By dint of a few more gentle assurances and persuasions, Miss Helstone contrived to soothe the agitated lady. Having accompanied her to her apartment, and promised to rejoin her there when things were settled, Caroline left her to see, as she said, “if she could be useful.” She presently found that she could be very useful; for the retinue of servants at Fieldhead was by no means numerous, and just now their mistress found plenty of occupation for all the hands at her command, and for her own also. The delicate good-nature and dexterous activity which Caroline brought to the aid of the housekeeper and maids – all somewhat scared by their lady’s unwonted mood – did a world of good at once; it helped the assistants and appeased the directress. A chance glance and smile from Caroline moved Shirley to an answering smile directly. The former was carrying a heavy basket up the cellar stairs.
“This is a shame!” cried Shirley, running to her. “It will strain your arm.”
She took it from her, and herself bore it out into the yard. The cloud of temper was dispelled when she came back; the flash in her eye was melted; the shade on her forehead vanished. She resumed her usual cheerful and cordial manner to those about her, tempering her revived spirits with a little of the softness of shame at her previous unjust anger.
She was still superintending the lading of the cart, when a gentleman entered the yard and approached her ere she was aware of his presence.
“I hope I see Miss Keeldar well this morning?” he said, examining with rather significant scrutiny her still flushed face.
She gave him a look, and then again bent to her employment without reply. A pleasant enough smile played on her lips, but she hid it. The gentleman repeated his salutation, stooping, that it might reach her ear with more facility.
“Well enough, if she be good enough,” was the answer; “and so is Mr. Moore too, I dare say. To speak truth, I am not anxious about him; some slight mischance would be only his just due. His conduct has been – we will say strange just now, till we have time to characterize it by a more exact epithet. Meantime, may I ask what brings him here?”
“Mr. Helstone and I have just received your message that everything at Fieldhead was at our service. We judged, by the unlimited wording of the gracious intimation, that you would be giving yourself too much trouble. I perceive our conjecture was correct. We are not a regiment, remember – only about half a dozen soldiers and as many civilians. Allow me to retrench something from these too abundant supplies.”
Miss Keeldar blushed, while she laughed at her own over-eager generosity and most disproportionate calculations. Moore laughed too, very quietly though; and as quietly he ordered basket after basket to be taken from the cart, and remanded vessel after vessel to the cellar.
“The rector must hear of this,” he said; “he will make a good story of it. What an excellent army contractor Miss Keeldar would have been!” Again he laughed, adding, “It is precisely as I conjectured.”
“You ought to be thankful,” said Shirley, “and not mock me. What could I do? How could I gauge your appetites or number your band? For aught I knew, there might have been fifty of you at least to victual. You told me nothing; and then an application to provision soldiers naturally suggests large ideas.”
“It appears so,” remarked Moore, levelling another of his keen, quiet glances at the discomfited Shirley. – “Now,” he continued, addressing the carter, “I think you may take what remains to the Hollow. Your load will be somewhat lighter than the one Miss Keeldar destined you to carry.”
As the vehicle rumbled out of the yard, Shirley, rallying her spirits, demanded what had become of the wounded.
“There was not a single man hurt on our side,” was the answer.
“You were hurt yourself, on the temples,” interposed a quick, low voice – that of Caroline, who, having withdrawn within the shade of the door, and behind the large person of Mrs. Gill, had till now escaped Moore’s notice. When she spoke, his eye searched the obscurity of her retreat.
“Are you much hurt?” she inquired.
“As you might scratch your finger with a needle in sewing.”
“Lift your hair and let us see.”
He took his hat off, and did as he was bid, disclosing only a narrow slip of court-plaster. Caroline indicated, by a slight movement of the head, that she was satisfied, and disappeared within the clear obscure of the interior.
“How did she know I was hurt?” asked Moore.
“By rumour, no doubt. But it is too good in her to trouble herself about you. For my part, it was of your victims I was thinking when I inquired after the wounded. What damage have your opponents sustained?”
“One of the rioters, or victims as you call them, was killed, and six were hurt.”
“What have you done with them?”
“What you will perfectly approve. Medical aid was procured immediately; and as soon as we can get a couple of covered wagons and some clean straw, they will be removed to Stilbro.’”
“Straw! You must have beds and bedding. I will send my wagon directly, properly furnished; and Mr. Yorke, I am sure, will send his.”
“You guess correctly; he has volunteered already. And Mrs. Yorke – who, like you, seems disposed to regard the rioters as martyrs, and me, and especially Mr. Helstone, as murderers – is at this moment, I believe, most assiduously engaged in fitting it up with feather beds, pillows, bolsters, blankets, etc. The victims lack no attentions, I promise you. Mr. Hall, your favourite parson, has been with them ever since six o’clock, exhorting them, praying with them, and even waiting on them like any nurse; and Caroline’s good friend, Miss Ainley, that very plain old maid, sent in a stock of lint and linen, something in the proportion of another lady’s allowance of beef and wine.”
“That will do. Where is your sister?”
“Well cared for. I had her securely domiciled with Miss Mann. This very morning the two set out for Wormwood Wells [a noted watering place], and will stay there some weeks.”
“So Mr. Helstone domiciled me at the rectory! Mighty clever you gentlemen think you are! I make you heartily welcome to the idea, and hope its savour, as you chew the cud of reflection upon it, gives you pleasure. Acute and astute, why are you not also omniscient? How is it that events transpire, under your very noses, of which you have no suspicion? It should be so, otherwise the exquisite gratification of out manoeuvring you would be unknown. Ah, friend, you may search my countenance, but you cannot read it.”
Moore, indeed, looked as if he could not.
“You think me a dangerous specimen of my sex. Don’t you now?”
“A peculiar one, at least.”
“But Caroline – is she peculiar?”
“In her way – yes.”
“Her way! What is her way?”
“You know her as well as I do.”
“And knowing her, I assert that she is neither eccentric nor difficult of control. Is she?”
“That depends”
“However, there is nothing masculine about her?”
“Why lay such emphasis on her? Do you consider her a contrast, in that respect, to yourself?”
“You do, no doubt; but that does not signify. Caroline is neither masculine, nor of what they call the spirited order of women.”
“I have seen her flash out.”
“So have I, but not with manly fire. It was a short, vivid, trembling glow, that shot up, shone, vanished”
“And left her scared at her own daring. You describe others besides Caroline.”
“The point I wish to establish is, that Miss Helstone, though gentle, tractable, and candid enough, is still perfectly capable of defying even Mr. Moore’s penetration.”
“What have you and she been doing?” asked Moore suddenly.
“Have you had any breakfast?”