6th August 1809: Moot point

Freddie tucked insistently.

"Then come. Mylord perhaps will give you answer for bringing back to Lord Cornet Gwydyr. And you can ask him! He is not ..." Lost for words, Freddie mimicked ripping his head off. "If you can know, he will tell you."

"Are you certain?... I would not want to displease Lord Gwydyr so soon in this!" He was sure however that the cornet would not be heading to Captain Vickery's or Captain Torrington's tent in any near future. It was safe to approach either. Neither was from the Hussars and would not be able to 'remember' or 'recall' a face that they knew or did not know.

"Do you know, did we loose one of our officers we are in need of retrieving?" Long name could mean nothing, though it was a great chance that it was not English. Speaking of which, there was the commotion earlier and what he had been able to learn was that the surgeon was called and more so, that there was a heavily injured man that was brought in. He could inquire about him and see what the man would know.

"No ... not an officer from us. I don't know about others. Or do you mean Sergeant Müller?"

Freddie fixed the stuff he had retrieved to Trueno's saddle and took the reins, very politely asking the horse in German to come with him now.

"Oh no, I meant... with this.. whole ordeal. " Josef motioned as though explaining it perfectly by that move. "...Anyhow.. I think I need to be going now.. oh if you can tell me how to make that tea for him some time, it would be wonderful." He smiled at that.

"Oh, that is easy!"
Freddie was all too happy to rattle off the mixture while leading Trueno towards Vickery's tent.

"You need ... Brombeeren? The black berries with the sharp thorns that sometimes grow by the wayside? And you take the leaves and the berries! That is important. One hand of dried berries, and two of dried leaves, and one hand full of rose ... flower leaves. Or you can take brombeer leaves and put it in a pan and heat them until they are roasted-like. It is nearly like tea-tea then!"

"Good, good. I think I have remembered it all. Thank you." He stopped "I have to leave but I would be forever indebted to you should you find some more time for me with these secrets and all, when I return" He made a light waving gesture with his hand.

"And thank you again, for everything!" Josef added with a rather friendly tone.

"Wait! What if he has an aswer? Or more to say? You have to come and hear! Only a minute!"

Freddie sounded close to panic – as always when he had spotted a potential problem.

"Oh, I wouldn't want to interrupt him now." Josef answered as if that was a great concern of his. "Officers are not the sort you'd want to displease. But you know that so.. It's alright. But can you deliver Lord Gwydyr's message for me? I trust you." He nodded softly.

There was another plan that was forming in his mind, but it was still in the stage at which it could be drastically changed.

"If he wants to give no answer, you can still go, no? But if he wants to say something and you are not here, and I can't go to give you the message, because I ahve to prepare things ..."

Freddie knew perfectly well that he did not want to displease an officer. Unfortunately, in his mind not having a messenger at hand when one could be needed was far more likely to achieve this than having a superfluous well-behaved one.

"True, but I need no answer for him, just that he knows that everything has been sorted as Lord Gwydyr promised it would." He smiled. "I really am in haste and he is visiting another officer." He stopped. He did not want to see either of the two men at this time and while he was certain his uniform would make him appear perfectly credible, he had no time for the charade. He wanted to see the wounded and then leave. "So, do allow me to say goodbye now and if you could promise me that he will know of Lord Gwydyr message, I'll owe you!"

"But ... but ..."

Freddie still was not convinced that this was a good plan, but he was rapidly running out of arguments and, more importantly, words. Thinking that perhaps this was the problem, he tried one last time:

"He will not be angry! Really! Only a minute!"

"I haven't got one at this time. I really do want to get things ready.. since I know that I may take much longer for my first time doing it." Josef said more firmly this time. He nodded lightly. "I promise that I shall, another time, be less in haste but right now I really cannot." With that he took a step in the direction away from the direction of the tent ready to continue in the same direction should the boy not react by panicking or something of the sort.

"But ...!" Freddie looked torn, but Trueno, already fed up with standing around, decided the case for him by snorting and pulling at the reins; Freddie, reminded that he had a duty to fullfil and that Torrington had seemed to be rather in a hurry as well, sighed and gave in. Half dragged by the big horse, he shouted back to Widmayer:

"Viel Erfolg! Come back if you need help!"

Josef waved to the young rifleman and then walked on. He made sure that he was not followed and then veered to the left. The day was good, just a little more and he was done with the camp for this trip.

"Everything is settled ... everything is settled, and ... they will be training at the appointed hour. Appointed. Who is they?"

Muttering to himself to remember the message correctly, Freddie padded Trueno's neck to show the horse that he was concentrating on him again, and led the animal the remaining few steps to Captain Vickery's tent.

"Trueno is ready, Mylord!", he announced.