“Is my cousin.”
The tawny light had melted out of the sky. From the kitchen came the murmur of Isaac’s voice as he argued with old Ursula. They were speaking of Richard and of Dan. The same subjects were in Bess’s thought, and perhaps the man in the bed divined the same.
“Bess,” he said, suddenly, calling her by her Christian name as he would have called a child.
She started and bent over him, leaning more heavily upon his shoulder.
“What happened to David?”
She seemed puzzled for the moment, and then flushed up redly in the dusk.
“David ran away,” she said.
“Yes.”
“He was terrified of Dan. They pressed him at Portsmouth for the king’s navy. We heard it from a peddler who had seen the lad marched off.”
They were both silent for a while, Richard’s eyes turned towards the window, Bess’s hand still on Jeffray’s shoulder. The same thoughts were in either heart. By some strange flash of sympathy Jeffray and the girl seemed to understand each other.