A Regimental Affair

Hervey was so startled, he grabbed his arm. ‘Sir, they’ve gone, they’ve gone.’

Lord Towcester turned in the saddle. The Mississaugas had disappeared as suddenly as they had come. He was dumbstruck.

‘We should trot on, sir,’ pressed Hervey. ‘Look, the scouts are doing the same!’ He seized the lieutenant colonel’s reins and pulled his horse into motion.

CHAPTER TWENTY. ORDERS JUST RECEIVED

Fort York, two days later

The quarter guard turned out as the patrol neared the gates. Twelve dragoons of the inlying picket brought their carbines to the present, and the corporal brought his sabre to the carry. The trumpeters blew ‘Attention’, and orderlies stood ready to take the reins of the chargers.

The Earl of Towcester acknowledged the respects without halting. ‘Carry on, Captain Hervey,’ he said, barely audibly, his right leg already out of the stirrup. The lieutenant colonel’s groom took in hand the big black gelding and, without a backward glance or another word, Lord Towcester strode away to his quarters, the adjutant a few paces behind him.

Hervey fronted to the patrol. ‘The commanding officer would wish me to express his appreciation of your exertions this past week. The conditions were trying and your conduct exemplary. There shall be a rum issue and stand-down of twenty-four hours from watchsetting this evening. Fall out, Mr Seton Canning. Carry on, please, Serjeant Armstrong.’

‘I’ll see to stables, if you wish, Hervey,’ said Seton Canning as they dismounted.

‘Thank you. Yes.’ How decent of his lieutenant to guess so much of his mind. Henrietta would have claimed him anyway, in her condition, but Canning was not to know how keenly Hervey wanted to relate to her Lord Towcester’s infamous conduct. ‘I shan’t be long. Just an hour, perhaps.’

‘As you please, Hervey. There’s no need of haste on my account.’

Haste or no, it did not take Hervey long to walk to his quarters, even in the two feet of new snow lying about the fort, which fatigue parties were already clearing into neat pathways. Smoke rising from the double chimney of his quarters promised a warm homecoming, but the fresh sleigh tracks outside suggested they would not be alone. He opened the door, expecting to find Lady Sarah Maitland, though it was early for calling.

‘Hopwood? What are you doing here?’

Private Hopwood was carrying a basket of logs to the fire. ‘Corporal Collins sent me to mind the house, sir. Her ladyship was taken to General Maitland’s this morning. She wasn’t feeling well, sir.’

Hervey’s mouth fell open.

‘I’m sure it’s nothing serious, sir,’ Hopwood added quickly.

‘Indeed? Did the surgeon say that?’ asked Hervey, impatiently, replacing his shako and turning for the door.

‘I didn’t see him, sir. But I know that he’s gone to the general’s with her.’

It was, of course, an obliging thing for a dragoon to want to allay his captain’s anxiety, but so wholly uninformed an opinion was not of the least value to him. ‘Very well. I shall go there at once.’ But now he found himself wanting to make amends for his impatience by some display of ease. ‘And while I am gone, would you be so very good as to draw me a bath?’

As Hervey opened the door, a sleigh halted outside. A youngish woman in a black cloak stepped out. ‘Captain Hervey, sir?’

‘Yes?’

‘I am Janette, sir, Lady Sarah Maitland’s maid. I am come to fetch some things for your wife.’

‘Things? What things?’

The maid looked down awkwardly. ‘Ladies’ things, sir.’

Hervey fancied he knew the contents of their quarters well enough, but, as with Hopwood, he could not quite bring himself to disappoint someone so evidently intent on performing a good deed. ‘Very well. Do please go inside.’ He nearly said ‘Come inside’, but he had committed himself to stepping out at once for the Maitlands.

‘Thank you, sir. Shall you be going back to Government House?’

‘I have not yet been there. I am only this minute returned to the town.’ He was tired, the business was beginning to fray, and all he could think about was getting to his wife.

‘Oh!’ The maid’s manner changed at once.

‘What is it? Why do you say that?’

‘You don’t know her ladyship is in labour, sir?’

Hervey’s mouth fell open. ‘No, no — indeed I do not!’

His response alarmed her. ‘I think I had better get these things, then, sir.’

‘Yes, yes — of course! Tell me, is my wife…’

‘I trust so, sir. I was given my orders by her ladyship — the general’s lady, I mean — direct.’

It took him a quarter of an hour to walk to Government House. He walked so fast in the end that he slipped and slid for much of the way. He took the salted steps of the lieutenant-governor’s residence two at a time, and pulled the bell rope.

‘Ah, indeed, Captain Hervey, sir,’ replied the footman, stepping aside to let him enter.

The house was silent. ‘Is her ladyship at home?’

‘Her ladyship is at home, sir. I will announce you.’

The footman showed him to an ante-room. There, Hervey recovered his breath and something of his composure, and tried to clear his mind in order to calculate the date again. But it still came out the same. They’d talked of the beginning of March, surely? There were a full six weeks to run. What was the danger in so early a labour? Was there any danger? Hadn’t Daniel Coates said that a mare carried from forty weeks to more than a year, depending on whether she were a big shire or a pony? Was it the same with humans? Everyone spoke of nine months, but was it more for a bigger woman, and fewer for one more delicately made? Had Kitty Spence, the tiny Longleat seamstress, carried her little girl as long as Annie Patten had carried those rough twins of hers? Sturdy Annie, the Longleat dairymaid who used to pin fast his head in her huge bosom when he was a boy — surely she would have needed longer? How little he seemed to know. Why was Lady Sarah so long in coming? Why did no one come? What was amiss?

‘Captain Hervey, forgive me!’ Lady Sarah Maitland was come at last, smiling wide and confidently. ‘I had to put on another dress. Allow me to congratulate you on being the father of a most beautiful daughter!’

Hervey stood speechless.

‘A very beautiful daughter. I never saw such eyes and hair!’

‘And… and Henrietta?’

‘Oh, she is fine, fine — very well indeed! A few minutes more and you shall be able to see her. My husband’s physician and your regimental surgeon attended throughout, but they scarce had a thing to detain them.’

He shook his head in a sort of disbelief.

‘And I may tell you she bore it all with a most noble heart. Dear Henrietta. Oh, but I forget — some refreshment? How was your patrol? Was it very arduous? How is Lord Towcester?’

He didn’t have to answer, for Henrietta’s maid entered, smiling too. ‘Your ladyship, sir.’ She curtsied to each. ‘Her ladyship is ready to receive Captain Hervey now.’

‘Thank you, Ruth.’ Hervey glanced eagerly at Sarah Maitland.

‘Come, Captain Hervey.’ She led him to the stairs.

He had meant to ask how his wife came to be here, and to express the thanks due to the Maitlands for their unusual hospitality, but he found his tongue strangely tied. Sarah Maitland was saying something about his daughter