converted them, Henry.'
'You make me sound like a bloody chaplain.'
'Have you never considered taking holy orders?'
'I'd sooner eat horse shit!'
'I could just see you in a pulpit.'
'Then I'd probably be setting fire to it,' said Welbeck. 'You know my feelings about religion. It's a trick played on the innocent fools.'
'I don't regard myself as either innocent or foolish.'
'And I don't you regard you as a true Christian. Oh, I know you read your Bible and attend church parades but, then, the Devil can cite Scripture for his purposes.'
Daniel grinned. 'Are you calling me a devil?'
'Well, you're certainly no angel.'
'None of us is, Henry — we have blood on our hands.'
'That's another thing,' said Welbeck. 'One of the Ten Commandments forbids you to kill. How many times have you broken that particular commandment, Dan?'
'I'm not getting into a theological argument with you,' said Daniel amiably. 'I just wanted to give you advance warning. When we've got our breath back, it seems as if we're going to cross the Danube and lay siege to Rain.'
'Why?'
'It's directly in our line of march.'
'That means I'll lose more of my men to the gravediggers.'
'Rain is not a big town, by all accounts. It shouldn't hold us up for long or cost us many lives. The other piece of news that might interest you is that Abigail Piper is leaving us tomorrow.'
'That calls for a celebration!' said Welbeck.
'You don't even know the young lady.'
'I know two things about her, Dan, and they both worry me. First, she's a woman. Second, she almost got you killed. Put it this way,' he went on as Daniel tried to protest, 'would you have gone walking alone outside the perimeter of the camp?'
'No, Henry.'
'Then she led you into danger.'
'Not deliberately,' said Daniel. 'Abigail was as much at risk as me so you could claim that I led her into danger.'
'You're as bad as each other. Good riddance to her, I say!'
'I'll take a rather fonder farewell than that.'
'Are you going to see her now?' Daniel nodded. 'Then I ought to come with you to stand guard. I know what fond farewells can do. I must have lost over a dozen men who went to wave off their sweethearts then never came back again.'
'There's no chance of my deserting, Henry. All that I intend to do is to wish her well on the journey. What harm is there in that?'
'Miss Piper is a woman and women are made of harm.'
'You malign the sex unjustly,' said Daniel, laughing at his friend's curt misogyny. 'But you won't be able to grumble about Abigail for much longer. This time tomorrow, she'll be miles from here.' He set off. 'I'll see you later, Henry.'
'Make sure you come without her,' Welbeck called after him.
Daniel had long ago divined the source of Welbeck's hatred of women. The sergeant came from a family that consisted of a tyrannical mother and three older sisters, all of whom made his life a misery. Outnumbered and too small to fight back, he had endured the persecution until he was old enough to run off to the army. Behind his loathing of the opposite sex was a lurking fear of them. While he would readily confront any foe in battle, Welbeck was quietly terrified of being left alone with a woman. In that respect, he and Daniel were worlds apart. His friend might flee from intimacy and hide behind his alleged contempt for women but Daniel always welcomed closeness.
After striding through the camp, he reached Abigail's tent and called out her name. It was Emily Greene who emerged to give him a token curtsey.
'Good afternoon, Captain Rawson,' she said.
'Hello, Emily. I was hoping to see your mistress.'
'She went off to your tent over an hour ago, sir.'
'Did she?' said Daniel in surprise. 'Then she must have lost her way. I was there most of the afternoon and saw no sign of her.'
'A soldier brought a message from you.'
'What message?'
'It was an invitation to join you,' said Emily, starting to worry. 'I helped Miss Abigail to get ready then the man took her off. He was a private from your regiment, Captain Rawson.'
'Well, I certainly never sent him.'
'Then who could he be?'
'That's exactly what I'm asking myself,' said Daniel, controlling his disquiet. 'It would have taken her no more than five minutes to reach my tent from here yet you say she's been gone for over an hour.'
'Yes, sir.'
'Did this man give a name?'
'No, Captain Rawson. He just passed on his message.'
'I'd never have sent a verbal invitation. I'd have done Miss Piper the courtesy of writing a short note to her. Let's go back to the start, Emily,' he advised. 'Describe this man as accurately as you can then tell me precisely what he said.'
Emily gulped. 'Do you think Miss Abigail is in trouble, sir?'
'I think we need to find her as quickly as possible,' said Daniel seriously. 'Now — what did this man look like?'
She could not believe it. Abigail Piper was surrounded by thousands of soldiers yet not one of them came to her aid. After being imprisoned in the tent for a while, she was forced to walk out on the arm of her captor. Before she did so, she let her handkerchief drop behind the box in the hope that it would be found and act as a clue to her disappearance. She prayed that the man beside her would make a mistake and arouse the suspicions of the sentries. It did not happen. Charles Catto had enough confidence to chat freely with the pickets as he and Abigail went past them. She could not understand why they did not recognise the distress she was in. Abigail was exuding fear and panic yet nobody seemed to notice. All that the men observed were her youthful beauty and her shapely figure.
Once outside the perimeter, they took a leisurely stroll in the direction of some trees. Abigail was on tenterhooks. The farther away they went from the safety of the camp, the more rattled she became. The fact that she had no idea who her companion was and what designs he might have upon her, made it even worse. The man had given nothing away. He had interrogated her about her friendship with Daniel Rawson and was very pleased when she told him that she had left England solely in order to follow the captain. Encouraged by the man, she had found herself talking more candidly about her feelings than she had done to Daniel himself, admitting how those feelings had changed somewhat in the wake of the battle.
As long as she was in the camp, there had always been an outside chance that she would be missed then sought out. It was a thought that had sustained her throughout her incarceration in the tent with an armed man. In the event, nobody seemed aware that she had gone astray and she was now taken out of reach of any possible rescue. Approaching the copse, she suddenly stopped.
'Let me go,' she pleaded. 'Im no use to you.'
'On the contrary,' said Catto, 'you are of great use.'
'If it's money you want, I have some that I can give you.'
'I need a lot more than money from you, Miss Piper.'
'Where are we going?'
