“Do you mind if I sit on the ground, lord?” she asked, slipping easily to the deck. Armitage did mind very much, but took the cushions from the rejected chair.
“You must let me put these for you, then. I knew it!” to himself, as she settled herself at his feet, where she could see his face distinctly, while hers was in shadow. “Now what has my lady to ask of her servant?” as she clasped her hands together and hesitated.
“Your forgiveness, lord,” was the prompt and unexpected answer. “And it is not kind to jest with me. Is it not yours to command? Here I am at your feet, ready to obey, but if your goodness will permit me to speak——?”
Unreasonably irritated, as he himself felt, Armitage leaned forward and took her hands. She made an instinctive effort to withdraw them, but left them passive in his. “My dear Lady Danaë—” he knew it was absurd to address her thus, but could not for the life of him resolve to shock her by calling her by name—“please understand once for all that you have a perfect right to speak to me on any subject you choose, and that I shall be delighted to hear what you have to say, and to do what you wish if it is in my power.”
“You are very good, lord.” Danaë’s tone implied that his assurance was mere politeness, such as she would have expected from him in the circumstances. “You forgive me, then, for yielding to my father and mother? Truly, lord, I intended to refuse, knowing that you did not in truth desire to marry me, but had spoken only to shield me from my father’s wrath. But my sister said to me, ‘You are always talking about dying, and now if you don’t marry Milordo you will die, and he will die too;’ and I knew it was true, and I did not want to die. And you had said ‘Trust me,’ and I thought you had some plan——”
“So I had,” said Armitage quickly, “but I could not get hold of you to find out your wishes. I sent you a message——”
“I received none, lord.”
“So I imagined. Well, I thought if you did not desire the marriage, I would ask Kyrios Chalkiadi to bring you on board and come with us to Therma, where he could place you under your brother’s protection.”
“He would not have received me. It would have been no use,” she said, and he read in her tones that she thought the proposal scandalous. “But ah, lord, it was good of you to think of it!” and to his utter horror she kissed his hand. He snatched the hand away and rubbed it involuntarily on his coat, as though to rub the kiss off.
“Forgive me, lord. I did not mean to offend you,” she said, and he felt as though he had struck a child.