'What did His Grace, the Duke, say to you?' he asked.
'He was very considerate and very charming.'
'He always is, Abigail. He has impeccable manners.'
'I felt so nervous,' she confided, 'being with the captain- general of so large an army. I was flattered that he could even spare a few moments to see me.'
'He and your father have been in correspondence,' said Daniel, 'so he takes an almost parental interest in you. I daresay that he passed on a message from Sir Nicholas.'
'He did more than that, Daniel. Father had enclosed a letter for me, beseeching me to return home as soon as I could. The Duke offered me an escort back to The Hague.'
'In your position, I'd accept that offer gratefully.' 'And I may do so in time,' she said. 'But I'm not going to leave almost as soon as we've met. I'd feel as if I were deserting you.'
'That's a ridiculous idea!'
'I want to be near you, Daniel.'
'I appreciate that,' he said, 'but you must realise how impossible that ambition is. French and Bavarian soldiers are ahead of us, ready to prevent us from seizing a town that controls a crossing over the Danube. Marshal Tallard is following with a sizeable army, trying to catch up and attack us. All my thoughts must be concentrated on war, Abigail. Much as I relish your company, you are a diversion.'
'An agreeable diversion, I hope.'
'That's what makes it worse - you're a temptation.'
'I promise to stay out of your way,' she said, 'as long as you remember that I'm here, thinking about you and wishing you well.'
'Thank you.'
'Don't send me away, Daniel.'
'I've no power to do so.'
'And tell me - just once - that you are glad to see me.'
'I am very glad,' he said with a smile, 'not least because I was concerned for your safety. There's only one problem.'
'What is that?'
'I must forego the pleasure of your company, Abigail.'
'For the time being,' she added hopefully.
Daniel touched her arm. 'For the time being,' he said.
They walked on in silence, listening to the birds and watching the water ripple and surge. The sun made an effort to peep through the clouds but it was thwarted. Abigail savoured every moment of it. There had been times during their gruelling journey when she feared she might never see Daniel Rawson again. To enjoy a leisurely stroll in the country with him - even though it was on the eve of a battle - was the fulfilment of a dream.
Frédéric Seurel was restive. They had spent an hour or more hiding behind trees and crawling through bushes. It had all been in vain. Even with the aid of his telescope, Charles Catto had been unable to identify the Duke of Marlborough's regiment. Seurel was a man of limited patience. He soon began to protest.
'This is hopeless, Charles,' he said, swatting away an insect that landed on his face. 'The longer we stay, the more chance there is that we'll be seen by some of the pickets.'
'If we keep well-hidden, we're safe.'
'I'm fed up with lying on the ground.'
'How else can we keep the camp under surveillance?'
'I think we should get ahead of them tomorrow and watch out for Captain Rawson as they march past.'
'And then what?' asked Catto irritably. 'We can hardly ambush an entire army. You do make the most stupid suggestions, Frédéric.'
'I hate trailing after them for week after week. If we overtake them, there's a faint chance that we may find Rawson off guard at some point. We can try to separate him from his regiment.'
'We need to do that now, while he's in camp.'
'You keep saying that.'
'I've had more experience of stalking than you,' said Catto, sitting up to stretch himself. 'I know how to wait, watch then strike when the right moment finally comes.'
'In this case, it may never come.'
'It already has come once, Frédéric.'
'Stop harping on that,' said Seurel testily.
'We had him at our mercy and you let him go.'
'It wasn't deliberate.'
'That doesn't make it any the less annoying.'
'I've never let you down in the past, Charles.'
'No,' conceded the other, 'that's true. It's the reason I chose you. I needed someone who thought and acted like a soldier, someone who could kill quickly and ruthlessly.'
'I've done that enough times, believe me.'
'Captain Rawson has to die to satisfy General Salignac's desire for revenge. The more painful the death, the happier the general will be. He wants his wife and her lover to suffer.'
'The best way to do that is to capture him and leave him alone with me for an hour,' said Seurel with a glint. 'I know all the refinements of torture. When I was in the army, I could always get prisoners to talk.'
'We're not here to have a conversation with Rawson,' said Catto, 'and we don't have the luxury of time. All that the general wants is unmistakable proof that the captain will never be able to share a bed with his wife again.'
'What about General Salignac - will he share a bed with her?'
'Not until his temper cools, Frédéric. He was still throbbing with fury when we spoke. Madame Salignac had been packed off to their mansion in the country where the servants have been ordered to watch her night and day.'
'She'll have no chance to find another lover then.'
'The general has clipped her wings.'
'I need a woman,' said Seurel restlessly. 'It's been weeks now. The last one I had was that tavern wench in Coblenz.'
'Save yourself until we've finished our task,' said Catto. 'When we get paid by the general, you'll be able to afford a different woman every night of the week.' He crouched down and applied his eye to the telescope once again. 'All we need is a slice of luck.'
'We'll never get it, Charles. This chase is doomed.'
'Chance sometimes contrives better than we ourselves.'
'Yes - it contrived to put the wrong man in that tent.'
'We have to forget that and try harder.'
'You are the one who keeps reminding me of it,' said Seurel resentfully. 'You won't let me forget it.'
'I'm sorry, Frédéric. I was partly to blame. I should have come in that tent with you so that I could see if we had the right man.'
'He was a British soldier and I'm always happy to kill those.'
'You can't behead a whole regiment until you finally come to Captain Rawson,' said Catto, then his body stiffened with interest. 'Then again, you may not need to do that.'
'What have you seen?'
'Manna from heaven - I can't be sure until he gets closer but someone who looks very much like the captain is walking along the river bank towards us. Here,' he said, passing the telescope to Seurel. 'See for yourself. I told you it was only a question of waiting.'
The sky was slowly darkening as they ambled along side by side. Abigail Piper's disposition, however, was sunny. She felt restored, refreshed and cheerful. It was a moment worthy of record.
'I shall put this in my diary,' she decided.
'What?'
'This wonderful time we've snatched together.'
'It must soon come to an end,' he warned her. 'We'll have to turn back before too long. But it's been a delightful break and you're right to make a note of it.'
'I wrote something in my diary every day.'
'That must have been difficult sometimes.'
'Why?'
'You had some unpleasant experiences, Abigail. You would hardly rush to put those down on paper.'
'I felt that I had to do so. No matter how late it was - or how horrid our accommodation - I always managed to scribble a few lines at the end of the day. When we slept in a barn,' she recalled, 'Emily lit a candle and held it for me so that I could write.'
'Are you going to show your diary to your sister?'
'No,' she replied. 'Dorothy won't see a single word of it.'
'She's bound to be curious.'
'I don't care. She betrayed me b
y writing a letter to you after she'd talked me out of doing so. That was mean and deceitful. What right did she have to get in touch with you?' Abigail went on. 'Dorothy only met you on that one occasion.'
'I was surprised to get a letter from her, I must confess.'
'If she sends another, tear it up without reading it.'
'The only letter you should worry about is the one that your father sent. He wants you back in England, Abigail. The whole family has missed you dreadfully and you must have missed them.'
'Yes, I have,' she admitted. 'I've missed them very much.' 'Then put an end to their misery,' he advised. 'Write to tell them that you are on your way back home.'
Abigail stopped and turned to face him. Her happiness suddenly gave way to a deep fear. She grabbed Daniel by both the arms.
'If I agree to go back,' she said with a note of supplication, 'will you do something in return for me?'
'That depends what it is, Abigail.'
'Please don't take part in a Forlorn Hope.'
Daniel was mystified. 'Why on earth do you ask that?'
'His Grace, the Duke, told me that you'd volunteered to join a Forlorn Hope when you reach Donauworth.'
'It would be a privilege to do so.'
'But it's so dangerous. Doesn't that concern you?'
'I'm more concerned about your change of mind,' he said. 'At our first meeting, you were entranced when I told you about a Forlorn Hope I'd once led. You praised me for my bravery. Yet now you are asking me to do something that's quite out of character.'
'I don't want anything to happen to you, Daniel.'
'I'm a soldier, Abigail. This is where I belong. Begging me to withdraw from a Forlorn Hope is like my asking you to stop being beautiful. It's a defiance of Nature.'
'I don't want to lose you,' she said, face clouding.
'The French have been trying to kill me for years,' he said blithely, 'and they've never managed to do it so far. Why should it be any different at the Schellenberg? Don't alarm yourself unnecessarily.' He grinned at her. 'I've had a lot of practice at dodging musket balls.'
'It's not something to be laughed at, Daniel.'
'I know.'
'What happens if you're killed in the Forlorn Hope?'
'Then at least I'll have died with honour,' he said proudly.
Abigail's heart began to pound and her eyelids fluttered uncontrollably. Her breath came in increasingly short bursts. The thought that her happiness might be snatched away from her on the battlefield was too much to bear. Violent images flashed through her brain. Tremors coursed through her body. After letting out a low moan, she suddenly collapsed in a faint. Daniel caught her just in time. At the very moment when he bent over to grab her, a pistol shot rang out and the ball passed just above his head. It was strange. Fearing that he might lose his life in combat, Abigail Piper had just unwittingly saved it.
They moved fast. Even though he limped, Frédéric Seurel could cover the ground at speed when necessary. Charles Catto led the way, using the trees as cover and zigzagging to confuse any pursuit. They heard raised voices behind them and kept running until they were out of earshot. The only time they had to hide was when horsemen came galloping in search of them. Concealed in the bushes, they watched the soldiers ride past and took the opportunity to catch their breath.
'Have you gone mad!' exclaimed Catto, hitting his companion. 'Why ever did you fire your pistol like that?'
'I couldn't resist it,' said Seurel. 'He escaped me in that tent and I wasn't going to let him get away from me again.'
'But that's exactly what he did. You not only missed him, you roused the camp and turned us into fugitives.'
'I'm sorry, Charles.'
'You gave the game away, you fool.'
'We've spent months on his tail without even a sighting of him then he walks within range of my pistol. I had to take a shot at him.'
'I should never have let you bring the weapon.'
'The general wants him dead, doesn't he?' argued Seurel. 'That's what we were sent to do - kill Daniel Rawson.'
'And obtain proof of his death,' said Catto, punching him hard once again. 'How could we do that when we were running for our lives? It's not enough to tell General Salignac that we shot him dead. He'll insist on proof that Rawson died at our hands and not in battle.'
'I acted on instinct.'
'Then your instincts, as usual, were wrong.'
'It was too good a chance to miss, Charles. He was there, right in front of us, unguarded, completely unaware of us.'
'He's certainly aware of it now,' said Catto ruefully. 'When your shot alerted the sentries, it alerted Captain Rawson as well. He knows that someone is after him now. We'll never get near him again.'
'That's why I had to seize the opportunity.'
'Seize it and waste it, Frédéric - for the second time.'
'I would have killed him if he hadn't bent over like that. How was I to know that that woman would faint in his arms? She's the person to blame for this, not me.'
'On the contrary,' said Catto thoughtfully, 'we may yet live to thank her. In collapsing like that at a critical moment, she may have saved Rawson but she may also have saved our skins. Don't you understand?' he went on as Seurel looked puzzled. 'If we'd gone to the general and told him that you shot Rawson but we have no evidence to prove it, he'd have thought we were trying to cheat him.'
'Wouldn't he take your word for it, Charles?'
'No, he needs proof that he can dangle it in front of his wife. He wants to torment her with the thought that she was responsible for the death of her lover. If he tells her that Rawson was shot by a hired assassin, Madame Salignac may think he's inventing the story in order to make her writhe with guilt. Evidence is crucial.'
'Then we've failed,' said Seurel miserably. 'I was too eager.'
'All may not yet be lost.'
'I'll do anything to make up for it.'
'There could be way to trap him,' said Catto, 'and it will be much safer than trying to kill him in the camp. Rawson's luck can't last forever. We know his weak spot now.'
'Do we, Charles?'
'You saw her as clearly as I did. She was a pretty little thing and she means a lot to him if he takes time off from his duties to stroll along the edge of the camp with her. That's the way to get him,' he concluded. 'We have to look to the lady.'
When the shot rang out, Daniel Rawson had lowered Abigail Piper gently to the ground and lain flat beside her. His eyes searched the bushes on the other side of the stream but he could see nothing. What he could hear was the sound of feet making a hasty departure. After a few moments, sentries came running to investigate. Daniel told them what had happened and sent two of them wading across the stream. He instructed one of the remaining men to dispatch riders in search of the interlopers. Muskets at the ready, the last few sentries guarded his back as he carried Abigail to safety. When he set her down beside a tent, he dismissed the men and attended to her.
His immediate impulse had been to pursue whoever had been hiding in the bushes but he could not leave Abigail in that state. She was slowly regaining full consciousness. Her head moved and one eye opened. She became aware that she was on the ground.
'What happened?' she asked in alarm.
'You fainted, Abigail.'
'Did I?'
'Yes,' he told her, 'it's probably a result of fatigue. You've been under the most immense strain for several weeks.'
'Help me up, please.'
'Sit up first, until you feel well enough to stand.'
'How long was I lying there?' she said, as he eased her up into a sitting position. 'I do apologise, Daniel. What must you think of me?'
'I think that you need to rest.'
'I can't remember a thing.'
'Don't even try to,' he advised. 'Just get your strength back.'
He was relieved that she had not heard the pistol shot and had no intention of telling her about it. She was already frightened at the thought of his taking par
t in a Forlorn Hope. If she knew that he was the target for an unseen assassin as well, she would be horror-stricken. What the attack proved to Daniel was that he had been right about the murder of Lieutenant Richard Hopwood. The designated target had, in fact, been Daniel himself and the killer had returned to make a second attempt on his life. He chided himself for walking so freely in the open and for exposing Abigail to unnecessary danger as well. The bullet that missed him could easily have hit her instead.
'I'm feeling much better now,' she said, embarrassed by what had occurred. 'I do apologise, Daniel. I've never done that before.'
'Let me help you up.' Holding her under the arms, he lifted her to her feet and kept a restraining hand on her. 'How is that?'
'I'm fine now, thank you.'
'Good,' he said, releasing her but standing close in case she fainted again. 'I'm afraid that your lovely dress has some stains on it.'
'Emily will soon get rid of those.'
'I'll escort you back to her and explain what—'
'No, no,' she said, interrupting him. 'There's no need for Emily to know about this. I'd rather it was kept private.'
'Very well,' he agreed. 'Does that mean there'll be no mention of this in your diary? I thought you recorded everything.'
'We'll see, Daniel.'
'Are you able to walk now?'
'Of course.'
'Then I'll escort you back.'
Abigail was a little unsteady at first but he did not have to support her as they walked through the camp. As her mind cleared, she began to recall a few details.
'I thought we were standing by a stream,' she said.
'We were, Abigail.'
'Then how did I come to be lying beside that tent?'
'I carried you there,' he said.
'Oh, I've been such a terrible nuisance to you.'
'Not at all - I was glad to be of assistance. But I do think you need a long rest. We won't be able to meet for a while, I'm afraid. That's why these moments alone with you have been so memorable.'
'They'd be memorable to me, if only I could remember them.'
Soldier of Fortune Page 14
