"Captain?"
He kept walking. He went round the corner, past the lights of the spyholes, and he felt a freedom come on him. He would be true to Teresa, who loved him, and he quickened his pace towards the secret staircase.
"Captain!" She was running now, her bare feet slapping the rush mats. "Captain!" Her hand pulled at his elbow. "Why are you going?"
She had teased him earlier, mocked him for not kissing her, withdrawn when he had touched her. Now she held his arm, was pleading with him, her eyes searching his face for some rea.s.surance. He hated her games.
"G.o.d d.a.m.n you to h.e.l.l, Ma"am." He put his left arm about her back, half lifted her, and kissed her on the mouth. He crushed her, kissing her to hurt, and when he saw her eyes close, he dropped her. "For G.o.d"s sake! Do I enjoy killing? What am I? A b.l.o.o.d.y trophy for your rotten wall? I"m going to get drunk, Ma"am, in some flea-bitten hovel in this b.l.o.o.d.y town and I might take a wh.o.r.e with me. She won"t ask me b.l.o.o.d.y questions. Good night!"
"No!" She held him again.
"What do you want? To save me money?" He was harsh, feeling his hurt. She was more beautiful than he could have imagined a woman to be.
"No." She shook her head. "I want you, Captain, to save me from Colonel Leroux." She said it almost bitterly and then, as if ashamed of the kiss, she turned and walked away from him.
"You what?"
She went on walking, back to the corner and onto the lighted side of the balcony. Once again she had surprised him, but this time he felt there was no game. He followed.
She was standing by the telescope, staring through the lattice, and Sharpe propped his rifle against the wall and went close behind her. "Tell me why?"
"I"m frightened of him." She stared away from him.
"Why?"
"He"ll kill me."
There was a silence and it seemed to Sharpe to be like a great abyss over which he was suspended on a single, fine blade-edge. One false move and the moment would be lost, finished, and it was as if he and she were alone high above the dark night and he saw the shadow between her shoulder blades, a dark shadow running down into the intricate lace of her dress, and it seemed to him that there was nothing on this dark earth so mysterious, so frightening, or as fragile as a beautiful woman. "He"ll kill you?"
"Yes."
He put his right hand up, slowly, and put his long finger against her shoulder blade, a touch so gentle that it could have been a strand of her golden hair. He slid the finger down her warm, dry skin and she did not move.
"Why will he kill you?"
His fingertip explored the ridges of her spine. Still she did not move and he let his other fingers down, then pushed them slowly up towards her neck. She was very still.
"You"ve stopped calling me "Ma"am"."
"Why will he kill you, Ma"am?"
His fingers were on the nape of her neck where they could feel the wisps of hair that had escaped from the silver combs. He moved his hand right, very slowly, letting his fingers trace and stroke the curve of her long neck. She began to turn and his hand, as if frightened of breaking something very fragile, leaped an inch from her skin. She stopped, waited till she was touched again, and turned to face him.
"Do your friends call you d.i.c.k?"
He smiled. "Not for many years." His arm was tense from the effort of holding it still, hovering on her skin, and he waited for her to speak again, knowing that she had suddenly asked an irrelevant question because she was thinking. She seemed oblivious of his hand, but he knew she was not, and his heart still thumped inside him, and the moment was still there. Her eyes flicked between his.
"I"m frightened of Leroux." She said it flatly.
He let the palm of his hand drop onto the curve of her neck. Still she seemed to take no notice. His fingers curled onto her back. "Why?"
She gestured at the balcony. "You know what this is?"
He shrugged. "A balcony."
For a few seconds she said nothing. His hand was feather-light on her neck and he could see the shadows move on her skin as she breathed. He could hear the beat of his heart. She licked her lips. "A balcony, but a special kind of balcony. You can see a long way from here, and it"s built so you can do that." Her eyes, trusting and serious, were on his. She was speaking simply, as if to a child, so that he would understand her. It was, Sharpe thought, with his hand still on her neck, yet another face of this remarkable woman who changed like lake water, but something in her tone told him that now she was not playing. If there was a true Marquesa, this was she. "You can see the roads over the river, and that"s why it was built. My husband"s great-great-grandfather didn"t want to spy only indoors. He liked to watch his wife when she rode out of the palace, so he built this balcony like a watch-tower. They"re not unusual in Spain, and they have this lattice for a special reason. No one can see in, Mr. Sharpe, but we can see out. It"s a special kind of balcony. In Spanish a balcony is "balcon", but this isn"t a "balcon". Do you know what it is?"
Sharpe"s hand was utterly still. He did not know the answer, but he could guess. The word almost stumbled as he spoke it, but he said it aloud. "Mirador?"
She nodded. "El Mirador. The watch-place." She looked at his face. She could see a pulse throbbing in his cheek beside the sword scar. His eyes were dark. She raised an eyebrow as if in question. "You know, don"t you?"
He hardly dared speak, he hardly dared breathe. He moved his hand, sliding it gently onto her back so that his fingertips touched the skin of her spine. The wind stirred the leaves above them.
She frowned slightly. "Do you know?"
"Yes, I know."
She closed her eyes, seemed to sigh, and he pulled with his hand and she came, so easily, into his chest. Her hair was below his chin, her face cradled in his rough uniform, and her voice was small and pleading.
"No one must know, Richard, no one. Don"t tell anyone that you know, not even the General! No one must know. Promise me?"
"I promise." He held her close, the wonder of it in his head.
"I"m frightened."
"Is that why you wanted me here?"
"Yes. But I didn"t know if I could trust you."
"You can trust me."
She tipped her head up to his and he could see that her eyes were gleaming. "I"m frightened of him, Richard. He does terrible things to people. I didn"t know! I never knew it would be like this."
"I know." He leaned down and her face did not move. He kissed her and suddenly her arms were round him and she clung to him fiercely and kissed him fiercely as if she wanted to suck the strength from him into her own self. Sharpe held her, his arms round the slim body, and he thought of what his enemy would do to this perfect, lovely, golden woman, and he despised himself for distrusting her because he knew, now, that she was braver than he, that she had led her lonely life in the great Palacio, surrounded by enemies, and in danger, always, of a terrible death. El Mirador!
His hand pressed on her back and, through the lace, hanging in fringes, he felt the hooks of her dress, and he slipped his hand between the hooks, felt her skin, and then pressed the bottom hook between finger and thumb, the finger and thumb that were more used to the pressure of flint on mainspring, and the hook slid out of the loop, and he moved his hand up to the second, pressed again, it opened, and she dropped her face onto his chest, still clinging to him. He could not believe this was happening, that he, Richard Sharpe, was on this mirador, this night, with this woman, and he moved his hand to the last hook, pressed it back through the loop and he could feel the metal sc.r.a.ping as it moved, and she seemed to stiffen in his arms. He froze.
She looked up at him and her eyes searched his face as though she needed some rea.s.surance that this man could truly keep her from Leroux"s long Kligenthal. She gave a small smile. "Call me Helena."
"Helena?" The hook snapped free, he moved his hand, and he sensed the wings of the dress fall away and he put his hand back, stroked, and it was pressed into the rich curve at the small of her back. Her skin was like silk.
Her smile went, all the harshness came back. "Let go of me!" It was snapped like an order, her voice loud. "Let go of me!"
He had been a fool! She had wanted protection, not this, and now he had offended her by imagining what was not to be, and he let go of her, bringing his hand back, and she stepped away from him. Her face changed again. She laughed at him, laughed at his confusion, and she had ordered him away so that she could stand free and let the dress, light as thistledown, rustle to the floor. She was naked beneath the dress and she stepped back to him over its folds. "I"m sorry, Richard."
He put his arms round her, her skin was pressed against his uniform, his sword belt, his ammunition pouch, and she clung to him and he stared at the dark bulk of the San Vincente and he swore that the enemy would never reach her, never, not while there was breath in his body or while his arm could lift the heavy sword whose hilt was cold on her flank. She hooked a leg round his, lifted herself up, and kissed him again and he forgot everything. The Company, the forts, Teresa; all were scoured away, whirled far off by this moment, by this promise, by this woman who fought her own lonely war against his enemies.
She lowered herself to the floor, took his hand, and her face was grave and innocent. "Come."