‘Safe? Where?’
She did not believe him, and she saw that his right arm was in a sling made of coarse black cotton.
‘He is in the barracks of the Piedmont Lancers. I came as quickly as I could, for I thought you and the Count might have heard——’
‘Yes, yes! But why there? What happened? Tell me quickly! Is he hurt?’
‘Not a hair of his head.’
Maria breathed again, and leant against the wall, closing her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again she looked at the sling and saw the end of a splint and a bit of white bandage.
‘But you are hurt?’
‘My arm is broken. I stopped at an ambulance-station and got it more or less set, because I could not run with it hanging down. The pain was too great. It took some time, I’m sorry to say.’
Maria remembered that she had believed the tutor to be a coward.