Maulfry came bowing forward. Isoult turned and walked slowly away from
her, Vincent in company and on the watch; Maulfry followed, gaining.
By the buttery door Isoult suddenly stopped and faced round. Maulfry
was before her.
"Maulfry," said the girl quietly, "what do you want with my lord?"
Maulfry's eyes shifted like lightning from one to the other. She felt
her rage rising, but swallowed it down.
"You little fool," she said, "you little fool, his life is in danger."
"I have warned him, Maulfry. It was in danger."
"Warned him! I can do better than that. Why, your own is as shaky as
his. You have brought it about by your own folly, and now you are like
to let him be killed. Take me to him, child, for his sake and yours."
"You will never see him, Maulfry."
Maulfry hesitated for a second or two. She was very angry at this
trouble.
"You are a great fool for such a little body, Isoult," she said; "more
than I had believed. Come now, let me pass." She made to go on:
Isoult, to get ready, stepped back a step, but Vincent slipped in
between them. He was shaking all over.
"Stay where you are, dame," he said.
Maulfry gave a jump.
"Bastard!" She spat at him, and whipped a knife into his heart.
Vincent sobbed, and fell with a thud. In a trice Isoult had struck
with her dagger at Maulfry's shoulder. Steel struck steel: the blade
broke short off at the haft.
A guard came out with a torch, saw the trouble, and turned shouting to
his mates. Half-a-dozen of them came tumbling into the passage with
torches and pikes. There was a great smoke, some blinding patches of
light, everywhere else a sooty darkness. By the time they were up to
the buttery there was nothing to be seen but a boy sitting on the
flags with a dead boy on his knees. Maulfry had gone. As for Vincent,
Love had killed love sure as fate.
When Prosper heard of it all he was very angry. "Is this how you serve
me, child? To fight battles for me? I suppose I should return the
compliment by darning your stockings. I had things to say to this
woman, many things to learn. You have bungled my plans and vexed me."
Isoult humbled herself to the dust, but he would not be appeased.
"Who was this boy?" he asked her. "What on earth had he to do in my
affair?"
"Lord," she said meekly, "he died to save me from death, and once
before he risked his life to let me escape from Tortsentier."
Prosper felt the rebuke and got more angry.
"A fool meets with a fool's death. Boys and girls have no business
with steel. They should be in the nursery."