“I said nothing. I swear.”
“Then why isn’t she worried?” Armes said.
I was lying on the back of the cart, struggling against my bonds. I managed to reach my pistol in the holster, but due to the amount of clothing I wore, I couldn’t extract it from the holster.
After a short journey, Frost drove the cart into off the road and into a building; I could smell horses, so I assumed it was a stable.
“Get her out, and don’t untie her,” said Armes. They dragged me out of the cart, and made to walk, still with the bag over my head, through a door and plonked into a sitting position on a chair. More cord was wrapped around me, successfully pinning my hands to my sides, so I had no way of releasing my gun. The one saving grace is that none searched me, each, perhaps assuming that one of the others had.
“Leave the bag. The less she knows about where we are the better. And gag her, we don’t want her calling out.”
“Monsieur Armes, you should know that you will never get away with this,” I said, through the bag.
Someone pulled off the bag, giving me a quick look at my surroundings. I was right, as this clearly was a stable, and had been used recently, if the smell of fresh horseshit was anything to go by. The three men looked down at me. Armes looked angry, Frost uncertain and Soames very worried.
“You are right to look worried, Mister Soames, for in a very short while your betrayal will be taken into account by people far less forgiving than I. You made your choice, but it’s not too late to redeem yourself…”
A not too clean rag rudely silenced my speech as it was thrust into my mouth, with another wrapped around my face, securing it in place. Then the bag was replaced.
“I told you, you should have killed her,” said Frost.
“And I told you why we can’t do that. If she dies, then she would be back here with reinforcements, and all our plans are for nothing. We are on the verge of a great victory, so the last thing we need is her and her friends interfering.”
Come on, let’s get the boat ready.”
The three men then left me, I could hear their voices just outside, but could not discern what they were saying. My hearing was better than before, but not that good.
I hoped that Roger and his troops were close by. I had no way of knowing exactly where we were, but knew that I must be somewhere close to where Roger and I decided their safe house would be. We were close to a river, so that had limited the possibilities considerably. I heard their feet outside on wooden boards, like a jetty perhaps. So they had already got the boat, and all they had to do was get me onto it, and if that happened, my chances of rescue decreased with each moment.
They came back in, but rather than untying me, they picked me up still attached to the chair. I still could not get to my weapon.
“Shit, she’s heavy,” grumbled Frost.
“Stop complaining; just get her onto the boat.”
They swore and grumbled, so I threw myself around, trying to unbalance them. I certainly succeeded in annoying Armes.
He hit me hard on the back of my head. I guessed he thought hard enough to knock me unconscious. He didn’t take my improved skull and bone structure into account. It hurt, but did not render me senseless as expected. I now had an advantage, so I slumped, feigning unconsciousness.
“That’s better, why didn’t you do that earlier?” asked Frost. I was beginning to seriously not like this man.
“You can never underestimate her resilience. If she dies, then we will draw more shit than if we fall into a sewer.”
“Then at least she’ll be out long enough for us to do what we have to do,” said Soames, nervously.
“I just hope to hell you never said anything, for if she has managed to get the word out, we’re as good as dead,” said Armes.
“Then we come back and finish the job. As you said, there are advantages to dying,” added Frost.
“It’s not as easy as that. We’ve already stretched the budget beyond acceptable levels, so they won’t easily accept a failure at this stage. Besides, we have a short window of opportunity, so if we don’t get in there in the next two days, we’ve lost the final chance, and there’s too much at stake to fail now.”
I felt the uneven swaying that signified that we were now on board a substantial river craft. That meant they were in the open, which made them more vulnerable now than at any other time, besides, they were all struggling with me tied to a chair, so none of them would have a firearm ready, so if anything was to happen, it had to be now.
They almost dropped me twice; the second time was when someone let go, possibly to open a hatch or doors. As the two remaining hold of me struggled, I lashed out with my feet and threw myself as hard as I could to the left.
This had a more profound effect than I had anticipated.
Firstly, I heard a shout and a large splash as one of the two men holding me fell over the side into the water. The chair, on which I was strapped, landed on one of its legs on the deck and promptly broke with a pistol-like crack, spilling me onto the deck, so I rolled, still bound to the remains of the chair to the side of the boat. The bag was still over my head, and the gag still prevented me from crying out. However, my legs were free, and I could feel my arms were less restrained than before.
I heard Armes swear in a mixture of French and English, but then things became confusing.
I thought I heard a shout of, “No!” Followed by sounds of a scuffle, which ended with a shot being fired close to me.
I then heard the sound of many horses at the gallop, shouts and several shots.
I was determined that none of the conspirators should be killed, for then they would be straight back again to try again, whatever it was they were going to do.
I managed to free my left hand, so instead of going for my gun, I ripped off the bag from my head.
Soames lay inches from me on the deck. His shirt front was reddening visibly as his blood exited the bullet hole in his left shoulder. He was staring at the blood and mouthing the word, “No!” over and over again.
Armes, having fired both his pistols, was running down the length of the barge, such as it was, towards the stern and a gangplank. That meant that Frost was the one who had fallen over the side.
Glancing towards the bank, I saw a troop of cavalry pounding towards the barge, with my husband at the head.
I looked over the side to see Frost swimming for the opposite shore, where three troopers waited with swords raised. Ripping a length of petticoat from my clothing, I stuffed it inside Soames’ shirtfront, grabbed his spare hand and said, “Keep direct pressure on that. Otherwise you will die.”
Then I was off after Armes. My skirts hampered me, so I took but a moment to rip most of them off, leaving my lower legs almost completely bare.
I then tore after the escaping agent, drawing my pistol as I ran down the deck. The barge was not that long, fifty feet, so he was already at the far end, crossing onto the bank. The soldiers were gaining rapidly, but were still some distance away.
I could see that he would attempt to get into the stable, locate a firearm and try to kill himself yet again. I was determined not to let that happen. Aiming for his legs, I stopped, raised my pistol, and fired two shots. The second nicked his left knee and he tumbled to the ground. I was already running towards the gangplank. As I crossed it, I saw Armes, try to stand on his leg, but it buckled under him, so he half ran, half crawled towards the stables. Another second or so and he would be out of sight.
I dared not shoot, for fear of killing him, so I took a deep breath and ran as fast as I could. I had not really attempted to see what this body was capable of under extreme conditions, so I just went for it.
Now, I’m not sure what the one hundred metre record is these days, but I reckon that if someone had a stopwatch, I’d have broken it by at least a second, and I’m not talking about the women’s record.