The Tavern Knight Page 4

  DEAR KENNETH,

  Again I write in the hope that I may prevail upon you to quit Scotlandand your attachment to a king, whose fortunes prosper not, nor canprosper. Cynthia is pining, and if you tarry longer from Castle Marleighshe must perforce think you but a laggard lover. Than this I have nomore powerful argument wherewith to draw you from Perth to Sheringham,but this I think should prevail where others have failed me. We awaityou then, and whilst we wait we daily drink your health. Cynthiacommends herself to your memory as doth my brother, and soon we hope towelcome you at Castle Marleigh. Believe, my dear Kenneth, that whilst Iam, I am yours in affection.

  GREGORY ASHBURN

  Twice Crispin read the letter through. Then with set teeth and strainingeyes he sat lost in thought.

  Here indeed was a strange chance! This boy whom he had met at Perth,and enrolled in his company, was a friend of Ashburn's--the lover ofCynthia. Who might this Cynthia be?

  Long and deep were his ponderings upon the unfathomable ways ofFate--for Fate he now believed was here at work to help him, revealingherself by means of this sign even at the very moment when he decriedhis luck. In memory he reviewed his meeting with the lad in the yardof Perth Castle a fortnight ago. Something in the boy's bearing, in hisair, had caught Crispin's eye. He had looked him over, then approached,and bluntly asked his name and on what business he was come there. Theyouth had answered him civilly enough that he was Kenneth Stewartof Bailienochy, and that he was come to offer his sword to the King.Thereupon he had interested himself in the lad's behalf and had gainedhim a lieutenancy in his own company. Why he was attracted to a youthon whom never before had he set eyes was a matter that puzzled him nota little. Now he held, he thought, the explanation of it. It was the wayof Fate.

  This boy was sent into his life by a Heaven that at last showedcompassion for the deep wrongs he had suffered; sent him as a keywherewith, should the need occur, to open him the gates of CastleMarleigh.

  In long strides he paced the chamber, turning the matter over in hismind. Aye, he would use the lad should the need arise. Why scruple? Hadhe ever received aught but disdain and scorn at the hands of Kenneth.

  Day was breaking ere he sought his bed, and already the sun was up whenat length he fell into a troubled sleep, vowing that he would mend hiswild ways and seek to gain the boy's favour against the time when hemight have need of him.

  When later he restored the papers to Kenneth, explaining to what use hehad put the coat, he refrained from questioning him concerning GregoryAshburn. The docility of his mood on that occasion came as a surprise toKenneth, who set it down to Sir Crispin's desire to conciliate him intosilence touching the harbouring of Hogan. In that same connexion Crispinshowed him calmly and clearly that he could not now inform withoutinvolving himself to an equally dangerous extent. And partly throughthe fear of this, partly won over by Crispin's persuasions, the laddetermined to hold his peace.

  Nor had he cause to regret it thereafter, for throughout that tediousmarch he found his roystering companion singularly meek and kindly.Indeed he seemed a different man. His old swagger and roaring blusterdisappeared; he drank less, diced less, blasphemed less, and stormedless than in the old days before the halt at Penrith; but rode, asilent, thoughtful figure, so self-contained and of so godly a mien aswould have rejoiced the heart of the sourest Puritan. The wild tantivyboy had vanished, and the sobriquet of "Tavern Knight" was fast becominga misnomer.

  Kenneth felt drawn more towards him, deeming him a penitent that hadseen at last the error of his ways. And thus things prevailed until thealmost triumphal entry into the city of Worcester on the twenty-third ofAugust.