Chapter 44
"Yes, mother, saved. Oh, don't look like that!"
She kissed him hurriedly, and entered her apartment, to hurry thence to the Princess's chamber; while Frank made for his own, with his head feeling as if it were full of buzzing sounds, and ready to ask himself if all that he had gone through was not part of a feverish dream.
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.
MORE ABOUT THE DUCKS.
The news was all over the Palace the next morning; but before meeting Andrew Forbes, Frank hurried to his mother's apartments, to find her dressed, but lying down, her maid saying that she was very ill, but that she would see Mr Gowan.
"I thought you would come, my boy," said Lady Gowan, embracing him.
"Oh, my darling, what a horrible night! Tell me again all about your father's escape."
"You're not well enough, mother," said the boy bluntly. "It will only agitate you more. Isn't it enough that I helped him to get safe away without any accident?"
"Yes, yes, you are right," said Lady Gowan. "But how rash, how mad of him to come! Frank, remember that you must not breathe a word about how it was that I was able to warn him."
"I see," said Frank; "it would make mischief."
"And this has undone all that I was trying to do. He might have been forgiven in time; now we shall have to wait perhaps for years."
"Then don't let's wait, mother. He says that we should have to suffer terribly if we shared his lot with him. But who cares? I shouldn't a bit, and I'm sure you wouldn't mind."
"I, my boy?" cried Lady Gowan pa.s.sionately. "I'd gladly lead the humblest life with him, so that we could be at peace."
"Very well, then; let's go."
Lady Gowan shook her head.
"We must respect your father's wishes, Frank," she said sadly. "No; we must stay as we are till we are ordered to leave here, or your father bids us come."
"There," said the boy, "I was right. You must not talk about it any more; it only makes you cry. Never mind what happened last night. He has got safely away."
"But if he should venture again, my boy," sobbed Lady Gowan.
"Never mind about _ifs_, mother. Of course he longed to see us, and he ran the risk, so as to be near. I should have done the same, if I had been like he is. There, now you lie still and read all day. He
Lady Gowan clung to her son for a few minutes, and then he hurried away, to find Andrew Forbes in the courtyard.
"Ah, I was right!" he said. "I went to your rooms, thinking I should catch you; but you were up and off. I thought this would be where you had come. But, I say, I thought we were friends."
"Well, so we are."
"Don't seem like it, for you to go and have a jolly night of adventures like that, and leave me out in the cold."
"I couldn't help it, Drew," said Frank apologetically.
"Yes, you could. I smell a rat now. I thought you turned very queer when we were by your house yesterday. Then you saw him at one of the windows?"
Frank looked at him frowningly, and then nodded his head.
"And never told me! Well, this is being a friend! I would have trusted you. But, I say, it was grand. I've just seen Captain Murray and the doctor. They were together in the captain's room. They wouldn't say so, of course, but they were delighted to hear he got away, though they say they wouldn't wonder if you were dismissed."
"I don't care, if my mother has to leave too."
"Ah! but the Princess wouldn't let her go. I say, how do you feel now?"
"Very miserable," said Frank sadly.
"Nonsense! You mean not so precious loyal as you were."
"If you are going to begin about that business again, I am going," said Frank coldly.
"I've done. I'm satisfied. You'll be as eager on the other side some day, Frank; and I like you all the better for being so staunch as you are. As my father says, it makes you the better worth winning."
"When did your father say that?" cried Frank sharply.
"Never mind. Perhaps he wrote it to me. You can't expect me to be quite open with you if you're not with me. But, I say," cried the lad enthusiastically, "it's grand!"
"What is?"
"For us to be both with our fathers banished. Why, Frank, it's like making heroes of us."
"Making geese of us! What nonsense!"
"Just as you like; but I shall feel what I please. I never did see such a fellow as you are, though. You have no more romance in you than a big drum. But, I say, tell us all about it."
With a little pressing Frank told him all, the narrative being given, in an undertone, and after a faithful promise of secrecy, on one of the benches under a tree in the Park, while Andrew sat with his fingers interlaced and nipped between his knees, flushed of face, his eyes flas.h.i.+ng, and his teeth set.
"Oh," he cried at last, "I wish I had been there, and it had come to a fight."
"What good would that have done?" said Frank.
"Oh, I don't know; but what a night! It was glorious! And to think that all the while I was moping alone over a stupid book, while you were enjoying yourself like that."
"Enjoying myself!" cried Frank scornfully.
"Yes, enjoying yourself. There, with your sword out, defending your beautiful mother from the Guards, after saving your father's life, and keeping the castle--house, I mean--against the men who were battering down the gate--door."
"Well," said Frank drily, "if I have no more romance in me than there is in a big drum, you have."
"I should think I have!" cried the lad, whose handsome, effeminate face was scarlet with his excitement. "Why, you cold-blooded, stony-hearted old countryman, can't you see that you were doing man's work, and having glorious adventures?"
"No; only that it was very horrible," said Frank, with his brow all in lines.
"Bah! I don't believe you felt like that. What a chance! What a time to have! All the luck coming to you, and I'm obliged to lead the life of a palace lapdog, when I want to be a soldier fighting for my king."