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Updated: May 2, 2025
"You were excellently diplomatic. Were she a woman easily frightened there would be no doubt of her answer. Your guests in the Abbey, Sir John, must not know of my presence here, nor that the place is watched to-night." "You are sure that Martin brought this man Crosby to Aylingford?" "Quite sure." "Why not take him to-night, quietly?" said Sir John.
He had been very kind to her ever since she had come to Aylingford as a little child, and if his manner towards her had changed recently she hardly noticed it. Under the circumstances she would not easily be ready to criticise. But in the case of the guests the change was not only very marked, but increasingly so, particularly with the women.
"A queer little corner of it appropriated by Martin Fairley. You seem surprised, sir." "Indeed, I am. I have passed through many surprises during the last few hours, not the least of them being that this is Aylingford, and that you are astonished to see me." "Perhaps it would be well to tell me your story before Martin returns.
And much about herself Barbara told him, but not yet of the evil which hung over Aylingford. She could not tell him that yet, and there was time enough, for she had advised that he should remain at the Abbey for a little while. "I believe your enemies are private ones, and would only use this rebellion against you as a means to an end," she said.
Would he? Crosby wondered, when he was left alone. In what direction could Martin be seeking a solution to the problem? Not in Dorchester, surely, or he would have come to the "Anchor" tavern. Where else? In London? At Aylingford? Yes, perhaps at Aylingford; an appeal to Barbara's guardian.
My coming to Aylingford has brought you grievous trouble." "There was trouble before you came; it does not seem to me much greater now," she answered. "Spoken like a philosopher," said Martin, laying his sword on the table beside the fiddle and the bow. "And, truly, Martin, you fight like a soldier," said Barbara. "The occasion makes the man, mistress.
And yet there were clouds in it, wreaths of doubt which would not clear away. She must know more of this man Gilbert Crosby before she trusted him fully and she wanted to trust him. Martin had told her many things in the past; she had meant to ask Martin whether she ought to stay at Aylingford; now she had a desire to take her fears to Gilbert Crosby.
These people were her uncle's guests, honoured guests surely, since they had come to Aylingford so often. Would he countenance anything to which there was any real objection? She would have asked him, but found no opportunity. For two or three days after his talk with her about Lord Rosmore she hardly saw him, and never for a moment alone.
She had little hope of succeeding, but she was very sure that he should ride away with no promise of hers. There was another, by this time rapidly leaving Aylingford behind him she hoped, who bore with him, not her promise, he had not asked for that, but her thoughts and her prayers. If these were any shield from danger, surely he went in safety.
With a fiddle-bow for his only weapon he was a poor ally, and yet he seemed to be the only true friend she possessed. Barbara was very lonely, and more and more she was persuaded that Aylingford Abbey was a different place from that which, through all her childhood until now, she had considered it.
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