The quadrangle was deserted, the household disposed
of, and it wanted yet half-an-hour to the time for which the
carriage was ordered. No moment could have been more propitious.
But in any case no concealment was attempted - since, if detected
it must have provoked suspicions hardly likely to be aroused in any
other way.
When Lady O'Moy returned indoors in the gathering dusk she was
followed at a respectful distance by the limping fugitive, who might,
had he been seen, have been supposed some messenger, or perhaps
some person employed about the house or gardens coming to her
ladyship for instructions. No one saw them, however, and they gained
the dressing-room and thence the alcove in complete safety.
There, whilst Richard, allowing his exhaustion at last to conquer
him, sank heavily down upon one of his sister's many trunks,
recking nothing of the havoc wrought in its priceless contents, her
ladyship all a-tremble collapsed limply upon another.
But there was no rest for her. Richard's wound required attention,
and he was faint for want of meat and drink. So having procured
him the wherewithal to wash and dress his hurt - a nasty knife-slash
which had penetrated to the bone of his thigh, the very sight of
which turned her ladyship sick and faint - she went to forage for
him in a haste increased by the fact that time was growing short.
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