“Professor Collier,” put in Krystal, “when first you arrived tonight, and told us you were leaving England, I thought that you might have come here for your wife, but you’ve not even mentioned her in all the hours you’ve been talking. Do yon intend deserting her, too?”
Collier shrugged. “Perhaps you would call it ‘desertion,” Doctor, but I feel Arbor wfll be better off here until I come with the Scottish army hi the spring. The last encumbrance I expect to need would be an ailing, alcoholic wife.”
Krystal’s eyes glittered like ice. “Yes, Professor, I would say that you’re deserting your wife. You know, it’s funny now, but during that first day we were here I felt sorry for you in your marital situation; then I came to truly respect you, as you proved so versatile and commanding a figure. Now, however, you’ve betrayed your friends, the King that favored you, and now you’re about to betray and desert your wife, and you disgust me, Professor.”
The former Earl shrugged again, then ignored the woman, addressing himself to Foster. “If there is anything in this house you want to save, I would strongly advise that you move it and yourself well south before the spring, my dear Captain. Whyffler Hall and the Royal Gunpowder Manufactory herein contained will be one of the earliest and foremost objectives of the Scottish Crusaders. Sir Francis is certain to make an effort to hold the hall with whatever troops he can beg or borrow from the Usurper or enlist hereabouts, so it will most likely be reduced from a distance with bombards, and a few sixty-pound stone balls will quickly render your twentieth-century home into matchwood.”
“Before you leave,” said Foster, “I’ll have my father’s Luger back, if you please, and the pair of breech-loading pistols on your pommel, as well. They were yours while you remained a King’s man, but I’ll be damned If I’ll see them used against the King by a turncoat traitor.”
And as soon as there was enough pale light to indicate that, somewhere behind the storm clouds, the sun had risen, Foster and Pete Fairley were at the hall and in conference with Sir Francis and Geoffrey Musgrave.
The old nobleman’s cap and voluminous robe were both of the same thick, rusty-black velvet. Foster recalled the garments clearly; they were those Sir Francis had been wearing when first they had met. But-the pale, trembling, dim-eyed old man who had greeted and thanked him for his support hi a quavering voice, then, was now replaced by a soldier who, though admittedly elderly, was possessed of keen faculties and intuitive judgment.
“Nay, lad,” he answered Foster’s suggestion. “Dinnae ye ride tae the King. Anely God kens where His Majesty be noo. Och, aye, mayhap he bides wi’ the army, but too he could be wi’ his ane folk in Wales.
“Nay, let Captain Webster ride in sairrch o’ the King; he be known tae His Highness as well as yersel’, an’ he’ll be bearing letters both frae ye an’ me. Geoffrey can gi’ him some dozen launces tae ride at his back and there still be horses a-plenty aboot ma’ park.”
Properly gauging their temperatures through dint of long experience, Musgrave leaned forward, drew four loggerheads from the fire, and plunged them hissing and steaming into four tankards, then passed a heated cup to first his lord, then the other two.
Sir Francis sipped, then took a long draught. “Nay, Bass, ye maun ride tae York, tae Harold Kenmore, the Archbishop. York be for certain sure the anely place our manufactory will be safe and, too, if ye bring wagons frae York empty, nae doot yell be mindfu’ o’ the best routes o’er which ye’il lead them fu’.”
But Francis Whyffler’s assurance had not been shared by Harold of York. “I much fear me, Squire Forster, that you cannot do it, nor could I, nor could the King himself, not at this wretched time of the year. Even so, ’twere better than the powder and wherewithal to fashion it should lie a-rotting in the Pennines than that they should fall to the thrice-damned Scots; therefore, I shall warrant you to fetch back all you can. You’ll have carte blanche of garrison, city and country—men, horses, wagons, provisions—take whatever you feel needful to our purpose. My secretary here will see to the necessary papers. God be with you.”