By My Sword Alone by David Black (ebook reader ink TXT) 📕

her cap, is free of braids today, and she lets it tumble on the pillow as she jumps into Clementina’s warm bed. Only one more task to fulfil. James produces the ropes and silken strips, which he wraps around Heipke’s wrists and ankles. The silk is to stop the ropes chaffing the girl; for James hopes it will be some time before she is discovered. Then the loose gag is tied behind her head.

‘The bonds are loose, Heipke,’ says James. ‘But the instant you hear someone at the door, you must pull the cords here … and here … and that will tighten them, and you will not be suspected. But before you do, remember to tighten the gag first. Are you ready, Heipke? Are you sure you want to go ahead, my brave girl?’

‘I’m sure, M’sieur James. Sure as sure.’

Going down the back stairs with James, Clementina is hissing in his ear.

‘All this fuss with that stupid girl,’ she is saying. ‘Tying her up … all this … artisan’s scaffolding you have placed around my head. What more theatricals are to come, sirrah?’

James turns sharply, halting her descent of the stairs, and stares hard into her face. ‘You are checked in your room every hour, as you know. As long as they see you are in your bed, snuffling, they go away. So that is why we are leaving someone else snuffling in your bed … so that you can get away. It is not difficult to understand. And that stupid girl you refer to, she has volunteered to help you win your freedom, at some considerable risk to herself. This has nothing to do with theatricals, madam. Can you imagine what might befall her if your Uncle Siggy ever found out she had been complicit in your flight? That is why she is tied up right now … to show that she is not complicit, so that she will come to no harm. As for the scaffolding and the cloak … princesses walking in the street attract attention. Serving maids don’t. Now, may we proceed without you perpetually braying in my ear?’

*

They are out the city, and heading south for the Brenner Pass. Beyond it lies first, Bolzano, still within the empire, but far enough away; and beyond, the border and the Veneto, where at last they will be beyond the reach of the Emperor Charles.

Darkness has fallen, and James is riding a little ahead of the coach, there to ensure they stumble across nothing untoward. He hears its rattle behind him as he canters along. Until that is, he doesn’t. James swings his horse at the sudden silence, and hears Aylward hissing for him to come back. He touches his spurs to the horse.

‘The princess has forgotten her jewellery,’ hisses Aylward, from the driver’s box. ‘She will not go on.’

‘You are trifling with me,’ says James, in an equally low tone. ‘I would suggest, Major Aylward, sir, this is not the time to …’

‘Ask her, Seamus, me lad,’ says Aylward, who has now taken to calling James by his Gaelic name.

James dismounts.

Clementina, when she sees his face in the door, turns away.

‘Milady,’ begins James, with a calm he does not feel. The quicker they put distance between them and Innsbruck, the less likely they are to be caught by a detachment of cavalry.

‘I shall not be addressed by that loud and uncouth brute,’ says Clementina, referring to James.

‘She says we cannot proceed without her jewels,’ says an obviously exasperated Mrs O’Brian, before adding in a monotone, ‘their value cannot be calculated …’

‘Milady, you place us all in considerable peril …’ James tries again. ‘And anyway, what possessed you not to have them to hand, before we left?’

‘See? The brute does not listen!’ says Clementina, still studiously ignoring James. ‘First, he fusses over a stupid girl, while I have to stand by, fuming. Then he bundles me … bundles me! … down a cobwebby staircase as steep as an alp … and then he complains about a moment’s forgetfulness! Well, I say this only once! The loss of my jewellery is not worth the prize. There will be other kings who will wish to marry me. I wish to be taken at once to the nearest imperial officer so that I can hand myself over. I am in the clutches of madmen … and I fear, so are you Mrs O’Brian. We shall not be safe until Uncle Siggy rescues us!’

Although still a young man, James, these days, is now much older in the ways of wilful women and knows instinctively this stand-off will go nowhere. He either turns his horse and rides off into the night, abandoning everyone, or he returns for the jewels. It actually takes a moment for him to make up his mind, and it is only the parlous fate that might await Major Aylward and his friends that swings it for remaining.

‘Mrs O’Brian, would you please inform her royal highness that I would be eager to retrieve her jewellery, but only if she would undertake to continue her journey to the border. Oh, and please inquire of the princess where her jewellery might be found within her suite? The sooner I am on my way, the faster I shall catch you up.’

‘They are in a velvet bag, in my bedside table, of course. And tell Chevalier Brute, his kitchen skivvy girl will be able to help if he has trouble finding that! As for this fiasco? If we must continue, then la! We must!’

*

A cold, simmering resentment consumed James as he galloped back up the coaching road to Innsbruck. It was the entitlement of these people. Their utter disregard for the rest of the human tribe; beyond even contempt – contempt requiring an acknowledgement that those thus held existed.

The distance passed in but blink, and before he knew it,