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him, drew her towards him and treated her red lips as he had treated her fingers. This rude proceeding seemed to break the spell that bound her, for she pushed back the chair and, escaping from his grasp, rose, saying in a broken voice——
“Oh! Christopher, dear Christopher, this is most wrong.”
“May be,” he answered. “So long as you love me I care not what it is.”
“That you have known these two years, Christopher. I love you well, but, alas! my father will have none of you. Get you hence now, ere he returns, or we both shall pay for it, and I, perhaps, be sent to a nunnery where no man may come.”
“Nay, sweet, I am here to ask his consent to my suit——”
Then at last Sir John broke out.
“To ask my consent to your suit, you dishonest knave!” he roared from the darkness; whereat Cicely sank back into her chair looking as though she would faint, and the strong Christopher staggered like a man pierced by an arrow. “First to take my girl and hug her before my very eyes, and then, when the mischief is done, to ask my consent to your suit!” and he rushed at them like a charging bull.
Cicely rose to fly, then, seeing no escape, took refuge in her lover’s arms. Her infuriated father seized the first part of her that came to his hand, which chanced to be one of her long brown plaits of hair, and tugged at it till she cried out with pain, purposing to tear her away, at which sight and sound Christopher lost his temper also.
“Leave go of the maid, sir,” he said in a low, fierce voice, “or, by God! I’ll make you.”
“Leave go of the maid?” gasped Sir John. “Why, who holds her tightest, you or I? Do you leave go of her.”
“Yes, yes, Christopher,” she whispered, “ere I am pulled in two.”
Then he obeyed, lifting her into the chair, but her father still kept his hold of the brown tress.
“Now, Sir Christopher,” he said, “I am minded to put my sword through you.”
“And pierce your daughter’s heart as well as mine. Well, do it if you will, and when we are dead and you are childless, weep yourself and go to the grave.”
“Oh! father, father,” broke in Cicely, who knew the old man’s temper, and feared the worst, “in justice and in pity, listen to me. All my heart is Christopher’s, and has been from a child. With him I shall have happiness, without him black despair; and that is his case too, or so he swears. Why, then, should you part us? Is he not a proper man and of good lineage, and name unstained? Until of late did you not ever favour him much and let us be together day by day? And now, when it is too late, you deny him. Oh! why, why?”
“You know why well enough, girl? Because I have chosen another husband for you. The Lord Despard is taken with your baby face, and would marry you. But this morning I had it under his own hand.”
“The Lord Despard?” gasped Cicely. “Why, he only buried his second wife last month! Father, he is as old as you are, and drunken, and has grandchildren of well-nigh my age. I would obey you in all things, but never will I go to him alive.”
“And never shall he live to take you,” muttered Christopher.
“What matter his years, daughter? He is a sound man, and has no son, and should one be born to him, his will be the greatest heritage within three shires. Moreover, I need his friendship, who have bitter enemies. But enough of this. Get you gone, Christopher, before worse befall you.”
“So be it, sir, I will go; but first, as an honest man and my father’s friend, and, as I thought, my own, answer me one question. Why have you changed your tune to me of late? Am I not the same Christopher Harflete I was a year or two ago? And have I done aught to lower me in the world’s eye or in yours?”
“No, lad,” answered the old knight bluntly; “but since you will have it, here it is. Within that year or two your uncle whose heir you were has married and bred a son, and now you are but a gentleman of good name, and little to float it on. That big house of yours must go to the hammer, Christopher. You’ll never stow a bride in it.”
“Ah! I thought as much. Christopher Harflete with the promise of the Lesborough lands was one man; Christopher Harflete without them is another—in your eyes. Yet, sir, I hold you foolish. I love your daughter and she loves me, and those lands and more may come back, or I, who am no fool, will win others. Soon there will be plenty going up there at Court, where I am known. Further, I tell you this: I believe that I shall marry Cicely, and earlier than you think, and I would have had your blessing with her.”
“What! Will you steal the girl away?” asked Sir John furiously.
“By no means, sir. But this is a strange world of ours, in which from hour to hour top becomes bottom, and bottom top, and there—I think I shall marry her. At least I am sure that Despard the sot never will, for I’ll kill him first, if I hang for it. Sir, sir, surely you will not throw your pearl upon that muckheap. Better crush it beneath your heel at once. Look, and say you cannot do it,” and he pointed to the pathetic figure of Cicely, who stood by them with clasped hands, panting breast, and a face of agony.
The old knight glanced at her out of the corners of his eyes, and saw something that moved him to pity, for at bottom his heart was honest, and though he treated her so roughly, as was the fashion of the times, he loved his daughter more than all the world.
“Who are you, that would teach me my duty to my bone and blood?” he grumbled. Then he thought a while, and added, “Hear me, now, Christopher Harflete. To-morrow at the dawn I ride to London with Jeffrey Stokes on a somewhat risky business.”
“What business, sir?”
“If you would know—that of a quarrel with yonder Spanish rogue of an Abbot, who claims the best part of my lands, and has poisoned the ear of that upstart, the Vicar-General Cromwell. I go to take the deeds and prove him a liar and a traitor also, which Cromwell does not know. Now, is my nest safe from you while I am away? Give me your word, and I’ll believe you, for at least you are an honest gentleman, and if you have poached a kiss or two, that may be forgiven. Others have done the same before you were born. Give me your word, or I must drag the girl through the snows to London at my heels.”
“You have it, sir,” answered Christopher. “If she needs my company she must come for it to Cranwell Towers, for I’ll not seek hers while you are away.”
“Good. Then one gift for another. I’ll not answer my Lord of Despard’s letter till I get back again—not to please you, but because I hate writing. It is a labour to me, and I have no time to spare to-night. Now, have a cup of drink and be off with you. Love-making is thirsty work.”
“Aye, gladly, sir, but hear me, hear me. Ride not to London with such slight attendance after a quarrel with Abbot Maldon. Let me wait on you. Although my fortunes be so low I can bring a man or two—six or eight, indeed—while yours are away with the wains.”
“Never, Christopher. My own hand has guarded my head these sixty years, and can do so still. Also,” he added, with a flash of insight, “as you say, the journey is dangerous, and who knows? If aught went wrong, you might be wanted nearer home. Christopher, you shall never have my girl; she’s not for you. Yet, perhaps, if need were, you would strike a blow for her even if it made you excommunicate. Get hence, wench. Why do you stand there gaping on us, like an owl in sunlight? And remember, if I catch you at more such tricks, you’ll spend your days mumbling at prayers in a nunnery, and much good may they do you.”
“At least I should find peace there, and gentle words,” answered Cicely with spirit, for she knew her father, and the worst of her fear had departed. “Only, sir, I did not know that you wished to swell the wealth of the Abbots of Blossholme.”
“Swell their wealth!” roared her father. “Nay, I’ll stretch their necks. Get you to your chamber, and send up Jeffrey with the liquor.”
Then,