In her own mind Patience was sorely troubled how to act. To go back at once to Westmorland would have been the most natural thing; but then there was Ann Newbolt, how could she leave that girl alone in the worst part of the city? She did not herself believe that there was much danger for any inhabitant of Somerset House, because it gave on to the river, and so far all the habitations near the river, even the houses on London Bridge, had remained unaffected; also, the dwellers in ships and barges had escaped infection.
"If the worst come to the worst," she thought, "we will take the barge and go down the river; but the great thing will be not to let the child get frightened."
Whilst she was still cogitating Martha came into the room.
"Madam," she said, "everybody is leaving the palace; what are we to do?"
"I have just come from the queen, Martha," said Patience. "She desired me to pack our belongings and follow her to Oxford, whither she is going with the court. What say you? Shall I do so? Shall I thrust Agnes into the midst of all the profligacy and all the evil which dwells in the king's house?"
"For God's sake, no!" said Martha. "It is the talk of the court that our young lady is to be wedded to the Marquis of Orford, but you will not let it be. We servants know more of what goes on in the great houses than you do, and he is not worthy of her; besides, she is only a child."
"You are right, Martha," said Patience; "I will not let her go. I have told the queen so, and she has consented that I shall keep her with me."
"That is well," said Martha, her face brightening up, "only we must guard her, for I have heard that the Marquis of Orford has set his heart on wedding her, and the king has promised him the De Lisle estates, forfeited by Colonel Newbolt. They were to have been sold at once to the highest bidder to pay the fines and law expenses, &c., but the king has been so engrossed with his pleasures that he has let the matter slip. Now, however, he has made up his mind not to sell, but to dower our Lady Agnes with what is by right her own."
"How do you know all this?" asked Patience, surprised.
"I know it from Peter Kemp, who is at Whitehall, and hears all the gossip in the ante-chambers and in the servants' department; he also knows Jefferson, Lord Orford's first valet."