Beloved Enemy (27 page)

The drums sounded as soldiers came running from all
directions to form lines on the greensward. Townsfolk leaned from their
casements, children gathered, wide-eyed, at the edge of the green. Alex raised
his eyebrows as Ginny and Diccon hurried over to him. "Have you no respect
for ceremony?" h
e
demanded of Ginny, indicating her
traveling breakfast.

She shook her head, and her eyes twinkled mischievously.
"Surely you would not expect me to forgo my breakfast, Colonel? I might
become faint on the march."

"That would never do," he concurred with a chuckle.
"It is bad enough having to stop every few yards so that you may pick
flowers."

Major Bonha
m
snorted with laughter,
hastily suppressed, and Ginny grinned at him. "It would seem, Major, that
an army on the march is no place for the untrained."

"It is certainly no place for the undisciplined,"
Alex said, but his eyes were smiling. "Could you at least refrain from
munching until the drill is completed? I do not wish to be distracted."

"I would not disturb your concentration for the world,
Colonel." Ginny stepped back to stand beside the major, such an expression
of alert expectancy on her face that they were all hard pressed to hide their
smiles. Then the drums fell silent, and Alex's voice rang loud and clear across
the green in the cool of early morning, and Ginny felt ashamed of her mockery
at the magnificent spectacle, which she guessed had been put on as much for the
benefit of the people of Newbury as in the interests of morale and discipline
among the troops.

The day's journey was long and arduous, the sun beating down
strongly, and Ginny thought of the two men, their backs lacerated by the lash,
marching in armor in this heat where the sweat flowed freely, sticky and
itching even for herself, on horseback, with unbroken skin and dressed
relatively lightly. She had always been blessed, or cursed, with an overly
vivid imagination and was soon suffering acutely in vicarious sympathy. Alex,
noticing her suddenly abstracted silence, asked her what was the matter.

Ginny debated with herself for a moment. He had been going
out of his way to be pleasant, to modify the habitual commanding tone of voice
and choice of words. When she had teased him, even in front of his officers, he
had taken it in good part. But would she be stirring up a hornets' nest again
by referring to yesterday's debacle? It was a risk she decided to take.

"I was thinking about the men you had flogged
yesterday," she said quietly.
"
Marching
in this heat cannot be doing them any good."

Alex shrugged. "The punishment was not particularly
severe."

"They will be feeling it now," she persisted in the
same low tone.

Now what was she up to, Alex wondered warily. This was no
casual conversation, of that he was convinced. He kept his tone neutral.
"
That is only to be expected."

So casual! Ginny looked at him. His face was quite
expressionless. Yet she knew, who better, how gentle and tender he could be.
"I have some ointments
"
she said
tentatively. "They will aid the healing and will ease any discomfort they
may be feeling now. I could ride to the back . . ."

The woman was utterly incorrigible! "Do you never listen
to anything I say?" He spoke with controlled force, his voice low enough
to be heard by her ears alone. "I told you you were not to have anything
to do with the men. Have you forgotten?"

"No—
n
o, of course,
I have not forgotten. It is just that I can be of help, not just to those two,
but maybe there are others with ailments or injuries. I have some skill in
these matters as I told you."

"I do not wish to discuss this, now or at any other
time."

And that, Ginny said to herself, was most definitely that!
Well, she had tried; now it was up to herself and Jed to manage
thing
s without their coming to the colonel's attention.

Their accommodations that night were humble in the extreme.
There was no inn in the tiny hamlet, and Alex said he and his officers would
camp out with the men. A bed was found for Ginny in the only cottage that could
provide one. She stood on the threshold of the mud-floored main room, where
cats and dogs seemed to proliferate, smiled absently at the wrinkled crone who,
in exchange for Parliament's coin, had agreed to be her hostess, allowed
herself to be shown the cot set up at the rear of the room, counted the fleas
with pursed lips, thanked her would-be landlady, and marched out into the
street.

Jed, who had accompanied her on her visit of inspection,
couldn't help his grin when she demanded in carefully neutral tones where the
colonel was to be found. "Billet not to your liking, mistress?"

Ginny shook out her skirts, examining the folds for any
clinging parasites. "A degree of discomfort I do not mind, Jed. Filth and
fleas are a different case. Let us find the colonel."

Alex was to be found with his officers, all of whom had shed
shirts and boots and were sprawled in cheerful relaxation outside a group of
tents set up on the outskirts of the main camp. It was quite clear to Ginny
that the prospect of a night in the open air was viewed with relish by them
all. It was also clear that the thought that she was safely out of their way
for the night was at least partly responsible for this relaxed attitude.

"
Pray
do not let me disturb you, gentlemen," she said, stalking over to them.
"I am quite accustomed to the sight of men without their shirts, so you
need not feel in the least uncomfortable. No, do not get up, I beg you."

"You have a problem, Ginny?" Alex braced himself
for the worst. Virginia bore a most determined air, and he could smell defeat
in the wind even before he knew the cause of battle.

"No problem," she said calmly. "I shall sleep
under those trees over there. You need not mind me at all."

"Why?" he asked, keeping his tone only mildly
curious.

"I have no desire to contract typhus," she told him
succinctly. "Dirt, parasites, and disease make inevitable bedfellows. I
prefer to take my chance out of doors. You may all pretend that I am not
here."

"That would be difficult," Alex commented with a
dry little smile. "If not impossible. You had better take the tent on the
end, and it is to be hoped that your first taste of campfire cooking will not
prove too unpalatable."

"I am not excessively nice in my requirements,"
Ginny retorted. "But I do not care for fleas and bedbugs."

"Understandable, Mistress Courtney
,
" Major Bonha
m
agreed
with bland courtesy. "Will you not take a seat in our sylvan parlor?"

"Thank you." Ginny sat on the grass and pulled off
her boots with a sigh of relief. "I think you should all call me Ginny,
Major. Diccon and the colonel do, and it seems silly, in the circumstances, to
stand o
n
ceremony."

Alex felt their eyes on him. It could do no harm, he decided.
With an easy laugh, he sat down beside her, giving his tacit permission for her
suggestion. "Ceremony, my dear Ginny, is something quite unknown to you,
as we have already remarked.
"

Jed reappeared at this point with a flagon of wine.
"Fire's a bit slow," he grunted, handing the flagon to Alex.
"Supper
’
ll be along in a bit."

"Perhaps I can help," Ginny said, getting to her
feet, following Jed out of earshot, to where a brazier showed a sullen gleam.
"How are the men?" she whispered. "Should I go to them?"

"They'll do," Jed replied in an undertone.
"You'll not be able to go among 'em tonight without the colonel noticin'.
In the
m
ornin', you'll have a need to go into
the bushes, I reckon. No one will inquire if you're away for a while in all the
business of breakin' camp. There's one or two others who could do with some
attention. Just follow me, when I give you the nod."

"
It
would be so much more sensible if the colonel would just see how unreasonable
he's being." Ginny sighed.

"It's hard to change his mind when it's set," Jed
informed her, shaking the contents of a skillet over the fire. "Always has
been, even as a lad. That's not to say it can't be done though,
"
he added. "By the right
person."

"You think
I
could?"

"Mebbe," was the short reply. Silence followed, and
Ginny, deciding that her cooking help was not needed and that Jed had clearly
said as much as he was prepared to on that fascinating subject, returned to her
companions.

She had always found food in the open air much more
appetizing than its indoor equivalent, and Jed's efforts certainly did not go
unappreciated. The flagon of wine was passed around, conversation was
pleasantly desultory, with none of the formality attendant upon dinner in an
inn parlor. It was not long before Ginny found herself resting against Alex's
drawn-up knees, and if anyone noticed the intimacy, they gave no sign. It was
also, Ginny realized, the first evening since this strange journey began that,
for her, came to a natural close. There was no squabble leading to her
banishment, and the stars were high in the sky when Major Bonha
m
announced with a yawn that it was time to turn in.

"
Whose
tent have I appropriated?" Ginny asked, giving her hands to Alex.

"Mine," he told her, pulling her upright. "I
shall sleep under the stars. I prefer it, anyway."

"Perhaps I would, also," she said with a wicked
gleam.

Alex's eyes narrowed, but he said simply, "You may use
my bedroll. Jed will find me another."

"Thank you, sir," she murmured, dropping him a
curtsy. "But maybe we do not need a second one."

It was impossible not to laugh with her, Alex reflected, not
to be entranced by those candid gray eyes where imps of mischief danced, by
that wonderfully warm, generous mouth, by her deep-bosomed grace. She was
utterly outrageous, utterly carefree, did not know the meaning of the word
discretion, or if she did, seemed not to acknowledge any need for it. And when
she was not driving him to the brink of fury, she was bringing him to the edge
of distraction with the heady, invincible combination of love and lust that he
knew she shared.

It was the latter combination that brought him stealthily
into the tent, once the heavy silence of sleep had fallen over the camp. Ginny
was waiting for him, sitting cross-legged on the bedroll, quite naked.

"I think you are a changeling
,
" Alex whispered, dropping to his knees beside
her. "There is a magical quality about you, definitely something of the
fairy. But not a good fairy," he added, cradling one breast in his large
palm, a long calloused finger tracing the enlarged aureola, tipping the erect
peak that hardened and tightened in responsive longing. "A very wicked
fairy, and you are going to be my undoing, I fear."

"Tonight, I am," she promised softly, running her
hands down his bare chest, palming his nipples, slipping inside the waist of
his britches, one finger playing in his navel. The fastening of his britches
came apart under her urgent fingers, and she pushed them down over his hips,
that seductive tongue peeking between her lips as she drank in the sight of
those narrow hips, the concave belly, the slender trail of curly black hair
leading the eye down to the hard, joyous promise of his arousal.
"
You are so beautiful," she
whispered, enclosing him in her hand, reveling in the strong pulsing of his
blood against her fingers, his involuntary stirrings of pleasure. "There
can be no shame in this." Her head bent, and she took him between her
lips, hearing his low moan of delight as her tongue stroked and turned, muscular
and knowing as she lost herself in the giving.

The night air was a cool whisper on her skin, sensuous and
arousing beneath the flimsy canvas shelter as their bodies twisted and slid,
over and across, changing position with the ease and familiarity of long-established
lovers. They laughed and whispered, and in the moment of fulfillment, Ginny
cried out, unable to bite back the acknowledgment of ecstasy. She fell asleep
in his arms almost immediately, and Alex lay in the darkness, listening to the
night noises outside the tent, breathing in the mingled scents of her hair and
skin. There would be
little
point in concealment after tonight,
when any with ears to hear would know the truth, he thought ruefully, the
instant before he, too, fell asleep.