6th August, 1809: Chaos breeds vagabonds

Estefania made certain first that Manuel had recieved no further injury from the man and once he was more certain that his words were true she stood to head for the fire and the water which had been promised. Of course all that would be washed is her hands and perhaps her face, but she would not have gone any further. She did not believe she needed to either.

Manuel on the other hand seemed for the moment satisfied to be left as he was, though he remained alert. He seemed to have accepted his role as prisoner, if for the moment and because it would endanger both himself as the woman, neither of which he could afford to do, with such a small chance of success.

Perhaps they would be let go, once nobody came to pay the ransom. Perhaps a better opportunity wuold show itself.

The robbers seemed not to care much what Manuel did, although there was one with a weapon always not too far away from him. They gave Estefania some space, although they occassionally glanced at her and talked quietly among themselves.

The only one who came within kicking distance was their leader, who came after a while with two wooden bowls, filled with some kind of stew, half a loaf of bread and a sheepskin full of some drink. In his best mockery of a polite invitation, he bowed.

"Will your highness do me the pleasure to eat with me?"

Estefania glanced at him cooly. "If you came to ask me, whether I will eat this..." She glanced at the bowl. "...just give it here." She held her hand out.

Her eyes flashed angrily at him, resentment still quite obvious in them. "What will you do.. once you have gotten the money? Kidnap another.. in hopes there are more lords that might spare a penny?...What if someone decides not to pay?"

"Would put as quite into a pickle. Never happend before. I'm afraid we would have to make some kind of example out of the unlucky sod ... or girl. Really quite unfair, since I've yet to find somebody you can blame for your family."

He sat down and handed her one bowl.

"And you would?" Estefania asked while she took the bowl. She gazed at him pointedly though if he would provide no further utensils he would be quite apt at eating it thus. She wondered if he would have trusted her with a knife, should the food require it.

"How do you pick them..I would assume you have spies somewhere, that know someone worthy of taking as opposed one not?"

"Wouldn't you like to know."

He held out a wooden spoon invitingly, at just the right height for her to take if she sat down beside him.

"My dear little wildcat, I'm too old to reinvent all our practices, so forgive me if I don't blurt them to you. But you might tell me something about yourself? How does it come about that you are riding the woods practically alone, but on a fine horse and with an English milord at your before and call? Is he that stupid or that careless?"

"I most certainly would." As that sort of knowledge could efficiently stall or stop any further plans the vagabond had at whisking away men or women of value.

She arched a brow observing the spoon. She smirked, stood moved as though she might indeed sit behind him and took hold of the spoon which she intended, the moment it was released, to take with her to her earlier spot.

"The horse is mine, before you erroneously believe that the lord gave it to me." She looked proud, confident if displeased that she had been caught at all. "I do not know if he will come, but you wanted a letter to be written,.." She shrugged lightly. "It was best to humour you."

He chuckled, standing up again as he released the spoon.

"Allow me to let you in on one secret: Don't give away that you are intelligent and can think on your feet. The enemy might realize that it has become too dangerous to let you go. Who knows what your pretty eyes gave spotted and what confessions your charm wriggled out of them? Stay here by the fire where we can see you."

He turned, ready to leave her standing there, preceding by far not to be walked out on.

"And were I to lie to you, you would have been more wary of me." Estefania observed him for a few moments and then sat where he would have been sitting moments ago. She took a small spoonful of soup and then looked up at him.

"You are not stupid either. If you had thought I was an frivolous, simpleminded individual.." Here she hesitated in the use of Spanish, but then continued anyway:"..You would not have come to sit and converse with me. What could a vagabond such as yourself learn from the topics of painting, music or embroidery?"

"Did it ever occure to you that not drawing my attention to you might have been a good thing? A simpleminded ninny I might just have ignored - unless she really was stupid enough to claim my attention. I do not know anything about embroidery, but I know how to do other things with a girl then to talk."

He did not add that living off stolen goods, you learned a lot about paintings and other valuables that the war "displaced", and that many of the smaller musical companies had disolved when patrons could no longer afford to hire them regularily or travel became to dangerous. Some had become soldiers, but others had become footpads, and the man that just now handed Manuel some food with a terse word had not two years ago played the cello so beautifully that young girls had swooned at the melodies.

"You are stupid to trust a bandit's words or good intentions."

"Do not flatter yourself to believe I trust you." Estefania answered stiffly. She was quiet for a little while longer before she turned up again and added. "As far as good intentions go..."She motioned towards Manuel. "Had you any, you would have let us go our way with our horses." She rested the bowl on her knee.

"Why do you not use your skills and wit to benefit the fight against the French?... It's a waste of talent.. really." Her voice had dropped. She was well aware that her safety lay in a great part in the hands of this man. For as long as he saw either herself or Manuel as valuable, he would possibly consider keeping them safe. He had proven to care at least a small bit as shown by an example when he stepped in to check her for weapons and not others.

The man laughed.

"Point taken. Let's rephrase it to moderatly honourable intentions."

He sobered.

"What makes you think I would join your side if I had to fight in this war? It has little enough to offer to me."

"Let us just leave labeling it." She said, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. Her expression soon turned serious again as she continued.

"What has the other side to offer you?.." She asked simply and then took a few more sips of the soup.

Knowing it sometimes a good strategy to appeal to the captor she added lightly. "...your cook should be commended. The soup is good." It was not too bad, really.

"Just because we are robbers doesn't mean we don't appreciate good food like any sane man", he reminded her mildly, sitting down near her. "I'll tell him, but I don't think he will care for the opinion of a temporary addition either way."

Stretching out long legs in dusty pants and scuffed boots, he inquired:

"Have you ever had a chance to really look at what their emperor and his brother proposed to do? The plans to modernize? To give us all a decent chance to make a living? To give us a legal system that was based on more than the will of the nobles and the church?"

"I have seen what his soldiers did and still do. I have lost people who were close to me to them..." She said simply. It was clear what the French brought. Suffering, destruction, and the defilement of churches and of women.

"Do you really believe any of that to be true? Fairytales are for children... their true face was revealed the moment they invaded our homes." Her voice carried an edge, her feelings towards them quite clear.

He chuckled wrily.

"That is why I am here fighting for me, and not out there fighting for them. But I lost never anything to the French that I would have had under Spanish rule. It's the likes of you, with your tidy little homes and nice little comforts, that have something to loose by their coming."

"You speak only of material goods, as if they are the one and sole thing that matters." She answered crisply. "However, the lives that have been lost to the French matter more than 'tidy little homes' , and families that have been destroyed by them should value more than nice little comforts. Or am I perhaps wrong and you would choose to enlighten me?" She had finished her bowl and placed it with the spoon resting still inside, to her left.

"You're a thief in the end. You do not care whom you ruin as long as it brings you gold and the comforts that you condemn in others." She may have once been a privileged one and the war may have actually given her the freedom she would not have had, neither if Spain was without the French invasion, nor if Spain had succumbed to it.

"And that makes me different from the Dons and the British how? We all try to better our lot in life."

He motioned to her bowl.

"But at least with my scoundrel ways, I can offer you seconds, if you want."

He paused for a moment, a particular expression on his face.

"Let us not discuss the other thing. It is not a fit discussion for dinner."

"..Should there be more.. then, A little, yes please." She said shifting a bit where she sat. She was tired yet still she looked towards Emanuel as if to make certain that he was still alive and had been well treated.

"Should there be nobody tonight with your desired ransom,.. you will wait, yes?" She asked holding her bowl towards him.

El Atracador stood up roughly and refilled her bowl, then shoved it and a cup of wine into her hand.

"What, do you expect him not to show up?"

He worked his jaws unhappily.

"I can't afford to show weakness. I will give you one other chance before doing anything final, but ... better hope he comes and does not try anything funny."

"I do not know. You must understand that he does not only act as a individual person but, that he is also of the army and if the army forbids foolishness even officers might need to obey." She took hold of the bowl, just barely managing not to have the soup spill, and equally with the glass of wine. One she might drink, more she would not.

"So be lenient with him... not weak, just lenient." She could not say that there was a possibility that Torrington would also not arrive at all. Perhaps it was better that they spoke of something that might not upset the man further.

"...What does your wife think of your... calling?" She asked out of the blue. Learning more about him, could be useful at a later time.

The man laughed out loud.

"So you say rescuing you is foolishness! Little kitten, you might be in for a longer stay with us than previously thought."

He dropped down again and took a swallow of wine.

"If he cares for you, he will find a way. I didn't ask for something a lord would not be able to pay. He might have lost more gambling one night."

He did not answer her question, though, and a brief sad expression crossed his face, followed by one, equally quick, of contempt.

Estefania did not wish to point out that there could be different levels of caring nor wished to discuss the possibility of his coming. Her experience of the past, had prepared her to hold no expectations, even if she could not entirely avoid having hope.

Atleast a long stay meant that the man did not consider taking her life should Torrington be unable to appear. She closed her eyes briefly before continuing with her second bowl. At this time, much slower than the first.

She had not missed the sad expression, though she could only guess what it was for. Perhaps he had a wife, but she was dead now? Lost to the wars and the dangers of present Spain, perhaps a girlfriend who had suffered a similar fate. It was not a topic to push, judging by the expression that followed.

She took a small sip from the wine. "..So...." She paused. "...How many ladies or lads of connections have you taken against ransom so far? I don't think it is your first time. You seem to.." She looked thoughtful on how to explain it. ".. have everything running with almost military precision. You seem to know the tricks.. as well as the kinks you might need to encounter. Am I correct?"

The man laughed again, just a little brittly.

"Eat your food, Senora. You will get me neither to confess nor to deny anything."

"...Humour me, Senhor. It is very little I could or would do, even if I was privy to such information. Your past endevours had been done, your future ones will hardly be for me to stop." She smiled pleasantly. " Did you do this to the French side as well? I'm just curious." Which she was. She was not in the position where she would testify against this man and her testimony would mean much, nor was she part of any such investigation or body of law that could inforce it.