Clementina
Page 161"We travel to Bologna," said he. "I will not have you wasted. Other
women may slink into kennels and stop their ears--not you. The King is
true to you. You are for the King."
As she had not argued before, she did not argue now. She nodded her head
and fastened her cloak about her throat. She followed him out of the hut
and down the gorge. In the northeast the sky already flamed, and the sun
was up before they reached the road. They walked silently towards Peri,
and Wogan was wondering whether in her heart she despised him when she
stopped.
"Yes," said Wogan.
"But you?" she said with her brows in a frown; "there is no compulsion
on you to marry--anyone."
Wogan was relieved of his fears. He broke into a laugh, to which she
made no reply. She still waited frowning for his answer.
"No woman," he said, "will ride on my black horse into my city of
dreams. You may be very sure I will not marry."
"No. I would not have you married."
right to make any such claim did not occur to her. She was merely
certain and resolved that Wogan must not marry. She did not again refer
to the matter, nor could she so have done had she wished. For a little
later and while they were not yet come to Peri, they were hailed from
behind, and turning about they saw Gaydon and O'Toole riding after them.
O'Toole had his story to tell. Gaydon and he had put the courier to bed
and taken his clothes and his money, and after the fellow had waked up,
they had sat for a day in the bedroom keeping him quiet and telling the
Peri. They went boldly to the Cervo Inn, where all traces of the night's
conflict had been removed, and neither Wogan nor the landlady thought it
prudent to make any mention of the matter; they waited for Misset and
his wife, who came the next day. And thus reunited they passed one
evening into the streets of Bologna and stopped at the Pilgrim Inn.