The Lady of Loyalty House Part 31

Brilliana looked steadfastly at the King. She was very pale but not at all afraid.

"Your Majesty, this man slanders basely. This gentleman is honorable."

"Honorable!" Rufus repeated, in derision.

"Silence, sir!" Charles commanded. "Who are you?" he asked of Evander. Evander saluted.

"Captain Evander Cloud, of the Parliamentary army."

"How come you here?" the King inquired.

Brilliana answered for him.

"Your Majesty, he was taken prisoner treacherously, though the treachery was mine, three days ago. I offered his life in exchange for the life of Randolph Harby."

"And Randolph Harby is dead," said Rufus, "shot as a spy by the devilish rebel of Cambridge. See, sire--see!"

He offered the letter to Charles, but the King put it from him. His face was inscrutable as Evander urged his case.

"Your Majesty, I am no spy, and my life could not be p.a.w.ned for a spy's life."

Charles's sad eyes travelled to Brilliana.

"Randolph Harby was no spy," he said. "You held this gentleman hostage for your cousin's life?"

"I did make that offer," Brilliana admitted. The King frowned now.

"And yet he still lives. I thought this was called Loyalty House."

"Disloyalty House it should be called now," Rufus taunted. Brilliana turned upon him fiercely.

"You lie! you lie! you lie!" she hurled the words at him, hating him.

Charles held up his hand.

"Peace! This is not the welcome I expected here. We did not think to find rebels tendered so delicately. Sir Rufus, we give you charge of Harby and of this gentleman. We will consider his claim presently, for we would deal honestly even with our enemies."

He looked at Evander.

"But we can give you little hope, sir. Prepare to die."

Fretfully he addressed Rufus.

"I am very weary. I must break my fast." He glanced coldly at Brilliana.

"Lady, we shall not need your attendance."

Brilliana made her master a deep reverence.

"I take my leave, your Majesty." She went close to Evander.

"Can you forgive me?" she begged. Evander looked into her wet eyes joyously.

"Read in my heart that I thank G.o.d to have known you, loved you."

Brilliana laid a hand for a moment on his shoulder and spoke in a soft, even voice.

"You have been my enemy; you have been my friend; you are now the one man in all the world for me. Read in my heart that I thank G.o.d to have known you, that I thank G.o.d that I love you. Remember, I love you, Evander. Farewell."

Then she saluted the King and went slowly out of the room without looking back.

XXVI

RESURRECTION

Some hours later Rufus Quaryll sat alone in the garden-room, writing.

It was coming on dusk; candles had been lit, the fire was ruddy on the hearth. Rufus, as he wrote, was well content with the turn of things. He raged at Brilliana, but she should marry him all the same when the Puritan dog was dead. He had, as he believed, convinced the King at meat that the plea Evander raised was valueless, that Evander's life was rightly forfeit. Evander was under close guard; so, indeed, was Brilliana, for he had stationed a sentry at the door of her apartments: he was determined that she should not see the King again. Now the King lay in the inner room, sleeping; when he rose it would be easy to get the order for Evander's death. Furious in his hate, furious in his love, he would neither spare Evander nor surrender Brilliana. She should be his wife, if he had to drag her before an altar.

As he thought and wrote, the door opened and Halfman entered the room. Rufus, lifting his head, faced him with a finger on his lips while with the other he pointed to the door of the inner chamber.

"Hush!" he whispered; "the King sleeps. But all is well. He has as good as promised the Puritan shall die."

"All is not so well as you think," said Halfman, sardonically. "Here comes one more pleased to see you than you to see him."

He went to the door again and ushered in a man who had waited outside, a man m.u.f.fled in a cloak, and his face hidden by the way his hat was pulled over it. The man advanced slowly towards the surprised Rufus, and suddenly dropping his cloak and throwing back his hat uncovered a youthful, jovial face. Rufus gaped at him in despair and gasped a name:

"Randolph!"

Randolph Harby dropped into a chair and chuckled.

"No wonder you stare as if you faced a spectre. But I'm flesh and blood, lad."

Rufus, trying to collect himself against this staggering blow, again raised a warning hand.

"For Heaven's sake speak lower! The King is asleep yonder. How do you come here?"

Randolph leaned over and whispered, giggling, into Sir Rufus's ear.

Halfman watched with grim amus.e.m.e.nt. If he loved Evander little, come to think of it he loved Rufus less, all said and done; so he grinned at his discomfiture.

"A wonder," Randolph said. "When they had the time to try me, their fools' court-martial, thanks to that d.a.m.ned Cromwell, settled me for a spy and sentenced me to be shot. But the jailer where I lay had a daughter. Need I say more? We Harbys are invincible. Any way, there was no prisoner when the shooting-party came to claim me, and here I am, in time, I hope, to save the life of that poor Puritan devil."

Sir Rufus's wits were busy hatching mischief. He looked with aversion at the smiling, self-complacent a.s.s whose resurrection tangled his plan. But his voice was very amiable as he asked:

"Do any in the household know of your return?"

"Devil a one," the youth answered, cheerily, and Sir Rufus would have liked to drive a knife into him for his mirth, though his spirits rose at his answer. "I thought to take my cousin by surprise, scare her with my ghost, maybe. So I came skulking through the park and ran on this good sir, who nabbed me." He indicated Halfman with a wave of the hand. "I explained to him, so that my joke should not spoil, and he smuggled me in here to surprise you. Where is Brilliana?"