Beloved Enemy Read Online Free PDF

well. I was unable to bring a fresh
poultice but will try to leave one beneath the elder bush outside in the
morning, and milk and eggs. You have sufficient water, Peter?"
    " At
the moment." The young man indicated the keg in the corner of the room. " Now Edmund's fever has abated he
needs less, and I can manage with little."
    Ginny frowned. "Bringing water presents more
difficulties than food. I would not care to explain to Colonel Ma rshall why I choose to carry pails of water to the
cliff head."
    " Marshall ?" Peter stared at her. " Alex Marshall?"
    "Why, yes. Do you know him?"
    "We were at Oxford together. He is the youngest son of
the earl of Grantham. There was a time when we were close friends ..."
Peter's whisper faded. "He was a powerful friend and, I fancy, will be as
powerful an opponent."
    Ginny frowned. " What
else do you know of him, Peter? Did he once play at court as scandalously as
the rest of you?" She smiled in the hope that the question would thus seem
joking and disinterested.
    " Not
Alex Marshall," Peter declared. "He has always been a career soldier
with leanings toward the Puritan. He and Prince Rupert were close, though— both mad for soldiering and both brilliant commanders— u ntil this damnable war happened, and Alex, for reasons
of his own, joined the rebels. It nearly killed his father, and his mother died
soon after, of a broken heart, it is said. The earl has disowned him, and his
brothers are sworn to vengeance."
    Ginny shuddered as she filled in the details this succinct
word picture gave of a devastating family schism. What kind of man was it, who
could split his family asunder for the sake of a political ideal? Who could
forsake all the traditional loyalties to king and kin?
    "He is not a man to be trifled with." Peter tuned
uncannily into her thoughts. " He is a
man of rigid principles and has always been held in both fear and respect by
friends and foes alike. His loyalty is to his country, first and foremost. He
was always in favor of reform, of a reduction in the king's power. When he came
out against the king, there was little surprise."
    "We leave here tonight." Edmund spoke with more
strength than he had evinced in the last week. "You stand in sufficient
danger already, Ginny. If you are caught harboring wanted men, then you will
lose your head."
    "Oh, stuff!" She tore a sheet of fresh linen and
began to rebandage the wound. "It is quite perfect. Who is to suspect two
fugitive Cavaliers of hiding in the midst of the lion's den? You could not be
safer and will suffer only boredom and inactivity until you are able to travel.
In the meantime, I will make myself an obedient prisoner of the colonel's, and
his cohorts will become accustomed to my presence and will cease to notice me.
The sailboat is well hidden in the cave, and when you are well enough to sail
for the mainland, we shall contrive our escape."
    " Edmund
is right," Peter said heavily. " You
must no longer bring us supplies, not when a brigade of Roundheads swarms over
the estate. We will make our escape this night."
    "Now you are being absurd. Apart from the fact that
Edmund is weak and in pain, I do not know the routine of the camp yet. We must
wait for the moment when the tide is right and we are least likely to be
observed. Otherwise, we shall all lose our heads."
    "But the risk you take ..." It was the last
objection — they were all well aware of the sense of her statement.
    "It is l ess than
attempting to escape tonight. We must be patient."
    "There seems little option." Peter sighed.
"But I cannot like it."
    " We
are not in a position to like or dislike a n y thing ," Ginny retorted tartly and then apologized for
her s h ar p ness.
The prisoners would be in torment, cabined in the semi-darkness of this tiny
chamber with no activity to take their
minds from their lonely danger, and no facilities but the wooden pail that
Peter emptied each night under cover of darkness. " I must go before my absence is
remarked. Be