“You little thought that I was watching you.”
This made him smile.
“Yes, I knew that you were up yonder. I saw you looking down from behind a tree. I think I could have beaten twenty men—because you were watching me.”
“Am I so fierce?”
“No, it is not that,” he said, quite simply.
Mellis knew what was in his heart, and the cry that echoed to it in her own. She looked at him with a sudden, tremulous light in her eyes.
“I would have a man brave and staunch—for my sake. It is very sweet to a woman when she is lonely.”
Martin dared not look at her for a moment. He was her man so utterly that he could have kissed the dust from her feet, for the love in him was great and passionate and holy.
“I did what my heart bade me,” he said, “and not to shame this sword.”
“Yes, give me the sword.”