Tallie's Knight Part 24

"Magnus!"

Slowly he opened his eyes.

"Oh, there you are," he said, and fumbled to get out of the litter. She helped him out, but when he tried to stand he reeled, and would have fallen if one of the porters had not grabbed him. Tallie was greatly alarmed.

"He's ill! Is there a physician nearby? Maguire!"

Maguire and the head porter came over and there was a brief discussion.

"He's ill," Tallie repeated.

"He needs a physician. Can we take him to an inn or somewhere?"

The porter shook his head and glanced significantly around. Tallie followed his gaze. The village consisted of a half-dozen tiny cottages. Certainly there would be no doctor here. Anxiety gripped her throat.

"I must get him to the nearest physician," she insisted.

"I'm all right," muttered Magnus thickly.

"Just a bit woozy, that's all."

Tallie ignored him and fixed the head porter with a determined stare.

"Please transport us with all haste to the nearest place where I can

get help for my husband," she said firmly.

"At once, if you please!"

The porter nodded, then smiled and patted her on the shoulder, saying

something in a dialect that Tallie could not understand. He called out to the others, and to her relief they soon had a vaguely protesting Magnus safely stowed back in his litter and were moving off down the mountain. This time Tallie saw nothing amusing in the sight.

"Hurry," she urged the bearers.

The trip down the mountainside was a nightmare to Tallie. She wished

she could see how her husband was faring, but the path was still too steep and narrow for them to go in anything except single file. They pa.s.sed several more tiny hamlets, but Tallie didn't even consider them. She had to get to the nearest town big enough to support a proper physician. Whenever they slowed, even for a moment, she urged them on.

"Hurry, oh, please hurry!"Finally one of the porters pointed and mumbled something. Talliefollowed the direction of his arm. Far, far below, she could see a town, a tiny sea of terra cotta rooftops and the spire of a church. Her heart leapt. It was still a long distance away. She nodded.

"Doctor?"

The man nodded back.

"Dottore."

Tallie caught her breath.

"Oh, thank the Lord. Now, please hurry."

The men jogged onwards. Tallie noticed nothing of the scenery; her eyes went from the bundle that was her husband, then down to the town, then back again.

Suddenly shots rang out. Tallie was jerked to a sudden halt. She blinked, and was almost thrown out of her litter as her bearers dropped it. They had stopped on a corner. Above them on both sides were steep rocks. She could see nothing ahead, nothing behind. All around her was sudden silence.

"What is it?" she called.

"Pray, what is the matter? And why have we stopped?"

"No questions," an unfamiliar voice shouted in rough Italian above her. She looked up and saw a tall, dark-haired man with a large moustache pointing a gleaming silver pistol in her direction. He was thin, but broad-shouldered, and dressed in a ragged uniform; there were battered traces of dull yellow embroidery on his jacket, which she supposed might once have looked gold. Was he a soldier? But the war was over, surely.

There was a sudden flurry ahead and a single shot rang out. Tallie's heart almost stopped. Magnus! But she could hear or see nothing. The man above called something to someone unseen and then nimbly leaped down onto the path ahead, bringing a scattering of small rocks down with him. Immediately a dozen more men appeared, all dressed in some sort of uniform, one in braided trousers, another in a waistcoat, all ragged, none of them matching. Each one of them brandished a knife or a pistol or both.

"What is it? Who are they?" Tallie whispered to the porter standing nearest her.

He turned to look at her, his eyes sombre.

"Banditti," he said.

Chapter Thirteen.

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Danditt.i.t gasped Tallie.

The porter jerked his head significantly up to the left.

"Bad men.

Live up there. " His lip curled and he spat in scorn.

"Not our people."

More orders rang out in dialect and the porters moved slowly forward.

The ragged collection of armed banditti watched every move from their lofty positions on the rocks above. The party reached a small clearing, bordered on three sides by rock walls and on the fourth by a plunging precipice along which the narrow track pa.s.sed. It would be impossible to escape; only one person at a time could move along that path. This was obviously a well-planned ambush.

The bandits had already disarmed the guards and Tallie could see that two porters were injured, although it didn't seem as if they were badly hurt; they could still walk, though with some difficulty. The hired guards, luckily, seemed untouched.

The tall dark man in the ragged gold braid uttered a sharp order and two bandits with pistols shepherded the porters and guards to a shallow cave in the rock, and forced them to sit, hands on heads.

Tallie breathed a sigh of relief. The bandits did not mean to kill anyone--yet.

Several ruffians hovered over the prisoners still in their litters, a variety of firearms and gleaming knives and stilettos pointed menacingly, while the rest fell upon the bundles of baggage, emptying their belongings onto the mountainside with careless greed. They removed everything of value, even Magnus's fine leather boots.

Bundled in her litter, Tallie waited helplessly. The bindings that had been for her security now kept her imprisoned. She wondered how Magnus was faring, and struggled inconspicuously to escape her bonds.

The bandit leader thrust his silver duelling pistol through his belt and swaggered towards them.

"Aha, what have we here?" he said in oddly accented but surprisingly urbane Italian.

"A lady--no, two ladies," he added, lifting a rug to discover Monique cowering underneath.

"And four gentlemen." He glanced at the litters containing Magnus, Maguire, John Black, and Guillaume, Magnus's valet.

"Which one is the English milord?" His vivid green eyes examined each man narrowly.

The English milord? How did he know one of the travellers was an English milord? wondered Tallie anxiously. Their majordomo, Luigi Maguire, had stressed that they should appear as ordinary travellers.

"Naturally, while no foreign traveller is precisely poor," he had said in his unique accent, 'it is not a good idea to advertise wealth, so if you will accept my advice, Lord d'Arenville, you will travel as plain Mr. d'Arenville. Or even Mr. Smith, if you like. And in your plainest coat and boots. Your good lady, too, in her plainest, most serviceable gown and cloak. "

And they had taken his eminently sensible advice. So how did this bandit know there was an English lord in the party?

"Come, gentlemen, I know one of you is an English milord, and a fine fat pigeon for my plucking."

No one said a word.

The bandit leader strode forward, and with a rough oath he dragged first Maguire, then Guillaume, then John Black from their litters. He examined each man briefly, then thrust them towards his men, who stripped them of any valuables they found.

Behind her Tallie heard Monique shrieking as she was robbed of her finery. A slap rang out and a bandit laughed. John Black swore in a litany of solid English curses and surged forward. A scuffle brokeout. There was a loud crack and John Black fell to the ground,groaning and clutching his head. Guillaume and Maguire did not stir.Guillaume looked terrified. Maguire seemed unmoved. After a moment,to Tallie's relief, John Black struggled to his feet, shaken butapparently still in one piece. A bandit tied his hands.

The bandit leader turned and dragged Magnus from his litter.

"Leggo of me, d.a.m.n y'r eyes!" muttered Magnus, swaying as he stood, trying to fend off the bandit.

"Aha, our arrogant English milord, I presume," said the bandit leader in excellent French, and he bowed mockingly as he drew the money belt from Magnus's waist.

Tallie's eyes widened. This ragged villain was no simple peasant.

Magnus swayed again, and the bandit grabbed him by the coat, laughing.

"Is it drunk you are, my fine English milord? Or are you a coward, like the rest of your kind?"

"He's nothing of the sort! He's ill," shouted Tallie furiously,struggling to clamber out of her litter. She freed herself, scrambledout and rushed over to her husband, thrusting her body between him andthe bandit.

"Leave him alone. He's ill. Can't you see?"

The bandit snorted. His green eyes narrowed.

"He is, otherwise he would have shot you dead, you villain!" Tallie said fiercely, wedging her shoulder under Magnus's to support his swaying form.

The bandit looked at Magnus again and spat on the ground.

"Pah, look at him! He's shaking with fright!"

"He's shaking with ever Tallie retorted angrily, wiping her husband's brow with her handkerchief.

The bandit leader snorted disbelievingly. He reached out a surprisingly clean hand and took her ear between his fingers. Tallie froze as he carefully removed her gold studs. Then he reached for her neck, slipping his fingers inside the neck of her gown, and she recoiled.

"Take y'r filthy hands off my wife, you ruffian!" Magnus lurched forward, his arm shooting out in a clumsy, but well- aimed punch. The bandit reeled back and stood clutching his chin, while Tallie struggled to help Magnus regain his balance. Her gold necklace lay broken on the ground.

The bandit stood silently for a moment, then shrugged."We'll take him anyway." He bent and scooped up Tallie's necklace."What do you mean, take him? Take who? My husband?""Si," said the bandit, reverting to Italian. He called two of his henchmen over. They grabbed Magnus by the arms and started to marchhim away."No, stop!" cried Tallie.

"What are you going to do with him?"

The bandit leader turned back and regarded her impa.s.sively for a moment, then shrugged again.

"He is a fine English milord. Someone will pay gold for his safe