it in through the crack of the door, accompanied by a coin or two. He heard the girl’s gasp of delight, and a sudden swift rustle as she crept from her hiding-place; then a quick whisper reached him as she remembered something and turned back.
“When you are over the wall, don’t take the cart-road by which you came, but the right-hand one. It will lead you into the highroad a good deal farther on; and on the opposite side you will see a wood, where they have been cutting down trees lately. You might take shelter among the stacked wood until daylight. My mother feels sure that she can keep them from discovering your escape until seven o’clock.”
Then she was gone, and although Cyril caught a momentary glimpse of her in the back passage a little later, bearing two steaming wooden tumblers of hot water to the Queen’s room, she came no more to the door. When she had passed out of sight, he turned to Paschics.