There was sufficient starlight for Hector to get his bearings. He could make out the shape of the little chapel, the darker shadows of the barracks, even the patch of the garrison’s vegetable garden. Everything was as Jacques had described. To his left Ma’pang and Jacques were already creeping away. They would follow the line of the wall until it brought them to the outbuilding with the barred windows. Jezreel was to wait at the spot where they had entered the fort, staying well within the shadow of the overhang of the walkway in case a sentry should chance to make his rounds. His task was to guard the ladder until the others returned.
Hector felt a touch on his shoulder. Dan pointed in the direction of a large square building, pale white in the starlight, which faced the central parade ground. It had to be the Governor’s quarters. Quietly the two men began to move to their right, circling to position themselves where the bulk of the building would shield them from the watchtower.
Hector noticed how easily and confidently Dan covered the ground. The Miskito seemed to glide along. Now and then he paused to listen and check the shadows, alert to every noise or movement. Hector felt clumsy and awkward by comparison. Anxiously he tried to follow directly in Dan’s path, stopping whenever he stopped, placing his feet gently. Yet he feared he might blunder and make a noise at any moment.
Several minutes of this furtive progress brought them to the rear of the Governor’s quarters. Hector relaxed a little. They were no longer in the sentry’s line of sight, and even if he left his watchtower, Dan and he could hide in a lean-to shed built against the back wall of the Governor’s quarters. From the smell, it was obviously used by the kitchen staff as a place to pluck chickens, gut fish and put out the slops.
Treading lightly, Hector approached the back door to the house. Gently he lifted the latch. It was as he’d feared: the door was locked and barred from the inside.
He stepped back and looked up at the rear face of the building.
Above and a little to one side of the lean-to shed, a window was ajar. Hector thought back to Jacques’ description of his brief visit to the Governor’s residence. The front door opened into an entrance hall. From there a stairway led to the upper floor, and it was safe to assume that the best rooms – those that overlooked the parade ground – were used by the Governor and his lady, probably as their bedroom and a drawing room. Maria and any other members of staff who slept in the house would have rooms at the rear of the building.
Hector counted the number of upper windows. There were five. He guessed that the central one gave on to the stairwell and those on each side were for bedrooms. The half-open window was one of them.
He slipped off his shoes and gestured to Dan to hoist him on to the roof of the shed. The tiles of the lean-to shifted and grated alarmingly as he scrambled for purchase. Despite his care, there was a slight clatter as a section of broken tile slid away and fell to the ground. He froze and flattened himself to the roof. With no reaction from the house, and after a few moments, he rose on all fours and slowly began to crawl forward. At the rear wall, he gingerly stood upright and stretched for the open window. But he’d misjudged. The window ledge was too far away for him to reach. He cursed under his breath and shuffled backwards, afraid to turn round for fear of dislodging another tile. As he reached the edge of the roof, where Dan should have been ready to help him back to the ground, he looked down and saw that the Miskito had gone.
He thought Dan must have ducked under the roof. He waited, but the Miskito was nowhere to be seen. Very cautiously, Hector lay forward on his stomach, eased his legs over the edge of the roof, slid himself backwards and dropped to the ground with a slight thud. Once more he held his breath, fearful that he’d woken someone in the house. Still there was no sign of Dan.
As he groped for his shoes, he saw a shadow coming towards him. He realized it was his friend, and he carried the bamboo ladder that Jezreel had been guarding.
The Miskito put his mouth close to Hector’s ear. ‘You need this,’ he whispered.
Hector was alarmed. ‘What about the others? If anything goes wrong, without the ladder they’ll be trapped,’ he hissed.
Dan gave a dismissive grunt. ‘Jezreel said you need the ladder more than they do. Now don’t waste any more time.’
Together they put the ladder into position against the rear wall and Hector clambered upwards. He eased the window fully open, his heart in his mouth. He was well aware of the extravagant risk he was taking. There was no way of knowing whose bedroom he was entering. It could be some stranger’s, or where the Governor’s children slept. Even if it was Maria’s room, she might be sharing it with another member of the Governor’s staff.
With excruciating care he eased himself into the darkened room and stood by the window waiting for his vision to adjust to the gloom. It was a bedroom – that was clear. Close beside him, where the light from the window was strongest, stood a small chair. Some garments lay across it. The farthest corners of the room were deep in shadow, so it was impossible to see what was in them. The middle of the room was dominated by a large, ghostly white shape reaching to the ceiling. It took Hector several moments to realize it was a net canopy to keep out insects. Whoever used the room was asleep inside. He could hear nothing, not even breathing.
For a long while the young man stood still, undecided. He didn’t know whether to tiptoe to the door, leave and attempt to find some clue as to which was Maria’s room, or just try and check who was sleeping under the canopy, without waking them.
He stood there, gripped with uncertainty, when a voice spoke softly and clearly from within the canopy.
‘Is that you, Hector?’
He felt as if the ground had dropped from beneath his feet and he was in mid-air. The air was sucked from his lungs. His throat went dry and, unable to speak, he went to her. The canopy was drawn aside and a woman’s shape sat up, dark hair loose and falling around her shoulders. Then Hector was on his knees, his arms around Maria.
For what seemed an age, neither of them spoke. He was dizzy with emotion. Then, very gently, she put her mouth close to his ear and whispered, ‘I knew you would come.’
Reluctantly, slowly, he eased his embrace. ‘I want you to leave with me,’ he murmured. It was a simple, brief statement. There was no time to say more.
She didn’t answer, but laid her hand on his arm and freed herself from his embrace. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and rose to her feet, and the canopy fell back in place as she walked swiftly to the other side of the room. Dimly Hector saw the lid of a chest lift, and then Maria was back beside him with a bundle in her arms and a dark hood tied around her hair. Only then did he realize that she’d been sleeping fully dressed.
‘Jacques and the others are waiting outside,’ he began, but Maria merely laid a finger on his lips to silence him, kissed him quickly on the cheek and was already on her way towards the open window.
In a daze, Hector followed her as she climbed over the windowsill and, without a moment’s hesitation, began to descend the ladder to where Dan was waiting.
Hector’s feet had scarcely touched the ground when Dan was already leading the way back to the outer wall, moving at a quick walk, the ladder balanced over one shoulder. With every step Hector expected to hear a shout behind him or the sound of a musket shot. But the entire Presidio was still quietly asleep. Everything was happening so fast that his mind could only concentrate on what was immediately in front of him. All that mattered now was to stay as close as possible to Maria, not to let her out of his sight. He took a deep breath and caught a faint waft of her perfume. He felt weak at the knees.