delivering despatches to Her Majesty the Queen, to the Earl of Godolphin and to Secretary Harley.' He spread his arms. 'We fought the enemy at Blenheim and achieved a stunning victory. The whole of London will soon resound with the news.' Dorothy let out a spontaneous cry of pleasure. Abigail clapped her hands. 'Marshal Tallard is a prisoner of war and the French army has been routed. Pardon me if I am still a little out of breath,' he went on, a hand to his chest, 'but it took me eight days to get back to England and I had little rest on the way.'
'Then we are all the more grateful that you found the time to call on us,' said Abigail. 'It was excessively kind of you.'
'I wanted to make sure that you got back home safely.'
'Abigail has told me what you did for her, Captain Rawson,' said Dorothy, 'and it was the act of a true gentleman. I offer you profound thanks on behalf of the whole family. However,' she added, looking first at Abigail then back at Daniel, 'at this moment, I suspect that the only person you really wish to see is my sister. Please excuse me.'
Dorothy went back into the house and left them alone together. There was a prolonged silence. Since she had never envisaged such a meeting taking place, Abigail was hopelessly unprepared for it. For his part, Daniel had had neither time nor inclination to rehearse any speech. Until he had handed over his dispatches, Abigail Piper had not really existed. A blend of guilt, affection and curiosity had guided his footsteps to her door. Yet both of them were certain about one thing. Instead of being brought together by Abigail's pursuit of him, they had been driven apart.
'Will you be staying in London for long?' she asked at length.
'No, Abigail, I have to ride to Somerset.'
'Are you going to call on relatives?'
'I'll be visiting my father's grave,' he told her. 'It's something I always do when I return to England. I owe him a great debt. It was because of my father that I joined the army.'
'That's your world, isn't it, Daniel?'
'It always will be.'
'I'm sorry that I embarrassed you by stumbling into it.'
'You caused no embarrassment, Abigail,' he said with a forgiving smile, 'and, if anyone should be apologising, it's me. I'm sorry that I was not able to spend more time with you in Germany but, as you saw, I was somewhat preoccupied.'
'I can't believe that I was so reckless,' she said.
He was tactful. 'I think we both profited from the experience.'
'I learnt a lot about myself, Daniel, I know that. And it frightened me more than I can say. I'd never dream of doing anything as selfish and irresponsible as that again.'
'I hope that it wasn't entirely a cause for regret,' he said gently. 'There must have been some happy moments for you.'
'Oh, there were — lots of them. Each one of them is faithfully recorded in my diary.'
'Good.'
'And now they'll be treasured,' she said. 'When I thought that you'd been killed because of me, all that I could do was to grieve and rebuke myself. I didn't have the heart even to open my diary and read about our time together. I was wasting away with anguish. Now that you've come back, now that I've seen you with my own eyes, a huge weight has been lifted from me. I can cherish fond memories again.'
'I'll do the same, Abigail.'
It was the moment for a chaste kiss of farewell but it never came. Abigail was too nervous to invite it and Daniel too afraid that it might be misconstrued. They settled for a polite handshake.
'Will you be returning here from Somerset?' she asked.
'Only to take ship to Holland,' he replied. 'I have to rejoin my regiment. We may have won a mighty battle but the war will continue. The French army will be back again before too long.'
'And Captain Daniel Rawson will be there to fight them.'
'I have to be. It's my vocation.'
'I discovered that when I came to Germany.'
'Your friendship has been a delight to me, and, in a perverse way, I admire you for what you did. It showed courage and madness. Those are the very qualities that drove me into the army so we have an affinity. As you found out, however,' he said with a shrug, 'I can never be more than a friend. You must take me as I am, Abigail.'
'And what is that?'
'A soldier of fortune.'
