“What, daylight already!”
“I was loth to wake you, but there is much to be done.”
“It is I who should have been awake, not you.”
He looked in a temper that wanted to catch the day’s work by the throat and throttle it. Mellis stepped over the pile of bracken and stood in the doorway that opened on the courtyard.
“One does not work well hungry,” she said, “and we must talk over the day’s needs.”
Her hair hung loose, and she shook it down so that it fell like a black cloak about her green-sheathed body. The color and the richness of it thrilled Martin to the heart. Her throat looked as white as May blossom, and her eyes had all the mystery of the dawn. And of a sudden a swift exultation leaped in him at the thought that he was her man-at-arms, chosen to shield her with his body, her comrade in this great adventure.
“The day is ours,” he said; “I feel stronger than ten men.”
She turned her head, and her eyes held his.
“I think I am fortunate in you, comrade-in-arms.”
He could have taken the hem of her gown and kissed it.