She saw no more of her father except from the far end of the table,
but orders were issued that she should be ready to accompany him on
his homeward way the next morning at six o'clock. Her brother Robert
had been sent in charge of some of the Duke of York's retainers, to
join his household as a page, though they had missed him on the
route, and the Lord of Whitburn was anxious to get home again, never
being quite sure what the Scots, or the Percies, or his kinsmen of
Gilsland, might attempt in his absence. "Though," as he said, "my
lady was as good as a dozen men-at-arms, but somehow she had not been
the same woman since little Bernard had fallen sick."
There was no one in the company with whom Grisell was very sorry to
part, for though Dame Gresford had been kind to her, it had been
merely the attending to the needs of a charge, not showing her any
affection, and she had shrunk from the eyes of so large a party.
When she came down early into the hall, her father's half-dozen
retainers were taking their morning meal at one end of a big board,
while a manchet of bread and a silver cup of ale was ready for each
of them at the other, and her father while swallowing his was in deep
conversation over northern politics with the courteous Earl, who had
come down to speed his guests. As she passed the retainers she
heard, "Here comes our Grisly Grisell," and a smothered laugh, and in
fact "Grisly Grisell" continued to be her name among the free-spoken
people of the north.
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