Jack Steel Adventure Series Books 1-3: Man of Honour, Rules of War, Brothers in Arms

He reached for her thighs. She struggled, instinct taking over from reason. But his grip was an iron vice.

‘My, you’re a game one.’

He was used to this, she thought, through the red mist of terror and outrage which clouded her reason – the natural reaction which had kicked in to make all that would now happen appear unreal. He knew what he was doing. Had done it before. How many times, she wondered? How many women?

Jennings fumbled beneath her skirts then, impatient, ripped them to one side. He probed clumsily with his fingers and finding what he wanted, quickly unbuttoned his breeches. Desperate, lest she should utter a sound and condemn her father, Louisa bit hard into her own hand. Jennings, smiling with pleasure and hatred as he pushed at her, grunted out staccato words:

‘Remember. Tell them I did this and I kill your father.’

After the horror and humiliation of what had just occurred, the act itself took less time and effort than she had imagined. She felt Jennings shudder and relax and she recoiled from the stink of his foul breath as he nuzzled his head into her neck in a ghastly parody of genuine lovemaking. She felt unspeakably defiled and desperate to rid herself of this man. To somehow achieve the impossible and cleanse her sullied body.

Then it was over. Jennings straightened up, buttoned his breeches and adjusted his dress. His eye was caught by the gleam of candlelight upon the small knife that lay on the floor. Picking it up he looked down on the cowering, half-naked girl. It had been in his mind to slit her throat, but as he stood there another idea struck him. Something more deliciously cruel. He pocketed the knife and pointed to Kretzmer.

‘Now. Quickly. Help me with his breeches.’

Louisa stared. Surely the man was not so perverted that he intended to force her to couple with Kretzmer? She watched, traumatized, as the Major pulled the knife from his pocket and winced as he used it to make a careful, but not too deep cut in his own hand. Finished, he placed its sticky handle in Kretzmer’s palm, before withdrawing it and letting it fall again.

Then, and with no little effort, Jennings picked up the fat merchant, who all the time had remained comatose, and lifting him under his arms from the back, dragged him across the floor towards where Louisa stood, white, half-naked and trembling.

‘Come on, whore. Get on with it. Undo his buttons.’

Hardly aware now of her actions, Louisa reached out and deftly unbuttoned the front of the merchant’s breeches. As she finished and they fell from his corpulent form, Jennings pushed the man towards her, so that the two of them tumbled to the floor, sprawling, the half-naked girl pinned down under the Bavarian’s dead-weight. The impact brought Kretzmer round to semi-consciousness and Jennings bent down and placed the man’s fat hands on Louisa’s breasts, smiling at her as he did so.

‘Thank you, my dear. I trust that you enjoyed that as much as I. Or did you not? And remember. One word of the truth and your father dies.’

He slapped Kretzmer on the face, hard, knocking him into consciousness. Bewildered, the merchant pressed down instinctively on his hands to raise himself off the floor and in doing so found that he was embracing Louisa. He was lost for words.

Jennings turned to the door and, making sure that the grotesque sexual vignette was still perfectly arranged on the floor, shouted into the night, at the top of his voice.

‘Guard. Guard. Quickly. To me. Assault. Alarm.’

And from the empty streets of the dead town there came at last the sound of soldiers, hurrying to the rescue.

SEVEN (#ulink_3db6f35f-f6b1-52bc-9474-d60e1c5987b1)

Slaughter met Steel at the door of the inn. The Lieutenant’s eyes were wide with anger and fear.

‘Where is she? Is she all right?’

It was a stupid question and he regretted it instantly. The Sergeant gave him a gentle smile. He put a hand on his shoulder, half in comfort, half to prevent him from advancing any further before his mind had time to settle. He knew well what his officer was capable of and knew that in the heat of the moment the Bavarian would not stand a chance.

‘Come on, Jacob. Let me through. I must see her.’

‘Perhaps not just yet, Sir. She’ll be all right. She’s a tough girl.’

‘Jacob. I mean it. Let me pass. I’ve got Taylor with me.’

At the mention of the man’s name the Sergeant let his grip relax a little. Matt Taylor, a Corporal of the Grenadiers, had a little knowledge of medicine, chiefly of the herbal kind. Slaughter knew that Steel approved of that. Over the months, Taylor had become the elected apothecary of the company. It was only fitting, for before conviction for fraud had forced him into the ranks, he had served three years of a seven-year apprenticeship to the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries in London and had studied botany at the Physick garden at Chelsea. Since then Taylor had used plants and roots to cure everything from colic and scurvy to toothache, the soldiers’ curse, and even the malaria which often followed from mosquito bites.

‘Very well, Sir. Come on, Matt.’

The three men walked quickly through the inn and into the back room. Jennings stood by the door, his back against the scene:

‘I did what I could, but it was too late. The brute had had his fun already. It was really all too sordid. Poor dear girl. Can you deal with it, Steel? Not my area I’m afraid.’

Jennings smiled and made his way towards the door of the inn. Steel froze in the entrance to the back room. The air stank of sex and sweat. Louisa sat in the far corner of the room, her ripped clothes pulled up around her, her face bruised, staring wildly. She was sobbing gently. Kretzmer was sitting in the chair in the opposite corner of the room. His hands and feet had been bound and a bruise that had half shut his eye and a cut on his cheek bore testimony to his treatment at the hands of his captors. Steel turned to Taylor:

‘Matt. See what you can do for her. Be gentle.’

He marvelled at his own stupidity. To have left the girl unguarded at night in the presence of so many men. The Grenadiers were not a concern, but why had he not considered the others? Jennings’ men or the waggoners and the cook. Why, had he not considered Kretzmer?

‘Christ, Jacob. I’m a bloody fool. We should have posted a guard on her. A deserted town and a company of redcoats. I’m a bloody fool. It’s my fault.’

‘If you think that, Sir, then you are a bloody fool. It’s no one’s fault. She’ll be all right. Matt’s with her now.’

Steel watched as the Corporal bent to talk to Louisa, whispering to her as you would to a frightened or wounded animal. He saw her initial terror turn gradually to calm and then stood to one side as Taylor brought her out of the room and carried her gently up the stairs. Taylor turned back to him:

‘It’s all right, Sir. You can leave her with me now. Get some sleep.’

Turning back to the room, Steel gazed at the Bavarian with utter revulsion. In other circumstances he would have killed the man out of hand and taken the consequences. But he knew that as it was, in front of the men and particularly in the presence of Jennings, who would use any opportunity now to bring about Steel’s ruination, he had to behave by the rules. And the rules stated that Kretzmer would be taken with them under guard back to the camp where he would be given a fair trial. Only then, if there was any justice in this world, would they be permitted to hang him. It would be a long wait.

Morning brought another bright day, the promise of unremitting heat and with it the sickening memory of the events of the previous evening. Steel climbed the stairs to Louisa’s room and knocked at the door. Slowly it opened and Taylor’s face appeared.

‘How is she?’

‘No better than you may imagine, Sir. He was that rough with her.’

‘Should I speak to her?’

‘I don’t see why not. I don’t have any German, Sir, but in the night she did say your name a few times. In the fever.’

‘Thank you, Taylor.’

Steel walked across to the bed where Louisa lay dressed in a cotton nightshirt beneath fresh white sheets, her blonde hair framing her head like a halo. Taylor had done a good job of cleaning her up, although she still bore a heavy bruise where she had been hit hard on face and without looking too closely, Steel could see there were others on her neck. She opened her eyes, looked at first alarmed at the presence of another man in the room, but then realized who it was.

‘Oh. You. Lieutenant, I … Do you have him. Do you have …’

She stopped herself, quickly remembering what she must not say.

‘I’m sorry, Miss. I shouldn’t have come. It’s just that I. Forgive me, but I was genuinely concerned. I feel … responsible for this.’

She smiled. ‘You? How could you?’

‘I should have placed guards. Should have had men I trust within the inn. Who knows what might have happened had Major Jennings not come in when he did.’

At the mention of Jennings’ name Louisa’s eyes widened and her face, which up till now had been restored to colour, turned pale.

‘Are you feeling all right. Shall I call Corporal Taylor to return?’