The Ravishing of Lady Mary Ware Read Free Page B

lean officer jumped out. He was clad in the resplendent uniform of a Marshal of the Empire. Above the gleaming black, gold-tasselled Hessian boots and white doeskin breeches, the blue tail coat was heavily embellished with gold braid. His chest was a blaze of diamond-studded decorations. Above his hawk-like face his cocked hat carried waving ostrich feathers a foot high. As he glanced up, Roger instantly recognised him as Pierre Augereau, Duc de Castiglione.
    Recognition was mutual. Staring at Roger in amazement, the Marshal exclaimed:
    â€˜Blood of my guts! What in the devil’s name are you doing here, Breuc, taking your ease with your woman? Why are you not making the ground fly beneath a horse’s hooves? Do you not realise that the authorities are after you for murder?’

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The Gamin Marshal
    Roger had come to his feet. Staring down at the tall Marshal, he exclaimed, ‘Murder! I have committed no murder.’
    â€˜Should you be brought to trial by the Prussian authorities, you’ll be hard put to it to prove you have not,’ Augereau retorted.
    Picking up the news sheet from the table, Roger said, ‘I take it you refer to this—the deaths of the Baron von Haugwitz and my wife?’
    â€˜What else? All Coblenz is agog with it. Last night in the Mess at headquarters, they did naught but make wagers on whether or not you would get away.’
    â€˜They were not murdered,’ Roger insisted firmly. ‘They met their deaths by accident.’
    â€˜You say so; but what other interpretation can be put upon the facts? The servants declare that you were having an affaire with the Baron’s wife.’ Belatedly, Augereau lifted his plumed hat to Georgina, as he added, ‘and as tempting a piece as a man could wish to see. For that who could blame you? But ’tis another matter when you make off with her and, within a few hours, her husband and your own wife are found to be corpses. It stares one in the face that, fearing the Baron would put the police on your track and have them bring his wife back, before leaving you to decide to make certain of keeping her bytaking his life. How otherwise could it have come about that his body and that of your wife were found hidden at the bottom of a wine press? There is evidence enough that they, too, were having an affaire; but both, it emerges had their own rooms, so could have bounced each other in the bed of either. Who could conceivably believe that instead they elected to have a romp in a wine press, and both walked downstairs stark naked for the purpose?’
    â€˜For that, Marshal, I can offer no explanation,’ Roger declared. ‘I can only assert that when the
Frau Baronin
and I read this news sheet a few hours ago, we were utterly amazed by its contents. Upon that I give you my oath. Naturally, we had expected that, as soon as von Haugwitz learned of our flight he would take such steps as he could to get back his wife; and had we been caught on the far side of the Rhine, I would have been compelled to give her up. That is why, as soon as we possibly could, we crossed into French territory, where the Prussian authorities have no jurisdiction.’
    â€˜You are right that they have none in civil matters. And, had things been as you say you supposed them to be, von Haugwitz would have been powerless to prevent your getting away with his Baroness. But you are wanted on the criminal charge that you murdered him and your wife. By now the Prussians will have applied to the French authorities for your apprehension and extradition. It was believing you must realise that which caused me such amazement to come upon you placidly sitting there enjoying the autumn sunshine.’
    Roger’s face had become grim and he said, ‘I’ll admit that the marriages of both the Baroness and myself were most unhappy. In the circumstances this morning’s news that we were free of them came as a relief. Since receiving it we have