Audrey
CHAPTER XIV
THE BEND IN THE ROAD
"'Brave Derwentwater he is dead;
From his fair body they took the head:
But Mackintosh and his friends are fled,
And they'll set the hat upon another head'"—
chanted the Fair View storekeeper, and looked aside at Mistress Truelove
Taberer, spinning in the doorway of her father's house.
Truelove answered naught, but her hands went to and fro, and her eyes were
for her work, not for MacLean, sitting on the doorstep at her feet.
"'And whether they're gone beyond the sea'"—
The exile broke off and sighed heavily. Before the two a little yard, all
gay with hollyhocks and roses, sloped down to the wider of the two creeks
between which stretched the Fair View plantation. It was late of a holiday
afternoon. A storm was brewing, darkening all the water, and erecting
above the sweep of woods monstrous towers of gray cloud. There must have
been an echo, for MacLean's sigh came back to him faintly, as became an
echo.
"Is there not peace here, 'beyond the sea'?" said Truelove softly. "Thine
must be a dreadful country, Angus MacLean!"
The Highlander looked at her with kindling eyes. "Now had I the harp of
old Murdoch!" he said.
"'Dear is that land to the east,
Alba of the lakes!
Oh, that I might dwell there forever'"—
He turned upon the doorstep, and taking between his fingers the hem of
Truelove's apron fell to plaiting it. "A woman named Deirdre, who lived
before the days of Gillean-na-Tuaidhe, made that song. She was not born in
that land, but it was dear to her because she dwelt there with the man
whom she loved. They went away, and the man was slain; and where he was
buried, there Deirdre cast herself down and died." His voice changed, and
all the melancholy of his race, deep, wild, and tender, looked from his
eyes. "If to-day you found yourself in that loved land, if this parched
grass were brown heather, if it stretched down to a tarn yonder, if that
gray cloud that hath all the seeming of a crag were crag indeed, and
eagles plied between the tarn and it,"—he touched her hand that lay idle
now upon her knee,—"if you came like Deirdre lightly through the heather,
and found me lying here, and found more red than should be in the tartan
of the MacLeans, what would you do, Truelove? What would you cry out,
Truelove? How heavy would be thy heart, Truelove?"
Truelove sat in silence, with her eyes upon the sky above the dream crags.
"How heavy would grow thy heart, Truelove, Truelove?" whispered the
Highlander.
Up the winding water, to the sedges and reeds below the little yard,
glided the boy Ephraim in his boat. The Quakeress started, and the color
flamed into her gentle face. She took up the distaff that she had dropped,
and fell to work again. "Thee must not speak to me so, Angus MacLean," she
said. "I trust that my heart is not hard. Thy death would grieve me, and
my father and my mother and Ephraim"—
"I care not for thy father and mother and Ephraim!" MacLean began
impetuously. "But you do right to chide me. Once I knew a green glen where
maidens were fain when paused at their doors Angus, son of Hector, son of
Lachlan, son of Murdoch, son of Angus that was named for Angus Mor, who
was great-grandson of Hector of the Battles, who was son of Lachlan
Lubanach! But here I am a landless man, with none to do me honor,—a
wretch bereft of liberty"—
"To me, to all Friends," said Truelove sweetly, halting a little in her
work, "thee has now what thee thyself calls freedom. For God meant not
that one of his creatures should say to another: 'Lo, here am I! Behold
thy God!' To me, and my father and mother and Ephraim, thee is no bond
servant of Marmaduke Haward. But thee is bond servant to thy own vain
songs; thy violent words; thy idle pride, that, vaunting the cruel deeds
of thy forefathers, calls meekness and submission the last worst evil; thy
shameless reverence for those thy fellow creatures, James Stewart and him
whom thee calls the chief of thy house,—forgetting that there is but one
house, and that God is its head; thy love of clamor and warfare; thy
hatred of the ways of peace"—
MacLean laughed. "I hate not all its ways. There is no hatred in my heart
for this house which is its altar, nor for the priestess of the altar. Ah!
now you frown, Truelove"—
Across the clouds ran so fierce a line of gold that Truelove, startled,
put her hand before her eyes. Another dart of lightning, a low roll of
thunder, a bending apart of the alder bushes on the far side of the creek;
then a woman's voice calling to the boy in the boat to come ferry her
over.
"Who may that be?" asked Truelove wonderingly.
It was only a little way to the bending alders. Ephraim rowed across the
glassy water, dark beneath the approach of the storm; the woman stepped
into the boat, and the tiny craft came lightly back to its haven beneath
the bank.
"It is Darden's Audrey," said the storekeeper.
Truelove shrank a little, and her eyes darkened. "Why should she come
here? I never knew her. It is true that we may not think evil, but—but"—
MacLean moved restlessly. "I have seen the girl but twice," he said. "Once
she was alone, once—It is my friend of whom I think. I know what they
say, but, by St. Kattan! I hold him a gentleman too high of mind, too
noble—There was a tale I used to hear when I was a boy. A long, long time
ago a girl lived in the shadow of the tower of Duart, and the chief looked
down from his walls and saw her. Afterwards they walked together by the
shore and through the glens, and he cried her health when he drank in his
hall, sitting amongst his tacksmen. Then what the men whispered the women
spoke aloud; and so, more quickly than the tarie is borne, word went to a
man of the MacDonalds who loved the Duart maiden. Not like a lover to his
tryst did he come. In the handle of his dirk the rich stones sparkled as
they rose and fell with the rise and fall of the maiden's white bosom. She
prayed to die in his arms; for it was not Duart that she loved, but him.
She died, and they snooded her hair and buried her. Duart went overseas;
the man of the MacDonalds killed himself. It was all wrought with threads
of gossamer,—idle fancy, shrugs, smiles, whispers, slurring speech,—and
it was long ago. But there is yet gossamer to be had for the gathering; it
gleams on every hand these summer mornings."
By now Darden's Audrey had left the boat and was close upon them. MacLean
arose, and Truelove hastily pushed aside her wheel. "Is thee seeking
shelter from the storm?" she asked tremulously, and with her cheeks as
pink as a seashell. "Will thee sit here with us? The storm will not break
yet awhile."
Audrey heeded her not, her eyes being for MacLean. She had been
running,—running more swiftly than for a thousand May Day guineas. Even
now, though her breath came short, every line of her slender figure was
tense, and she was ready to be off like an arrow. "You are Mr. Haward's
friend?" she cried. "I have heard him say that you were so—call you a
brave gentleman"—
MacLean's dark face flushed. "Yes, we are friends,—I thank God for it.
What have you to do with that, my lass?"
"I also am his friend," said Audrey, coming nearer. Her hands were
clasped, her bosom heaving. "Listen! To-day I was sent on an errand to a
house far up this creek. Coming back, I took the short way home through
the woods because of the storm. It led me past the schoolhouse down by the
big swamp. I thought that no one was there, and I went and sat down upon
the steps to rest a moment. The door behind me was partly open. Then I
heard two voices: the schoolmaster and Jean Hugon were inside—close to
me—talking. I would have run away, but I heard Mr. Haward's name." Her
hand went to her heart, and she drew a sobbing breath.
"Well!" cried MacLean sharply.
"Mr. Haward went yesterday to Williamsburgh—alone—without Juba. He rides
back—alone—to Fair View late this afternoon—he is riding now. You know
the sharp bend in the road, with the steep bank above and the pond below?"
"Ay, where the road nears the river. Well?"
"I heard all that Hugon and the schoolmaster said. I hid behind a fallen
tree and watched them leave the schoolhouse; then I followed them, making
no noise, back to the creek, where Hugon had a boat. They crossed the
creek, and fastened the boat on this side. I could follow them no farther;
the woods hid them; but they have gone downstream to that bend in the
road. Hugon had his hunting-knife and pistols; the schoolmaster carried a
coil of rope." She flung back her head, and her hands went to her throat
as though she were stifling. "The turn in the road is very sharp. Just
past the bend they will stretch the rope from side to side, fastening it
to two trees. He will be hurrying home before the bursting of the
storm—he will be riding the planter's pace"—
"Man and horse will come crashing down!" cried the storekeeper, with a
great oath "And then"—
"Hugon's knife, so there will be no noise.... They think he has gold upon
him: that is for the schoolmaster.... Hugon is an Indian, and he will hide
their trail. Men will think that some outlying slave was in the woods, and
set upon and killed him."
Her voice broke; then went on, gathering strength: "It was so late, and I
knew that he would ride fast because of the storm. I remembered this
house, and thought that, if I called, some one might come and ferry me
over the creek. Now I will run through the woods to the road, for I must
reach it before he passes on his way to where they wait." She turned her
face toward the pine wood beyond the house.
"Ay, that is best!" agreed the storekeeper. "Warned, he can take the long
way home, and Hugon and this other may be dealt with at his leisure. Come,
my girl; there's no time to lose."
They left behind them the creek, the blooming dooryard, the small white
house, and the gentle Quakeress. The woods received them, and they came
into a world of livid greens and grays dashed here and there with
ebony,—a world that, expectant of the storm, had caught and was holding
its breath. Save for the noise of their feet upon dry leaves that rustled
like paper, the wood was soundless. The light that lay within it, fallen
from skies of iron, was wild and sinister; there was no air, and the heat
wrapped them like a mantle. So motionless were all things, so fixed in
quietude each branch and bough, each leaf or twig or slender needle of the
pine, that they seemed to be fleeing through a wood of stone, jade and
malachite, emerald and agate.
They hurried on, not wasting breath in speech. Now and again MacLean
glanced aside at the girl, who kept beside him, moving as lightly as
presently would move the leaves when the wind arose. He remembered certain
scurrilous words spoken in the store a week agone by a knot of purchasers,
but when he looked at her face he thought of the Highland maiden whose
story he had told. As for Audrey, she saw not the woods that she loved,
heard not the leaves beneath her feet, knew not if the light were gold or
gray. She saw only a horse and rider riding from Williamsburgh, heard only
the rapid hoofbeats. All there was of her was one dumb prayer for the
rider's safety. Her memory told her that it was no great distance to the
road, but her heart cried out that it was so far away,—so far away! When
the wood thinned, and they saw before them the dusty strip, pallid and
lonely beneath the storm clouds, her heart leaped within her; then grew
sick for fear that he had gone by. When they stood, ankle-deep in the
dust, she looked first toward the north, and then to the south. Nothing
moved; all was barren, hushed, and lonely.
"How can we know? How can we know?" she cried, and wrung her hands.
MacLean's keen eyes were busily searching for any sign that a horseman had
lately passed that way. At a little distance above them a shallow stream
of some width flowed across the way, and to this the Highlander hastened,
looked with attention at the road-bed where it emerged from the water,
then came back to Audrey with a satisfied air. "There are no hoof-prints,"
he said. "No marks upon the dust. None can have passed for some hours."
A rotted log, streaked with velvet moss and blotched with fan-shaped,
orange-colored fungi, lay by the wayside, and the two sat down upon it to
wait for the coming horseman. Overhead the thunder was rolling, but there
was as yet no breath of wind, no splash of raindrops. Opposite them rose a
gigantic pine, towering above the forest, red-brown trunk and ultimate
cone of deep green foliage alike outlined against the dead gloom of the
sky. Audrey shook back her heavy hair and raised her face to the roof of
the world; her hands were clasped upon her knee; her bare feet, slim and
brown, rested on a carpet of moss; she was as still as the forest, of
which, to the Highlander, she suddenly seemed a part. When they had kept
silence for what seemed a long time, he spoke to her with some hesitation:
"You have known Mr. Haward but a short while; the months are very few
since he came from England."
The name brought Audrey down to earth again. "Did you not know?" she asked
wonderingly. "You also are his friend,—you see him often. I thought that
at times he would have spoken of me." For a moment her face was troubled,
though only for a moment. "But I know why he did not so," she said softly
to herself. "He is not one to speak of his good deeds." She turned toward
MacLean, who was attentively watching her, "But I may speak of them," she
said, with pride. "I have known Mr. Haward for years and years. He saved
my life; he brought me here from the Indian country; he was, he is, so
kind to me!"
Since the afternoon beneath the willow-tree, Haward, while encouraging her
to speak of her long past, her sylvan childhood, her dream memories, had
somewhat sternly checked every expression of gratitude for the part which
he himself had played or was playing, in the drama of her life. Walking in
the minister's orchard, sitting in the garden or upon the terrace of Fair
View house, drifting on the sunset river, he waved that aside, and went on
to teach her another lesson. The teaching was exquisite; but when the
lesson for the day was over, and he was alone, he sat with one whom he
despised. The learning was exquisite; it was the sweetest song, but she
knew not its name, and the words were in a strange tongue. She was
Audrey, that she knew; and he,—he was the plumed knight, who, for the
lack of a better listener, told her gracious tales of love, showed her how
warm and beautiful was this world that she sometimes thought so sad, sang
to her sweet lines that poets had made. Over and through all she thought
she read the name of the princess. She had heard him say that with the
breaking of the heat he should go to Westover, and one day, early in
summer, he had shown her the miniature of Evelyn Byrd. Because she loved
him blindly, and because he was wise in his generation, her trust in him
was steadfast as her native hills, large as her faith in God. Now it was
sweet beneath her tongue to be able to tell one that was his friend how
worthy of all friendship—nay, all reverence—he was. She spoke simply,
but with that strange power of expression which nature had given her.
Gestures with her hands, quick changes in the tone of her voice, a
countenance that gave ample utterance to the moment's thought,—as one
morning in the Fair View library she had brought into being that long dead
Eloïsa whose lines she spoke, so now her auditor of to-day thought that he
saw the things of which she told.
She had risen, and was standing in the wild light, against the background
of the forest that was breathless, as if it too listened, "And so he
brought me safely to this land," she said. "And so he left me here for ten
years, safe and happy, he thought. He has told me that all that while he
thought of me as safe and happy. That I was not so,—why, that was not his
fault! When he came back I was both. I have never seen the sunshine so
bright or the woods so fair as they have been this summer. The people
with whom I live are always kind to me now,—that is his doing. And ah! it
is because he would not let Hugon scare or harm me that that wicked Indian
waits for him now beyond the bend in the road." At the thought of Hugon
she shuddered, and her eyes began to widen. "Have we not been here a long
time?" she cried. "Are you sure? Oh, God! perhaps he has passed!"
"No, no," answered MacLean, with his hand upon her arm. "There is no sign
that he has done so. It is not late; it is that heavy cloud above our
heads that has so darkened the air. Perhaps he has not left Williamsburgh
at all: perhaps, the storm threatening, he waits until to-morrow."
From the cloud above came a blinding light and a great crash of
thunder,—the one so intense, the other so tremendous, that for a minute
the two stood as if stunned. Then, "The tree!" cried Audrey. The great
pine, blasted and afire, uprooted itself and fell from them like a reed
that the wind has snapped. The thunder crash, and the din with which the
tree met its fellows of the forest, bore them down, and finally struck the
earth from which it came, seemed an alarum to waken all nature from its
sleep. The thunder became incessant, and the wind suddenly arising the
forest stretched itself and began to speak with no uncertain voice.
MacLean took his seat again upon the log, but Audrey slipped into the
road, and stood in the whirling dust, her arm raised above her eyes,
looking for the horseman whose approach she could not hope to hear through
the clamor of the storm. The wind lifted her long hair, and the rising
dust half obscured her form, bent against the blast. On the lonesome
road, in the partial light, she had the seeming of an apparition, a
creature tossed like a ball from the surging forest. She had made herself
a world, and she had become its product. In all her ways, to the day of
her death, there was about her a touch of mirage, illusion, fantasy. The
Highlander, imaginative like all his race, and a believer in things not of
heaven nor of earth, thought of spirits of the glen and the shore.
There was no rain as yet; only the hurly-burly of the forest, the white
dust cloud, and the wild commotion overhead. Audrey turned to MacLean,
watching her in silence. "He is coming!" she cried. "There is some one
with him. Now, now he is safe!"