Redemption of a Fallen Woman Page 0,16

heart leapt towards his throat. 'Badajoz?'

'Yes. My family home was there. Did not my uncle tell you that?'

'No, he said only that it was soldiers who performed the outrage. I assumed they were French.'

'Atrocities were not confined to any one military group,' she replied. 'It was British soldiers who ran amok in Badajoz and it was they who... Well, you know what happened.'

Harry shut his eyes for a moment to regain his equilibrium. He knew what had happened all right. Murder had stalked the streets then.

'What occurred there is a matter of everlasting shame to my country,' he replied.

'I imagine you can understand why my family were so keen for me to enter a convent.'

'Their view is not one I share.'

'That is fortunate for me and I'm grateful.'

'I wasn't seeking your gratitude.'

'You have it all the same.' She shot him a sideways look. 'I must apologise for embroiling you in my problems but in truth I could think of no other way out.'

'I hope you won't come to regret your decision. The journey is going to be long and hard.'

'But the company is good.'

'I'm glad that you think so.' He could only hope she wouldn't be disillusioned. Fortunately she knew relatively little about him and he wasn't about to enlighten her further.

'You would not have come on such a journey without a servant whom you trusted.'

Harry nodded. 'You're quite right. Jack Hawkes and I know each other well.'

'He is a family retainer?'

'Not exactly. He was once a member of my company. We served together during the war.'

'And then you employed him afterwards.'

'Just so.'

'Had he no family, then?'

'None that he knows of. The company was his family in the end.'

She nodded. 'I can understand that. War creates a bond between men.'

It was an echo of his own former thought and he regarded her in surprise. 'You speak knowledgeably.'

'I have spent some time among fighting men.'

Curiosity increased. 'The guerrilla force your uncle mentioned?'

'That's right. Does it shock you?'

'I own to surprise. It's not the role I would immediately have associated with you.'

'It was that or the convent.'

'But were you not engaged to be married?'

'My betrothed broke off our engagement.'

Harry was conscious of having strayed onto dangerous ground. He sensed the hurt beneath the level tone and felt awkward. Clearly these were personal matters which he had no right to probe.

'More fool him,' he replied.

The words carried no discernible trace of irony. Elena eyed him askance, momentarily taken aback. At the same time the memory she had tried to suppress resurfaced. It ought not to have hurt any more, and she was disconcerted to discover that it did. With an effort she kept her tone neutral.

'It would have shamed him to marry me.'

'Why? You had been through a dreadful experience and you did what you thought you had to afterwards.'

'Yes, but I was dishonoured all the same. He was very polite but he made it quite clear that marriage was out of the question.' She lifted her chin. 'I realised then that he felt nothing for me at all.'

The scene was still horribly vivid, the details etched on her memory. The Barilla family estate was outside the city, but Jose had come to find Elena when news of the rioting troops reached him. His shock on seeing the destruction they had wreaked was plain, but it was as nothing when he understood what had happened to her father, and to the female members of the household. Elena had been so relieved to see him that she hadn't considered what might lie beneath his evident abhorrence. More than anything she wanted him to take her in his arms, to make her feel safe. However, on entering the vandalised salon where she waited, he left a yard of space between them and made no attempt to close the gap.

'I should have been here to protect you,' he said.

'They would have killed you, Jose.'

'Better that than such dishonour.'

'The dishonour is not yours,' she replied. 'It belongs to those who committed the deed.'

'Yet the taint can never be expunged.' He let out a long breath. 'I imagine that you intend to follow your sisters to the convent.'

Elena frowned. 'Why should you imagine that?'

He stared at her. 'But surely, after what has happened there can be no other choice.'

A cold lump settled deeper in her stomach. 'No other choice?'

'You must see that we cannot marry now. It is impossible.'

'Is it?'

'Elena, there may be consequences to the events that took place here.'

'You mean I may have conceived a child.'

He