The Price Of Honour. Mary Nichols

mean Craufurd’s Light Division?’

      ‘You know that, do you?’

      ‘It is hardly a secret.’ Don Santandos paused to swallow his glass of wine in one gulp. ‘For someone who is supposed to be covering a retreat, he is being particularly aggressive. Is that where you came from?’

      ‘No.’

      ‘Why are you alone?’

      ‘He came looking for me.’ Olivia found her voice at last.

      ‘And who would not want to search for so beautiful an example of the fair sex?’ The Spaniard laughed suddenly. ‘Even if she does handle a rifle like a trooper.’

      ‘Better,’ she said, making him laugh again.

      He turned to Robert. ‘You have taught her well, but don’t you think a gun in the hands of a woman is a fatal combination?’

      ‘It is only fatal if I want it to be,’ she snapped quickly. ‘And I can out-shoot any man here. Give me a weapon and I will prove it.’

      Don Santandos roared with laughter, and though his men had not understood the conversation they knew something had tickled the fancy of their chief and followed suit. ‘You are a trier, I give you that,’ he said, wiping his eyes with his sleeve. ‘But I am not such a fool as to fall for that one.’

      ‘It was worth a try,’ she said, smiling.

      ‘I think,’ said Robert, as a bowl of soup was set before him, ‘I think I have a better proposition than that.’

      ‘Oh, let us hear it. It will amuse us while we wait.’

      ‘Wait for what?’ Olivia demanded.

      No one answered her. Robert stood up and beckoned to Don Santandos. ‘A word in your ear, señor.’

      Two or three of the partisans pushed back the bench on which they sat, making it overturn with a clatter, and rushed to seize Robert’s arms. He stood without struggling, still looking towards their leader. ‘Come, Don Santandos, I am weak and helpless and I give you my parole.’

      ‘No!’ Olivia shrieked, knowing that his parole would bind him to refrain from trying to escape. ‘You fool!’

      ‘It seems your wife has more spunk than you do, Englishman. No wonder she preferred the company of the Frenchman.’

      ‘I did not! Why will you not believe me?’

      ‘Because, Mrs Lynmount, we had been watching you for some time before we took you prisoner and we saw what we saw. Would you like me to tell your husband that you were not behaving like a prisoner? Shall we tell him what we saw?’

      ‘There is no need for that.’

      ‘Are you afraid he would beat you?’

      ‘He should understand that when a woman has a choice between…’ She shrugged, allowing them to guess her meaning.

      ‘You mean your courage deserted you and you did not fight for your honour? Oh, Mrs Lynmount, you disappoint me.’

      ‘It was be his prisoner or be left to the mercy of his men.’ She deliberately turned from him and began to eat. ‘I will speak no more on the subject. If my husband is satisfied, then so should you be.’

      ‘Are you satisfied?’ Don Santandos asked Robert.