by Anna Gracie
brow with her handkerchief.
The bandit leader snorted disbelievingly. He reached out a
surprisingly clean hand and took her ear between his fingers. Tallie
froze as he carefully removed her gold studs. Then he reached for her
neck, slipping his fingers inside the neck of her gown, and she
recoiled.
"Take y'r filthy hands off my wife, you ruffian!" Magnus lurched
forward, his arm shooting out in a clumsy, but well- aimed punch. The
bandit reeled back and stood clutching his chin, while Tallie struggled
to help Magnus regain his balance. Her gold necklace lay broken on the
ground.
The bandit stood silently for a moment, then shrugged.
"We'll take him anyway." He bent and scooped up Tallie's necklace.
"What do you mean, take him? Take who? My husband?"
"Si," said the bandit, reverting to Italian. He called two of his
henchmen over. They grabbed Magnus by the arms and started to march
him away.
"No, stop!" cried Tallie.
"What are you going to do with him?"
The bandit leader turned back and regarded her impassively for a
moment, then shrugged again.
"He is a fine English milord. Someone will pay gold for his safe
return, si? " Ransom? " gasped Tallie.
"But you can't take him. He's too ill! He needs a physician
immediately."
The bandit shrugged and turned away.
"No!" shouted Tallie angrily.
"I will not allow it!"
The bandit turned and regarded her in faint surprise. He grinned, and
a gold tooth glinted in the sunlight.
"You will not allow it?"
"No, I won't," she retorted defiantly, and moved to rejoin her
husband.
"You will have to kill me before I allow you to kidnap my husband!"
"Be quiet, woman. Stay out of this," Magnus mumbled angrily. His skin
looked white and papery, but there was a hectic flush across his
cheekbones.
"I will do no such thing. You are in no condition to be dragged off to
some horrid bandit lair in the mountains, and even if you were, I still
wouldn't allow it!"
Magnus staggered and swore, dashing his hand impatiently across his
brow, as if wiping off sweat.
"Hold your tongue and wait with John Black and Maguire."
"I have no wish to wait with John Black and Maguire. My place is
beside my husband." And, with that, Tallie pushed one of the bandits
aside and took Magnus's arm. She glared defiantly, first at her
husband, who was ineffectively trying to detach her from his arm, and
then at the bandit leader, who watched them both in amusement. He
chuckled, then, sobering, reached out and effortlessly hauled Tallie to
his side. Magnus lunged out to save her, but missed. Another ragged
robber came and held him back.
"R'lease my wife, damn you," slurred Magnus, swaying.
"Harm a hair on her head and I'll kill you."
The bandit leader's brilliant green eyes narrowed, and his grip
tightened on Tallie.
"Oho, so the English milord cares for his wife, does he? And she for
him? Good. A loving wife will ensure her husband's ransom is paid
quickly and without fuss."
"You shall not take--' The bandit clapped a hand over Tallie's mouth.
"Take him," he ordered.
Tallie wrenched herself free with a cry.
"No! He is sick! He will die if you take him," she said
desperately.
"Then how would you get your precious ransom?"
The bandit shrugged indifferently.
"It is a risk we will take."
"It is not your risk! I will not allow it!"
The bandit grinned.
"How will you prevent us, little English milady?"
Tallie fumed impotently. She could not stop them; she knew it. But
Magnus was swaying and shivering in the cold, and unless she did
something, he would die. And that she could not bear. She had to do
something!
"Take me instead," she said.
"Damn it woman, hold your--' Magnus's angry bellow was cut short as a
rag was stuffed in his mouth. Another man came to assist the two who
were already holding him.
"Take you?" said the leader, surprised. His green eyes narrowed.
"What game are you playing now?" He glanced at Maguire, who said
nothing.
"No game," said Tallie.
"You clearly will not leave without a hostage. My husband is too ill to go with you, but I am not. It is a perfectly
sensible arrangement. "
A muffled roar came from Magnus. His eyes glared at her over the gag,
charcoal pools of rage and frantic worry in an unnaturally pale face.
"Take a woman hostage?" The bandit regarded her suspiciously,
smoothing a finger over his thick, dark moustache.
"Is this one of your immoral English games, milady? You think it will
be romantic to dally with a handsome bandit in the mountains, eh?"
Tallie was outraged.
"No, of course not!" she spluttered indignantly.
"How dare you suggest such a wicked thing? I wouldn't walk two steps
with you if I had any choice in the matter, but I will not let you take
my husband when he is ill!"
"But if he was well...?"
"Hah!" Tallie snorted.
"If he was well you would never have taken us prisoner in the first
place!" She cast a look of magnificent scorn at Maguire, and the
silent gaggle of guards he had hired to protect them.
"My husband would never have surrendered without a proper fight!"
To her astonishment the bandit leader winked at Maguire.
"All right, then," the bandit said, 'we take you with us and leave your
loving husband to arrange the ransom. "
Magnus surged furiously, but was held down by his captors.
Tallie swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry. She had not truly thought
the bandits would agree to take her, and she was suddenly terrified.
But she had offered herself, and there was really no choice after all,
she told herself. And the sooner they left, the sooner the others
could get Magnus to a physician. She squared her shoulders and stepped
forward to speak with her husband, whose eyes glowered over his gag,
angry, desperate and fevered.
"It's all right, Magnus. I am happy to do this." She swallowed
again.
There seemed to be a large dry lump in her throat.
"Please try not be angry with me. I could see no other way... And
if... if I..." She swallowed again.
"If I should not see you again--' Magnus shook his head, furiously
chafing at his bindings.
"Please, my love, I... I do not want what may be our last moments...
Oh, please, do not be angry with me." Tears filled her eyes as she
laid her hand on his cheek. He stilled, his eyes boring into hers in a
silent, frustrated message. She tried to tug his gag away, but it
would not budge, and the bandit beside him growled an incoherent
warning, so with trembling lips she reached up and kissed him fervently
on an ice-cold cheek.
"I love you, Magnus," she whispered, and clung tightly to his body, as
if she would never let him go.
"Enough," said the bandit, and with another kiss Tallie rele
ased
Magnus, tears spilling down her cheek.
The bandit regarded Magnus for a brief, solemn moment.
"She will not be harmed," he said at last.
"We are bandits, si, but we do not harm women." He took Tallie by the
arm and led her away.
"Mais, non, non. You cannot take milady into the mountains," cried
Monique, suddenly aware of what was happening.
The bandit ignored her and kept walking.
"Elle est enceinte!" shrieked Monique in desperation.
The bandit froze. He glanced at Tallie's face, down at her stomach,
then at her face again. She was gazing at her husband, her eyes filled
with a mixture of joy, anxiety and entreaty. The bandit did not need
to ask; her stomach might be flat, but confirmation of her maid's story
was there in her eyes, for all the world to see.
He swore long and violently, released Tallie's arm in disgust and
stamped across to Maguire. An argument ensued, in a language Tallie
had heard somewhere before. She stared at the arguing men and the
truth suddenly dawned. It was Gaelic. A maidservant at Miss Fisher's
had been Irish, and had taught Tallie a few words.
"You betrayed us, Maguire," she cried.
Maguire started, looked across the small rocky clearing at her and
shrugged in a manner which uncannily echoed the bandit's.
Tallie noted the way the two men were standing and her eyes widened in
sudden suspicion.
"He ... he's your brother," she accused.
"He has the same long, thin face and the same nose... and your eyes are
green, too, only not so..." Her voice tailed off.
The bandit turned and grinned, his gold tooth glinting in the light.
"Correct, milady," he said in perfect lilting English.
"The Maguire brothers at your service. I am Antonio." He bowed.
"And my little brother, Luigi."
Tallie ignored him. She turned to the erstwhile majordomo.
"Why, Maguire? Why did you do it?"
Maguire sneered and shrugged.
"The wars are over and a man must earn his living somehow. And we have
no love for English lords. It was an English lord who hanged our
father and grandfather, an English lord who drove us from our
homeland--' His bandit brother interrupted, " And English lords who
have provided us with a steady income since we took to living in the
mountains like our mother's people. " He glanced from Tallie back to
Magnus.
"But it seems we will get only the pickings of the baggage this time,
for it is one thing to hold a man to ransom, but if an English lord
died on us we would have the authorities hounding our every footstep.
And I do not kidnap pregnant women."
He turned and shouted orders, and the clearing suddenly became a hive
of activity as the bandits packed up every portable item that could
possibly be of any value.
"Adieu, milord," said Maguire the bandit.
"I envy you your wife--she is your real treasure. Au revoir, bella
donna." He took Tallie's hand and kissed it lingeringly, quite as if
he was a gentleman born and not a ragged mountain robber. In moments
the banditti were gone, Maguire the younger and his false guards with
them. The others watched them go until no echo of their leaving
remained in the cold mountain air.
Tallie rushed to relieve Magnus of his dirty gag and bindtings. He
spat the gag out, gasping for breath, and tried to say something, but
his knees buckled beneath him and he sank to the ground, clutching at
Tallie as he did so.
"Oh, help me, please," she cried to the porters.
"Let us be gone from this dreadful place immediately. I must get my
husband to a physician at once. Quickly, we must go!" She turned to
beckon to one of the men but found her wrist caught in a hard, feverish
grip.
"Don't ... leave ... me," Magnus grated hoarsely, fixing her with a
wild, agonised stare.
"Not... leave... Not--' He collapsed, insensible.
"Signora, the fever has broken." The dapper silver-haired physician
bent over Tallie, speaking in a gentle voice.
Tallie stared up at him dazed, blank incomprehension in her face.
"It means your husband is over the worst," the physician explained.
"He will be well soon. A week, perhaps, before he can get up. He
needs to rest." He looked at her and his face softened.
"And so do you, signora. You are exhausted."
Tallie blinked at him as his words slowly sank into her tired brain.
Magnus was going to get better. He would live. Tears flooded her eyes
as she turned back to the still figure on the bed beside her. Magnus
was breathing more easily now, and his skin was drenched with sweat.
Beautiful, healing sweat. A sob escaped her.
"Come now," said the doctor.
"Carlotta and the good John Black will stay here with your husband and
your maid will put you to bed. You must sleep. You have slept little
the last three days, siT Tallie nodded. Was it really only three days
since they had arrived in the town of Susa? It. seemed so much
longer... A nightmare journey down from the mountains with Magnus
strapped onto a mule, unconscious, his head swaying and bouncing with
every bump so that she was terrified he would break his neck. But he
hadn't. And then the fruitless, interminable search for a place which
would house a stranger with no money and a fever.
Thank God for Carlotta, who was some sort of relative by marriage to
one of the porters. She had glanced indifferently at Magnus bundled on
his mule and begun to argue with the porter in a thick dialect Tallie
hadn't been able to follow. Tallie had been terrified that Carlotta,
like all the others, would shut the door in their faces. She'd pushed
past the porter and, summoning up her best schoolgirl Italian, had
begged Carlotta to help her husband. Carlotta, a large,
flamboyant-looking woman with improbably brilliant rust-coloured hair,
had taken one look at Tallie's youthful, tear-stained face and flung
the door wide.
Within moments she'd sent a boy running to fetch the dot- tore, called
for wine and refreshments for Tallie and the others, and loudly
supervised the men carrying Magnus up to a bedroom. She had stripped
Magnus's shivering body with firm, motherly hands and had him sponged
down and in her dead husband's best linen nightshirt by the time the
physician had arrived.
He'd examined the patient carefully. To Tallie's relief he had
announced that the patient was unfit for cupping--she hated seeing
people being bled. But then, to her horror, he had produced from his
bag a small box containing a half-dozen leeches, which he had applied
to Magnus's skin with deft fingers. She'd watched, appalled, as the
leeches swelled and grew fatter, until at last, shiny and bloated,
they'd fallen off, leaving a trickle of blood behind them. Tallie had
felt ill just watching, but she hadn't been able to leave.
The doctor had carefully collected the gross leeches and replaced them
in the box. He'd then shaken out a mysterious- looking powder, mixed
it with wine, added several drops from a thick
greenish bottle and
administered the mixture through a funnel forced between Magnus's
clenched teeth.
"Laudanum. He will sleep now," he had said to Tallie in careful
French. He'd given Carlotta more instructions in rapid Italian and
left.
And that had only been three days ago, Tallie thought in's Knight
credulously. It was all a blur to her now. days and nights spent at
Magnus's bedside, watching him toss and turn and mutter unintelligibly,
sponging him down when he was hot, rugging him up when he was cold. and
all the time praying that he would live.
"Come, signora, it is time you slept. Your husband is safe now," the
doctor said again.
Tallie nodded, and winced as she gently prised her husband's fingers
apart. She stood up stiffly, tried to flex her fingers and winced
again.
The doctor made a low exclamation and, frowning, bent to look closer.