Goodwife Allen is still gaping with the crowd at the fort, and your
man and maid have not yet come, but I shall be overhead if you
need aught. Mistress Percy must want rest after her ride."
He was gone, leaving us two alone together. She stood opposite
me, beside the window, from which she had not moved since
entering the room. The color was still in her cheeks, the light in
her eyes, and she still held the roses with which Sparrow had
heaped her arms. I was moving to the table.
"Wait!" she said, and I turned toward her again.
"Have you no questions to ask?" she demanded.
I shook my head. "None, madam."
"I was the King's ward!" she cried.
I bowed, but spoke no word, though she waited for me.
"If you will listen," she said at last, proudly, and yet with a
pleading sweetness, - "if you will listen, I will tell you how it was
that I - that I came to wrong you so."
"I am listening, madam," I replied.
She stood against the light, the roses pressed to her bosom, her
dark eyes upon me, her head held high. "My mother died when I
was born; my father, years ago. I was the King's ward. While the
Queen lived she kept me with her, - she loved me, I think; and the
King too was kind, - would have me sing to him, and would talk to
me about witchcraft and the Scriptures, and how rebellion to a
king is rebellion to God.
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