Chivalrous Captain, Rebel Mistress Read Online Free PDF Page B

forwards; the back line stood ready to fire a volley.
    All depended upon the men remaining steady in the face of the massed charge.
    Allan rode to one side of the square. ‘Steady, men,’ he told them. ‘They cannot break you. Steady.’
    The riders might have been willing to ride into the square, but the horses balked at the sight of the bayonets pointed towards them. They turned and galloped past, the men on their backs only able to fire a single pistol shot each.
    The British infantry raked them with a barrage of musket fire, and the British cannon fire was unceasing. Smoke was everywhere, and through it the cries of wounded men.
    Finally the cavalry retreated, but it was a short respite. They reformed and attacked again.
    The squares held.
    After the second attack, Allan left the square to ride to the ridge to reconnoitre. His attention riveted not on the French cavalry regrouping, but on Hougoumont.
    The château at Hougoumont was on fire, the château he’d forbidden Miss Pallant to leave.
    He immediately urged his horse into full gallop, risking interception from the French. He was hell-bent on reaching Hougoumont, praying he had not forced Miss Pallant into a nightmare from which she could not escape.
    The gate did not open to him, even though there were only a few Frenchmen firing at the men on the walls.
    ‘How can I get in?’ he called as soon as he was close enough.
    One of the soldiers pointed to another entrance, well protected by muskets.
    He rode into heat and smoke. The barn was afire as well as the château and some soldiers had run in to pull the horses to safety. One of the animals broke free and ran back into the fire.
    Allan tied his horse to a post and went to the door of the château, sure that during the rigours of battle the boy he’d brought there would have been forgotten. He prayed the fire had not yet consumed the hallway.
    As he reached the door, he almost collided with someone dragging a man out. Someone dressed in boy’s clothes.
    ‘Miss Pallant!’ he cried, forgetting her disguise.
    She glanced at him as she struggled to get the man, too injured and weak to walk, out of the door, away from the fire. ‘Help me, Captain.’
    He took one of the man’s arms and pulled him outside to the middle of the courtyard. As soon as she let go of the man, she started for the château’s entrance again.
    He caught her arm. ‘What are you doing?’
    She wrenched it away. ‘There are more men in there.’ She dashed inside again.
    Allan followed her straight into an inferno. She ran to a corner and pulled a man by the collar of his coat, sliding him across the hall. Allan glanced up. The fire swirled above them and pieces of ceiling fell, one narrowly missing her. She paid no heed. Allan hurried through and found another man trying to crawl away from the flames. He flung the man over his shoulder and helped pull Miss Pallant’s soldier at the same time. ‘Hurry!’ he cried. ‘Now!’
    They made it out of the door just as the ceiling collapsed.
    ‘No!’ She turned and tried to rush back in.
    Still holding the wounded man, he caught her arm. ‘You cannot go in there.’ He gripped her hard. ‘Now get the man you have saved to the courtyard.’
    She nodded and pulled her charge away from the burning building, while the agonised screams of the trapped men pierced Allan’s very soul. As soon as he lowered his injured soldier to the ground near the other men she had saved, Miss Pallant ran towards the château again. He tore after her, catching her around the waist before she charged into the inferno.
    She struggled. ‘There are men in there. Can’t you hear them?’
    He held her tight, his mouth by her ear. ‘I hear them, but there is nothing we can do to save them.’
    She twisted around and buried her face into his chest, only to pull away again. ‘The little boy! The drummer boy! Is he still in there?’
    One of the men on the ground answered her, ‘He escaped, lad. I saw him. He’s