Words tumbled from her lips. She begged, stormed, commanded and coaxed. “I am not the worth of his life!” she said again and again.
“Well, I doubt there would be a fine reckoning between us if Sir Nicholas heard me agree with you,” remarked Joshua. “Therefore I keep a still tongue in my head.”
“God knows what I said or did not say upon that ride,” he afterwards recounted. “Maybe my mistress and I bandied some hard words to and fro, but I bore her no malice, nor did she ever after hold it against me. Which is something remarkable in a woman, I hold.”
No sound of pursuit came after them; Joshua allowed his horse to slacken the pace somewhat, and presently drew in to a steady trot. Dominica was quiet now, but her face looked pinched in the moonlight. Joshua, himself not much lighter-hearted, was moved to offer words of comfort. “Cheerly, mistress, we shall have Sir Nicholas with us this night.”
She turned her eyes towards him. “How can he fight all those men single-handed?”
“Mark me, if he does not fob them off with some trick,” said Joshua stoutly. “Maybe you did not believe that he would break free of that prison, señorita, but he did it. Keep a good heart.” He saw her clouded eyes. “By your good leave, mistress, and with respect, I would say that El Beauvallet’s lady should wear a smiling face.”
She did smile, but faintly. “Yes, she should indeed,” she answered. She bit her lip. “I saw him for so fleeting a moment!”
“Patience, mistress; I am bold to say you will hear the bustle of his coming in a little while.”
They came to Villanova past ten o’clock at night and fetched up at the inn. “More lies!” said Joshua. “Leave all to me, lady.” He lifted her down from the saddle and proceeded to create a stir. “Ho, there! Room for the noble señora! What, I say! Landlord!”
A portly individual came out of the lighted taproom and stared in amazement at Dominica. She reflected that she must look oddly enough, riding over the countryside at such an hour without cloak or hood or even horse.
“The good-year!” cried out Joshua, voluble. “Eh me, but this has been an evening’s work! A chamber for my mistress, and supper on the instant! The noble señor follows us close.”
The landlord’s eyes slowly ran over Dominica. “What’s this?” he said suspiciously.
Doña Dominica stepped forward; she, too, could play a part. “A chamber, landlord, and at once,” she said haughtily. “Do you keep me standing in the road?”
Joshua bowed his lady into the inn. “Brigands, man!” he shot over his shoulder. “A party of three, and my lady’s horse shot under her. Ah, what an ill-chance!”
“Brigands? Jesu preserve us!” The landlord crossed himself. “But the señor?”
“Oh, be sure my master is on the villains’ heels!” Joshua invented. “ ‘What,’ cries he, ‘shall this go unpunished?’ The rogues made off with our sumpters, and nothing will do but my master must give chase, leaving me to get the gracious señora under cover. Oh, a very fire-eater!”
Dominica interposed in the voice of one accustomed to command. “A bedchamber with your best speed, host, and supper against Don Tomas’ coming.”
Her tone had its calculated effect. She was evidently a lady of quality, and as such the landlord bowed to her. That he was suspicious, however, was plain.
“And well he might be!” said Joshua Dimmock. “An unlikely tale, I grant you, but by this time I was grown barren of lies, a very uncommon thing in me.”
Doña Dominica was shown upstairs to a chamber of fair size and appointments. She sank into a chair, and said pettishly for the benefit of the landlord: “It was you who should have chased those knaves, Pedro.” She hunched a shoulder. “Don Tomas is too impetuous. To send me off so, and himself to tarry!” She became aware of the puzzled landlord. “Well, fellow, well? What do you want?” she demanded.
He bowed himself out, assuring her that supper should be provided against her lord’s coming. A glimpse of a double ducat negligently fingered by Joshua decided him to keep his suspicions in abeyance. Double ducats were not so plentiful in this village that a man could afford to run the risk of losing one.
Joshua nodded briskly, and made a significant gesture of a down-thrust thumb. “We shall do very well,” he said. “Now, señorita, with your good leave I shall go get the pack from off my nag’s back. I must hope that Sir Nicholas brings on his own jennet, for the most of his raiment is upon it, and I can very plainly hear him calling in the morn for a clean shirt and a clean ruff too.”
He took Beauvallet’s coming so much for granted that Dominica began to feel that he would come indeed. She laughed, and looked down at her tumbled riding dress. “A clean ruff for Sir Nicholas! Pray you, what will you do for me who have no clothes at all but what you see me in?”
Joshua shook his head. “A very pungent question, señora, I allow. This should have been looked to. But thus it is ever when my master is in this humour! I doubt he will have lost his pack and that scabbard beside. But there is never any ho with him. Reck Not! Ah, do I not know it? In we dash, and if we come off with our skins you may say it is a miracle.”
He went down to collect his pack, to see his horse stabled, and fed, and to order a rear-banquet for the lady. She was served in her chamber, and the covers left on the table against Beauvallet’s coming. The landlord had
