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Between the house-place of the Hanyards and the top of Shap, Death had become my familiar. For Maclachlan I had nothing but pity. He had thought that I stood between him and Margaret. Clearly he had learned of her coming back to me, and the thought had maddened him. He had disguised himself as an Englishman and come after me, and this was the end of it.
Holding him by it at arm's length, I stuck my point to his neck again, and said, "Forward." I marched him downstairs and along the passage. There was great risk of being met by some one, and it was the most anxious time I had had since the affair with the sergeant in the house-place at the Hanyards.
"Well done, fisherman!" she said for the second time. "You're heavier than the jack," replied I, hitching her as far from the water as possible before wading back. A minute later I put her down on the bank with tumbled, yellow hair and face flaming red. I examined her critically, and cried triumphantly, "Not a stitch wet!" I threw the jack across my shoulder and we started for the Hanyards.
"I'm quite satisfied, my good Master Freake," babbled the Earl. "What lands?" I burst out, unable to hold in my curiosity any longer. "The lands known as the Upper Hanyards in the county of Staffordshire," replied Master Freake. "Well I'm ," cried I, in amazement, but pulling up in time, and Margaret's blue eyes were as wide open as mine.
Except for brief instructions as to the direction, no word passed until we gained the Hanyards from the rear, and I led her into the house-place unobserved by anyone. "There is little time to talk," I began. "The dragoons are certain to come here, as this is the only house between the inn and the village.
The singing stopped, and then the churning, and five minutes later I crept up to the kitchen door, which was ajar. There was my lord Joe, a jug of ale in hand, his free arm round Jane's neck. How endurable these two found life at the Hanyards! I caught a fragment of their gossip. "Be there such things as rale quanes, Jin?" "Of course," she replied.
Many generations of schoolboys had cut and worn a series of big notches on each side of the wall, and by long practice I could run up and down in a trice to fetch ball or tipcat which had been knocked over. From the bridge at the Hanyards onwards, Mistress Waynflete had always acted promptly and exactly to my wish. I felt a boor, and was in truth a boor, in comparison with her.
Repent ye, my lord, for the hour is at hand, and if you don't, I'll thump you into one of our Kate's blackberry jellies. And here endeth the goodly discourse of that saintly rib-roaster, Master Hit-him-first-and-then-pray-for-him Wheatman of the Hanyards." It was simply glorious to be so tormented by this witch with the dancing blue eyes.
The day before Christmas, he was busy all morning under Jane's garrulous command, getting in bunches of holly and other evergreens from the hedgerows. His last journey had been to one of the farms on the Upper Hanyards in quest of mistletoe, which grew abundantly there in an ancient orchard.
She makes a good marchioness, too, for she always had sense, and has developed dignity. But most of our time we spend at the Hanyards, which I have made into a fine house by careful changes. Master Joe Braggs and Mistress Jane Braggs are our loyal, willing servants and our friends, and are as happy as sandboys together. They have now quite a large family.
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