the rainy night. She huddled against a nearby tree in the darkness and pouring rain, hoping for Domina to return.
She never did.
Marian spent the night full of fear that Domina had been captured by the French. What would French soldiers do to an English girl? But when daylight came, she shoved worries about Domina from her mind. The French columns had started to march directly towards her.
The farm was her only chance for safety.
A wooded area partially surrounded the farm buildings, and Marian had to cross a field of fragrant rye to reach it. The crop would certainly be ruined when the soldiers trampled on it, but for now the tall grass hid her from Napoleon’s army.
Still, she heard them, coming closer.
Her foot caught in a hole and she fell. For a moment she lay there, her cheek against the cool wet earth, too tired to move, but suddenly the ground vibrated with the unmistakable pounding of a horse’s hooves.
Domina?
She struggled to her feet.
Too late. The huffing steed, too large to be Domina’s, thundered directly for her. Her boots slipped in the mud as she tried to jump aside. She threw her arms over her face and prepared to be trampled.
Instead a strong hand seized her coat collar and hoisted her up on to the saddle as if she weighed nothing more than a mere satchel.
‘Here, boy. What are you doing in this field?’ An English voice.
Thank God.
She opened her eyes and caught a glimpse of a red uniform. ‘I want to go to that farm.’ She pointed towards the group of buildings surrounded by a wall.
‘You’re English?’ He slowed his horse. ‘I am headed there. To Hougoumont.’
Was that the name of the farm? Marian did not care. She was grateful to be off her weary feet and to be with a British soldier and not a French one.
The horse quickly reached the patch of woods whose green leaves sprinkled them with leftover raindrops. A low branch snagged Marian’s cap, snatching it from her head, and her blonde hair tumbled down her back.
‘Good God. You’re a woman.’ He pulled on the reins and his horse turned round in a circle. ‘What the devil are you doing here?’
Marian turned to get a proper look at him. Her eyes widened. She’d seen him before. She and Domina had whispered about the tall and handsome officer they’d spied during a stroll through the Parc of Brussels. His angular face looked strong, his bow-shaped lips firm and decisive, his eyes a piercing hazel.
‘I am lost,’ she said.
‘Do you not know there is about to be a battle?’
She did not wish to debate the matter. ‘I was trying to reach somewhere safe.’
‘Nowhere is safe,’ he snapped. Instead of turning towards the farm, he rode back to where her cap hung on the tree branch, looking as if it had been placed on a peg by the garden door. He snatched it and thrust it into her hands. ‘Put the cap back on. Do not let on that you are a woman.’
Did he think she was doltish? She repinned her hair as best she could and covered it with the cap. Behind them came the sounds of men entering the wood. A musketball whizzed past Marian’s ear.
‘Skirmishers.’ The officer set his horse into a gallop so swift the trees suddenly became a blur of brown and green.
They reached Hougoumont gate. ‘Captain Landon with a message for Colonel MacDonnell,’ he announced.
Marian made a mental note of his name. Captain Landon.
The gate opened. ‘There are skirmishers in the wood,’ he told the men.
‘We see them! ‘ one soldier responded, gesturing to a wall where other men were preparing to fire through loopholes. A company of soldiers filed past them out of the gate, undoubtedly to engage the French in the wood.
The soldier took hold of Captain Landon’s horse and pointed. ‘That’s the colonel over there.’
The colonel paced through the yard, watching the men and barking orders. Some of them wore the red coats of the British; others wore a green foreign uniform.
‘Stay with me,’ Captain Landon told her.
He dismounted and reached up to help her off the horse. Then he gripped her arm as if afraid she might run off and held on to her even when handing the message to the colonel and waiting for him to read it.
The colonel closed the note. ‘I want you to wait here a bit until we see what these Frenchies are up to. Then I’ll send back my response.’ He pointed to Marian. ‘Who’s the boy?’
‘An English lad caught in the thick of things.’ Landon squeezed Marian’s arm, a warning, she presumed, to go along with his story.
MacDonnell looked at her suspiciously. ‘Are you with the army, boy?’
Marian made her voice low. ‘No, sir. From Brussels. I wanted to see the battle.’
The colonel laughed. ‘Well, you will see a battle, all right. What’s your name?’
Marian’s mind whirled, trying to think of a name she might remember to answer to. ‘Fenton,’ she finally said. ‘Marion Fenton.’ Her given name could be for a boy, and Fenton was Domina’s surname. If anything happened to her, God forbid, perhaps Domina’s family would be alerted. No one else knew she’d come to Brussels.
Captain Landon said, ‘I’ll come back to fetch him after the battle and see he is returned to his family. Where should I put him in the meantime?’
The colonel inclined his head towards the large brick house. ‘The château should do. Find him a corner to sit in.’
The captain marched Marian into the château. Green uniformed soldiers filled the hall and adjacent rooms, some gazing out of the windows.
‘Why are they in green?’ she whispered.
The captain answered, ‘They are German. Nassauers.’
The soldiers looked frightened. Marian thought them very young, mere boys, certainly younger than she at nearly twenty-one.
‘English boy,’ the captain told them, pointing to her. ‘English.’
An officer approached them. ‘I speak English.’
Captain Landon turned to him. ‘This boy is lost. He needs a safe place to stay during the battle.’
‘Any room,’ replied the officer, his accent heavy. ‘Avay from vindow.’
The captain nodded. ‘Would you tell your men sh—he’s English.’
The officer nodded and spoke to his troops in his Germanic tongue.
Captain Landon led Marian away. They walked through the house, searching, she supposed, for a room without a window.
‘I can find my own hiding place, Captain,’ she said. ‘You must return to your duties.’
‘I need to talk to you first.’ His voice was low and angry.
She supposed she was in for more scolding. She deserved it, after all.
They walked through a hallway into what must have been a formal drawing room, although its furniture was covered in white cloth.
Captain Landon finally removed his grip and uncovered a small chair, carrying it back to the hallway. ‘You will be safest here, I think.’ He gave her a fierce look and gestured for her to sit.
She was more than happy to sit. Her legs ached and her feet felt raw from running in wet boots.
He looked down on her, his elbows akimbo. ‘Now. Who are you and what the devil are you doing in the middle