Jack suddenly could see this man wore the red sash of an officer. The man turned and revealed his face.
Jack knew him.
He was Lieutenant Edwin Tranville, aide-de-camp to Brigadier-General Lionel Tranville, his father. Jack grew up knowing them both. Before Jack’s father had been dead a year, General Tranville had made Jack’s mother his mistress. Jack had only been eleven years old.
He stepped back into the shadows before Edwin could recognise him. He’d always known Edwin to be a bully and a coward, but he never suspected this level of depravity.
‘Leave the woman alone,’ Jack ordered.
‘Won’t do it.’ Edwin’s words were slurred. He was obviously very intoxicated. ‘Want her too much. Deserve her.’ A demonic expression came over his weak-chinned face and his pale blond hair fell into his eyes. He brushed it away with his hand and pointed a finger at the woman, ‘Don’t fight me or I’ll have to kill you.’
Jack stuck his pistol in his belt and drew his sword, but the woman managed to knock Edwin off balance and now stood between Jack and her attacker. She pushed at Edwin’s chest, driving him away while the boy vaulted on to his back. Edwin cried out in surprise and thrashed about, trying to pull the child off. He knocked the woman to the ground and finally managed to seize the boy by his throat.
Jack gripped the handle of his sword, but before he could take a step forwards, the woman sprang to her feet, the runaway soldier’s knife in her hand.
‘Non!’ she cried.
She slashed at Edwin like a wildcat defending her cub. Edwin backed away, but the drink seemed to have affected his judgement.
‘Stop it!’ he cried, the smile still on his face. ‘Or I’ll break his neck.’ He laughed as if he’d made a huge jest. ‘I can kill him with my hands.’
‘Non!’ the woman cried again and she lunged towards him.
Edwin stumbled and the boy squirmed out of his grasp. The woman sliced into Edwin’s cheek with the knife, cutting a long gash from ear to mouth.
Edwin wailed and dropped to his knees, pressing his hand against his bleeding face. ‘I’ll kill you for that!’
The woman shook her head and lifted her arms to sink the knife deep into Edwin’s exposed back.
She was suddenly grabbed from behind by another British officer.
‘Oh, no, you don’t, señora.’ He disarmed her with ease.
A second officer joined him. They were a captain and a lieutenant wearing the uniforms of the Royal Scots, a regiment Tranville had once commanded.
Edwin pointed to the woman. ‘She tried to kill me!’ He made an effort to stand, but swayed and collapsed in a heap on the cobblestones, passed out from drink and pain.
The captain held on to the woman. ‘You’ll have to come with us, señora.’
‘Captain—’ the lieutenant protested.
Jack sheathed his sword and showed himself. ‘Wait.’
Both men whirled around, and the lieutenant aimed his pistol at Jack’s chest.
Jack held up both hands. ‘I am Ensign Vernon of the East Essex. He was trying to kill the boy and rape the woman. I saw it. He and two others. The others ran.’
‘What boy?’ the captain asked.
A figure sprang from the shadows. The lieutenant turned the pistol on him.
Jack put his hand on the lieutenant’s arm. ‘Do not shoot. It is the boy.’
The captain held the woman’s arm while he walked over to Edwin, rolling him on to his back with his foot. He looked up at the lieutenant. ‘Good God, Landon, do you see who this is?’
‘General Tranville’s son,’ Jack answered.
‘You jest. What the devil is he doing here?’ the lieutenant asked.
Jack pointed to Edwin. ‘He tried to choke the boy and she defended him with the knife.’
Blood still oozed from Edwin’s cheek, but he remained unconscious.
‘He is drunk,’ Jack added.
The boy ran to the body of the French soldier. ‘Papa!’
‘Non, non, non, Claude,’ the woman cried, pulling away from the captain.
‘Deuce, they are French.’ The captain knelt down next to the body and placed his fingers on the man’s throat. ‘He’s dead.’
The woman said, ‘Mon mari.’ Her husband.
The captain rose and strode back to Edwin. He swung his leg as if to kick him, but stopped himself. Edwin rolled over again and curled into a ball, whimpering.
The boy tugged at his father’s coat. ‘Papa! Papa! Réveillez!’
‘Il est mort, Claude.’ The woman gently coaxed the boy away.
The captain looked at Jack. ‘Did Tranville kill him?’
Jack shook his head. ‘I did not see.’
‘Deuce. What will happen to her now?’ The captain gazed back at the woman.
Shouts sounded nearby, and the captain straightened. ‘We must get them out of here.’ He gestured to the lieutenant. ‘Landon, take Tranville back to camp. Ensign, I’ll need your help.’
Lieutenant Landon looked aghast. ‘You do not intend to turn her in?’
‘Of course not,’ said the captain sharply. ‘I’m going to find her a safe place to stay. Maybe a church. Or somewhere.’ He glared at both his lieutenant and at Jack. ‘We say nothing of this. Agreed?’
‘He ought to hang for this,’ the lieutenant protested.
‘He’s the general’s son,’ the captain shot back. ‘If we report his crime, the general will have our necks, not his son’s.’ He tilted his head towards the woman. ‘He may even come after her and the boy.’ The captain looked down at Edwin, now quiet. ‘This bastard is so drunk he may not even know what he did.’
‘Drink is no excuse.’ After several seconds, the lieutenant nodded his head. ‘Very well. We say nothing.’
The captain turned to Jack. ‘Do I have your word, Ensign?’
‘You do, sir.’ Jack did not much relish either father or son knowing he’d been here.
Glass shattered nearby and the roof of a burning building collapsed, sending sparks high into the air.
‘We must hurry,’ the captain said, although he paused to extend his hand to Jack. ‘I am Captain Deane. That is Lieutenant Landon.’
Jack shook his hand. ‘Sir.’
Captain Deane turned to the woman and her son. ‘Is there a church nearby?’ His hand flew to his forehead. ‘Deuce. What is the French word?’ He tapped his brow.
‘Église?’
‘Non, no église, capitaine,’ the woman replied. ‘My…my maison—my house. Come.’ ‘You speak English, madame?’
‘Oui, un peu—a little.’
The lieutenant threw Edwin over his shoulder.
‘Take care,’ the captain said to him.
The lieutenant gave a curt nod, glanced around and trudged off in the same direction they had come.
The captain turned to Jack. ‘I want you to come with me.’ He looked over at the Frenchman’s