“Because he drove me to it,” Hugh retorted, and pressed on with his face set to the front.
“Well, no one is driving you now that you keep such a pace. Whither are you going, an’t like you?”
“Shrewsbury. To seek in all the troop stables till I find those who will employ me.”
“Nay, nay, lad, come back with me, if you have it in heart to forgive me. On my soul, I meant not so to dash your fortunes. By the Lord, I’ve a liking for you, sir, in spite of your meek bearing. And I doubt not your father would see there was some good in you, in time. Only come back, and mayhap he—”
“Before I’d beg of Colonel Gwyeth now, I’d go carry a musket for a common foot soldier,” Hugh answered.
“Well, you’ve not your father’s spirit,” Ridydale jerked out impatiently.
Hugh turned on him: “I trust I’ve not. I trust I’ll never live to cast off a son of my own.”
At that Ridydale stared blankly, then stopped short and burst out laughing. “By the Lord, you are the colonel over again, sir, whether it like you or not! My faith, and he does not realize it even now, no more than I did. Why, there’s mettle in you, sir, after all. Now come back.”
But Hugh very plainly showed his whole intent was turned to Shrewsbury, so at length Ridydale abruptly yielded. “I’ll come along with you,” he offered. “Very like I can find employment for you there, sir. If you care to trust unto me—”
“Ay, and I thank you too,” Hugh answered, touched for the moment, till he remembered that Ridydale cared for him only as he would have cared for a dog, had it borne the name of Gwyeth.
After that they trudged on in silence, past the huddled, outlying houses, through the west gate of Shrewsbury, and so into the crowd and confusion of the garrison streets. It was somewhat past noon, Hugh judged by the position of the sun, and then the sun was shut out, as they turned into a narrow byway where the mud was deep in the shadow of the tall houses. “This has not much the look of a troop stable,” Hugh suggested, as Ridydale halted and knocked at the dark rear door of what seemed a considerable mansion.
But Ridydale was speaking a word aside to the serving man who opened, and paid no heed. Presently he stepped in, bidding Hugh follow, and then, leaving him alone in a dingy anteroom, he walked away with the servant. Seating himself on a bench by the wall Hugh tried to run over the morning’s events, and then to put them by and think only of what was before him: stable-boy, trooper one day, perhaps. Only it was not a good thing to hope forward to, so he drummed his finger-tips on the bench and wondered why Ridydale delayed.