"Ah, but thou must," counselled Lady De Aldithely. "Wert thou to turn from him, as thou sayest, he would know at once thou hadst been warned against him, and would hasten his own plans. What said he to thee yesterday?"
"He did ask me when I should leave the castle."
Lady De Aldithely"s face clouded with anxiety. "And what didst thou answer?" she asked.
"I said it might be one day and it might be another. For thou didst forbid me to speak of my plan."
"I marvel at thy prudence," smiled Lady De Aldithely. "Where didst thou learn it?"
"From my uncle, the prior. He never telleth aught to any man. And no one can wring from him ay or nay by a question."
"A blessing upon him!" breathed Lady De Aldithely.
The boy"s eyes brightened. "He is a good man, my uncle, the prior," he said. "And ever he saith to me, "In troublous times a prudent tongue is worth ten lances and shields.""
Lady De Aldithely smiled. "May he keep his priory in peace," she said.
""Twere a pity that he should lose it."
Hugo looked at her gratefully. Not every one so leniently regarded the prior"s prudence. In more than one quarter his reticence was severely blamed. By some it was called cowardice, by others self-seeking.
"And now thou knowest the worst," said Lady De Aldithely. "Within three days I will contrive to send Robert Sadler hence on an errand. When he is gone thou shalt go forth in the daylight, and that same night my son and I will flee into Scotland. There, if no one tracks our steps, we may be safe. Were I to drive Robert Sadler forth as a traitor, I know full well that some other would arise in his place to practise treachery against us. And so we flee."
And now Hugo drew himself proudly up. He felt that he was trusted and that he was doing a knight"s part in rescuing a lady in distress, though he had not, as yet, taken his knightly vow, and was not even an esquire.
Lady De Aldithely saw it and smiled. "Thou must put off that high look, dear lad," she said. "It might beget wonderment in the brain of Robert Sadler, and so lead him to seek its cause. Look and act as thou hast in the past. Call to mind thine uncle, the prior, and guard not only thy tongue, but the glance of thine eye, and the carriage of thy body."
Hugo blushed. "I fear I am like to mar all without thy counsel," he said humbly.
"Thou art but a lad," replied Lady De Aldithely, kindly, "and my counsel thou shalt freely have. And now I must tell thee that thou art to take our good Humphrey with thee on thy journey."
Hugo started and looked disappointed. But all he said was, "Dost not think him very like an old crone, with his dreams and his omens and his charms?"
"I may not criticise Humphrey thus," said Lady De Aldithely, gravely, "because I know his great faithfulness to me and mine. And thou knowest there is much superst.i.tion abroad in the land--too much to make it just to single out Humphrey for dislike because he is tainted with it. I send him with thee because I have the highest regard for thy safety.
Thou wilt consent to take him to attend thee?"
"If thou require it," answered Hugo, reluctantly.
"I do require it," said Lady De Aldithely, "and I thank thee for yielding. Now go. Come not again to me until Robert Sadler be well sped on his journey. Had I but known that he was treacherous and greedy of gold, no matter how gained, he had never been admitted to these walls."
Obediently Hugo left the apartment and slowly descended the winding stair. And almost at the small door of the stairway tower he found Robert Sadler waiting for him. The traitor was growing impatient and was now resolved to proceed more boldly. "Thou stayest long with her ladyship," he began. "I had thought the sun would set or ever thou came down the stair."
Hugo did not meet his glance. He was trying hard to conceal the sudden aversion he had to the man-at-arms, the sudden desire he felt to look him scornfully in the face, and then turn on his heel and leave him.
And he knew he must succeed in his effort or Josceline was lost.
Meanwhile the man-at-arms stole questioning glances at him. He could see that the boy was not his usual self, but he did not guess the cause of his changed manner. With his usual prying way he began:
"Thou hast been here now a fortnight and more. Perchance her ladyship will be rid of thee. Was"t of that she spake to thee?"
And now Hugo had sufficiently conquered himself so that he dared to lift his eyes. Innocently he looked into the traitor"s face. "We spake of my uncle, the prior," he said.
For a moment Robert Sadler was silent. "That is it," he thought. "She will send him packing back to his uncle. The lad wishes not to go.
Therefore he looks down. Now is the time to ask him about the postern key. When one is angered a little then is when he telleth what he hath discovered."
He cast a searching look at Hugo, but by it he learned nothing. The boy now began to take his way toward the tilt-yard, and Robert Sadler kept close at his side, talking as he went.
"Women be by nature suspicious, you will find," he began. "They be ever thinking some one will be breaking in; and ever for having some one on guard. Her ladyship now--surely thou knowest she keepeth the postern key herself, and will trust no one with it. The grooms and the warder at the great gate she will trust, but it is the postern she feareth, because she thinketh an enemy might be secretly admitted there. Knowest thou where she keepeth the key? I would but know in case my lord returneth suddenly, and, perchance, pursued, since the king will have his head or ever he cometh to his home, he hath such an enmity against him. And all because my lord spake freely on the murder of Arthur and other like matters. He might be sped to his death awaiting the opening of the postern while her ladyship was coming with the key."
"Cometh the lord soon, then?" asked Hugo, interestedly.
"That no man can tell," answered Robert Sadler. "He is now safe over sea in France; but he might be lured back if he knew the young lord Josceline was in peril."
"In peril, sayest thou?" asked Hugo. He was learning his lesson of self-control fast.
"Why else are we mewed up here in the castle?" demanded the man-at-arms.
"I be weary of so much mewing-up. If the king will have our young lord Josceline to keep in his hand so that he may thereby muzzle his father, why, he is king. And he must have his will. Sooner or later he will have it. Why, who can stand against the king?"
"And how can that muzzle his father?" asked Hugo.
"Why, if Lord De Aldithely, who is a great soldier, and a great help to victory wherever he fighteth, should join with King Louis of France to fight against our king--why, then it would go ill with Josceline if he were biding in the king"s hand. And, knowing this, his father would forbear to fight, and so be muzzled."
"And Josceline would not otherwise be harmed?" asked Hugo.
"Why, no man knoweth that," admitted the man-at-arms. "The rage of the king against all who have offended him is now fierce, and he stoppeth at nothing."
"I know not so much as some of such matters," observed Hugo, quietly.
"Nor needest thou," answered the man-at-arms. "It is sufficient for such as be of thy tender years to know the whereabouts of the postern key. I would ask the young lord Josceline, but, merry as he is, he turneth haughty if one ask what he termeth a meddling question. He would say, "What hast thou to do with the whereabouts of the postern key?" And then he would away to his mother with a tale of me, and the key would be more securely hidden than before."
"And Lord De Aldithely still further endangered if he came riding and pursued?"
"Even so. I see that thou art a clever lad. Much cleverer than thy years warrant. And I warn thee, speak to no one of what I have said to thee, or it may be worse for thee. But tell me plainly, since we have gone so far, knowest thou the whereabouts of the key?"
"Nay," answered Hugo. "I know not. I have never before thought of the postern and its key."
The traitor"s frowning face cleared. "I believe thou speakest truly,"
he said. "Thou art so full of being a knight that thou thinkest only of knightly exercises in the tilt-yard. I will speak a good word for thee, and it may be thou wilt be admitted a page to the Earl of Hertford."
"And hast thou influence there?" inquired Hugo, with a.s.sumed interest.
"Yea, that have I," answered Robert Sadler, falsely. For he had no influence anywhere. "I will so speak for thee that thou wilt be page but a short while before thou art made an esquire. Do thou but bide quiet concerning what hath pa.s.sed between us, and thou shalt fare never the worse."
Then he departed to the stables and Hugo was left alone. To be able to conceal what one feels is a great accomplishment. Rarely do people of any age succeed in doing so, and it was with a feeling of exultation over his success that the boy looked after Robert Sadler.
The next day Lady De Aldithely summoned her men-at-arms before her in the castle hall. She had a missive in her hand. "I must send one of you on a journey," she said. "More than one I cannot now spare to go to Chester. Who will take this missive from me to the town of Chester, and bring back from my aunt what it calleth for?"
A light flashed in the eyes of Robert Sadler which Lady De Aldithely affected not to see. The opportunity he had been seeking was before him. He would go out alone, but he would not return alone. When the drawbridge should be lowered to admit him on his return the king"s messengers with a troop of horse would be at hand. They would make a rush while he held parley with the old warder. They would gain entrance to the castle; Josceline would be taken, and the reward for his own treachery would be gained. He had plenty of time to think of all this, for the men were slow to offer. Aside from Robert Sadler they were all true and devoted adherents of the De Aldithelys, and each one imagined the castle and its inmates safer because of his presence. Therefore none desired to go.
"No man seemeth willing to do thy ladyship"s behest," said Robert Sadler, with a crafty smile. "I will, by thy leave, undertake it."