A Mistress For Major Bartlett. Annie Burrows

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ round him in a smothering cloak.

      But he’d be safer under the earth. Crows wouldn’t be able to get their claws into him any more. Or their beaks.

      ‘Put me back in the ground,’ he begged.

      ‘Don’t be silly,’ came a rather exasperated-sounding voice.

      ‘But I’m dead.’ Wasn’t he? Above the ringing in his ears he’d heard the other damned souls all round him, begging for mercy. Begging for water.

      Because it was so hot on the edge of the abyss.

      Or was it powder caking his mouth, his nostrils, so that everything stank of sulphur?

      ‘Is it crows, then, not demons?’ He’d thought they were wraiths, sliding silently between the other corpses scattered round him. But he’d seen knives flashing, silencing the groans. Sometimes they’d looked just like battlefield looters, not Satan’s minions.

      But whoever, or whatever it had been before, they’d got their claws deep into what was left of him now.

      ‘There are no crows in here,’ came the voice again. ‘No demons, either. Only me. And Ben.’

      Something cool glided across his brow.

      He reached up and grabbed hold of what turned out to be a hand. A human hand. Small, and soft, and trembling slightly.

      ‘Don’t let them take me. Deserve it. Hell. But please...’ He didn’t know why he was begging. Nobody could save him. He’d begged before, for mercy, just like all the others. Or would have done if he’d been able to make a sound. He’d understood then that he wasn’t even going to be permitted one final appeal. He’d had to stay pinned there, reflecting on every sin he’d committed, remembering every man he’d killed, every act of wanton destruction he’d engineered.

      ‘Nobody’s going to take you. I won’t let them.’

      The voice had a face, this time. The face of an angel. Though—he knew her. She was...she was...

      His head hurt too much to think. Only knew he’d seen her before.

      That’s right—for a moment, just one, the power of speech had returned. And he’d begged her to save him. It had something to do with the darkness ebbing and hearing the sound of birdsong, and working out that he couldn’t be dead yet, because birds didn’t sing in hell, and that if he wasn’t dead, then there was still hope. And though there had been all those great black creatures clawing at him, tearing at his clothes, he’d found the strength to make one last, desperate stand.

      And she’d been there. She’d driven them away. Told them to leave him be. And they’d gone, the whole flock of them. Flapping away on their great ugly wings. And he’d fallen into her arms...

      Hazy, what came next. She’d carried him away, somehow, from the mud and the stench. Pillowed on cushions of velvet, soft as feathers.

      Was she an angel, then? There seemed no other logical reason to account for it. Beautiful women didn’t suddenly materialise on battlefields and carry dying men away. Which meant he’d been right in the first place.

      He was dead.

      ‘Did you fly?’ How else could she have carried him here? Besides, she was an angel, wasn’t she? Angels had wings. Only hers weren’t black, like the crows. But blue. Palest blue, like sky after the rain had washed it clean.

      ‘Oh, dear, oh, dear,’ the angel sobbed.

      ‘Why are you weeping? I’m not worth it.’

      ‘I’m not weeping.’ The angel sniffed.

      ‘If I’m dead, why does it still hurt so much?’ he groaned. ‘Look, they know my soul belongs to their master. That’s why they’re clawing at me. Perhaps you should just let me go. No need to cry, then.’

      ‘No! And it’s not claws. It’s your wounds. Here, try to drink some more of this. It will help with the pain.’

      Her arm was under his neck, lifting his head. And she pressed a cup to his lips.

      More? She’d given him a drink before?

      Ah, yes. He did remember wishing someone would give him something to drink. The thirst had been worse than the pain, in that other place. He’d understood that bit in the bible, then, about the rich man begging Lazarus to dip even one finger in water and cool his tongue. And known, too, that like the rich man he deserved his torment. He’d earned his place in hell.

      But his throat was no longer raw. His tongue wasn’t stuck to the roof of his mouth. And he could speak.

      So she must have given him water, before. Couldn’t have been anyone else. Nobody else gave a damn.

      ‘I was so thirsty.’ And now he was tired. Too tired to drink any more. Or speak. Or even think.

      * * *

      It was the longest night of Sarah’s life. He’d been lying there quietly enough until the Rogues left her on her own with him. But from the moment the door shut on them, it seemed to her, he hadn’t given her a moment’s peace.

      Not that it was his fault, poor wretch. He couldn’t help starting to come out of his deep swoon. Or being thirsty, or hot, or uncomfortable. Only it was such a tremendous responsibility, caring for someone as ill as that. It was almost impossible to get more than a sip or two of the meadowsweet tea between his lips. And sponging him down didn’t seem to help for more than a minute or two. And then only at first. As the night wore on, his fever mounted and he started muttering all sorts of peculiar, disjointed things about hell, and demons, and thrashing about in the bed, as though trying to dig his way out from under some crushing weight.

      And it was downright scary when he started speaking to her in that clear, lucid voice, in such a bizarrely confused manner.

      The only thing that calmed him was to answer him as though he was making sense. To assure him that he wasn’t already in hell, whether he deserved it or not. And to promise she wasn’t going to let him die.

      She would have promised him anything if only he would lie quietly and let her sleep. She was so tired. She’d hardly slept the night before, in the stable, she’d been so scared. Nor the night before that, she’d been in such a state over the report of Gideon’s death.

      Yet, when Madame le Brun came in to ask how her brother was getting on, and if she wanted to take a short break, she found she was unable to leave him for long.

      She was glad to have a meal, for she hadn’t eaten a thing all day. And she did feel better for a wash and a change of clothes. But once she’d seen to her immediate needs, she couldn’t rest for worrying about the Major.

      Not that she must think of him as the Major, she decided, as she went to take Madame le Brun’s place at his bedside. If he really had been her brother, she would have thought of him as... What was his first name? They called him Tom Cat, so the chances were it was Tom. Well, that was what she must call him, for now. The truth would come out soon enough. The truth about his real identity. And his real name if it wasn’t Tom. And it wasn’t as if it would make any difference to him what she called him, the СКАЧАТЬ