Diccon obliged instantly
,
and Ginny cast the young man a sideways glance. "There is no need to be
embarrassed at my predicament, Diccon," she said.
"I
brought it upon myself.
"
"Maybe so," the lieutenant muttered, blushing.
"
But it is no way to treat a
lady."
"It is appropriate enough treatment for a rebel, though,
"
she responded, sounding amazingly
cheerful.
"If the binding is too tight, I could contrive to loosen
it
,
" Diccon blurted abruptly
,
his flush deepening.
Ginny looked at him in wondering surprise.
"
Oh, Diccon
,
" she said, moved.
"
You would really be willing t
o i
nvite the rough end of the colonel's tongue again, just for
m
e?"
"I do not think it is right
,
" he said steadfastly.
Ginny smiled and shook her head.
"
I am truly grateful, Diccon, but I am
in no discomfort. See, the cloth is quite loose
."
She twisted her wrists in demonstration.
Alex came cantering back at this moment.
"
My thanks, Diccon
.
" He took the rein, then looked at his
aide-de-camp closely. A flash of amusement crossed his face, but
he
said only,
"You may return to your place, Lieutenant." Diccon went off at once,
and Alex observed to Ginny,
"
I have
the distinct impression my star is falling in that particular f
i
rmament
.
"
"He does not approve of the way you treat your
prisoners," she responded. "I find his concern most touching
.
"
"It is to be hoped that this calf lov
e
does not prove tedious," Alex said with a
chuckle.
"Calf love? Whatever do you mean?" Ginny demanded
in genuine surprise.
"Oh, come now, chicken, do not be naive. Poor Diccon is
head over heels in love with you."
"Nonsense!" Ginny scoffed, then wondered uneasily
if perhaps it were true. Why else would Diccon be willing to earn the
displeasure of the commander he seemed to hero-worship?
"You may believe it or not as your please, butpray do
not encourage him," said Alex with a small shrug.
"If my hands were free, I would hit you for that!"
Ginny declared furiously. "How dare you imply I would do such a
thing."
"I did not intend to insult you, Ginny," Alex said
placating
l
y. "It's just that I do not
think I am going to have the time to worry about Diccon's emotional stability.
I would simply put you on your guard, that is all."
"Do we cross the Thames by London Bridge?" Ginny
asked, avoiding a subject that seemed destined to lead to further acrimony.
"No, we remain on the south bank," Alex told her.
"The main body of the army is quartered at Southwark, and we will find
lodging there until I may meet with Cromwell."
"Oh." Ginny sounded as disappointed as she felt.
"If it is possible, Ginny, I will take you across the
river, and you may see all there is to see," he promised with
smiling comprehension.
"I will not enjoy being paraded through the streets of
the metropolis in bonds
,
" she said tartly.
"Well, if you behave yourself, perhaps, in a day or so,
it will not be necessary
,
" he returned smoothly.
A day or so! Ginny grimaced at the prospect. Clearly, she was
going to have to come up with some invincible reasons for a rapid end to this
disgrace.
Alex, well pleased with the speed of their progress, called a
halt at Walworth under an overcast mid-morning sky. They would reach Southwark
comfortably in a couple of hours, and a break for food, drink, and easement wou
l
d not come amiss.
He lifted Ginny from her horse, cupped her elbow, and
escorted her over to where a copper beech tree offered a broad trunk as a
backrest, and moss-covered roots as a seat.
"
Give
me your hands." She held them up as he unfastened the cloth and pocketed
it.
"My thanks, sir," she murmured in dulcet tones,
dropping him a mock curtsy, before sitting down and arranging her skirts around
her.
Alex pursed his lips. "Have a care, chicken, lest
I
regret the inclination to be merciful. You will find
it difficult to eat with your hands tied."
"I do not think that you wish me to starve,
Colonel," she riposted, the gray eyes fearless in their challenge, amused
in their knowledge that she was right.
Alex chuckled involuntarily, turning to take bread and cheese
from Jed. "No, that would not suit me at all* he agreed, sitting down
beside her. "I would not wish there to be one inch less of you."
Ginny could not imagine how Jed could have failed to hear the
comment, but the soldier's wrinkled face remained graven as he put a basket of
apples down between them. "There's water in the stream," he said,
"if you've a thirst."
Ginny was hungry after her neglected, unappetizing breakfast.
The bread was thick and crusty, the cheese ripe and strong, the apples crisp
and juicy. Alex lay stretched out beside her on the moss under the copper beech
,
and in spite of last night and his retributive action
of this morning, they were in perfect harmony. It didn't seem that it could be
possible, yet it was so. They also seemed to be sitting in a fairy ring that no
one else dared cross. No one approached them, the other officers taking their
meal at a fair distance from the tree, on the bank of the stream.
Alex threw his apple core into the bushes and rose leisurely
to his feet. "Won't be long," he said, strolling off toward a small
copse. It was so much easier for men
,
Ginny thought resentfully. Women were not intended to spend their days marching
in the open. She watched him return in an enviably short time, pause to
exchange a few words with the group by the stream before coming back to the
tree.
"
Ready,
Ginny? It's time we were on the road again."
"
Would
it be all right if I were to follow in your footsteps before we leave?"
she asked pointedly. "Unguarded, if possible."
Alex regarded her with deliberate speculation, as if weighing
up the situation.
"
Well, now," he pronounced
thoughtfu
ll
y, "I do not think you can get
up to too much trouble in that copse. But beware of the nettles; I would not
like to
think
of your delicate
—
"
"Oh, do stop!" Laughing in spite of herself, Ginny
marched off toward the trees. On the way back, on impulse, she stopped beside
Major Bonha
m
. "I must apologize, Major, for
the trouble I caused you last night."
A ghost of a smile touched the major's lips. "The fault
was mine
,
" he said. "I
underestimated you, Ginny. My only comfort is that the colonel did too."
She laughed, and it was returned, making her feel immeasurably better. It was
one thing to be at odds with Alex, quite another to be so with these others
whose life she shared.
Alex tied her wrists again, once she was back on Jen, but it
didn't seem to matter quite so much this time, just some formality that had to
be endured. Shortly after noon, they passed through the earthwork defenses of
outer London. The sentries welcomed them, and a shouted exchange of comradely
badinage took place as the brigade marched through. No attempt was made to halt
this undisciplined jollity, Ginny observed, but then the brigade was returning
home into Parliament-held London. They were amongst friends, and rigid rules of
conduct could be somewhat relaxed.
In growing excitement, Ginny stared into the distance hoping
to catch a glimpse of St. Paul's on its hill above the river, or one of the
massive towers of the great Tower itself. But the day remained gloomy, and
visibility was low.
With her excitement came a return of apprehension. Here she
would find no kindred spirit in kitchen or stableyard. She was a prisoner in
the enemy camp with Only Alex to intercede for her. And Alex seemed almost to
have forgotten her presence, although he still held the rein that led her
horse. His own excitement and tension was an almost palpable force, as it had
been that day on the Hog's Back when he had contemplated the prospect of
battle. Again, she shivered at the thought of the strange
,
alien quality of this man who knew her body so
intimately, whose body
she
knew so intimately. What an extraordinary
force was love and lust combined, strong enough to
overpower differences of principle and temperament that shoul
d
be utterly divisive.
Sout
hw
ark was no more than an enormous army
camp surrounding a cluster of buildings that had once house
d
the hamlet's inhabitants. The Globe Theatre, no
longer needed to offer the best of theater for London's populace, stood on the
banks of the river, neglected. Ginny looked at the building longingly,
remembering Edmund tell of the wonderful plays he had seen there by Ben Jonson
and Shakespeare. Would such entertainment ever be offered again?
The brigade halted before what had once been an inn, but was
now clearly employed as army headquarters. Ginny was obliged to remain on her
horse, which was held by a hastily summoned soldier, while Alex went into the
building, and his officers, clearly knowing exactly what was expected of them,
dispersed. The brigade seemed to vanish as she watched. They went in an orderly
fashion, it was true, but at one minute there were two-hundred men drawn up in
orderly ranks; the next, on a shouted command, they had gone.
Ginny became again acutely conscious of her captive State
when there were no friendly faces in sight. She could not dismount with her
hands bound, the soldier holding Jen seemed totally indifferent, and she
wondered anew how Alex could be so callous as to abandon her in this fashion.
It seemed an eternity before he appeared in the doorway, in
the company of two others wearing colonel's insignia. "Damnation," he
muttered, seeing her.
"
I am sorry, I forgot all about
you." He lifted her off Jen, and Ginny resisted the urge to kick him only
with the greatest difficulty. "Go where you please, except into the men's
camp
,
" he said, "but return here
in an hour. I will know then what we are to do next."
"My hands?" Ginny said.
"They stay as they are for the moment. I cannot put a
guard on you, and I do not wish to lock you up, so this restriction must do
instead."
Ginny watched him stride off down the street in the company
of the others and felt forlorn, even as she wanted to stick a knife in his
throat. How could he not care, not even imagine how lonely was her position? He
was too busy, too absorbed in his own business. It would have been better if he
had left her with Lady Hammond at Carisbrooke Castle.
Chapter 13
There was no point repining, Ginny decided. She was here in
Southwark, a mere hour's journey from London Bridge, and there was no knowing
what the future held
,
but it was unlikely to be dull, that
was for sure. With renewed spirits, she set off to explore her surroundings,
giving her wrists an experimental twist, scrunching one hand up small to see if
she could slip it free. All that happened was that the knot became small, hard,
and much tighter, and the skin on her wrist bone reddened. She should have
heeded Alex's warning, she thought crossly, giving up the struggle.
The first thing she noticed was that there were women, plenty
of them, about the village. They stood gossiping in doorways, were to be found
scrubbing clothes in wooden tubs, feeding chickens, hanging out laundry,
kneading dough on wooden trays. But they did not seem to Ginny to be ordinary
servants, in spite of the domestic nature o
f
their activities. Something about their dress was not quite appropriate, a
skirt was too short, a blouse falling off a shoulder revealing more than the
mere swell of an ample breast, and they moved in such a way as to accentuate
their womanly attributes. There was much laughter amongst them, and whenever a
group of soldiers went past, there were cat calls and ribaldry.
The stared openly at Ginny, and one ta
l
l, buxom woman with flaming red hair and the white
skin to match called out to her, beckoning her over to where she stood, leaning
against the well with three others. "What you doin' 'ere, deerie?"
she asked, not unkindly. "Not the place for the likes o
'
you." She fingered the good serge of Ginn
y’
s riding habit, the crisp white collar, then pointed
at her hands. "You a prisoner, men?"