"Nay, Edith," said the young Squire, laughing back at the laughing girl. "I was indeed coming to Cosford."
"Then we shall ride back together, for I will go no farther. How think you that I am looking?"
Nigel's answer was in his eyes as he glanced at the fair flushed face, the golden hair, the sparkling eyes and the daintily graceful figure set off in a scarlet-and-black riding-dress. "You are as fair as ever, Edith."
"Oh, cold of speech! Surely you were bred for the cloisters, and not for a lady's bower, Nigel. Had I asked such a question from young Sir George Brocas or the Squire of Fernhurst, he would have raved from here to Cosford. They are both more to my taste than you are, Nigel."
"It is the worse for me, Edith," said Nigel ruefully.
"Nay, but you must not lose heart."
"Have I not already lost it?" said he.
"That is better," she cried, laughing. "You can be quick enough when you choose, Master Malapert. But you are more fit to speak of high and weary matters with my sister Mary. She will have none of the prattle and courtesy of Sir George, and yet I love them well. But tell me, Nigel, why do you come to Cosford to-night?"
"To bid you farewell."
"Me alone?"
"Nay, Edith, you and your sister Mary and the good knight your father."
"Sir George would have said that he had come for me alone. Indeed you are but a poor courtier beside him. But is it true, Nigel, that you go to France?"
"Yes, Edith."
"It was so rumored after the King had been to Tilford. The story goes that the King goes to France and you in his train. Is that true?"
"Yes, Edith, it is true."
"Tell me, then, to what part you go, and when?"
"That, alas! I may not say."
"Oh, in sooth!" She tossed her fair head and rode onward in silence, with compressed lips and angry eyes.
Nigel glanced at her in surprise and dismay. "Surely, Edith," said he at last, "you have overmuch regard for my honor that you should wish me to break the word that I have given?"
"Your honor belongs to you, and my likings belong to me," said she. "You hold fast to the one, and I will do the same by the other."
They rode in silence through Thursley village. Then a thought came to her mind and in an instant her anger was forgotten and she was hot on a new scent.
"What would you do if I were injured, Nigel? I have heard my father say that small as you are there is no man in these parts could stand against you. Would you be my champion if I suffered wrong?"