CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
FRANK HAS A PAINFUL TASK.
For the moment Frank Gowan forgot that it was only half-past five, andafter waiting a reasonable time he rang again.
But all was still in the court, which lay in the shade, while the greatred-brick clock tower was beginning to glow in the sunshine. There weresome pigeons on one of the roofs preening their plumes, and a fewsparrows chirping here and there, while every window visible from wherethe boy stood was whitened by the drawn-down blinds.
He rang again and waited, but all was as silent as if the place wereuninhabited, and the whistling of wings as half a dozen pigeons suddenlyflew down to begin stalking about as if in search of food soundedstartling.
"Too soon," thought Frank; and going a little way along, he seatedhimself upon a dumpy stone post, to wait patiently till such time as thePalace servants were astir.
And there in the silence his thoughts went back to his adventures thatmorning, and the scene, which seemed to have been enacted days and daysago, came vividly before his eyes, while he thrilled once more with thefeeling of mingled horror and excitement, as he seemed to stand againclose behind Captain Murray, expecting moment by moment to see hisfather succumb to the German's savage attack.
There it all was, as clear as if it were still going on, right to themoment when the baron missed his desperate thrust and literally fellupon his adversary's point.
"It was horrid, horrid, horrid," muttered the lad with a shiver; and hetried to divert his mind by thinking of how he should relate just asufficiency of the encounter to his mother, and no more.
"Yes," he said to himself. "I'll just tell her that they fought, thatfather was scratched by the baron's sword, and then the baron was badlywounded in return.
"That will do," he said, feeling perfectly satisfied; "I'll tell herjust in this way."
But as he came to this determination, doubt began to creep in and askhim whether he could relate the trouble so coolly and easily when hismother's clear eyes were watching him closely and searching for everyscrap of truth; and then he began to think it possible that he mightfail, and stand before her feeling guilty of keeping a great deal back.
"I know I shall grow confused, and that she will not believe that poorfather's arm was only scratched, and she'll think at once that it is aserious wound, and that the baron is dead."
He turned so hot at this that he rose quickly, and walked along all foursides of the quadrangle to cool himself before going to the door oncemore and giving a sharp ring.
"Are the servants going to lie in bed all day?" he said peevishly."They ought to be down before this."
But the ring meeting with no response, he sat down again to try andthink out what the consequences of the events of the morning would be.Here, however, he found himself confronted by a thick, black veil, whichshut out the future. It was easy enough to read the past, but toimagine what was to come was beyond him.
At last, when quite an hour had passed, he grew impatient, and rangsharply this time, to hear a window opened somewhere at the top of thehouse; and when he looked up, it was to see a head thrust forth andrapidly withdrawn.
Five minutes or so afterward he heard the shooting of bolts and therattling down of a chain, the door was opened, and a pretty-lookingmaidservant, with sleep still in her eyes, confronted himill-humouredly.
"How late you are!" cried Frank.
"No, sir; please, it's you who are so early. We didn't go to bed tillpast one."
"Is Lady Gowan up yet?"
"Lor' bless you, sir, no! Why--oh, I beg your pardon, I'm sure, sir. Ididn't know you at first; it's her ladyship's son, isn't it?"
"Yes, of course. I want to see her directly."
"But you can't, sir. She won't be down this two hours."
"Go and tell my mother I am here, and that I want to see her onimportant business."
"Very well, sir; but I know I shall get into trouble for disturbingher," said the maid ill-humouredly. "She was with the Princess tillever so late."
The girl went upstairs, leaving Frank waiting in the narrow passage ofthe place, and at the end of a few minutes she returned.
"Her ladyship says, sir, you are to come into her little boudoir andwait; she'll dress, and come down in a few minutes."
Frank followed the maid to the little room, and stood waiting, for hecould not sit down in his anxiety. He felt hot and cold, and as if hewould have given anything to have hurried away, but there was nothingfor it but to screw up his courage and face the matter.
"She'll be half an hour yet," he muttered, "and that will give me timeto grow cool; then I can talk to her."
He was wrong; for at the end of five minutes there was the rustling ofgarments, and Lady Gowan entered, in a loose morning gown, lookingstartled at being woke up by such a message.
"Why, Frank, my darling boy, what is it?" she cried, as the boy shrankfrom her eyes when she embraced him affectionately. "You are ill! No;in trouble! I can see it in your eyes. Look up at me, my boy, and bein nature what you are by name. You were right to come to me. There,sit down by my side, and let it be always so--boy or man, let me alwaysbe your _confidante_, and I will forgive you and advise you if I can."
Frank was silent, but he clung to her, trembling.
"Speak to me, dear," she said, drawing him to her and kissing hisforehead; "it cannot be anything very dreadful--only some escapade."
His lips parted, but no words would come, and he shivered at the thoughtof undeceiving her.
"Come, come, dear," she whispered, "there is no one to hear you but I;and am I not your mother?"
"Yes, but--"
That was all. He could say no more.
"Frank, my boy, why do you hesitate?" she whispered, as she passed hersoft, warm hand over his forehead, which was wet and cold. "Come, speakout like a brave lad. A boy of your age should be manly, and if he hasdone wrong own to it, and be ready to bear the reproof or punishment hehas earned. Come, let me help you."
"You help me?" he gasped.
"Yes, I think I can. You dined at the mess last night; your face isflushed and feverish, your head is hot, and your hands wet and cold.Phoebe tells me that in her sleep she heard you ringing at the bell soonafter five. Is this so?"
"Yes," he said with his eyes and a quick nod of the head.
"Hah! And am I right in saying that you have had scarcely any or nosleep during the night?"
He nodded again quickly, and felt as if it would be impossible to tryand set his mother right.
"Hah! I am angry with you. I feel that I ought to be. There has beensome escapade. Your father would have watched over you while he wasthere. It must have been afterwards--Andrew Forbes and some of the wildyoung officers. Yes, I see it now; and I never warned you against sucha peril, though it is real enough, I fear."
"Oh, mother, mother!" groaned the boy in agony.
"I knew it," she said sternly; "they have led you away to some card- ordice-playing, and you have lost. Now you are fully awake to yourfolly."
The boy made a brave effort to speak out, but still no words would come.
"Well," said Lady Gowan, taking his hand to hold it firmly between herown.
But he was still silent.
"I am angry, and cruelly disappointed in you, Frank," she said sternly."But your repentance has been quick, and you have done what is right.There, I will forgive you, on your solemn promise that you will notagain sin like this. I will give you the money to pay the miserabledebt, and if I have not enough I will get it, even if I have to sell mydiamonds."
She looked at him as it expecting now a burst of repentant thanks; buthe remained speechless, and a feeling of resentment against him rose inLady Gowan's breast, as she felt that this was not the return the boyshould have made to her gentle reproof, her offer to free him from hisdifficulty, and her eyes flashed upon him angrily.
"Oh, mother!" he cried, "don't look at me like that."
"I must, Frank," she said, loos
ing his hand, "you are not meeting me inthis matter as you should."
"No, no," he cried, finding his tongue now, and catching her hands inhis, as he sank on his knees before her. "Don't shrink from me, thoughit does seem so cruel of me."
"More cruel, my boy, than you think," she said, as she resigned herhands to him lovingly once more. "Speak out to me, then. It is what Ifear?"
"Oh no, no, mother darling," he groaned. "I must speak now. It is farworse than that."
"Worse!" she cried, with a startled look in her eyes. "Some quarrel?"
He bowed his head, partly in assent, partly to escape her piercing look.
"And you are no longer a schoolboy--you wear a sword. Oh, Frank, Frank!you--Andrew Forbes."
He shook his head and bowed it down. Then he raised it firmly andproudly, and met his mother's eyes gazing wildly at him now, as shetried to release her hands, but as he held them tightly, pressed themwith her own against her throbbing breast.
"He told me to come to you as a man and break the news."
"He--your father--told you--to break the news. Ah, I see it all. Aquarrel--and they have fought--but he bade you come. Then he lives!"
"Yes, yes, mother dear. He is wounded, but very slightly in the arm."
Lady Gowan uttered a low, piteous cry, and sank upon her knees besideher son, with her lips moving quickly for some moments, as he supportedher where they knelt together.
"Wounded--dangerously?" she moaned.
"No, no; believe me, mother, slightly in his sword arm. He walked backwith me."
"To his quarters?"
"No. He was arrested."
"Ah!" ejaculated Lady Gowan. "Arrested--why?"
Frank hastily explained.
"Oh the horror of these meetings! But this man, your father struck him?But why?"
Frank repeated his father's message, and Lady Gowan looked bewildered.
"I cannot understand," she said. "These German officers are favouritesof the King, and the baron must have cruelly insulted your father, orhe, who is so brave and strong and gentle, would never have done this.They are proud and overbearing, and I know treat our English officerswith contempt. Yes, it must have been from that. When was it?"
"At daybreak."
"Where?"
"Just yonder in the Park."
"And your father took you?" said Lady Gowan, with a look of horror.
"No, no, mother; he did not know I was there till it was just over, andhe told me how it was."
"Yes, I see."
"I was horrified and frightened when Drew came and told me. I could notkeep away."
"No," she said softly, "of course not. I should have gone myself had Iknown. But your good, brave father wounded, and the man who insultedhim escaped unhurt!"
"No, no, mother; he is--"
"Frank! Not dead?" she cried in horror, for the boy stopped.
"No, no; but very dangerously wounded. The soldiers carried him back ona litter, but the doctor says that he will live."
Once more, while she knelt there, Lady Gowan's lips moved as her eyesclosed, and she bent down her head above her son's shoulder.
At last she raised it, and said, firmly:
"We must be brave over this terrible misfortune, Frank dear. But tellme; do I know the worst?"
"Yes, yes, mother; I meant to keep a great deal back, and I can't lookin your eyes, and say anything that is not perfectly true."
"And never will, my son," she cried, with a wildly hysterical burst oftears, which she checked in a few moments. "There, your mother is veryweak, you see, dear; but I am going to be strong now. Then thatexplains the sternness of the arrest. Let us look the matter in theface. Your father struck this German nobleman, the guest of theregiment. They fought this morning, and the cause of the trouble isbadly hurt. The King and the Prince will be furious. They will lookupon it as a mutinous attack upon one of their favourites. Yes, I mustsee the Princess at once. I will go to her chamber now; so leave me, myboy, and wait. I will write to you, and I must try and get a note toyour father. There, go, my own brave boy, and be comforted. Thetrouble may not be so great after all, for we have a friend who loves usboth--the Princess, and she will help me in my sore distress. There,go, my boy; she must have the news from me, as your father contrivedthat it should come to me. I can go to her chamber at any time, for shehas told me again and again that she looks upon me as her dearestfriend."
The next minute Frank was crossing the quadrangle on his way back,feeling relieved of much of his burden; but before he reached thequarters occupied by the royal pages, Andrew Forbes stood before him.
"At last!" he said. "I've been waiting here ever since. How does shetake it?"
"Bravely," said Frank, with a proud look. "She has just gone in to tellthe Princess."
"And she will get Sir Robert out of the scrape if she can. But it won'tdo, Frank," said Andrew, shaking his head. "She'll be very kind to yourmother, but you may as well know the worst. She can't; for his Majestywill have something to say about his baron. Your father might as wellhave hit the King himself."