The Face and the Mask by Robert Barr (beach read book txt) 📖

“Yes,” answered the girl, weeping afresh. “She has been dead these five years.”

“I knew her when I was a boy,” said Trenchon. “Thy father also, and many a grudge I owe him, although I had forgotten about them. Still, I doubt not but as a boy I was as much in fault as he, although he was harsh to all of us, and now it seems he is harsh to thee. My name is Trenchon. I doubt if any in the village now remember me, although, perhaps, they may have heard of me from London,” he said, with some pride, and a hope that the girl would confirm his thoughts. But she shook her head.

“I have never heard thy name,” she said.

Trenchon sighed. This, then, was fame!

“Ah, well!” he cried, “that matters not; they shall hear more of me later. I will go with thee to thy father’s house and demand for thee admittance and decent usage.”

But the girl shrank back. “Oh, no, no!” she cried; “that will never do. My father is a hard man to cross. There are none in the village who dare contend with him.”

“That is as it may be,” said Trenchon, with easy confidence. “I, for one, fear him not. Come, lass, with me, and see if I cannot, after all these years, pick out thy father’s dwelling. Come, I say, thou must not longer tarry here; the rain is coming on afresh, and these trees, thick as they are, form scant protection. It is outrageous that thou should wander in this storm, while thy brutal father lies in shelter. Nay, do not fear harm for either thee or me; and as for him, he shall not suffer if thou but wish it so.” And, drawing the girl’s hand through his arm, he took her reluctantly with him, and without direction from her soon stood before the blacksmith’s house.

“You see,” he said, triumphantly, “I knew the place, and yet I have not seen the town for years.”

Trenchon rapped soundly on the oaken door with his heavy stick, and the blows re-echoed through the silent house. The girl shrank timidly behind him, and would have fled, but that he held her firmly by the wrist.

“Nay, nay,” he said: “believe me there is naught to fear. I will see that thou art not ill-used.”

As he spoke the window above was thrown up, and a string of fearful oaths greeted the two, whereat the girl once more tried to release her imprisoned wrist, but Trenchon held it lightly, though with a grip like steel.

The stout old man thrust his head through the open window.

“God’s blight on thee!” he cried, “thou pair of fools who wish to wed so much that ye venture out in such a night as this. Well, have your way, and let me have my rest. In the name of the law of Scotland I pronounce ye man and wife. There, that will bind two fools together as strongly as if the Archbishop spoke the words. Place thou the money on the steps. I warrant none will venture to touch it when it belongs to me.” And with that he closed the window.

“Is he raving mad or drunk?” cried Trenchon.

The girl gave a wailing cry. “Alas! alas!” she said; “he is neither. He is so used to marrying folk who come from England across the Border that he thinks not it his daughter who came with thee, but two who wished to wed. They come at all hours of the night and day, and he has married us. I am thy wife.”

The astonished man dropped her wrist, and she put her hands before her eyes and wept.

“Married!” cried Trenchon. “We two married!”

He looked with interest at the girl, but in the darkness could see nothing of her. The unheeded rain pelted on them both.

“Hast thou”—he hesitated—“hast thou some other lover, since you weep?”

The girl shook her head. “No one,” she said, “comes near us. They fear my father.”

“Then, if this be true, why dost thou weep? I am not considered so bad a fellow.”

“I weep not for myself, but for thee, who through the kindness of thy heart hast been led into this trap. Believe me, it was not my intention.”

“Judging from thy voice, my girl, and if thou favorest thy mother, as I think, whom I remember well, this is a trap that I shall make little effort to get my foot out of. But thou art dripping, and I stand chattering here. Once more I will arouse my father-in-law.”

So saying, he stoutly rapped again with his stick upon the door.

Once more the window was pushed up, and again the angry head appeared.

“Get you gone!” cried the maddened blacksmith, but before he could say anything further Trenchon cried out:

“It is thy daughter here who waits. Open the door, thou limb of hell, or I will burst it in and cast thee out as thou hast done thy daughter.”

The blacksmith, who had never in his life been spoken to in tones or words like these, was so amazed that he could neither speak nor act, but one stout kick against the door so shook the fabric that he speedily saw another such would break into his domicile; so, leaving the window open that his curses might the better reach them, the blacksmith came down and threw the barrier from the door, flinging it open and standing on the threshold so as to bar all ingress.

“Out of the way,” cried Trenchon, roughly placing his hand on the other’s breast with apparent lightness, but with a push that sent him staggering into the room.

The young man pulled the girl in after him and closed the door.

“Thou knowest the way,” he whispered. “Strike thou a light.”

The trembling girl lit a candle, and as it shone upon her face Trenchon gave a deep sigh of happiness and relief. No girl in the village could be more fair.

The blacksmith stood, his fingers clenched with rage; but he looked with hesitation and respect upon the burly form of the prizefighter. Yet the old man did not flinch.

“Throw aside thy stick,” he cried, “or wait until I can get me another.”

Trenchon flung his stick into the corner.

“Oh! oh!” cried the girl, clasping her hands. “You must not fight.” But she appealed to her husband and not to her father, which caused a glow of satisfaction to rise from the heart of the young man.

“Get thee out of this house,” cried her father, fiercely, turning upon her.

“Talk not thus to my wife,” said Trenchon, advancing upon him.

“Thy wife?” cried the blacksmith, in amaze.

“My