Word Count: 24,041
Summary of Events:
Aline was growing concerned about her sister-in-law, who was struggling to keep food down, so she got the doctor when she went out to buy stewing meat for the supper, and learned that her sister-in-law was pregnant again, as she'd feared, and the doctor predicted that mother, child, or both could easily die, considering how troubled the previous pregnancy had been. Étienne and Lazare, one of the few men he trusted, watched action on the distant hills, which they suspected was the Mardeaux forces advancing their camp closer to Beaudroit . . .
Excerpt of the Day:
Turning his face into the wind, which was getting colder with every passing minute, Étienne looked at Lazare, who was mounted on a borrowed horse beside him.
“The advance,” Étienne said.
“Oui,” Lazare agreed. “Only now they lay claim to what they purged us from.”
“They would cut us off,” Étienne said.
“God and the Virgin cannot allow it,” Lazare said. “If we are cut off all is lost.”
Étienne nodded gravely.
A deep nicker rumbled from deep within his horse, startling Étienne, who saw that the great head was no longer straight forward and resolute, but had turned to his left with an eagerness that suggested there was more than something interesting to the southwest, there was something highly attractive.
Setting his seat deep, Étienne looked, but saw nothing.
Lazare’s horse whinnied loudly.
In moments there came another whinny.
Étienne looked at Lazare, who looked intrigued.
“It might be some of our horses,” he said.
“It might be,” Étienne replied, unconvinced as he looked suspiciously back in the direction both their mounts were now gazing.
Grateful his sword remained at his side and he’d chosen to wear the full claimed armour instead of just what he’d taken with him to Beaudroit, Étienne steered his horse toward where he was looking.
Excited, the stallion immediately surged to a canter; Étienne sat deeply and pulled back on the reins steadily and firmly until finally the stallion consented to walk, his ears fixed forward as if they didn’t have the capacity to pivot around and face perfectly backwards.
They headed toward the trees that guarded much of the area between them and the next station of troops to the south and west; the land had many steep hills there, as well as a deep valley in which there was a lake that was fed into by several rivers and streams — including the one that passed through Beaudroit from the Gardiens Blancs — which made the area unlikely to ever host a battle, although it could easily change hands, and had in the past.
A horse appeared out of the trees with a halter and a trailing lead. The horse was a handsome bay with long fore-socks and a large white star in the middle of the forehead.
Étienne recognised it as the Aide of Commandant’s horse, which was a gelding because of an accident when it was a colt, from what Étienne had been told.
“There must be more,” Lazare said, catching the lead of the calm gelding.
They rode into the trees and found several more horses, all of whom Étienne recognised as belonging to men of his unit; they even found Lazare’s horse, a fine liver-coloured horse with a narrow stripe down her forehead and a single white coronet on her right hind leg, which very much delighted Lazare, even if she was — like most of the horses — without any tack whatsoever.
A couple horses Étienne recognised as belonging to higher-ranking men had their tack, but no riders, Étienne guessed their masters had been slain on their backs, which troubled him, even though it was a fact of war.
Pronunciations:
Lazare: lahzahr
Gardiens: gahrd'yeh
Blancs: blahnk
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