14th June: Building bridges of humanity

One soldier was standing in the way of the semi-controlled exit, but when the galloping horses came towards him, he could not do more then fire aimlessly into the air and jump aside.

Torrington kneed his horse towards the appointed meeting place, lashing out with his sabre to discourage another valiant soldier from trying to grasp the reins, then raised it in a quick salute to his helper who was so successfully making use of his small arsenal.

The young irregular grinned in Torrington's direction. Then seeing the danger a split second later, his hand reached for his belt. He jerked something from under the layers of fabric that he wore. He then proceeded to snap his wrist as the small blade went flying in the direction of the attacker. It carried enough force to reach him from the distance and to imbed itself near his shoulder blade, piercing through the woolen fabric that he wore.

From the distance shouts could be heard. The remaining irregulars were wrecking havoc among the poor few of the French that had been daft enough to abandon their horses for the delight of the village. Horses of course had gone at a run and were urged on also by a pair of riders. One of them - further down the road - looked actually fairly familiar but had - as promised, actually stayed out of harm's way, for the most part.

When his attacker suddenly stumbled and fell, Torrington forbade himself to check what had happened. Instead, he made a beeline out of the village - right towards the decidedly familiar figure in the French coat on the smart black mare. It was a bit of work to nudge the horses to the side so that they would not come to close to her, but with some yelling to the other riders (in Italian, English and rudimentary Portuguese) and some use of the flat side of his sabre, it was accomplished.
As soon as he was close enough to be heard over the hoofbeats, he asked rather urgently:

"Senhora, are you alright?"

"Not a scratch on me to speak of." Estefania turned smiling at Torrington. "I found these on the way.... I reckoned since they were closer, the chance at finding you still a free man was greater."

Just as she was to add something more, a shot was heard and something whizzed past all too close for comfort. For a moment Estefania thought they had been hit. Still, there was no pain that she could feel materialising. Worriedly she turned towards Torrington.

The heroic part of his brain reacting before the rest could even start to catch up, the engineer caught his bicorn as it was ripped off his head, slapped Sombra's rump with it and urged his own horse to fall in behind her, trying to shield Estefania as good as possible.

"Hang on!"

Estefania nearly lost her balance as her mare bolted all of a sudden, having been made to do so, thanks to Edward's smacking her rump. With her balance regained she glanced back at Torrington, questionably then quickly back in the direction she and the horses were going. It would be rather uncalled for that either of them run smack first into a branch just because they were not paying attention to their surroundings.

The French were heared yelling after them, more shots were fired, though not in their direction. They had other things to worry about. The irregulars were eagerly making use of the opportunity they were given.

Torrington only reined in when they were well out of range of the French muskets, bending over the neck of his horse to catch the reins of another one and stop it as well. He had enough confidence in Estefania's horsemanship to let her stop her horse at her own pace, but - just to make sure, and because he felt a bit guilty for spooking her horse as wel, now that his brain was slowly starting to catch up - he kept an eye out for her as well.

"My apologies, senhora. I thought it expedient to disappear rather quickly from our former position."

His bicorn, now with a ragged bullet hole in the high crown, was trapped under his thigh, where he had pushed it to have his hand free again. He didn't seem to have realized the damage yet - or his luck.

"Warn me sooner next time." Estefania had reigned in her horse and finally came to a halt with her.. The mare flicked her tail at Torrington even if she could not exactly reach him. It was her way of telling him what she thought of his action and she would have tried to reach him no less, if Estefania did not turn her about a little.

"Are you hurt?" She asked next, searching him for any source of injury, and bit of red blood spilled. She glanced at the hat he had worn and quickly to his head, expecting to see something worse there.

"I will endeavour to do so", he replied automatically, although he immediately wondered how he would manage that, since the French had not exactly left him time to usher a polite warning, but simply shot at them.

Her second question rocked him more - until now, he had been so busy reacting and trying to get her, him and the horses to safety that he had no concentration to spare for his own state of well-being. Now he suddenly felt like falling back into his own body, and while he still felt no pain that would indicate a wound, it crashed down on him that he had been shot at, and actually ridden quite a bit with his unprotected back to the shooter, and that his hat had not suddenly flown off without a reason. Blanching slightly, but manfully trying to fight down his emotions in front of Estefania, he answered with a slightly strangled voice:

"I am unhurt, madam."

He couldn't help but compute how minimal the deviation in shooter's angle of fire had been that had caused the bullet to go over his head.

Estefania looked unconvinced for a moment. Her gaze fell on the hat again and then she looked at the man's head. He looked unhurt, but was it only adrenaline which allowed him so easily to sit in his saddle?

She leaned a little to the side, to check him briefly then, having turned her mare, nudged her to walk in closer.

"That you seem to be." She said softly, her relief clear in the tone of her voice and the expression on her face. "I would thank whoever has protected your life today, sir." She said even more softly then could not help but chuckle. It was that sort of nervous chuckle, fueled by adrenaline, fueled by the excitement of all ending well and by the fact that their particular plan had actually worked! "It was mad."

She could still hear one or two remaining shots from the distance. The horses that they had herded away have begun to slowly settle and some of the first irregulars would begin appearing soon.

"Not only you - and for sending those Insurrgents your way. They arrived just at the right time."

Torrington took a deep breath.

"Mad it was indeed."

Then one corner of his mouth kicked up.

"But it is one dozen tired, but perfectly fine horses for us, and none for the French. I would have preferred not to expose you to the danger at all, but considering what we have been handed, it certainly was not the worst outcome."

"I have been many times in danger, sir." Estefania said softly, though she seemed still rather thrilled that their mad plan which had now appeared even less likely to succeed, did indeed work. "..though I would rather that neither of us had been exposed to the danger and the enemy's guns... I need say that the reward was worth the effort." She gazed in the direction of the horses.

"We have the horses and we have their saddles and the equipment left on their backs. Perhaps we are fortunate and there is even more of value with them." She indicated the horses then studied Torrington curiously. "You will want to take some back to the army with you?"

Torrington whistled to call Trueno to where they were stopping now - after making sure that the horse's path would not lead it near the thoroughly angered French.

"I would like to see what they have in their packs, and if there is something relevant, take it to my commander - although we will certainly share all information. As for the horses, the British army needs all they can get, and any accoutrements, but if you want to claim them, I don't think there would be any protest."

"We need to equip ourselves with the horses, though I believe Cavaliere will be willing to give you a pick of a few of them." Estefania said, knowing full well that the irregulars would not be happy to part with all but thinking that for his role in the matter, Torrington did have the right to claim some even if perhaps only one or two.

"Let us inspect their sabretaches together." She offered.

"If you don't mind - I think any information or documents will be of greater importance to us than one or two horses. Although I would greatly appreciate if you told them that the horse coming now is definitely already taken and not part of the bargain."

Trueno was probably worth nearly as much as the French horses together.

"I do not mind, I only want for the information to be shared as it might be of great benefit to us as well." Estefania answered, no malice in her voice. She gazed at the horse just approaching. She knew that it was Trueno, the horse that belonged to their English friend but with mock disappointment she still answered. "Oh,... and I had just thought to call dibs on him. Are you certain that you do not mistake him for a different animal?" She leaned down to caress the neck of her mare.

Torrington caught the reins of his stallion before he could get any ideas of doing the same. Trueno whinnied disappointedly and stretched his neck, trying to get closer to the mare nevertheless and at least give her a friendly nibble along the neck.

The engineer called him to order and put his other hand on the horse's nose to prevent further advances.

"I'm quite sure - his bad behaviour is hopefully rather unique. He would not mind at all if your mare called dips on him, it seems."

Sombra shook her head and reached back at the stallion only to attempt a little pinch with her teeth while stomping a foot sharply to the ground. Although she seemed quite eager to give him a whatfor, right the next moment she looked again quite innocent and friendly.

Estefania tugged the animal's reigns to distract her from getting any silly ideas, such as to try kicking Trueno just to see what would happen.

"Easy girl, don't be mean." She straightened up. "The others will be here soon. If there are more French in the area, they will know."

Torrington reached behind him and unclasped the sattle bags, then shifted them over to Trueno's back.

"If there are not, then there soon will be, I guess. It might be advantageous to retreat to a safer position."

Torrinton swung his leg over and without touching the ground changed horses. Trueno snorted and almost apologetically blew a breath at Sombra.

"Impressive. Not many English change horses with such grace." Estefania said with a little of bit of humour, though she was genuinely surprised at what Torrington just did and succeeded in.

"Are you certain you aren't from the cavalry? Though.. I admit not to have seen them do that much either." She had nudged a reluctant Sombra towards one of the horses who had saddlebags which seemed to contain something thick enough to be of interest.

Sombra flicked her tail almost playfully at Trueno and when she saw she could not nip at him, she walked with her tail raised a little and certainly in a manner of a very proud and confident lady. When she stopped she actually peered back at Trueno briefly, neighed and stomped a front foot.

"I think cavalry is supposed to stick to their own horse, no matter what - although it is really nothing more than a schoolboy's trick. With a bit of additional practice not to get skewered on my own sword."

Torrington held Truneo back from taking the mare up on her invitation, which the stallion did not particularily like. After handing the officer's horse to one of the irregulars, he then followed to the next horse and leaned over to unbuckle those sattle bags as well.

"Shall we set off as pairs in different directions? That way we might confuse the French a bit if they try to follow, and we won't leave such obvious tracks. I understand that your Irregulars are quiet skilled in disappearing."

"You mean, a pair at a time, each in their own direction? As in.. two irregulars to go in one, two others in the other, two of the third in the next?" The mare shook her head a little an flicked her tail as if to ask the riders to make up their mind quickly because this was becoming quite tedious.

One of the first irregulars appeared then, another trickling in after him. They seemed to appear almost as ghosts. One moment they were still nowhere to be seen, the next they were there. There were wounded too, and those would come after them, slowing down those that assisted them.

"Yes, that's what I meant."

Torrington fixed the collected saddle bags to his own saddle.

"We better hurry, though. I don't think we have enough horses for all irregulars, and the French might be able to catch up on people on foot."

Estefania nodded and as the Cavalier came, she explained in to him in quick succession what Torrington suggested. The man exchanged a few words with her but then nodded and turned to the others, shouting orders at them. The wounded were taken onto the horse's back. There was one wounded and one that was completely healthy to keep him propped up, while he was speedily transported away from their spot.

"He says that if we continue in this direction.. we will eventually come across another village." Estefania said while the other irregulars began to sort themselves out. There would be a couple of riders and a couple would 'disappear'.

"He suggests to lead them off track first but to wait it out in the village once we've lost them. The people in that village loathe the French so they will have little problem to assist us, if needed. He also suggests to rest the horses there before you are returned your army. " She glanced at the 'loot' Torrington had gathered. "Will you be alright carrying that?"