‘Are you all right, Kees?’ she asked.
When he turned to face her, she could see the perspiration on his face. He couldn’t even answer her question with a gesture. He looked shaky and confused. After blinking in dismay, he wobbled for a second then collapsed on the floor.
‘Heavens!’ exclaimed Janssen. ‘What’s wrong with him?’
‘He needs a doctor,’ decided Amalia, bending over him.
‘Poor fellow!’ said Pienaar at her elbow. ‘Shall I help him to his room?’
Geel was decisive. ‘No,’ he said, coming forward, ‘I’ll do that.’ He bent down to pick up Dopff. ‘Come on, Kees. The best place for you is in bed.’
‘Can you manage on your own, Nick?’ asked Amalia.
‘Yes. He’s as light as a feather.’
It was a downright lie but Geel was eager to impress her. Adjusting his hold, he carried Dopff out of the workshop and up the stairs. Amalia was at his heels. Her father, meanwhile, was sending one of the servants to fetch a doctor. Dopff had a room at the very top of the house. It was hard work climbing the steep staircase but Geel didn’t utter a word of complaint. Though his arms were aching and shooting pains were attacking his legs, he soldiered on until he reached the upper landing. Amalia went past him to open the door and he carried Dopff the last few yards into the room. Between them, he and Amalia lowered the body on to the bed. Beads of sweat covered Dopff’s face now but he was conscious again and even managed a brave smile.
Geel wasn’t interested in the patient. He was relishing the rare treat of standing so close to Amalia. His prompt action had won her gratitude. Though she was preoccupied with Dopff, she hadn’t forgotten who’d carried him to his bed.
‘Thank you, Nick,’ she said, turning to him. ‘It’s so kind of you.’
When she grasped his arm for a second, the pain in his limbs vanished.
* * *
They spent the night in the open. Both of them were used to sleeping under the stars. The weather was fine and a warm breeze helped to dry the grass somewhat. When they set off next morning, they didn’t do so as a French curé and his sister. That disguise was no longer needed. After leaving Mons, Daniel had guided them back to the woods where they’d had the encounter with the three deserters. Rachel realised why he’d stripped two of the men of their uniforms and hidden them in a hollow trunk. They were there to be retrieved. One had belonged to Goujon who’d been as tall and well built as Daniel. The other had been worn by the man with the pistol, a stout individual of middle height. Daniel had discounted the third uniform because it was the wrong size for either of them and it had a bullet hole between the shoulder blades. Down the back of that blue uniform was a long, red bloodstain.
‘Are you ready yet?’ asked Daniel.
‘I can’t get into this coat.’
‘You ought to – that deserter was more or less your size.’
‘The breeches are too long and the coat is too tight,’ she protested.
‘Force yourself into them.’
Daniel was anxious to be on their way. Having collected the uniforms from their hiding place, they’d ridden on until darkness forced them to look for shelter. When they set out again next morning, he wanted them to look like French soldiers. Close up, Rachel would deceive nobody but she’d look far more convincing from a distance. Anyone searching for a parish priest and a plump woman would ride past without subjecting them to any scrutiny.
Rachel came out from behind the tree for an inspection. The coat was tight and the breeches were ridiculously wrinkled. With her tricorn hat on, however, she did have a military air about her. She was by no means the first woman to pose as a soldier. Others had chosen to conceal their gender in the past so that they could don a uniform and fight alongside men. Daniel could recall an instance after the Battle of Ramillies when a wounded British soldier, examined by a surgeon, was found to be female. The woman had enlisted in the army to be close to her husband and had revelled in the life. Rachel wouldn’t need to go to those extremes. She just needed to be able to fool a casual observer. As he adjusted her uniform for her, Daniel felt confident that she would. It was not only the uniforms, boots and hats that he’d borrowed from the deserters. He’d also taken the pistol with which he’d been threatened by one of the men. It was secreted beneath his coat and the ammunition was in his pocket. His dagger – a gift from Rachel for coming to her rescue – was concealed in his boot. She, too, was armed with a pistol, loaded and kept in her saddlebag.
‘I’ll need a hand to mount,’ she warned him.
‘Be my guest,’ he said.
Daniel held the stirrup while she put her foot into it then heaved her upwards into the saddle. As she sat astride the horse, she flexed her muscles.
‘It doesn’t feel quite so tight now.’
‘Let’s go.’
‘Don’t forget that you’re a French soldier.’
‘Oui, oui, monsieur.’
Hauling himself into the saddle, he rode off beside her, making sure that the road was clear before emerging from the cover of the trees. Sunshine was at last trying to make a belated appearance. The track was still muddy but at least they didn’t have to ride with rain in their faces. They skirted the small fortress of St-Ghislain which sat squarely on the line of march from Tournai to Mons and collected friendly waves from soldiers who were heading for the town. With benign weather and with a breeze at their backs, they made good progress.
Rachel was uncomfortable and became increasingly restless.
‘How much longer will I have to be in the French army?’ she asked.
‘Keep the uniform on until I’m certain that we’re not being followed.’
‘If there was a posse after us, we’d have seen them by now.’
‘It’s too early to make that assumption, Rachel.’
‘This coat is pinching me all over.’
‘It’s served its purpose so far,’ Daniel pointed out. ‘Those soldiers thought you were one of their own.’
‘I don’t think we need this disguise at all,’ she argued. ‘Even if that priest did learn that we’d lied to him, he wouldn’t do anything about it. He’d probably think we were a pair of harmless lunatics and pray for us to be cured. It’s time to stop being so furtive, Daniel. Nobody is on our tail.’
When the parish priest reported his suspicions, his warning was not ignored. If strangers had come to Mons and made false claims about a recently deceased man, then the likelihood was that their visit had more sinister intentions. Soldiers had been sent to scour the streets for a curé in his thirties with a female companion of similar age. In the course of their search, they also checked the other gates in case the mysterious pair had already left the town. By the time that they established that the wanted couple had already left, it was too dark to go after them. At dawn on the following day, however, five soldiers left under the command of a sergeant. They took the road used by Daniel and Rachel after their departure. It wasn’t long before they picked up the trail. A shepherd remembered seeing a priest ride past on the previous evening with a woman beside him. A mile further on, the posse spoke to a farmer who’d also seen the fugitives.
The sergeant led the troop off at a steady canter, wondering how far ahead his quarry might be. Riding beside him was a jaded corporal.
‘This could all be a terrible waste of time, Sergeant,’ he said.
‘We have our orders.’
‘If you ask me, they’re stupid orders.’
‘I didn’t ask you,’ said the sergeant, pointedly.
‘If they ride all night, they’ll be miles away by now.’
‘Then we press on until we catch up with them.’
‘They could be entirely innocent,’ said the corporal, batting away a fly with the flat of his hand. ‘We have no proof that they’ve done anything wrong.’
‘Yes, we do. We have proof that they’re impostors and the fact that they stayed such a short time in Mons shows that they realised they’d aroused suspi
cion. That’s why they fled after less than an hour.’
‘What do you think they were doing in the town?’
‘I mean to ask them that very question.’
‘You’d have to catch them first and we don’t even know that we’re on the right road. Supposing that they turned off somewhere?’
The sergeant glowered at him. ‘Supposing that you shut your mouth, Corporal?’
‘I’m only saying what the others are saying. It’s a wild goose chase.’
‘I like chasing wild geese because I always catch one in the end. Shall I tell you why I’m certain they’re directly ahead of us? That,’ said the sergeant, using an arm to indicate, ‘is the road to Tournai. My guess is that they’re heading there to deliver their report. They’ve been on a reconnaissance, Corporal.’
‘Oh – have they?’
‘That’s why we need to track them down – they’re enemy spies.’
The problem with wearing the uniforms was that it made it impossible for both of them to stop at a wayside inn or to seek refreshment at a farmstead. Rachel would be seen for what she really was – an attractive, vigorous, full-bodied woman. When they were in need of a meal, therefore, Daniel left her in hiding nearby while he went off to buy food and drink. The first thing she did in the privacy of a copse was to take off her coat so that she could breathe properly again. Breeches and boots were left on but the coat was hung from a low branch. Sitting on the grass with her back against a tree, Rachel was able to relax for the first time that day. Weary from spending so many hours in the saddle, she consoled herself with the thought that she was far safer there than she would have been if still burrowing through the tunnels at Tournai. It had been dangerous, filthy, back-breaking work. Instead of risking her life at the siege, she was riding through open countryside with a handsome man she adored. Rachel was so glad that she’d decided to leave Wales and return to army life. It gave her an exhilaration that couldn’t be found anywhere else. All she needed to complete her happiness was a husband in the 24th Foot and she’d already picked him out.
Lost in her reverie, she didn’t hear the sound of a twig breaking close by. When something thudded against the trunk of a tree, however, Rachel tensed. The noise was too clear to be ignored. She chided herself for leaving her weapon in the saddlebag. Her horse was over ten yards away. Could she reach it in time? She levered herself up off the ground and looked around the little clearing. Nobody was visible but she knew that she wasn’t alone. She began to creep slowly towards the horses, intending to snatch her pistol from the saddlebag in order to defend herself. But she never reached her target. Yards short of the animals, she heard stealthy footsteps behind her then a hand was clasped over her mouth. Rachel tried to struggle but a strong arm enveloped her and held her tight.
Hand and arm were then released by Daniel. He was laughing now. Face reddened with indignation, Rachel turned on him.
‘You scared me, Daniel!’ she complained.
‘That was the intention.’
‘I nearly jumped out of my skin.’
‘You were off guard,’ he said, ‘so I decided to teach you a lesson. I threw a stone against that tree to startle you. When you’re alone, you should always have a weapon to hand. And you must keep your eyes open and your ears pricked.’
‘I was miles away,’ she confessed.
‘I gathered that.’
‘It won’t happen again.’
‘Good – we have to stay alert at all times.’
Annoyed that she’d let herself down, Rachel was nevertheless angry with him. Instead of embarrassing her the way that he had, Daniel could simply have warned her not to get distracted. Seeing her disapproval, he apologised for frightening her and, by way of reconciliation, he slipped off into the trees and returned with his horse. Out of the saddlebag, he extracted a large pie and a flask of wine. Rachel let out a whoop of joy and forgave him instantly. They shared a delicious meal together.
‘I bought enough food to see us through tomorrow as well,’ he said.
Rachel was wary. ‘Will we have to spend another night sleeping in the open? What if it rains, Daniel? We’ll be drenched.’
‘There is one alternative.’
‘I know,’ she said. ‘I can take off this uniform and put on my own attire again. Then we can hire two rooms at an inn and enjoy some comfort.’
‘I was thinking of something else, Rachel.’
Her eyes ignited. ‘Do you mean that we’d share the same room?’
‘I’m afraid not,’ he replied. ‘The alternative is to forget about sleep altogether and ride on through the night. If we pace the horses, we should reach Tournai by late afternoon. The sooner I deliver my report, the better. Also, of course, it would keep us well ahead of any pursuit.’
‘Nobody is pursuing us,’ she insisted.
‘I think that they may be.’
‘Well – if you want my honest opinion – I’d much rather return to being a woman and to sleep under a roof again. What difference will one more night make, Daniel? We can be off at sunrise.’ She cackled. ‘If the sun actually rises again, that is. By the look of the sky, we’re in for another long period of rain. Do you really want to ride through the dark in a downpour?’
‘Perhaps not,’ he conceded.
‘Stop thinking like a soldier – put yourself in my position for once.’
‘You’re a soldier as well,’ he teased, ‘even though you’re in the wrong army. But I take your point. I think we’ve earned better accommodation than Mother Nature can provide. And we did have a head start on any pursuit,’ he added. ‘We should be safe by now.’
The corporal was still convinced that they’d never find the two people they were after. It was several miles since anyone had remembered seeing a curé and a woman on the road to Tournai. That suggested that they were heading elsewhere. The sergeant disagreed. He sensed that they were still on the right track. When they entered the wood, he had an opportunity to persuade the others that their journey was not in vain.
‘How much further must we go, Sergeant?’ complained the corporal as they rode along together. ‘They’ve disappeared into thin air.’
‘We’ll go on until we find them,’ said the other.
‘But this is the wrong road.’
‘No, it isn’t. I’ve told you before. Tournai is their destination.’
‘Then why has nobody seen them passing?’ asked the corporal. ‘We talked to the best part of a dozen people along the way yet none of them saw the fugitives you described. In fact, not one of them had even seen a woman go by.’ The sergeant raised a hand and brought the troop to a halt. ‘What’s wrong now?’
They were in a clearing and the sergeant’s eye had fallen on three mounds of earth topped by branches snapped off trees and bushes. He dismounted and walked across to the first mound, lifting off the branches then using his foot to move the soil. Less than eighteen inches below ground, his toe struck something solid. Signalling to his men, he snapped an order. Two of them dismounted and rushed across to him. Getting down on their hands and knees, they scooped away the earth until they uncovered a blue uniform. The corpse then came into view, its head twisted at an unnatural angle.
The sergeant ordered the other men to help. Having brought one dead soldier to the surface, they began to dig into the remaining graves. It was not long before three bodies were on display. The men were shocked by their discovery. It was the sergeant who first saw its significance.
‘What do you see, Corporal?’ he asked.
The man shrugged. ‘I see three men in shallow graves.’
‘Is that all you see?’
‘What else should I be looking at, Sergeant?’
‘All three of them are French soldiers?’
‘How can you tell?’ said the corporal. ‘Two of them are almost naked.’
‘Someone took their uniforms. They’d only do that if they needed them.’
The corporal was baffled. ‘I don’t understand.’
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‘Cover them up again,’ said the sergeant. As the men looked bemused, he put more force into the command. ‘Cover them up. Bury them where they are. There’s nothing else we can do for them.’
The men did as they were told, using branches to sweep the earth back over the bodies then tossing them on top of the mounds. While they worked, the sergeant was cogitating. He snapped his fingers and gave a cold smile.
‘That’s why nobody has seen them,’ he said. ‘They killed these men and stole their uniforms.’
‘But that’s impossible,’ claimed the corporal.
‘Is it?’
‘How could a curé and a fat woman kill three trained soldiers?’
‘It’s something that I’d like to know as well,’ said the sergeant. ‘But I’m certain that that’s what they did. And I’m equally certain that we’re on their tail. But remember this, all of you,’ he went on, raising his voice. ‘We’re not looking for a priest and a woman anymore. They’re disguised as French soldiers now.’
Rachel was much happier now that she’d shed her uniform and returned to civilian life. Daniel had discarded one disguise and assumed another, looking and sounding like a parish priest escorting his sister. Rain was threatening but they managed to find an inn before the clouds broke and the torrents fell. After a meal, they retired to their respective rooms, agreeing to rise early next day to be on their way. Small, bare and without pretension they might be, but their rooms were a welcome alternative to a wet night outdoors. Before she dropped off to sleep, Rachel made sure that her pistol was within reach. Daniel also had his weapons nearby. As he lay in bed, he could hear the rain beating on the roof tiles and rapping at the shutters. It was past midnight when he finally closed his eyes.
5 A Very Murdering Battle Page 23