In the ordinary way I should have challenged that. But I realized we were getting onto dangerous ground.
I was thinking of that scene in the kitchen as I rode over to White Cliff Cave. The rain, prophesied by Sally Nullens’s bones, had started to fall. Sally was full of old lore. “I saw the cat washing his face and ears extra well,” she had said, “and bless me if he didn’t Me on his brain.
” ‘When the cat lies on his brain/That do be a sign of rain!’ And my bones are telling me a story today. Mark my words it’ll be raining cats and dogs before the day’s out.”
Emily Philpots said there was thunder about, too, because she always felt down in the dumps with thunder, and Jasper murmured: “Armageddon, that’s what it’ll be… and not before it’s due.”
“You going off riding again, Mistress Priscilla?” That was Sally, reminding me that she had once been my nurse.
“It’s good exercise, Sally.”
“I reckon you’d do better staying in today.”
I wished they wouldn’t watch me so closely. Was it my fancy or did they watch me more intently than they had? Had Ellen mentioned the denuded larder to Jasper? If he were on the trail we should be betrayed.
So I rode out uneasily with the basket of food attached to my saddle and I wondered how long it would be before Leigh returned. We missed him. We needed his leadership when we were engaged in a dangerous exercise, as this undoubtedly was.
I came out to the lonely stretch of beach. To my relief there was no one in sight.
I tied up the horse where he could take shelter under an overhanging rock.
I went into the cave. For a moment I could not see Jocelyn. The lantern we had taken to him was alight. Then I saw him. He was lying down fast asleep. He looked so young and handsome, like a Greek hero. He was even more handsome without his periwig, which now lay on the shingle beside him. His cropped fair hair curled about his head and he looked quite defenceless. I trembled for him. What if someone had strayed into the cave and found him asleep!
I hesitated to awaken him for fear of startling him, so I tiptoed to the mouth of the cave and there I called his name softly. He sat up and smiled at me. Then he sprang to his feet.
“It’s Priscilla. I was dreaming of you. I dreamed you came in and looked at me.”
“I did. I was afraid because your lantern was alight and I thought someone might see it.”
“Is there anyone about?”
“No one.”
“I haven’t seen anyone here since you brought me to this place.”
“There might be people in the summer. But you will be well away by then. I’ve brought you a partridge and a piece of sucking pig.”
“It sounds delicious.”
“I think you could come out into the open. I’ll keep watch. There’s no one about for miles. It’s stopped raining now but it’ll start again soon, I’m sure. Come, let’s make the most of the fresh air while we can.”
I laid out the food. I had brought some ale, too, which he drank eagerly.
He smiled at me and said: “Do you know, last night I was thinking that I was glad this happened. It brought me to you.”
“You have had to pay rather a high price for the introduction,” I said.
He took my hand then and kissed it. “It has been the most important thing in my life,” he said.
“You’re alone too much,” I replied. “It makes you think these things. I have hopes that Leigh will have some solution when he comes back.”
“We shall meet again when this is over … you and I am sure of that.”
“Oh, I expect so. Edwin says that opinion is turning against Titus Dates and when it does that will be the end of all this. We shall go back to normal again. Our families will meet now and then. I daresay my mother will invite you to stay with us.”
“I shall make every effort to bring that about. I have met you in extraordinary circumstances.
I should like to do so … in a ballroom, say. Do you often go to Court?”
“Not yet. I daresay I shall some time. They think I’m rather too young at the moment.”
“You don’t seem to be to me.”
“Do I not? How old do I seem?”
“Seventeen. It’s the best of all ages. I know because I was seventeen two years ago.”
I was delighted to be told I looked older than my years. People of my age always are, I supposed. One is always eager to throw off one’s youth when one has it and it is only when it is beyond recall that one wants it back.
“Perhaps,” he went on, “seventeen was the age I wanted you to be.”
“Why should my age be any concern of yours?”
“Because I wanted you to be nearer to me.”
“Listen,” I said, “I can hear something.”
We were silent, straining our ears. Yes, there were voices from some way off being carried to us on the southwesterly wind.
“Let’s get inside the cave,” I said. “Collect everything and take it in. We don’t know who this can be.”
Hastily we gathered up the remains of the picnic. We went into the cave and listened.
