"
"The rod is all that is good for them, and I trusted to you to give
it them, madam," said Lady Whitburn. "Now, the least that can be
done is to force yonder malapert lad and his father into keeping his
contract to her, since he has spoilt the market for any other."
"Is he contracted to her?" asked the Countess.
"Not fully; but as you know yourself, lady, your lord, and the King,
and all the rest, thought to heal the breach between the houses by
planning a contract between their son and my daughter. He shall keep
it now, at his peril."
Grisell was cowering among her pillows, and no one knew how much she
heard or understood. The Countess was glad to get Lady Whitburn out
of the room, but both she and her Earl had a very trying evening, in
trying to keep the peace between the two parents. Sir William
Copeland was devoted to the Somerset family, of whom he held his
manor; and had had a furious quarrel with the Baron of Whitburn, when
both were serving in France.
The gentle King had tried to bring about a reconciliation, and had
induced the two fathers to consent to a contract for the future
marriage of Leonard, Copeland's second son, to Grisell Dacre, then
the only child of the Lord of Whitburn. He had also obtained that
the two children should be bred up in the household of the Earl of
Salisbury, by way of letting them grow up together. On the same
principle the Lady of Whitburn had been made one of the attendants of
Queen Margaret--but neither arrangement had been more successful than
most of those of poor King Henry.
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