CHAPTER V
Lady Caroline Talks With Me
I slept soundly that first night of my stay at Woodleigh Castle, being altogether worn out and in the utmost need of Nature's kind restorer, and it was very late on the following day when I awoke to find Betsy at my side with hot broth and bread and sundry other articles of food.
'Mistress,' said my woman, 'you must eat and drink, for there are great happenings here, and you will need your strength, aye and your wits about you, too. Timothy says he does not like you to be alone amongst strange leaders of whom your father may not approve, and he hopes that you will not be led to feelings which will unfit you for being the companion of the high and noble lady to whom your father is sending you, though indeed I think he might have come with you himself if he had known how dangerous it was.'
I could not help smiling at Betsy's speech, as I sat up to take the refreshment she brought me. The first part of her speech was laboured and unnatural, as if she were the unwilling mouthpiece of poor old Timothy, but the last bit was certainly her own, for it bore Betsy stamped all over it.
'Yes, mistress, you can smile now that the danger is over,' said my maid, much aggrieved, 'but I can tell you we have had a narrow escape, a very narrow escape indeed. The people here say that we might have been all killed, as likely as not, by the highwaymen whom Sir Claudius consorts with and leads. They say that he got knighted by mistake, and that he is to be unknighted again—the knowledge of which makes him desperate. And they say, too, which indeed our men and I think also, that you brought all our misfortunes upon us, mistress, by interposing to save those witches, which was directly interfering with Providence that was about to send them back to where they came from.'
'I never did think you were wise, Betsy,' said I, 'but now I know you are most foolish. And I will not listen to you any more.' And with that I turned my back upon her, and took my food looking the other way, with the vague feeling that I would not cast the pearls of my wiser thoughts before the swine of Betsy's foolishness.
Betsy, however, was not to be suppressed. She went on talking as she looked over my dress, repairing it in places where it had been torn and making it ready for me to put on. And, by-and-by I heard her say words which caused me to turn round and ask, 'What is that? What did the men say Sir Claudius cried as he rode off?'
'He vowed,' she cried, 'he vowed that he would have you yet. Aye, he said that he would never rest until he had won you for his own, that he might vanquish your proud and haughty spirit!'
I was rather frightened, but endeavoured not to show it.
''Tis a little cock,' I said, 'that crows the loudest.'