"I waited--to share with thee," Merrylips answered, and somehow she choked upon the words. "Thou art a little fool," said Rupert, angrily. He broke the bread and on the crumb that was least hard he placed the meat and laid it on her knee. "Eat this now!" he ordered. "Thou hast given me all the meat," she answered. "And we must share alike." Then Rupert caught her with his arm about her shoulders, and laid the bread in her hand. "Eat it!" he said roughly. "Thou must have the best. I'm older and stronger than thou--and I promised I'd care for thee--and I will now, indeed I will! Thou needst not fear, for all we may not find help at King's Slynton. I'll bring thee safe unto thy friends, and I--I'll not be rough with thee again. Now wilt thou not eat? I pray thee, Tibbott!" And this time Merrylips took the food and ate. CHAPTER XXIV THE DARKEST DAY In the dull light of the dripping morning Rupert and Merrylips sat up and looked at each other. The packet that had held their food gaped emptily at their feet, and the flask lay forlornly on its side. "What shall we do? And whither shall we go now, Rupert?" Merrylips asked. She chafed her cold little hands while she waited hopefully for his reply. Rupert had his answer ready. Indeed, for twenty-four hours he had thought of little else. "We cannot well go back to Monksfield," he said, "for no doubt the place hath fallen by now." Merrylips nodded gravely. "If I had known!" she said in a low voice. "I wish now I'd shaken hands with Lieutenant Digby, since he was fain to do so." "Well," said Rupert, "we can't go back, so we must needs go forward. And since King's Slynton is no longer a Royalist garrison, we must make our way to the nearest place that is. But we will not make such long marches as we made yesterday!" he added. Merrylips was glad to hear those last words, for she was lame in every muscle. But she did not say that she was glad, lest Rupert think her a little milksop to be so quickly tired. Instead she asked:-- "Where is the Royalist garrison to which we shall go now? I pray thee, tell me!" No doubt Rupert would have liked to seem wise in everything to this younger lad, but he was an honest boy. Though he hesitated, he presently spoke the truth. "That I do not rightly know," he said. "These parts are strange to me, and Captain Norris was so sure that we should find shelter at King's Slynton that he told me nothing of the ways beyond. But we must go westward, I know, to reach the king's country." "Ay," said Merrylips, "for Walsover lieth in the west." "But first of all," Rupert went on, "for this I learned yesterday in the village, we must cross the river Slyne that barreth our passage into the west. And we cannot cross it by the bridge at King's Slynton, now that the rebels are there, so we must go northward to a village called Slynford, where there is a fording place."