Chivalrous Captain, Rebel Mistress. Diane Gaston

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      ‘The ball passed through you,’ she said in relief. She would not have relished attempting to remove a ball from a man’s flesh. ‘I need a cloth to clean it.’

      ‘In my pocket.’

      There was a clean handkerchief in the right pocket. She dipped it in the water trough and used it to clean the wound.

      Even as she worked Marian could not fail to notice his broad shoulders and the sculpted contours of his chest. Beneath her hand his muscles were firm. She and Domina had admired his appearance in uniform what seemed an age ago when they’d first glimpsed him in the Parc. You should see him naked, Domina, she said silently to herself.

      Marian had stuffed rolls of bandage in her pockets before the fire. She pulled them out and wrapped his wound.

      ‘Where did you learn to tend wounds?’ he asked.

      She smiled. ‘At Hougoumont.’

      He looked shocked. ‘At Hougoumont?’

      ‘It was all I could do.’ The sounds and smell and heat of the fires at Hougoumont returned. Tears stung her eyes as she again heard the cries of men trapped inside.

      She forced herself to stop thinking of it. ‘I really have been a gently bred young lady.’ At least since leaving India, she had been. In India she remembered running free.

      She tied off the bandages. ‘How does that feel, Captain?’

      ‘Good.’ His voice was tight.

      She made a face. ‘I know it hurts like the devil.’

      His lips twitched into a smile that vanished into a spasm of pain. ‘We should be on our way.’ He tried to stand, but swayed and fell against the stall. ‘Ahhhh!’ he cried.

      She jumped to her feet and caught him before he slipped to the ground. ‘You cannot ride.’

      His face was very pale. ‘Must get you to Brussels.’

      ‘Or die trying? I won’t have it!’ She pointed to his horse, now munching hay, coat damp with sweat and muscles trembling. ‘Your horse is exhausted and you have lost a great deal of blood.’

      Captain Landon tried to pull out of her supporting arm to go towards his horse. ‘She needs tending. Rubbing down.’

      She held him tight. ‘You sit. I will look after your horse.’

      He frowned. ‘You cannot—’

      ‘I can indeed. I know how to tend a horse.’ This was a complete falsehood, of course, but he would not know she never paid much attention to horses except to ride them.

      With her help, he sat down again and she found a horse blanket clean enough to wrap around him. A further search located a piece of sackcloth that she used to wipe off the horse’s sweaty coat. She removed the horse’s saddle and carried it and the saddlebags over to the captain.

      His eyes seemed to have trouble focusing on her. ‘Is there some water?’

      Water. She could suddenly smell it from the trough, and became aware of her own thirst. Surely there must be somewhere to get water without sharing it with the animals. ‘I’ll find some.’

      There was a noise at the doorway. The little girl was watching them.

      Marian gestured to her, pointing to the water and making a motion like a pump. ‘L’eau?’

      The child popped her thumb into her mouth again and stared.

      Marian rubbed her brow. ‘I wish I knew how to say water.’

      ‘Water?’ The child blinked.

      ‘Yes, yes.’ Marian nodded. ‘Water.’

      The little girl led her to a pump behind the hut. Marian filled a nearby bucket and cupped her hands, drinking her fill. The child left her, but soon returned with a tin cup and handed it to her.

      ‘Thank you,’ she said.

      The girl smiled. ‘Dank u. Dank u. Dank u. ‘

      Marian carried the bucket and cup to the barn. The captain opened his eyes when she came near.

      ‘Water.’ She smiled, lifting the bucket to show him. She set it down and filled the cup for him.

      His hand shook as he lifted the cup to his lips, but he swallowed eagerly. Afterwards he rested against the stall again.

      And looked worse by the minute.

      ‘When Valour is rested, we’ll start out again.’ Even his voice was weaker.

      ‘Valour?’

      ‘Valour.’ He swallowed. ‘My horse.’

      She laughed. ‘But she was not valorous! She bolted away from the cannons.’

      He rose to the horse’s defence. ‘The fire frightened her. She’s used to cannon.’

      Then it must have been the flash of flame from the cannonade that had set the horse on her terrified gallop.

      And brought them to this place.

      She sat next to him, suddenly weary herself.

      He seemed to be having difficulty keeping his eyes open. ‘The cannon stopped. It is over.’ He took a breath. ‘I wonder who won.’

      ‘We shall learn that tomorrow.’ Marian tried to infuse her voice with a confidence she did not feel. Back in England one day had always seemed much like the last, but here, who knew what tomorrow would bring?

      The captain coughed and cried out with the pain it created. It frightened Marian how pale he looked and how much it hurt him to simply take a breath. Soon his eyes closed and his breathing relaxed.

      Let him sleep, she told herself, even though she felt very alone without his company. Memories of the day flooded her mind. The face of the dying soldier. The fire.

      Eventually even those images could not keep her eyes from becoming very heavy. She’d just begun to doze when she heard voices outside. The parents returning?

      She shot to her feet and peeked out of the door.

      A man and a woman in peasant garb led a heavily laden mule. The little girl ran out to meet them. She pointed towards the barn.

      Marian stepped outside. The man and woman both dropped their chins in surprise. She supposed she looked a fright, black with soot, clothing torn and stained with the captain’s blood and the blood of other men she’d tended. She was dressed as a boy, she must recall. They would think her a boy.

      ‘Bonjour,’ she began and tried explaining her presence in French.

      Their blank stares matched their little daughter’s.

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