Without further ado they went out of the house together.
What would be the upshot of the next two hours Speid did not know and did not dare to think. Cecilia’s freedom would pass with their passing. Captain Somerville had said in his letter that he was writing to tell her he had summoned him, and his heart stood still as he reflected that, in the face of this, she had hastened her marriage by three days. He was puzzled, dismayed, for he could not guess the full depth of Barclay’s guilt, and the boy beside him knew no more from his grandmother’s message than that the lawyer had cleared Blackport of all available horses. To appear before a woman who had forgotten him on her wedding morning, only to see her give her willing hand to another man--was that what he had come across Europe to do? His proud heart sickened.
Seeing that the night had passed unmolested, Granny Stirk had fallen at daylight into an exhausted sleep; it needed Jimmy’s thunder upon the door to awake her to the fact that Gilbert stood without. She turned the key quickly.
‘Whanland! Whanland!’ was all that she could say as he entered.
Her face was haggard with watching and exertion.
‘Oh, Granny!’ he cried. ‘You have almost killed yourself for me!’
‘Aye, but a’m no deid yet!’ exclaimed the old woman. ‘Eh, Laird! but it’s fine to see ye. A’m sweer to let ye gang, but ye canna loss a minute.’
‘But, Granny, what does this mean? She has hurried her wedding, though Captain Somerville told her I would come. What can I do, knowing that?’
‘Do? Ye’ll just hae to rin. Laird, she doesna ken onything. Yon tod--yon damned, leein’ Barclay--he got a haud o’ the letter. The Captain tell’t me that himsel’. Ye’ll need to drive.’
The sight of her worn face and the knowledge of what she had done for him smote Gilbert hard. Though time pressed he would not consent to start till he had taken her to the Crown and left her in the landlady’s care, with an order for fire, food and dry clothing. Then he tore out of the door and down the street to the spot where Jimmy awaited him with the cart. The boy’s brown, hard face cheered him, for it seemed the very incarnation of the country he loved.
The world which lay round them as they drove out of Blackport was a new one, fresh, chastened by the scourging of the storm. The sky was high, blue and pale, and there was a scent of spring; underfoot, the wet ground glistened and the young finger of morning light touched trees and buildings as they rose from an under-world of mist.