Ginny agreed that she was; it seemed simpler than complicated
explanations about wards of Parliament. "I came in with Colonel Marshall's
brigade," she offered.
"Eh, did you now?" One of the other women winked.
"There's a fine gennelman, but hoity-toity." She sniffed, wrinkling
her nose as if at a bad smell. "Always got 'is nose in the air, that one."
By which, Ginny concluded that Alex did not amuse himself with whores and camp
followers, since that was clearly what
these
women were.
She shrugged. "Do you live in the camp then?"
The red-haired woman laughed. "Wherever there's
soldiers, deerie, that's where we live. And now that Cromwell's payin' 'em,
it's a good living, ain't it, girls?" There was raucous agreement; then
one of them said to Ginny, with more than a touch of scorn,
"
You thinkin' of tryin' it, then,
duckie? There's worse ways to get by in wartime."
Ginny, remembering her two attackers of the foul breath and
sweaty bodies, had difficulty believing this, but she muttered something
neutral, having no desire to cause offense. "I don't suppose," she
said tentatively, "that one of you would untie this knot for me?" She
held out her wrists and, to her astonishment, saw them all jump backward as if
she were holding a viper.
"Wat d'ye think we are?" the red-haired woman said.
"Fools, or su
m
mat? Aidin' and abettin' a prisoner
is a hangin' matter."
"I crave pardon," Ginny made haste to apologize.
"I didn't mean to cause you any trouble. Perhaps you shouldn't be seen
talking to me, either."
There were indeed some doubtful mutterings as to the wisdom
of conversing with a prisoner who seemed intent on escape, and Ginny left them,
continuing in the direction of the Globe Theatre. The sound of a shrill sc
r
eam
from
a
nearby alley gave her pause. No one else
s
eemed to be taking the slightest notice. She went
swiftly towar
d
the sound, then stared in disgust.
Two women were rolling around in the soil of the kennel, screaming abuse at
each other as they scratched, clawed, and yanked at their opponent's hair. A
group of soldiers stood watching, yelling encouragement in the coarsest
language. There was an awful fascination about the scene, and Ginny could not
tear her eyes away even as she felt as degraded by the spectacle as if she were
one of the participants.
"Come away, mistress!" Jed's hand seized her arm,
pulling her away from the mouth of the alley.
"
What are you a-thinkin' of? You shouldn't be 'ere."
"The colonel said I might go where I pleased in the
village," Ginny protested in what she realized was less than adequate
defense for her obvious fascination.
"Somethin' must've addled his wits," Jed said unequivocally.
"Unless he's forgotten the place is full of harlots. Most likely, he
has," he added with an exasperated headshake.
"
It
'
s
the excitement, always drives the sense from him."
Ginny found this insight absolutely intriguing. Jed was
talking about Alex as a grown man might talk of an irritating small boy for
whom he had, nevertheless, considerable affection.
Jed clearly had no intention of permitting her to continue
her walk and escorted her firmly back to headquarters, showing her into an
empty, large, and rather dusty room that, judging by the faint, lingering smell
of liquor, had presumably once been the inn's taproom.
"
You'll be quite all right here
,
" he told her. "If 'n anyone wants to know
who you are, just you tell 'em ye're waitin' on the colonel.
''
With that, he left her, closing the door firmly in
his wake. Ginny sat on a smooth window seat that had clearly been polished by
generations of backsides and looked out onto the street where the scene was as
lively as ever.
Alex, in the same company as before, appeared in about ten
minutes, and Ginny watched as Jed went over to him. The batman spoke at some
length, and Alex, to Ginny's eyes, began to look rather discomfited, pulling at
his chin, as he glanced over at the inn. Then he nodded, said something briefly
to Jed who saluted, rather pointedly to Ginny's way of thinking, and went off.
Alex and the other two colonels came toward the inn.
When Alex walked into the room, Ginn
y
was sitting demurely on the window seat, her bound
hands resting in her lap, an expression of hurt innocence on her face.
"I gather you had some unpleasantness," Alex said.
"I am sorry, I was not thinking clearly."
"It was quite horrid," Ginny murmured in a low
voice, twisting her fingers, dropping her eyes to her lap. "Alex — they
are . . . they are whores, I think!" This last was said in tones of such
shocked modesty and innocence that all three men shuffled uncomfortably.
"
Could it possibly be so?" she
asked, wondering how long she could continue the play before laugher gave her
away. "Could they indeed be fallen women?"
Alex regarded her with growing suspicion. She had never
before given him the slightest reason to suspect her of prudery, quite the
opposite. It was certainly true that witnessing a cat fight of the kind Jed had
so vividly described could have been a shock to one of maidenly sensibilities,
but Ginny? No, she was made of sterner stuff than that.
"Mistress Courtney," he said, "will you take
your eyes off your lap for one minute and look at me?" She raised her head
slowly, and Alex gave an involuntary shout of laughter. The gray eyes were
brimming with mischievous glee. "Wretch!" he exclaimed. "For a
minute, you almost had me fooled. You were not even as shocked as Jed, were
you?"
"It had a certain horrible fascination, to be quite
truthful," she replied. "But I do not wish to see such a thing again.
The whores themselves do not worry me, but —
w
ell,
it was disgusting."
“I do not know what I can have been thinking of,“ Alex said
with a rueful grimace.
"
It will be best if I keep you by me,
in future."
"
Yes,
I think it will," Ginny agreed matter
-
of-fact
l
y. "Will you not introduce me to your colleagues?
"
She raised her eyebrows quizzically
at the two men with him, both of whom were looking more than a little
bewildered by the tone of the preceding conversation.
"
Oh,
I am sorry. gentlemen, this is the lady I was telling you about, Mistress
Virginia Courtney. Ginny, may I present Colonels Richards and Chambers
.”
Ginny rose from her perch, smiled, and attempted a polite
curtsy.
"
You must excuse me, sirs," she
said sweetly,
"
but I am unable to curtsy properly
with my hands restricted in this manner."
"
Give
them to me," Alex said,
then
frowned
over the knot. "Did I not tell you that you would merely tighten this by
pulling against it? I cannot possibly undo it."
"
Well,
it is a great nuisance," Ginny retorted.
"
If I could have undone it myself, I would have done so
."
"I do not doubt it," he said, pulling a kni
fe
from the sheath at his belt. "Mistress Courtney,
gentlemen, is a most redoubtable rebel. Do not ever underestimate her."
The c
l
oth
parted beneath the blade. "That should not have happened," he
said softly, stroking with his thumb the reddened skin of her wrist bone.
The touch, so innocent seeming, sent a shock wave coursing
through her down to the soles of her feet. The caress in his voice turned her
bones to putty, and for a breathless second her fingers twined around his. What
must Colonels Richards and Chambers be thinking, Ginny wondered distractedly,
feeling that betraying flush Warm her cheeks.
Alex gave her a knowing smile, well aware of the effect he
was having and content to have it so.
"
Come
,"
he said,
"
I will show you to your quarters.
They will be a
little
primitive, I fear, but tomorrow we
go to Whitehall, and you will be lodged in a palace."
Ginny clapped her hands in delight, her face radiant.
"
Truly?"
"
Truly,"
he laughed. "I always keep my promises, even to intransigent rebels."
He showed her to a mere slip of a room, more of a cupboard
than a chamber. "There are no other women sleeping in headquarters,"
Alex told her,
"
but you will not be disturbed by
anyone."
"How can you be so sure?" Ginny asked, surprised at
this sudden change of attitude. In Guildford, in the interests of her safety,
he had locked her in at night and taken away the key.
"Because, chicken," he said slowly and
deliberately, "I have the prior claim, and everyone knows it."
"Ah
,
" she said, sucking in her lower
lip. "We are to be done with secrecy then?" That would explain the
openness of his manner with her in front of the colonels earlier.
"If you would have it so,
"
he replied, taking her hand, lifting it to his lips.
"After tomorrow, I can have no reason to keep you prisoner myself. I must
either hand you over to Cromwell with the recommendation that he put you in the
charge of a good Parliamentarian family until the fighting is done, or you
throw in your lot with mine, sweetheart. Will you follow the drum?" The
green-brown eyes were pinpricks of intensity as he asked the question that
mattered so much to him. He had no other alternatives to offer. One day they
might be able to talk of marriage, but not now when noti
c
ing was certain, not even life itself.
"Like those others out there?" Ginny gestured with
her head toward the window.
"No!" Alex said, dropping her hand and transferring
his hold to her shoulders. "That is not what I am offering, and you know
it! Mistress, yes; whore, no!" The vigorous statement was punctuated with
a hard shake, and Ginny, who had intended the remark to be a joke, realized
that in some things they did not share the same sense of humor.
"It was said in jest," she protested. "Of
course I do not think that."
"
Sometimes
I think I will never understand you,” Alex grumbled. "You seem to hold
nothing sacred. You have no respect for rank, you do not believe
i
n obeying orders or treating ceremonies with the
slightest reverence, or—"
"Then I am going to make a very poor soldier
,
aren't I?
"
Ginny interrupted this woeful catalogue with a grin.
"
Are you sure it will be a good
idea?"
"
No,"
he said savagely, jerking her into his arms.
"
I am convinced it will be the biggest mistake of my li
fe,
and we shall be always at loggerheads because you wi
ll
never be where you are supposed to be and will be
forever making mock of me in public and refusing to do as you are told
.
" His hand pushed up her chin.
"
God's death, but I love you, Virginia
Courtney." His mouth covered hers with bruising force, and she met the
plundering tongue, thrust for thrust, matching his statement with her own
passionate assertion. What was between them could not be denied
.
It would take its own course, and they would flow
with it like logs down
the
rapids.
Alex drew back from her slowly and reluctantly. “I have to go
for the moment, sweeting. There are division matters I must discuss with the
others. You will dine with us, though, in one hour."
"If you promise not to treat me like a recalcitrant
prisoner," said Ginny. "I will not tolerate being sent to bed in that
irritating manner you have. Not if I now travel with you of my own free
will."
Alex touched the tip of her nose with a long forefinger.
"
You will preside over the dinner
table, Mistress Courtney, as if it were your own
."
At the door, he turned back
to her.
"
I do not wish you to stay up late,
though." The green-brown eyes danced merrily. "So make sure you take
yourself off before I feel the need to remind you." Chuckling, he left
her, and Ginny shook her head in mild exasperation, under no illusions that
there would be true equality betwee
n
them for as long as she rode as a member, honorary or otherwise, of Alexander
Marshall's brigade.