The Tavern Knight Part 14

"Oh, what if--what if--what if!" cried Joseph testily. "Gregory, what a casuist you might have been had not nature made you a villain! You are as full of "what if s" as an egg of meat. Well what if some day he should return? I fling your question back--what if?"

"G.o.d only knows."

"Then leave it to Him," was the flippant answer; and Joseph drained his gla.s.s.

"Nay, brother, 'twere too great a risk. I must and I will know whether Kenneth were slain or not. If he is a prisoner, then we must exert ourselves to win his freedom."

"Plague take it," Joseph burst out. "Why all this ado? Why did you ever loose that graceless whelp from his Scottish moor?"

Gregory sighed with an air of resigned patience.

"I have more reasons than one," he answered slowly. "If you need that I recite them to you, I pity your wits. Look you, Joseph, you have more influence with Cromwell; more--far more--than have I, and if you are minded to do so, you can serve me in this."

"I wait but to learn how."

"Then go to Cromwell, at Windsor or wherever he may be, and seek to learn from him if Kenneth is a prisoner. If he is not, then clearly he is dead."

Joseph made a gesture of impatience.

"Can you not leave Fate alone?"

"Think you I have no conscience, Joseph?" cried the other with sudden vigour.

"Pis.h.!.+ you are womanish."

"Nay, Joseph, I am old. I am in the autumn of my days, and I would see these two wed before I die."

"And are d.a.m.ned for a croaking, maudlin' craven," added Joseph. "Pah!

You make me sick."

There was a moment's silence, during which the brothers eyed each other, Gregory with a sternness before which Joseph's mocking eye was forced at length to fall.

"Joseph, you shall go to the Lord General."

"Well," said Joseph weakly, "we will say that I go. But if Kenneth be a prisoner, what then?"

"You must beg his liberty from Cromwell. He will not refuse you."

"Will he not? I am none so confident."

"But you can make the attempt, and leastways we shall have some definite knowledge of what has befallen the boy."

"The which definite knowledge seems to me none so necessary. Moreover, Gregory, bethink you; there has been a change, and the wind carries an edge that will arouse every devil of rheumatism in my bones. I am not a lad, Gregory, and travelling at this season is no small matter for a man of fifty."

Gregory approached the table, and leaning his hand upon it:

"Will you go?" he asked, squarely eyeing his brother.

Joseph fell a-pondering. He knew Gregory to be a man of fixed ideas, and he bethought him that were he now to refuse he would be hourly plagued by Gregory's speculations touching the boy's fate and recriminations touching his own selfishness. On the other hand, however, the journey daunted him. He was not a man to sacrifice his creature comforts, and to be asked to sacrifice them to a mere whim, a shadow, added weight to his inclination to refuse the undertaking.

"Since you have the matter so much at heart," said he at length, "does it not occur to you that you could plead with greater fervour, and be the likelier to succeed?"

"You know that Cromwell will lend a more willing ear to you than to me--perchance because you know so well upon occasion how to weave your stock of texts into your discourse," he added with a sneer. "Will you go, Joseph?"

"Bethink you that we know not where he is. I may have to wander for weeks o'er the face of England."

"Will you go?" Gregory repeated.

"Oh, a pox on it," broke out Joseph, rising suddenly. "I'll go since naught else will quiet you. I'll start to-morrow."

"Joseph, I am grateful. I shall be more grateful yet if you will start to-day."

"No, sink me, no."

"Yes, sink me, yes," returned Gregory. "You must, Joseph."

Joseph spoke of the wind again; the sky, he urged, was heavy with rain.

"What signifies a day?" he whined.

But Gregory stood his ground until almost out of self-protection the other consented to do his bidding and set out as soon as he could make ready.

This being determined, Joseph left his brother, and cursing Master Stewart for the amount of discomfort which he was about to endure on his behoof, he went to prepare for the journey.

Gregory lingered still in the chamber where they had dined, and sat staring moodily before him at the table-linen. Anon, with a half-laugh of contempt, he filled a gla.s.s of muscadine, and drained it. As he set down the gla.s.s the door opened, and on the threshold stood a very dainty girl, whose age could not be more than twenty. Gregory looked on the fresh, oval face, with its wealth of brown hair crowning the low, broad forehead, and told himself that in his daughter he had just cause for pride. He looked again, and told himself that his brother was right; she had not the air of a maid whose lover returns not from the wars.

Her lips were smiling, and the eyes--low-lidded and blue as the heavens--were bright with mirth.

"Why sit you there so glum," she cried, "whilst my uncle, they tell me, is going on a journey?"

Gregory was minded to put her feelings to the test.

"Kenneth," he replied with significant emphasis, watching her closely.

The mirth faded from her eyes, and they took on a grave expression that added to their charm. But Gregory had looked for fear, leastways deep concern, and in this he was disappointed.

"What of him, father?" she asked, approaching.

"Naught, and that's the rub. It is time we had news, and as none comes, your uncle goes to seek it."

"Think you that ill can have befallen him?"

Gregory was silent a moment, weighing his answer. Then

"We hope not, sweetheart," said he. "He may be a prisoner. We last had news of him from Worcester, and 'tis a week and more since the battle was fought there. Should he be a captive, your uncle has sufficient influence to obtain his enlargement."

Cynthia sighed, and moved towards the window.

"Poor Kenneth," she murmured gently. "He may be wounded."