‘She?’ whispered Blouse to Polly. ‘She? Why is—’
Once again a part of Polly’s mind overtook the sudden panic. ‘Sorry, Daphne?’ she said.
‘Oh . . . yes . . . of course . . . can’t be too . . . yes . . .’ the lieutenant murmured.
Igorina knelt down by the girl and put a hand on her forehead. ‘She’s on fire,’ she said.
‘She used to pray all the time back at the Grey House,’ said Lofty, kneeling down.
‘Yeah, well, there was a lot to pray about, if you weren’t strong,’ growled Tonker. ‘And every bloody day we had to pray to the Duchess to thank Nuggan for slops you wouldn’t give to a pig! And that damn picture everywhere, that fishy stare . . . I hate it! It could drive you mad. That’s what happened to Wazz, right? And now you want me to believe the fat old biddy is alive and treating our friend there like some . . . puppet or something? I don’t believe that. And if it’s true, it shouldn’t be!’
‘She’s burning up, Magda,’ said Lofty quietly.
‘D’you know why we joined up?’ said Tonker, red in the face. ‘To get away! Anything was better than what we had! I’ve got Lofty and Lofty’s got me, and we’re sticking with you because there’s nothing else for us. Everyone says the Zlobenians are terrible, right? But they’ve never done anything to us, they’ve never hurt us. If they want to come over here and hang a few bastards, I could give ‘em a list! Everywhere there’s something bad happening, everywhere the small-minded bullies are inventing new cruelties, new ways of keeping us down, that bloody face is watching! And you say it’s here?’
‘We’re here,’ said Polly. ‘And you are here. And we’re going to do what we came to do and get out, understand? You kissed the picture, you took the shilling!’
‘I damn well didn’t kiss her face! And a shilling’s the least they owe me!’
‘Then go!’ shouted Polly. ‘Desert! We won’t stop you, because I’m sick of your . . . your bullshit! But you make up your mind right now, right now, understand? Because when we meet the enemy I don’t want to think you’re there to stab me in the back!’
The words flew out before she could stop them, and there was no power in the world that could snatch them back.
Tonker went pale, and a certain life drained out of her face like water from a funnel. ‘What was that you said?’
The words ‘You heard me!’ lined up to spring from Polly’s tongue, but she hesitated. She told herself: it doesn’t have to go this way. You don’t have to let a pair of socks do the talking.
‘Words that were stupid,’ she said. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it.’
Tonker settled slightly. ‘Well . . . all right, then,’ she said grudgingly. ‘Just so long as you know we’re in this for the squad, okay? Not for the army and not for the bloody Duchess.’
‘That was a treasonable speech, Private Halter!’ said Lieutenant Blouse.
Everyone but Polly had forgotten about him, and he stood there like an easy man to forget.
‘However,’ he went on, ‘I realize we’re all somewhat . . .’ he looked down at his dress ‘. . . confused and, er, bewildered by the pace of events . . .’
Tonker tried to avoid Polly’s eye. ‘Sorry, sir,’ she muttered, glowering.
‘I must make it clear that I will not stand to hear such things repeated,’ said Blouse.
‘No, sir.’
‘Good,’ said Polly quickly. ‘So let’s—’
‘But I will overlook it this time,’ Blouse went on.
Polly could see Tonker snap. The head was raised slowly. ‘You’ll overlook it?’ said Tonker. ‘You will overlook it?’
‘Careful,’ said Polly, just loud enough for Tonker to hear.
‘Let me tell you something about us, lieutenant,’ said Tonker, grinning horribly.
‘We are here, private, whoever we are,’ snapped Polly. ‘Now let’s find the cells!’
‘Um . . .’ said Igorina, ‘we’re quite close, I think. I can see a sign. Um. It’s at the end of this passage. Um . . . just behind those three rather puzzled armed men with the, um . . . efficient-looking crossbows. Um. I think what you’ve just been saying was important and needed to be said. Only, um . . . not just now, perhaps? And not so loudly?’
Only two guards were watching them now, raising their bows cautiously. The other was running away down the passage, shouting.
The squad, as one man, or woman, shared the thoughts.
They’ve got bows. We haven’t. They’ve got reinforcements behind them. We haven’t. All we’ve got is a darkness full of the restless dead. We haven’t even got a prayer any more.
Blouse made an effort, nevertheless. In the tones of Daphne he shrilled: ‘Oh, officers . . . we seem to have got lost on the way to the ladies’ room . . .’
They were not put into a dungeon, although they were marched past plenty. There were lots of bleak stone corridors, lots of heavy doors with bars and lots and lots of bolts, and lots of armed men whose job, presumably, only became interesting if all the bolts disappeared. They were put into a kitchen. It was huge, and clearly not the kind of place where people chopped herbs and stuffed mushrooms. In a gloomy, grimy, soot-encrusted hall like this, cooks had probably catered for hundreds of hungry men. Occasionally the door was opened and shadowy figures stared in at them. No one had said anything, at any time.
‘They were expecting us,’ muttered Shufti. The squad were sitting on the floor with their backs to a huge, ancient chopping block, except for Igorina, who was tending to the still-unconscious Wazzer.
‘They couldn’t have got that elevator up by now,’ said Polly. ‘I wedged that stone in good and hard.’
‘Then maybe the washerwomen gave us away,’ said Tonker. ‘I didn’t like the look of Mrs Enid.’
‘It doesn’t matter now, does it?’ said Polly, “is that the only door?’
‘There’s a storeroom at the other end,’ said Tonker. ‘No exit, except a grille in the floor.’
‘Could we get out that way?’
‘Only diced.’
They stared glumly at the distant door. It had opened again, and there was some muffled conversation amongst the silhouettes beyond. Tonker had tried advancing on the open doorway, and found men with swords suddenly occupying it.
Polly turned to look at Blouse, who was slumped against the wall, staring blankly upwards.
‘I’d better go and tell him,’ she said. Tonker shrugged.
Blouse opened his eyes and smiled wanly when Polly approached. ‘Ah, Perks,’ he said. ‘We almost made it, eh?’
‘Sorry we let you down, sir,’ said Polly. ‘Permission to sit, sir?’
‘Treat the rather chilly flagstones as if they were your own,’ said Blouse. ‘And it was I that let you down, I’m afraid.’
‘Oh, no, sir—’ Polly protested.
‘You were my first command,’ said Blouse. ‘Well, apart from Corporal Drebb and he was seventy and only had one arm, poor chap.’ He pinched the bridge of his nose. ‘All I had to do was get you to the valley. That was all. But, no, I foolishly dreamed of a world where everyone would one day wear a Blouse. Or eat one, possibly. I should have listened to Sergeant Jackrum! Oh, will I ever look my dear Emmeline in the face again?’
‘I don’t know, sir,’ said Polly.
‘That was meant to be more of a rhetorical cry of despair than an actual question, Perks,’ said Blouse.
‘Sorry, sir,’ said Polly. She took a deep breath, ready for the plunge into the icy depths of the truth. ‘Sir, you ought to know that—’
‘And I’m afraid once they realize we aren’t women we’ll be put in the big dungeons,’ the lieutenant went on. ‘Very big, and very dirty, I’m told. And very crowded.’
‘Sir, we are women, sir,’ said Polly.
‘Yes, well done, Perks, but we don’t have to pretend any more.’
‘You don’t understand, sir. We really are women. All of us.’
Blouse grinned nervously. ‘I think you’ve got a little . . . confused, Perks. I seem to recall that the same thing happened to Wrigglesworth—’
‘Sir—’
‘—although I have to say he was very good at choosing curtains—’
‘No, sir. I was a— I am a girl, and I cut my hair and pretended I was a boy and took the Duchess’s shilling, sir. Take my word for it, sir, because I really don’t want to have to draw you a picture. We played a trick on you, sir. Well, not a trick, really, but we, all of us, had reasons for being somewhere else, sir, or at least not being where we were. We lied.’
Blouse stared at her. ‘You’re sure?’
‘Yes, sir. I am of the female persuasion. I check every day, sir.’