In Love and Sacrifice

Chapter 2

Chapter 2My internal alarm clock woke me before dawn. I returned to the stable where the dog padded up silently, tail wagging. I bent down to give her a pat. To the casual observer, they would see a slim young woman in NEA fatigues giving some attention to a stable dog. What I was really doing was grabbing the small folded piece of paper from beneath her collar. I took the paper into the washroom and read it quickly before lighting it on fire and dumping it into the latrine. As I knew he would, Grady had my back fully and without question. We would do what we could to save Mrs. McCauley. That is if she decided to go along with what was suggested. After some asking around, I found the lady in question on her lunch break. She was alone and sitting on a bench on a bluff overlooking the city, as she always did.

“Mrs. McCauley?”

Her hair was pulled back, revealing a long, shapely neck.

“Private Brown, so nice seeing you up here!” She patted the bench beside her.

“Yes ma’am, nice to see you too,” I said, tipping my hat and settling on one knee in front of her having conducted as much small talk as I wished to muster. I got to the point.

“Word on the street is that the Duke has high hopes for a future with your daughter.”

She narrowed her eyes on me.

“I didn’t take you as one for gossip, Private.”

I kept my eyes on her.

“I’m not ma’am, but I feel this is a discussion you and I need to have.”

“Pssh,” she said, waving a hand in dismissal. “The Duke is nothing but a child, a child parading around with a big gun. Just because he was a high-ranking officer in a war that destroyed everything a lot of us worked very hard for, doesn’t mean he deserves to rule this,” she swept her hand across the city below. “And it certainly doesn’t mean he deserves my daughter.”

I bowed my head, hiding a small grin.

“I could report you for insubordination for that Mrs. McCauley,” I said. “As you know treason against the Duke can result in punishment, even death.”

As well as cultural restrictions, the Duke had resorted to medieval practices of law including stocks, lashings, and hangings.

She looked at me, brown eyes flashing. “You could, yes, but are you going to?”

I shook my head.

“Not likely, ma’am. May I ask though, what keeps you here, the city I mean? There are other places, surrounding villages where people live quite contentedly with happiness and freedom. I know. I’ve been there.”

I was treading on dangerous ground here, bordering on treason, but I’d made up my mind and there was no turning back. She looked at me, her eyes a mix of apprehension and confusion at my own insubordination. She spoke slowly, carefully.

“Well, there’s Claire, of course, she was so lost, is still lost, having lost both Jake and the girls. The city has provided her with some stability; she’s just starting to get back on her feet. I have been trying to get her to leave this place, maybe to one of those outlying villages you speak of, but she’ll have none of it right now. I can’t leave her, she’s my daughter,” she shrugged and looked at me coldly. “What is it to you anyway?”

I chose my next words carefully. If I had misjudged Helen McCauley in any way, there could be some serious repercussions as far as I was concerned.

“If there was a way for both you and your daughter to make a new life for yourselves, one away from the city, away from the Duke and his,” I paused, “insanity. Say in one of those outlying villages where your life would be your own, would you? Even with the risk of the city trying to hunt you down for what you might know? Or for simply being you?”

She eyed me cautiously.

“That’s definitely treason young lady,” she said gently. “And though I find treason to be a medieval crime in nature and an extremely foolish notion of this Duke to bring back in the first place; and while I detest every part of violence considering The War wiped out so much of what we knew, it’s still very dangerous to be speaking so boldly.”

“Yes, ma’am, it is.”

“Hmm,” she didn’t say anything for a moment. I just waited.

“Who are you?”

I shrugged, and smiled.

“Here and now, I’m Private Annabell Brown of the NEA. However, if I was to tell you the disdain you feel for the Duke was reciprocated by me, and that you were in danger and your only chance of getting to safety was in trusting me implicitly, would you?”

By now I had her full attention, her eyes were as sharp as a hawk.

“And how do I know you aren’t just baiting me, playing some cruel and horrible game, with me in the dungeon…or worse, as prize?”

I smiled. Helen McCauley was no fool.

“You don’t. But I know you’re smarter than that, so I ask again. Do you trust me?”

She considered that for a moment, gazing upon the ruin and reconstruction below, through which two rivers joined and flowed.

“And my daughter? She will be safe as well in all this?”

I tugged at the simple silver ring I wore upon my thumb.

“Well, that’s the tricky part, ma’am. I will most certainly do my best. But it’s you I’m most concerned about just now. You see, your life is at risk.”

I explained what I’d heard the other night.

“That little bastard!” she exclaimed. She took another moment before grabbing me by the hands.

“I trust you, and I’ll go, but you have to promise me one thing.”

I knew before she even asked, and my stomach dropped.

“Ms. Munro?”

She nodded. “If I go, you have to find a way to get my daughter out of here as well. She’s the only reason I’m here.” A tear formed in the corner of her eye. “My husband, hers, her children, all lost. We only have each other.”

Even with the tears, I sensed a great strength within her, and admired her for it.

“I’ll make sure she’s safe ma’am. I promise.”

She smiled, giving my hands an extra squeeze.

“Call me Helen.”

* * * *

I spent the day patrolling the south wall on guard duty. The Duke had a heavy military presence within the castle walls, with smaller patrols throughout the outlying areas. There wasn’t much for them to do other than break up the odd argument or fist fight, and they had even rescued a kitten or two from a precarious perch.

For the most part people just wanted to regain a life as close to the one they had led before The War as possible. Every now and then a group with a knack for trouble would head to the nearest village to bully the people there for something to do. While the Duke would publicly give them a slap on the wrist as punishment, I knew it was secretly encouraged in order for the Duke to maintain power beyond the city. Some, Lt. Allen in particular, frowned upon that sort of activity happening at all.

I had some satisfaction in knowing Fort Snow and the two villages closest to it, were safe from these patrols because of the work of the general. I patrolled back and forth, nodding at fellow soldiers as I passed, while debating how the hell I was going to get Claire Munro out of the city safely. Helen was the easy part. I had already sent word via my four-legged friend as to what Grady was to do. For the rest of the day, I formulated several plans that just might get Claire Munro out of the city alive. What I finally came up with wasn’t going to be pretty. A promise made was a promise kept and I didn’t plan on letting Helen McCauley down.