PAGE 7
A Brother To Dragons
by
Whereat I looked sorrowful enough, I doubt not, for he did bid me take heart, as my first-born might have had a hare-lip or a crook-back. Then did he toss me his bridle-reins, and my lady, having heard his voice, came forth to meet him.
“So, lady-bird!” quoth he, clasping her. “I am come for no less than three reasons this time. First, to see thy bonny face. Second, to ride thy bonny Robin. Third, to inquire and seek out a certain villain of mine acquaintance, of whom you have doubtless heard;” and forthwith did he say to her of how the wicked Lord Denbeigh was the son of a friend and comrade, and of how he had known him when a lad, together with much more, at which my lady pricked up her ears, as ’twere, having all a lady’s love for stories of wicked men who are not yet either old or ill-favored.
“By my troth,” declared the old knight in ending, “I will take but a mouthful to stay me, and then set forth straightway in quest o’ th’ rascal.” So having dined right heartily, he rode forth again.
Now, having related this hap to Marian, she was devoured of so great a curiosity that, as I am an honest man, I looked to see her consumed even unto her bones, as some men who burn of drink. She would have it that I must hazard a guess on the shape of Lord Denbeigh’s nose, the color of his hair, and the height of his body. She forced me to wonder whether he were civil or rude of tongue. She pressed me to say whether I thought there was aye a chance of his returning with Sir John. She questioned me, in a word, until, having no answers, I was like to lose my wits, or my temper, or both together. At last comes she and sits on my knee, and tickles the back of my neck right playfully, as in the days of our wooing.
“As I live, Tony,” quoth she, “we are like to have a strange story under our very noses. What if”–and here she takes my face in her two hands, and sets her chin against mine, so that I see four round blue eyes against her white brow, and am like to go blind with her thoughtlessness–“what if it turns out that the Lord hath set upon our lady to be the saviour of this wicked earl?”
“Ay,” cried I. “And what if the Lord hath set upon me to be the founder of a nation, like Abraham? What then?” At which she boxed my ears right soundly. But I could not blame her, for in the wrong I was, without doubt, although verily she had plagued me into it. So I sued for pardon, and got it, and a kiss into the bargain. But she would not leave me in peace concerning Lord Denbeigh.
When that same afternoon there comes Sir John a-riding past, and the bad earl at his side, “What dost thou say now?” quoth Marian, a-plucking me in a way that did not serve to increase good feeling betwixt us. “Ah ha! Are not women prophetesses by nature?”
“Ay, by ill-nature,” answered I; and for this quip I was not forgiven for two days.
It was towards the setting of the sun when Sir John and Lord Denbeigh rode up to the door of Amhurste, and my lady, knowing naught, came out at the sound of the horses’ feet, thinking only to greet her uncle. The red light from the west shone on her, and dabbled her white kirtle as with blood, and her face was like one of the red roses in her garden. So she put up her hand to shield it, and saw the stranger standing at her feet.
There was ne’er a nobler-looking man, for all he might outblack Satan in his soul: straight of body, and strong of limb, and lofty of head. His hair was the color of my lady’s, and there seemed to be ever some sunshine in it, as he moved his head. Methought his face was fair and goodly to look upon, albeit his lips went downward at the corners, and there was a droop in his broad lids. He was clad all in a close suit of dark velvet, and in his hand he held a black hat with a knot of heron-plumes.