Vidal's Honor (6 page)

* * * *

Three days later Vidal was still grappling with his erroneous assumption that Devlin's wife — widow, he corrected himself — would lack the strength to cope. To lose her husband as she had was surely bad enough; did she know he'd been betrayed? She must, if, as she said, she saw it happen. And still she rode on, her back straight, her face, if not tranquil, composed in a fierce tenacity to confront the rigors ahead.

With a gentle determination she'd refused his offer of assistance when they bivouacked the first night, and together with Consuela, set about creating a meagre meal from some dried meat, and local herbs she acquired from he knew not where.

Accustomed to waking at the crack of dawn, he found her up before him and returning from a trip to the edge of the camp before he'd managed to roll up his bed-blanket. She'd offered them all tapas Dev had long ago explained the name for thin chorizo and salami slices with bread — before setting out once more.

As morning slipped into afternoon, clouds on the horizon multiplied and gathered momentum. Fluffy white turned to heavy dark grey, and rain, slow to begin with, increased to torrential. Rain water soon filled the deep furrows cut into the road by gun carriers, making it hard for man and beast to find safe footing.

“It's too dangerous to continue along this way,” Juan shouted above a sudden crack of thunder. “This weather is not good. We must take the next turning off and head away from here.” With a Gaelic sweep of his hand, he encompassed the deepening storm clouds and entrance to the narrow, winding path to their right. “We must go this way.”

They struck out across fields of torched wheat, fast becoming a quagmire of soot-laden water, and Vidal wondered how much safer their new route was than the road they'd just left. It seemed Juan never intended to follow the path he'd indicated.

According to Phillipe, Marmont's troops fled after the battle at Salamanca, but now with Wellington's strategic retreat from Madrid, the Spanish and French were anxious to redeem themselves and push the English back. Old Nosey would fall back just far enough from the city to wait out the coming winter, before launching another all-out attack on the city in the spring. One of his sources had informed Vidal that Wellington thought the Spaniards wouldn't want to instigate another conflict this late in the year, but the insurgents, partisans and rogue French patrols, split away from their divisions, if given a chance, would lay waste to anything and anyone who got in their way.

The rain lashed down upon them with unforgiving glee and the expanse of fields surrounding them offered little evidence of Juan's promised shelter until the Spaniard halted beside a scrawny bunch of trees clinging to an outcrop of rocks at the far side of the fifth field they crossed. Sparse though it seemed to Vidal, he welcomed the cover as an alternative to riding across open flat-land. Stripped of all but the hardiest leaves, the trees prevented the wind and rain from pounding them to pulp.

And still Honor remained calm. More and more he uncovered the depths Devlin had seen in her. No wonder Dev had rushed her to the altar. It was his own fault he'd taken too long to acknowledge and act upon his feelings for her, and by the time he did, it was too late. She was betrothed to his best friend.

He hadn't expected his emotions to flair back to life upon seeing her again, and wondered whether subconsciously she was the reason he'd never settled down with a convenient bride who'd give him with an heir and spare.

“Do you think if we persuaded the mules to lie down they would provide enough shelter for me to start a small fire? If so, I could boil some water for a hot drink.”

Bowls had been set out to capture the rain water and would be used to fill their containers for the rest of the day's ride, if it ever dried out enough for them to move on.

“Soldiers approaching.” Juan's urgent hiss catapulted him into dowsing the fire seconds before the small, bedraggled troop of men came into view.

“Get behind the rocks and stay there until I say otherwise. These men may decide, like us, to try and shelter here from the weather.”

Vidal shoved Honor against the rocky outcrop.

* * * *

A rapid burst of Spanish disrupted the sound of rain pounding the rock. Later, Vidal could never explain how the men didn't recognise the outline of the mules and come over to investigate when they stopped not far from their refuge.

Vidal waited for his heartbeat to slow down. The instinctive urge to protect a woman from danger, and to find himself in the middle of such circumstances, were so different from an all-male combat. And he could not allow his feelings for Honor Beaumont to impact the job he'd been sent to do; it would spell disaster for them all if he failed to concentrate on the present situation.

He tried peering through the curtain of rain and discovered their path and the distant mountains had disappeared from view. The muddy torrent of water covering the track promised to make any further progress treacherous. Should they stop where they were, or go on?

“We cannot stay here.” Juan answered his silent question. “The next travellers coming this way may not want to carry on down to the village, in this rain.”

“Won't we have the same problem?” He pointed to the increased flow of water running over the tops of his boots.

“It will take longer which means we may not reach our destination tonight, but we must leave.”

Without waiting to see it Vidal followed him, Juan headed for Consuela. Urged on by Juan, Vidal helped Honor onto her mule and mounted his own. Loath as he was to leave, he understood the reasons for diverting from their original plans. A glance in Honor's direction revealed her sodden clothes plastered to her. The rain had soaked through her worn leather jacket, and still she rode behind her companions in stoic silence. Her hair had long since slipped loose from its pins and fell in bedraggled rat's tails down her back, and tears in the heavy cotton britches she wore exposed the scratches on her legs, while the rest of the material stuck to her like a second skin. And her ankles…

His body heated up in spite of the chill storm-blown rain. Her shoes looked two sizes too big for her dainty feet, and he wondered, concern chilling his unwanted spurt of desire, what condition were they in? Were the soles as decrepit as the uppers?

Why had he assumed she'd come through the experiences as an army wife and still look and act like a debutant in the middle of her first London Season? He watched Consuela fall back and ride at her side. Honor leaned forward to say something and the sound of the women's laughter mingled with the pounding rain.

He wanted to make Honor laugh. He wanted to run his hands…

Whatever he wanted didn't matter; he'd do better to concentrate on getting her back to England without mishap. He urged his mount forward to join Honor and her companion.

“How much daylight do we have left?”

“Less than we hoped, due to this weather. I was just telling Mrs. Beaumont Juan says we may have to stop before we reach our intended destination.”

“I think we should continue,” Honor contradicted. “I appreciate it won't be easy and we shall have to dismount and walk to save the animals from possible injury.”

“It is too far,” Juan stated as he joined them. “Another hour's walk, at least.”

“Is there shelter between here and your destination?”

Juan shook his head.

“Is it impossible to travel in this weather?”

Once again he shook his head.

“Then I think we should go on.” Vidal sided with Honor.

With a muttered imprecation, Juan pressed his knees into the mule's flanks and urged it forward.

“Tell me, why you have opted to go on?” he asked her.

“Because I don't fancy sleeping in these wet clothes if I can possibly avoid it. I've done it before and it is horrible to have to start a new day in sodden clothes you've slept in all night.” She looked across at him and offered him a rueful smile. “So you see mine is a purely selfish reason for not stopping before we reach the next village.”

* * * *

Beginning second week of September

Thanks to the next two days of sunshine that dried their clothes and baked the ground hard again, their progress picked up speed and they left the open landscape behind them. The woodland they'd just travelled through had offered a respite from the heat. Ahead of them a bank of hills presented the first real challenge, if not obstacle to their journey, even though for some unexplained reason, Vidal noticed Honor's unease grew during their time in the woods.

“It is a pity, is it not, that we have no opportunity to enjoy the ride.”

Something in her voice alerted Vidal. “That is not what is concerning you though, is it?” He caught hold of her reins and brought her animal to a halt. “Do you trust me enough to share what is bothering you?”

“It's hard to put into words for I keep persuading myself I am being stupid. That I am imagining things.”

“What sort of things?”

Looking back at the woods they'd left behind, Honor tried to marshal her thoughts. Was it her imagination, or were they being followed? She'd seen and heard nothing, and yet, somewhere deep inside her, a place that Dev told her to listen to churned with unease.

“What do you know about Juan?” she asked, deciding to start with the one constant that didn't add up.

“Juan?” Vidal repeated, and focussed on their self-elected Spanish guide. “Not much. The
guerilleros
don't share information with each other, let alone with outsiders. If they did, they'd endanger every link in their local chain of resistance. Why do you ask?”

“While I followed the drum, I learned to work with and assist the doctors. A local woman who attached herself to one of the soldiers taught me about the local herbs and how to use them when our own medicines ran out.”

“So?”

Honor saw that Vidal wasn't following her, and couldn't blame him. Voicing her concerns would give them a life of their own. They'd no longer hide in the darkness of her suspicions. Dare she bring them out into the open? And what if she didn't?

“I learned Spanish…”

“I know, you speak it very well.”

With an impatient move, Honor tugged her reins out of Vidal's hands. “More to the point, I understand some of the local idioms. Words and phrases you learn while marching. You learn just enough to get by, to acquire provisions, be courteous, to survive. The Spanish I'm talking about is the colloquial version.”

She had his full attention now; did he follow where she was going with this?

“Phillipe give Juan specific instructions about the route we must take to reach the Pyrenees, and from the moment we deviated off the road on our way to Salamanca, Juan has kept us well away from the one recommended. I ask myself, ‘why'?”

“What are you saying?”

“Phillipe was Dev's batman. When Dev was taken, he got me away to safety. He didn't wait for permission, he just took me away and left everything behind. Don't you understand? He saved my life when he couldn't save Dev's.”

Getting the words out almost choked her, as memories threatened to steal her resolve once more. To ward them off, she looked across at Vidal and saw him assessing the Spaniard riding ahead, his mule close to Consuela's, their heads bent towards each other in an animated conversation

“I've had no reason to mistrust him so far.”

She heard the caution in Vidal's voice, and asked, “Why do you think he decided to guide us across Spain when, according to you, he works out of Gibraltar?”

“And your conclusions are—?”

“Is it possible he has instructions to take the two of us somewhere secluded before handing us both over to the French? That way they protect their agent in London and get me too, even though I don't know anything.”

“You think Juan is working for the enemy?” He failed to keep his derision from his voice.

Stung by the disbelief in Vidal's tone, Honor snapped out her major concern. “If he isn't then why are we being followed?”

“We're not being pursued.” No hesitation or contempt this time.

“You, of all people should understand when I say, while I neither see, nor hear them, I know we're being followed.” Swinging round in her saddle, Honor pointed to the woods they'd emerged from less than an hour ago. “Dev taught me to trust my gut instinct, and for the last three days it has told me someone is on our trail.”

A sudden gust of wind added to the chill crawling up Vidal's spine.

Honor took in the tranquil blue of the Mediterranean sky, the vast swathes of green below them, criss-crossed with hard-packed tracks that would turn into muddy rivers after a downpour of rain. She looked down on the canopy of woods. In stark contrast, cliffs, topped with villages glowing golden in the sunlight, rose sheer above the shadows in the valleys below. The way the buildings blended with the cliffs they perched on fascinated her. A shiver raced up her spine. Protected as they were by the drop on three sides, were they more vulnerable or more protected from an unexpected attack?

Perhaps it was the light that rendered everything sharp and clear and indelible. She didn't know, only that something about this moment in time would stay with her forever. Even this late in the season a vague scent of lavender wafted on the air, something she remembered while marching with the troops. Shiny outcrops of rock spearing through the greenery shimmered in the sunlight. Bird song, not the cry of battle, filled the sky. Only the clip-clop of the mules' hooves disturbed the humming insects as they passed. And still the heaviness of intuition told her they were not alone.

“How can you be sure we have moved away from Phillipe's recommended routes? Have you been here before?”

Vidal's demand interrupted her wandering thoughts. “Of course not. We always took our leave in a town where we could relax and replenish on our personal items of need.”

“A hard life.”

Honor just heard the quietly spoken words.

“Make no mistake, we played every bit as hard as we fought, and had some good times. I can't deny it, life could be tough, and yet the friendships are the sort that will last a lifetime.”

Her voice trailed off as the image of three men pulling her husband off his horse and dragging him out of the camp ambushed her.