“Bloody obvious really. Said they’d set upon her, taken their turns, all bloody night… dear God, if I had stayed awake, I’d have—”
“And what did they say? What was their version of the event?”
“Well you might ask, sir. That’s what did it for us, really—damn cowards said she’d invited them to—well, suffice to say—the one thing can perhaps be excused a man… temptations of the flesh and all that… but lying like a Frenchie? That I can’t abide.”
“And you believed her and not them?”
He took a small step back, but it was Captain Rochester who replied. “Do you impugn the lady’s honor, sir, and therefore our administration of the correct punishment for such offence? I would be careful what you say, as she had a witness to her ordeal.”
I was surprised but very pleased at the same time. I felt a little guilty, then, for immediately assuming she had tried the same thing with the soldiers as she had with me. This time she was the one with the witness. I glanced over at Aleksey, but his face was even more pale, and his eyes wide with horror. He croaked, “The child?”
I almost doubled over. I felt his hand tighten upon my arm for support. I repeated his question. “The child? Her son was her witness?”
The major nodded. He looked a little sick but for different reasons than we were, I wager. “Witnessed the whole damn thing. In the cart, you see. If it hadn’t been for that bloody brace thing upon his leg, I dare say he’d have up and run off—wouldn’t blame the little chap if he did—but he had to lie there all night… watching. Hung the buggers as much for that as for the poor lady, truth be told.”
I had spurned her advances. I had put him in that leg brace. I had forced him to lie in the cart. They had taken their very effective revenge on me now.
I looked at the bodies of the two young men, now covered by a tent canvas. I had killed them as surely as if I had strung them up myself. Aleksey put himself between me and the officers, nudging me away. When I refused to move, he became more forceful and insisted, “Doctor, I need to speak with you—now!”
I went mutely until we were a little way out of earshot. “Niko—Nikolai—listen to me!” I turned and blinked at him. “This was not your fault. Do you hear me?”
I nodded, turning back to stare at the ropes still hanging from the tree.
He grunted in fury and took my arms, leaning in closer. “Did I kill Faelan?”
“What?”
“Tell me, did I kill him? By not taking him back when you wanted me to?”
“No, of course not.” I was so confused by this turn of his mind that I could not comprehend his meaning. “Events work themselves as they will, Aleksey. All we can do as men is the best thing we can at the time with the right intentions. I wanted you to stay with me, or I would have forced the issue more. Faelan would not have chosen to be taken home like an old person too feeble to be where he wanted and doing what he most desired to do. I was wrong to suggest it. His death had nothing to do with you!”
“Well, the deaths of those men had nothing to do with you either! We did not tell of her nature to anyone for the best of motives. I sent the soldiers back to camp, Niko. Me! I did not mean for this to happen! And whatever she did, they did apparently take up her offer—the young bride of a man of God they knew and had traveled with for some days. So you must apply the same logic to your situation as you say I must to Faelan’s.” He shook me again. “Is this not so?”
I nodded, my head hung low. “I am in charge of an expedition that has lost four men, Aleksey—one third of its number.”
“Ack, since when did you actually take charge? You’ve been playing with it, Niko, to spare Major Parkinson’s feelings. Do not think I have not noticed. You boss me around more in five minutes than you have told him what to do once.”
I leaned against him for a moment—one soldier to another and nothing anyone could suspect. Then we pulled apart. I gave him a considered look. “Are you all right?”
He nodded. “I loved him. He is gone. I do not see that there is much more to say. The rest stays in my heart. What are we going to do about this horrible situation now?”
WEDIDwhat we should have done in the first place: we disabused the officers of their opinion of Mary Wright’s virtue. Clearly this was not an easy thing to do. No man likes to impugn a virtuous young woman or hear of one being so denounced, and I suspected they would not like it either. I did not need to nominate Aleksey to be the bearer of such news—he volunteered. Swift to assess the various personalities of the other men, he picked Rochester to approach. Win him over and the others would follow.
“Sir. A word.”
The captain was attempting to release the swaying ropes from the tree branch and naturally was not in the mood for conversation. Aleksey waited politely for him to complete his task and then laid a hand upon his arm.
I never appreciated other men admiring Aleksey, viewing such approaches as a starving man might a hand moving toward his plate of food, but in this case, I was glad the officer was smitten. He acquiesced to being pulled a little away from our companions where we could speak privately.
“Mrs. Wright approached me a few nights ago and offered herself to me in a wanton and brazen manner.” I was almost too astonished by this blatant lie to hear the rest of Aleksey’s speech, but just as suddenly it occurred to me that in all particulars it was not a lie, and that in the urgency of the moment, Aleksey had sacrificed his own sense of honor, his absolute adherence to the truth, in favor of expediency. If I had told the tale of spurning Mary Wright’s advances, my lack of familiarity with this man would have slowed his acceptance of the story. Aleksey’s word was unimpeachable. I loved him all the more for this sacrifice. “When I rebuffed her, she attempted to claim to my colleague, Doctor Hartmann, who came across us, that I had approached her in a lewd and ungodly manner. Doctor, is this not so?” I nodded. It was all I could do. Fluency of tongue such as Aleksey had just displayed was beyond me.
The captain eyed us both for a moment. “Why the devil would she do such a thing? If what you say is true, then—” Poor man. It had clearly just occurred to him that he had hung two innocent men.
Aleksey nodded sadly, as if the failings of a mere woman were a mystery to him. This seemed to accord with the officer’s view and knowledge of the species, and we all stood for a moment, heads bowed, contemplating the weaker sex. As it seemed an appropriate moment to do so, I murmured, “She did not come to the Colonies aboard the recent resupply ship, sir. She lied about her history in this too. I have seen the marks of a severe lashing upon her back, indication perhaps of a practiced deceiver.” I hoped he took the slight comfort I offered—that it had probably been beyond his power to see through the tangle of lies she had spun, and that thus his part in this horrible affair was somewhat mitigated.
He did seem to relax fractionally. “I must inform Major Parkinson. I am at a loss how we should proceed. Should we accuse her of falseness? Of, as you say, lewd and unwomanly behavior? We are not in authority over her, and yet—”
Aleksey replaced his hand upon the man’s uniform sleeve. “I told you only to make you vigilant, sir. There is the matter of the child—his role in this as her witness.”
