Russian series 03 - The Eagle's Fate (6 page)

The road crossed another river part way between Kolomna and Ryazan, and, as they reached it when the sun was approaching the horizon, they stopped there to camp for the night, along with some hundreds of others, many of whom—particularly those on foot—were now in a grievously exhausted stated, which caused Nadya to forget her own worries and discomforts for a moment and demand indignantly, ‘What right had Napoleon Bonaparte to cause all this misery?’

‘God know!’ Captain Tuchin replied grimly. “It make one hop most fervently that there’s a hell for people like him.’

Captain Valyev said nothing, but this may have been because a small ragged child had strayed in front of his horse, making it shy, and he was busy controlling it and avoiding the child. Eventually, he dismounted, scooped the infant up in his arms, and returned it to its frightened mother, who was standing watching in horror. His horse subsided rapidly, being too tired to keep up the performance.

The evening routine went as before, and after the meal, Captain Tuchin remembered to give Nadya a blanket, and she was very soon asleep, regardless of noise and discomfort, and slept well for some time, until nearby movement and sound roused her.

It took only a glance for her to realise that it was the captains changing over in the middle of the night, and exchanging a few murmured words as Sasha Tuchin buttoned himself into his pelisse, and his friend arranged his blanket, and she would have gone straight back to sleep had the latter not said quite clearly,.’ I have no wish whatever to have anything to do with any member of the Serov family’, and she was immediately wide awake and straining to hear the rest.’

Chapter Three

‘Yes, you’ve made that obvious enough!’ Captain Tuchin replied drily. ‘I’m not criticising—I’d feel the same if it were me. I’m just saying that we can’t leave a defenceless female, whoever she may be, to travel fifty
versts
alone, on foot, in the midst of this assortment of ruffians and brigands.’

‘Our orders are to buy remounts and return with them as soon as possible. Going to Ryazan and back would cause a day’s delay, and in that time, the Regiment could be under attack and having to fight with half its mounts exhausted and some men on foot. We can’t risk letting our comrades be killed for the sake of one female.’

Captain Valyev replied quietly and, Nadya thought, reasonably, for she could see that the same argument would have applied even if the female concerned had been his own sister or wife.

‘I’m not suggesting that we both go—just one of us. If the other goes with the troopers to the stud, they can start selecting the horses, which will take a couple of days at least. The one who takes the Princess could go to Ryazan, spend a pleasant evening with Tatya Petrovna, eating good food and sleeping in a comfortable bed, and ride back in the morning. He’d rejoin by the evening, and nothing lost.’

‘It’s an extra hundred
versts
for the horse, half of it double-burdened,’ Captain Valyev pointed out. ‘I don’t think your mount could manage the first fifty, even if you could borrow a horse from Tatya Petrovna to return. The beast was never up to your weight in the first place.’

‘Yours could manage it,’ Captain Tuchin said tentatively. ‘But he’d never let me on his back—you’re the only one who can manage him.’

It was obvious what he was hinting at, but Captain Valyev made no reply. Nadya risked opening her eyes to see what he was doing, and found that he was sitting slackly with his hands hanging over his bent knees and his head drooping wearily.

‘If we leave her to go on alone, you know damned well she’ll be robbed, raped and murdered long before she reaches Ryazan!’ Captain Tuchin said, sounding angry. ‘Could you ever face Tatya Petrovna again, knowing you’d let that happen to her friend? Could you face your Maker, for that matter, and that’s a thought for a soldier to dwell on in the middle of a campaign!’

Captain Valyev sat still and silent for a moment, then said, quietly, ‘I’ll think about it’, pulled the blanket round him and lay down, clearly having no intention of hearing or saying anything more on the subject.

Nadya spent a miserable couple of hours after that, in the deadest, most hopeless part of the night, worrying, praying, crying a little, and dreading the next day, and the thought of going on alone after what Captain Tuchin had said. She dozed a little eventually, but woke heavy-eyed and unrefreshed, listlessly folded her blanket and prepared for the day, and could only manage to eat less than half her unpalatable breakfast.

‘It’s pretty nasty, I’m afraid,’ Captain Tuchin said apologetically. ‘You’ll do a lot better tomorrow morning at Tatya Petrovna’s!’ Nadya had a chilling vision of herself horribly dead by the roadside and all her courage could only summon a very wan and wobbly smile.

When they were ready to start, she was standing by Captain Tuchin’s mount, which really did look utterly worn out, as if the only thing which prevented it from falling over was an inability to decide which leg should give way first when Captain Valyev said calmly, ‘You’ll ride with me today.’

She was so astonished that she went with him in silence, waiting while he mounted, for his horse, despite it tiredness still reserved the right to reject anyone else who mounted it. When he was up, he leaned down, put an arm round her waist, and swung her up in front of him with no apparent effort.

‘Oh!’ exclaimed Captain Tuchin, who had come to assist. ‘That was neat!’

‘She’s no weight,’ Captain Valyev replied indifferently, setting his horse in motion with no more than a jerk of his thigh-muscles.

After some time Nadya summoned her courage, telling herself that it was stupid to be afraid of him when she was quite sure she had nothing which could concern him on her conscience, and said uncertainly, ‘Captain Tuchin’s horse looks very weary.’

For a moment she thought he was not going to answer, but then he said, ‘The poor brute’s only a fifth-string remount—should have been retired long ago, but that’s what we’re reduced to at the moment.’

‘I thought our cavalry was always well-provided with mounts, especially the Guard.’

Again the hesitation, and then, grudgingly, ‘Normally, but we’ve been constantly on the move since June.’

‘The weather hasn’t helped,’ Captain Tuchin put in, trying to assist. ‘The French lost ten thousand horses from the heat of June and the cold in July—or was it the other way round? We lost a good many too, and they get tired, of course.’

‘Yes,’ Nadya replied, unable to think of anything to add. He was riding on Captain Valyev’s left, and so was behind her, and if she twisted round too far to speak to him she was afraid she would fall off. Consequently, as Captain Valyev was clearly indisposed to conversation, the morning passed in almost unbroken silence, and Nadya spent the time in racking her brains to think what might have caused Captain Valyev such deep offence that he wanted nothing to do with any of her family.

From what she remembered of Maxim’s high-handed manner, he was the most likely candidate for the offender, yet Captain Tuchin had said that his friend had never known her brother. Surely, though, they would have encountered one another in the Cadet Corps? Maxim would have been older…

She tried to calculate how old Captain Valyev might be now. If he passed out of the Cadets at eighteen, as usual, in say, early 1807, he would be twenty-three now, but he looked older than that—more like twenty-seven or eight, and he was a Captain. Say he was twenty-five—that would make him seven years younger than Maxim, and only thirteen when Maxim passed out of the Cadets. Too much his junior, surely, to have had any real contact? Unless Maxim had bullied him . .

It was a fruitless line of thought, but a difficult one to leave alone, and there was nothing else to think about except something better avoided—what would happen when they reached the point where their paths divided? Would Captain Valyev relent and take her on, or . . Nadya preferred not to think of the alternative, for her pride rebelled at the idea of breaking down and begging for his help.

A quarter of an hour or so before noon, they reached the point of decision. There was a belt of woodland where the side-road turned off, and a stream, so they halted there to eat and rest. Captain Tuchin’s horse was hanging its head in distress by now, and was allowed to stand in the stream for a while as the Captain said it liked standing in water, and the poor beast had earned a little pleasure. The other three soldiers nodded in agreement at this, which surprised Nadya, who had not expected the Military to be so considerate of their horses’ feelings.

No one said a word about what was to happen to Nadya now, until, as they were preparing to go on, Captain Valyev said in business-like manner, ‘Don’t part with a kopeck of the money until you’ve at least a hundred animals checked and found up to standard, and don’t scamp the inspection. The escort won’t arrive until Friday, so there’s no frantic rush.’

‘We’ve only three days before they come, and we need two hundred animals at least,’ Captain Tuchin pointed out. ‘And I have been on this sort of assignment before, you know!’ he added good-humoredly.

‘Yes. That was one of your purchases!” Captain Valyev replied, casting a disparaging glance at his friend’s horse, which was leaning against him as he adjusted the saddle-girth. “I’ll be back tomorrow afternoon.’

‘Enjoy your evening,’ Captain Tuchin replied wistfully. ‘Give my deepest respects and regards to the beautiful widow!’

‘If she can remember who you are!’ Captain Valyev replied amicably, strapping Nadya’s valise to the back of his saddle, balancing it against his own small pack. He looked at the old canteen, which was all that remained of her bundle of food.

‘It was my father’s,’ Nadya said as he strapped that on too, but he made no reply, and his set, cold expression returned as he mounted and turned his horse into position to swing her up before him.

‘Thank you!’ Nadya said to Captain Tuchin. He reached up to clasp her hand, smiling encouragingly, his kiver on the back of his head and his sunburnt, good-humoured face streaked with dust.

‘God go with you!’ he said.

‘And with you,’ Nadya replied.

Captain Valyev merely nodded, and set off along the straight, still-crowded post-road.

Alone with him, Nadya made no attempt to talk. She thought fleetingly that her reputation would be ruined if anyone ever found out that she had traveled a hundred and fifty
versts
unchaperoned, about half of it alone with four men, and, even worse, fifty with one man, and sharing the same horse! She could imagine what some of the censorious dowagers of Moscow would say about it, with pursed lips and raised eyebrows. Petersburg ladies, on the other hand, would indulge in knowing looks and significant smiles.

She wished she could summon the courage to ask Captain Valyev point-blank why he hated her family so much, but was too weary and depressed to face such an ordeal. It was hot again today, and she began to feel very drowsy, swaying with the motion of the horse. Her eyelids kept dropping shut, and eventually it was too much of an effort to force them up again.

When she did open her eyes, she found that she was comfortably settled in the curve of Captain Valyev’s left arm, her head resting on his shoulder and the soft fur of his pelisse hanging over that shoulder, pillowing her sore cheek. His right hand was resting lightly on her waist, preventing her from sliding off the horse. She was horrified to find herself in such a position, and with him, of all people! Yet it was comfortable, and really quite pleasant.