5 A Very Murdering Battle (20 page)

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.’

‘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.

Almost immediately, it seemed, he was awake again, roused by the sound of horses below in the courtyard. Out of his bed in a flash, he opened the shutters far enough to be able to look out. Six riders could be seen in murky silhouette. When he heard an order being barked, Daniel knew that they were soldiers. While five of them dismounted and walked around to the main entrance, the remaining man stood guard at the rear door. Daniel didn’t need to alert Rachel this time. She’d heard the clatter of hooves and identified the newcomers as a threat. After tapping on Daniel’s door, she let herself in. Like him, she’d slept in her clothing so it was only a matter of seconds before she was ready to leave. Daniel put on his hat and pulled his cloak around his shoulders then they went quickly down the backstairs.

The man on guard had stepped under the eaves to get some protection from the rain. His back was to the wall of the inn. Inching open the rear door, Daniel saw where the soldier was standing. He whispered to Rachel, then eased the door gently open so that she could creep out and scurry across to the stables. When the man saw a figure dashing past in the gloom, he tried to go in pursuit but Daniel intercepted him. Grabbing him by the collar, he swung him so hard against the wall that he opened a gash in the soldier’s head. Too dazed to know what was happening, the man put up no resistance when Daniel thrust a dagger through his heart. Letting him fall to the ground, he swiftly undid the girth on each of the six horses so that he could remove their saddles. He then untethered the animals.

Rachel, meanwhile, had collected their horses from the stable. They’d been left saddled and ready for a hasty departure. Mounting one, she led the other into the courtyard by the rein. Daniel was quickly in the saddle. Inside the inn, five soldiers were engaged in a frantic search. He reasoned that they had to have been sent from Mons to capture them. The old priest had clearly reported their deception and set retribution in motion. The only way to outrun the soldiers was to slow them down. Taking out his pistol, he fired it into the air, stampeding the other six horses and sending them galloping off into the night. Shutters were flung open in the upstairs rooms and angry faces peered out. The sergeant yelled to the man he’d left below in the courtyard but got no reply. He and the other soldiers ran down the backstairs and emerged into the rain. Six saddles and a corpse lay on the ground. By the time that the soldiers realised what had happened, Daniel and Rachel were riding hell for leather along the road to Tournai and sending up clods of mud in their wake.

Thanks to good medical attention, Kees Dopff was slowly recovering from his fever but had to convalesce for some time. His illness had two benefits for Nicholaes Geel. Since it was he who’d carried Dopff up to his room, he’d earned Amalia’s warmest thanks and received some of the routine praise that had earlier been monopolised by Aelbert Pienaar. It gave Geel a surge of pride. The second benefit was that he had an excuse to visit the invalid. Arriving early for work that morning, he asked his employer if he might go and see Dopff. He was duly given permission and went trotting off. As Geel was going up the staircase, Amalia came out of her room and began to descend the steps. She gave him a cheery greeting.

‘Are you going up to Kees?’ she asked.

‘Yes, Miss Amalia. I just want to see how he’s getting on.’

‘That’s very kind of you, Nick.’

‘He’s much more than someone I work beside. He’s a good friend.’

‘I think you’ll find that he’s over the worst.’

‘I’m glad to hear it,’ said Geel.

He stood aside so that she could walk past him, savouring the brush of her shoulder as he did so. Walking along the landing, he went up the second flight of stairs. When he got to the room on the top floor, however, he was less interested in Dopff’s condition than in the brief exchange he’d had with Amalia. Dopff was clearly grateful for the visit and explained, by means of an elaborate mime, that he felt much better and expected to return to work very soon. Wanting further excuses to visit him, Geel tried to persuade him that he needed a longer time to recover. Though the fever had broken, it had left Dopff weakened. As he left the room, Geel was still thinking about Amalia’s kind words to him. A dangerous idea stirred at the back of his mind. In order to get back down to the ground floor, he would go right past her bedchamber. Nobody else was about. There was nothing to stop him peeping inside it. The idea took root and grew. What began as a faint temptation soon flowered into an irresistible urge. It was too good an opportunity to miss.

When he got back down to the landing, he looked around to make sure that nobody could see him then he opened the door and stepped inside the room. Simply being in the privacy of her bedchamber was a thrill for him and he stood there in silent ecstasy as his eyes took in every wonderful detail. He could sense her presence and inhale her fragrance. There was something at once sacred and exciting about the place. It was a holy of holies that encouraged libidinous thoughts, a reverence tinged with arousal. On impulse he walked across to the bed and picked up a pillow, holding it against his face to feel its softness. It was minutes before he remembered where he was. Giving the pillow a farewell kiss, he replaced it and hurried to the door, opening it enough to be able to peep out and see that the coast was clear. A minute later he was back at his loom again. His secret smile lasted the whole day.

When Daniel finally arrived back to deliver his report, he discovered that Tournai was on the verge of surrender. Conditions inside the citadel had deteriorated and Allied assaults were becoming more intense as they pressed home their advantage. The siege had lasted over two months and spilt large quantities of blood on both sides. Now that the end was in sight, Marlborough called a council of war to discuss the next move. Daniel was there to report his findings and to display the rough sketches of Mons that he’d drawn. He gave an estimate of the time it would take to move the bulk of the army there and warned that it might be held up by the well-defended outpost of St-Ghislain on the River Haine. He also passed on information about French troop movements forced out of one of the deserters. Daniel was congratulated on the detail of his report then the debate began. Marlborough outlined his plan of action.

‘I believe that we should move swiftly to invest Mons,’ he declared, looking around the table at each man in turn. ‘We should also heed Captain Rawson’s warning about the resistance we may meet at St-Ghislain. I therefore propose that I immediately dispatch a strong force of horse and foot under the command of Lord Orkney.’ He indicated the map. ‘They can march past Mortagne to mask the fortress of St-Ghislain in order to clear the way to Mons. At the same time, of course, they will provide protection on the flanks for our main army as it moves forward.’

‘What is the French expectation?’ asked Prince Eugene.

‘Villars will fear an attack on Ypres much more than one on Mons. His attention will be fixed on the north-west whereas our target is in the south-east.’

‘Can we surprise him?’

‘We can if we move quickly enough.’

‘That will mean setting off on a night march.’