The older man touched her knee underneath the table and began to work his hand up. ‘My new little friend and I would like a drink.’
Frederica grabbed his hand with hers and pulled it off. She slapped it playfully and whispered in his ear, ‘No play until you pay, Colonel. I know how you officers are. Kissing today and leaving tomorrow.’
She saw him stiffen. Instinctively, she kissed his cheek and then nipped at his ear. She hoped it pained him more than pleased. Her own eyes kept darting towards the exit.
He immediately relaxed and guffawed.
The waiter returned with a bottle of red wine and two glasses. The colonel poured and they both picked up their glasses and raised them for a toast.
‘Vive l’emperor,’Frederica said.
‘Vive l’emperor.’
Frederica sipped her wine slowly and saw Samuel fifteen feet away playing roulette. The colonel downed his wine with a gulp. She poured him some more, this time filling the glass to the top—well past where she should. He gulped it down, as well. Frederica filled his cup again.
‘Are you trying to get me drunk, mademoiselle?’
Frederica gave a high false laugh, chewing the inside of her cheek. ‘Impossible, Colonel. I am sure you have too hard a head. I am only loosening you up a bit.’
He guffawed again and gulped down another glass of wine. ‘I am ready.’
Swallowing down her fear, she forced herself to wink at him. ‘But first I should like to discuss my pay.’
‘Fair enough,’ he said. ‘How much do you charge?’
‘Are you requesting my company for tonight only or for longer?’ she said, giving him a smile and licking her lips suggestively as he had.
‘Alas, only tonight, mademoiselle,’ he said with a groan. ‘We are to march first thing in the morning.’
Frederica leaned closer and placed her hand on his top button and undid it. ‘Colonel, who is your commander so that I may ask his permission to steal you away?’
His eyes opened and Frederica pulled his mouth down to hers. She swallowed down the revulsion of his rank breath and pushed him away when she could tolerate no more.
‘Marshal Grouchy, mademoiselle. But he will not mind if I am absent from my post for a few hours,’ he said, puffing out his chest as if to impress her. ‘Napoleon, himself, will lead us to battle.’
Frederica’s face lit up. ‘Does the colonel know the emperor?’
He shook his head. ‘I have yet to have that honour, but I am slightly acquainted with Marshal Ney, who will be going, as well. Now it is time for you to come with me.’
The older man took Frederica by the elbow in a painful hold and guided her towards the stairs. She clutched her glass with the opposite hand. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Samuel was still playing roulette and he had not noticed her leaving. The colonel led her up the red velvet stairs and stopped in front of a door. He bent down to open the knob and Frederica brought down the glass as hard as she could on his head. The colonel’s head was certainly hard, for he shook off the blow and grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. His fingers dug into her skin. Kicking him in the shins, she tried to bite his left arm. He struck her across the cheek and pushed her to the floor. Her entire body shivered in fear.
‘You like to play rough, mademoiselle. Wait until we get inside.’
The colonel lifted his right arm to strike her again, when Samuel ran into him, sending them both sprawling on the floor. Frederica stood up and edged away from them. Samuel hit the colonel with a left hook and then with a right uppercut. The colonel raised his hands to protect his face from the onslaught, but was helpless before the fury of Samuel’s fists. Samuel gave a final punch to the colonel’s jaw, which knocked him out cold.
He stood up; his knuckles were bleeding. ‘We have drawn too much attention. We had better go.’
Frederica nodded and put her trembling arm through his.
They walked down the stairs and through the main room, past the roulette table and out of the door. Frederica’s heart beat in her throat and her legs felt so weak that she was glad to lean on her husband for support. She itched all over. Everywhere that awful old man had touched her.
Samuel hailed a cab and gave directions to the driver. The cab dropped them off a street before the inn. Samuel took her hand and led her between the houses. Shrugging off the French officer’s uniform, he threw it in a puddle that smelled of sewage. They walked back to the inn without speaking a word. Samuel took a candle from the owner, and they climbed the stairs to their room. He bolted their chamber door and they both let out a sigh of relief.
Pouring water from a pitcher into the washing basin, she washed Samuel’s bloody knuckles with the red soap she’d sent to him. It lifted her heart a little that he had brought it with them. When she patted his knuckles dry with a towel, her hands were almost steady. She took the bloody water and dumped it out the window. After closing the single glass pane, she pulled the curtains shut. Frederica placed the basin back on the dresser and looked at her reflection—a large red welt had formed on her right cheek by her eye. She slumped onto the edge of the bed and tears filled her eyes.
Samuel cupped her face in his hands. ‘I am so sorry I did not get there sooner... I did not want to arouse attention. I did not think he would harm you.’
‘Ney and Grouchy,’ Frederica whispered.