He was arguing the point
with her, when there was a voice in the stall outside which made
Grisell start, and Lambert, going out, brought in Cuthbert Ridley,
staggering under the weight of his best suit of armour, and with a
bundle and bag under his mantle.
Grisell sprang up eagerly to meet him, but as she put her hands into
his he looked sorrowfully at her, and she asked under her breath,
"Ah! Sir Leonard--?"
"No tidings of the recreant," growled Ridley, "but ill tidings for
both of you. The Dacres of Gilsland are on us, claiming your castle
and lands as male heirs to your father."
"Do they know that I live?" asked Grisell, "or"--unable to control a
little laugh--"do they deem that I was slain in the shape of a hare?"
"Or better than that," put in Lambert; "they have it now in the
wharves that the corpse of the hare took the shape and hands of a
woman when in the hall."
"I ken not, the long-tongued rogues," said Ridley; "but if my young
lady were standing living and life-like before them as, thank St.
Hilda, I see her now, they would claim it all the more as male heirs,
and this new King Edward has granted old Sir John seisin, being that
she is the wife of one of King Henry's men!"
"Are they there? How did you escape?"
"I got timely notice," said Cuthbert. "Twenty strong halted over the
night at Yeoman Kester's farm on Heather Gill--a fellow that would do
anything for me since we fought side by side on the day of the
Herrings.
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