The Rakehell Regency Romance Collection Volume 2(26)

"Very good. Thank you."



"Enjoy."



"I shall. It smells wonderful."



"I'm going to read from the paper if that's all right. Let me know what interests you, and if you need me to pour you any more tea."



"I will, thank you."



She seated herself by the bedstead, and began to read the headlines.



"Oh my," she gasped in dismay.



"What is it? What's wrong?"



"Some bad news. There's been more fighting. At the city of Bayonne. The First and Fifth Divisions. Our friend Gareth is there, in the Fifth Division."



"But Napoleon was deposed by the Senate, and abdicated! I don't understand," he said, sounding distraught.



"Here, I'll read it to you.



"'It is our sad duty to report yet another action which took place after Bonaparte had already abdicated. The gallant Sir John Hope had been besieging the town of Bayonne since the 27th of February. The Governor of that town, one Monsieur Thouvenot, decided to launch a sortie for the sake of his amour propre, even knowing that no other result could come of it than the shedding of still more blood. It has resulted in the deaths of over seventeen hundred souls in purposeless slaughter. It was pure spite and a shameless attack upon a more relaxed force since the general situation of peace had been agreed upon in principle as well as fact, even though all the formal treaties were not officially negotiated as of yet.



"'The Governor assembled approximately six thousand men at the Citadel of the town and ordered them to charge down from the great height to take the village of St. Etienne, the gateway to Bordeaux and Toulouse.



"'Lieutenant-Colonel Hay's Brigade of the Fifth Division had just come across the river to reinforce the troops, and he was serving as the general officer of the day. His troops were holding the village and bridge key to the Allies defenses. The French attacked en masse at three in the morning, and completely overran the piquets, such was the speed and force of their attack.



"Lieutenant-Colonel Hay was killed early on trying to defend in vain the church of said village. Only the 38th was able to rally and hold off the French, by defending vigorously a fortified house and the walled Jewish cemetery on the road to Bordeaux. The French cut the line of British troops in the village in two, and pressed on.



"'Our troops' rally was long in coming due to Lieutenant-Colonel Hay having been killed. Sir John Hope rode up as soon as he heard the news of Hay's death to try to assume command, but his charger was shot out from under him. His two loyal aides de camp William Herries and William Moore, a nephew of the great Sir John Moore, martyred at Corunna, were also wounded whilst trying to disengage Sir John from his mount. All three were injured, according to eyewitnesses, and were taken prisoner. Hope's boot was left trapped under the horse's carcass, and we fear he has sustained numerous other wounds.



"'Despite these shocks and devastating losses, every subordinate commander rose to the occasion despite having no central intelligence or orders from the high command. The King's German Legions and Portuguese troops flanked the village and cleared the French out of St. Etienne almost as rapidly as the French had taken the village only the hour before.



"'General Howard, together with Stopford's brigade and the Coldstream Guards, relieved the 38th in the cemetery, and chased the French back to the Citadel, up the very same steep hill which they had charged down. The French fled in disorder, stumbling in the dark, and over each other in their effort to scale the heights. They suffered terribly from Allied musketry and their own lack of a sensible rearguard action to cover their ignominious retreat. They sustained over one thousand casualties, the Allies approximately five hundred, with over two hundred captured.



"'Upon the death of Hay, Sir Charles Colville has been given command of the Fifth Division. He is determined to hold Bayonne and will shore up the defenses and be on the alert for as long as is required until the war is officially over.



"An obituary of Lieutenant-Colonel Hay follows, as does the list of casualties and missing men. We can only hope that they are being treated well until such time as the war will at last be truly over. We pray they will not have reprisals visited upon their heads for simply doing their duty as gallant Allied soldiers.'"



She rustled the paper, searching through the lists, and sighed again.



"Bad news?"



"Gareth Cavendish is listed here as missing."



"I'm so sorry."



"It's all right," she said with a small sniff. "I have faith that all will be well. It's just, well such an appalling shame. And I shall have to break the news to Pamela and Jonathan. They've become good friends through their letters."