It seemed only natural to Eveleen, who had learnt the hour of the start from Brian, to bind Ketty by promises and threats to wake her at half-past three, so that she was able not merely to ply Richard with coffee and sandwiches—an attention he received with tolerance rather than enthusiasm,—but to ride a short way with the army on its march. Unfortunately Richard did not take the same view. He was not going to be made a fool of before the new reinforcements by his wife’s sticking to him as if he was not to be trusted out by himself! Eveleen looked at him critically.
“Sure y’have got up too early, Ambrose, and your temper is spoilt for the day! It’s Brian I’ll ride with, don’t be afraid, and you can be cross all to yourself.”
“D’ye think I don’t know you have set your heart on emulating Lady Cinnamond by riding in the ranks, Mrs Ambrose? But this ain’t Salamanca, and I ain’t old Cinnamond. I tell you plainly I won’t have it.”
“Wouldn’t you better wait till y’are asked?” sweetly.
Richard snorted furiously. “Well, just understand this, if you please. If you attempt it, I’ll go sick and come straight back, rather than look like a figure of fun before the whole army.”
“Indeed and you have got your way now. Will I let my husband shame himself and me, and fail the General? Make your mind easy; I’ll not come. But listen now; my mind is easy too. I might have been afraid for y’if y’had started out this morning like a decent reasonable man, but now y’are so cross I need have no fear at all that anything will happen you.”
This assurance failed to mollify Richard to any particular extent, and he took his leave of her with distinct coldness. Nor was he specially pleased, when the force was at length in motion, marching eastwards through a blind maze of wooded nullahs and shikargahs cut up by canals, in which the whole enemy army might have been concealed close at hand, to hear Brian laugh suddenly, and on looking up to see Eveleen sitting on her horse on a hillock which commanded some approach to a view. She leaned forward eagerly and waved her handkerchief as they passed beneath her, and the General saluted and shook his fist at her in the same breath. It was to please Richard that she turned and rode back to camp as soon as the staff had gone by, but the ungrateful Richard, having saluted with extreme stiffness, was unaware of her consideration, since he refused to look at her again. Sir Harry and the rest thought he was anxious lest she might fall into the hands of the enemy—for the spies had brought word that Kamal-ud-din had moved from the position reconnoitred three days ago, and might be lying in wait in this tangle of woods and ravines, instead of waiting at his old headquarters to be attacked,—and tried to console him with assurances that, much as she deserved it, nothing worse was likely to happen to her, even if the Arabit scouts did appear, than a good fright. Sir Harry’s force, numbering five thousand men, was double that which he had led to victory at Mahighar, and he had been able to leave eight hundred to guard the camp and five hundred in garrison in the Fort, so that Kamal-ud-din would certainly keep his men well together, and not allow desultory raiding. But had Eveleen known what the General learned from a herdsman after a weary march of some miles, she might have had the fright Brian kindly desired for her. Kamal-ud-din had moved, not towards his original position, but towards Qadirabad, so that he was now on the left rear of the column, and threatening not only its communications, but also the city and the camp. But since she did not know, she was not alarmed, and unaware that the column had turned aside at right angles from its first line of march, only wondered, when the boom of the guns began, that the sound should seem so near.
She wandered about the house restlessly all morning, trying to guess at the changing course of the battle by the varying cannonade, and sorely tempted to ride out again and find her way to the hospital tents, that she might be as close to the fighting as she had been at Mahighar. Now and then an officer passed, from whom she learned that the battle was certainly taking place well to the north of the General’s line of march, but that there was no sign of the attack on the city which had been anticipated for the same moment. Tired out with anxiety, she sat down wearily at last on the verandah, looking out over the wooded country, and distinguishing in impossible places clouds of smoke that could only come from the guns. Then at last her waiting was rewarded, for two men rode into the compound—Brian, a gruesome figure in aggressive bandages and a deeply stained coat, and a native orderly who was keeping so close at hand as to suggest he had been supporting him on his horse. Eveleen dashed out—hatless, of course, but happily by this time there was shade on this side of the house.
“Brian, what’s happened you? Is it wounded y’are?”
“Not a bit of it.” Brian grinned languidly from the saddle. “Pricked my finger, that’s all.”