Chapter 58: An Officer's Mistress

Out scouting by myself for a change, I heard some horses approaching and got off the road. Several blue-unformed Hessians rode past at a good canter leading a small group of riderless horses. Once they were out of sight, I went on my way and in a few minutes came upon a big carriage, where, it seemed obvious, some of the horses had come from. At first I thought it was abandoned with some open trunks on the ground and clothes strewn about, but then I heard a scream and, as I rode around the big rig, found myself a spectator at a boistrous rape.

One big fellow was humping a wailing girl he had pinned to a back wheel while two others were wrestling a woman in flying skirts to the ground. A slim officer sitting sideways on his horse was watching, looking amused.

I slipped my musket from my back, jumped from my saddle and blew the officer off his horse. Then I clamped on my bayonet and speared the big rapist who was pushing himself off the girl clinging to the back wheel. He screamed when I tore his belly open and collapsed atop his still rigid member. By then the two soldiers who had been trying to pin the other woman to the dirt had scrambled to their feet and were going for their stacked weapons, both with foreflaps undone.

I yelled, "Halt!" loud as I could, and one stopped while the other dove for his musket. I yanked my big pistol from the back of my belt, leveled it on my forearm and fired in his general direction with a load of buckshot. I was about to attack the other Hessian who was standing with arms outstretched, looking hopeful, when someone cried "Stop, halten," and the girl with the bloody nose who was just climbing to her knees cried, "Behind you!"

I ducked and spun about to face a big man with a sword in his hand. He leapt gracefully from the carriage door showing me his teeth and whirling his weapon. I parried his first thrust and cracked him in the side of the head with the stock of my musket. It made a sound like striking a ripe watermelon with the flat of your hand. The girl behind me screamed as he fell.

I turned and found her in the grip of the Hessian grenadier who had wound his hand in her hair and clamped his forearm about her neck. She looked like a pretty healthy young woman, so I did not hesitate and charged at him, bayonet leveled. He threw her aside and raised his hands in surrender just before I drove my big blade through his chest and took him off his feet, legs thrashing. When he fell, I put my foot on his face and pulled my weapon loose, looking quickly about for more targets as I jabbed him two or three more times in the belly.

The girl was on her knees, choking and spitting, and the small woman who had been raped was now at the carriage door, talking to someone inside. I checked the bodies, found the man I shot with my pistol still breathing and put him out of his misery and then removed a fat purse from the young officer's body. His horse was still in sight, grazing placidly. The other officer, the one whose skull I had cracked open, had only his sword that was worth taking since his boots were too small for me.

I stopped to wipe my blade on one of the dead and reload my musket. The girl, after rubbing her nose on her fist, came to my side and held my arm. She was lovely and obviously wealthy judging both from her dress and her pale pock-free skin. Her long hair gleamed with reddish highlights and her eyes were hazel, her lips pink and soft. Her velvet dress had been torn from one rounded shoulder and some of her lace hung in ribbons. My root stirred, excited by the fight. She held her ruined gown to her full breast.

"Thank you," she gasped out, her free hand at her throat.

"Did he hurt you?" I asked.

She shook her head. "But our maid is terrified, poor woman. You saw what happened to her." She had disappeared into the carriage and was watching from the window, a kerchief at her mouth, eyes very large.

"Who else is in there?" I asked the girl, who seemed to be quickly regaining her composure, her chest heaving slower.

"The baroness, and I'll bet you she is furious, and her sister." She nearly smiled, and then let go of my arm to straighten the front of her dress and tuck her bulging boobies out of sight. For a young person standing in the midst of five fresh-killed humans, she seemed completely at ease.

"Baroness?" I said.

"Right," said the girl. "General --'s wife," and she told me his name but I will not use it since the family has suffered enough indignities after choosing to settle here when the fighting ended.

I pulled open the carriage door and sitting in the back were two very proper matrons, both looking very displeased, and on the other side the woman who had been raped, still sniveling into her handkerchief.

From behind me, the girl presented the two women and then said, "And Annie, poor thing."

The older woman, and by far the haughtier, said something in German and the girl beside me replied quickly.

"She wants to know why you struck the major," the girl said.

"Who?" I asked, puzzled both by the question and the calmness of the two women facing me.

"Him," said the girl, poking at the body sprawled at her feet. "He was an acquaintance, perhaps a friend. I am not sure. He was traveling with us."

I closed the door to the carriage, took the girl by the arm and led her up to the front of the rig. "Explain," I said.

"We were on our way to visit the Baroness's husband when we were stopped by these men, these Hessians." She gestured at the bodies "The Baroness is a Bavarian. They took our horses and our driver despite the Major's best efforts. He is with Kynphausen, he was, on his staff. The soldiers laughed at him and demanded women. The major offered them the maid and me. They accepted, and then you appeared." She shrugged her shoulders.

"Now," I asked, still confused, "what are you going to do?"

"I suppose we will wait for help. We were expected, and it isn't far."

"No," I said, "I mean you."

She frowned, but did not answer.

"Are you his daughter, the general's?" I asked.

"No, no," she said quickly, suppressing a smile, "his mistress, one of them."

I waited, holding her hand and digesting the situation.

"What choices do I have?" she said quietly.

'There is a horse over there. You could leave with me."

"And do what?" she asked, freeing her hand.

"Whatever you want. I can't believe you want to stay with those women."

The maid appeared, red-eyed. "They want me to fix them some food," she said. "Will you help?"