The Spanish Bride by Georgette Heyer Read Free Book Online Page B

understand why the town was lost, or how the devil I got in. I didn’t chose to tell ’em that. I said I’d entered at the breach, which was true enough; though how we any of us got in, when you consider the way the Johnny Crapauds hurled us back like so many recruits, was a thing that was puzzling me as much as it was puzzling them. I never saw a set of fellows so dejected! All except the Major, a big, jolly-looking Dutchman, with medals enough on his breast to have furnished the window of a tolerable toy-shop. He was a good fellow: cracked as many jokes as corks out of wine-bottles. Damme if I remember the jokes, but the wine was excellent.’
    ‘You villain, Johnny, do you tell me you stood there and drank with them?’ Harry demanded. ‘Stood! We sat round the table, to a dish of cold meat, and drank each others’ healths! After supper, off went my Colonel to secure his valuables. He was so grateful to me for allowing it that he told me he had a couple of good horses in the stable, which, as he wouldn’t be permitted to keep ’em, he recommended me to take. So, as a horse is the only prize we poor devils of officers can consider strictly legal, I had one of ’em saddled. And a handsome black beauty she is, my boy. Three hundred guineas at Tatt’s: not a penny less!’ Harry, always on the look-out for a good horse, was loudly envious of so much good-fortune, and proposed that he should instantly go with Kincaid to his quarters to inspect the animal. They were on the point of strolling off together when Kincaid saw two ladies coming towards them from the direction of the city. ‘Hallo, what’s this?’ he said, detaining Harry. Harry bestowed no more than a cursory glance on the approaching women. ‘What should it be but a couple of camp-followers? Come on, man! You don’t need a woman today!’ ‘No, but wait!’ Kincaid said. ‘They’re ladies. Look at their mantillas!’
    By this time the two veiled figures, the smaller and slighter of the pair supported by the arm of the other, had come within earshot. Harry, a little impatient, favoured them with another look, more searching this time. He decided that Kincaid was right. Ladies they were, if quiet elegance of dress was anything to go by. He stood still, waiting beside Kincaid to see what they could want in the British camp.
    The taller woman led her shrinking companion straight up to the two officers, and put back her mantilla with one thin hand. A handsome, careworn face was disclosed. The lady was no longer in the first blush of youth, but her features were fine, her eyes dark and liquid, and her bearing that of a princess. She addressed the two officers in Spanish, speaking in a voice that retained its natural dignity in spite of evident agitation. ‘Señors, you are English. I implore your aid!’
    ‘Anything in our power, señora!’ Kincaid replied promptly. A look of relief spread over the strained face. ‘You speak Spanish!’ ‘Tolerably well, señora, but not as well as my friend here, I believe.’ The lady’s eyes turned towards Harry, slight and wiry, and a little fidgety beside his tall friend. He bowed, but he knew that there was nothing any officer could do to help a Spaniard from Badajos, and wished that Kincaid would make an end.
    The lady seemed to feel his impatience, and addressed herself again to Kincaid. ‘Señor, you must wonder at my coming into your camp thus unattended. I am of the family of Los Dolores de León. If you doubt me, let me but be brought to Colonel Campbell, or Lord Fitzroy Somerset, for they know me well!’
    Her tongue tripped a little over the names, but Kincaid nodded his understanding. She continued anxiously: ‘We are of the true hidalgo blood, señor. Lord Fitzroy would know. After the battle of Talavera, he and Colonel Campbell were billeted in my house. You recall?’ ‘Yes, I recall. We made Badajos our General Headquarters.’
    ‘It is so. I know well Lord Wellington. But then, alas, we were