Sharpe's Revenge (27 page)

He watched the filigreed minute hand jerk from five minutes to four minutes to one. He decided it would be prudent to leave a message in writing and was about to tug the bell-pull and demand paper and pen from the maid, when the drawing-room door suddenly opened and he turned to see the smiling face of Mrs Jane Sharpe.

‘It's Captain d'Alembord!' Jane said with feigned surprise, as though she had not known who had been waiting for her for so long. ‘What a pleasure!' She held out a hand to be kissed. ‘Were you offered tea? Or something more potent, perhaps?'

‘No, Ma'am.'

‘The girl is perverse,' Jane said, though d‘Alembord noted that she did not ring the bell to correct the perversity. ‘I didn't know the battalion had reached England?'

‘Two weeks ago, Ma'am. They're now in Chelmsford, but I'm on leave.'

‘A well deserved leave, I'm sure. Would you like to draw a curtain, Captain? We must not sit here in Stygian gloom.'

d‘Alembord pulled back the heavy velvet, then, when Jane had arranged herself on a chaise-longue, he sat opposite her. They exchanged news, complimented London on its current fine weather, and agreed how welcome the coming of peace was. And all the time, as this small-talk tinkled between them, d'Alembord tried to hide the astonishment he was feeling at the change in Jane. When she had been with the army she had seemed a very sweet-natured and rather shy girl, but now, scarce six months later, she was a woman dressed in the very height of fashion. Her green satin gown fell in simple pleats from its high waist to her ankles. The neckline was cut embarrassingly low so that d‘Alembord was treated to an ample view of powdered breasts; very pretty breasts, he decided, but somehow it seemed inappropriate for the wife of a man he liked and admired so to display herself. The shoulders of Jane's dress were puffed and the sleeves very long, very tight and trimmed at their wrists with lace frills. She wore no stockings, instead displaying bare ankles that somehow suggested the vulnerability of innocence. Her shoes were silver slippers tied with silver thongs in the quasi-Greek fashion. Her golden hair was drawn up above her ears, thus displaying her long and slender neck about which was a necklace of rubies which d'Alembord supposed must have been plundered from the French baggage at Vitoria. The rubies suited her, d'Alembord decided. They were rare jewels for an undoubtedly beautiful woman. He saw her smiling at his inspection, and realized with embarrassment that Jane had perceived his admiration and was relishing it.

He quickly changed the subject to the reason for his visit. He had brought her, d'Alembord said, a message from Major Sharpe. He apologized that he had brought no letter, but explained the hurried circumstances of his meeting with Sharpe in Bordeaux.

‘So you don't know where the Major is now?' Jane asked eagerly.

‘Alas no, Ma'am, except that he's gone to find a French officer who can attest to his innocence.'

The eagerness seemed to ebb from Jane who stood, walked to the window, and stared down the sunlit street. She told d‘Alembord that she already knew something of her husband's predicament, and explained how the two men from the Judge Advocate General's office had visited her with their outrageous demands. ‘I've heard nothing since then,' Jane said, ‘and until your visit, Captain, I did not even know whether my husband was alive.'

‘Then I'm glad to be the bearer of good news, Ma'am.'

‘Is it good news?' Jane turned from the window. ‘Of course it is,' she added hurriedly, ‘but it all seems extremely strange to me. Do you think my husband did steal the Emperor's gold?'

‘No, Ma'am!' d'Alembord protested. ‘The accusations against him are monstrous!'

Jane resumed her seat, thus letting d‘Alembord sit again. She plucked the folds of her dress, then frowned. 'What I do not understand, Captain, is that if my husband is innocent, which of course he is, then why did he not allow the army to discover that innocence? An innocent man does not run away from a fair trial, does he?'

‘He does, Ma'am if the only evidence against him is false. Major Sharpe is attempting to prove those falsities. And he needs our help.'

Jane said nothing. Instead she just smiled and indicated that d'Alembord should continue speaking.

‘What we have to do, Ma'am, is harness what influence we can to prevent the machinery of accusation going farther. And should the Major fail to find the truth in France, then he will need the help of influential friends.'

‘Very influential,' Jane said drily.

‘He mentioned a Lord Rossendale, Ma'am?' d'Alembord wondered why Jane was so unresponsive, but ploughed on anyway. ‘Lord Rossendale is an aide to His Royal Highness, the Prince ...'

‘I know Lord John Rossendale,' Jane said hurriedly, ‘and I have already spoken with him.'

d‘Alembord felt a surge of relief. He had been unsettled by this interview, both by Jane's new and languid sophistication, and by her apparent lack of concern about her husband's fate, yet now it seemed as if she had already done her duty by Sharpe. ‘May I ask, Ma‘am, whether Lord Rossendale expressed a willingness to help the Major?' d'Alembord pressed.

‘His Lordship assured me that he will do all that is within his power,' Jane said very primly.

‘Would that include presenting Major Sharpe's problem to the Prince Regent, Ma'am?'

‘I really couldn't say, Captain, but I'm sure Lord Rossendale will be assiduous.'

‘Would it help, Ma'am, if I was to add my voice to yours?'

Jane seemed to consider the offer, then frowned. ‘Of course I cannot prevent you from trying to see his Lordship, though I'm sure he is a most busy man.'

‘Of course, Ma'am.' d'Alembord was again puzzled by Jane's impenetrable decorum.

Jane turned to look at the clock. ‘Of course we will all do everything we can, Captain, though I rather suspect that the best thing to do is to allow my husband to disentangle himself.' She gave a small unamused laugh. ‘He's rather good at that, is he not?'

‘Indeed he is, Ma'am. Very good, but ...'

‘And in the meanwhile,' Jane ignored whatever d‘Alembord had been about to say, ‘my duty is to make everything ready for his return.' She waved a hand about the room. ‘Do you like my new house, Captain?'

‘Extremely, Ma'am.' d'Alembord concealed his surprise along with his true opinion. He had imagined that Jane was merely staying in the house, now he discovered that she owned it.

‘The Major wished to buy a home in the country,' Jane said, ‘but once I had returned to England I could not endure the thought of burying myself in rustic ignorance. Besides, it is more convenient to look after the Major's affairs in London than from the country.'

‘Indeed, Ma'am.' d'Alembord wanted more details of how Jane was looking after Sharpe's affairs, but he sensed that further enquiries would reveal nothing. There was something unsettling in the situation, and d'Alembord did not want to provoke it.

‘So I bought this house instead,' Jane went on. ‘Do you think the Major will like it?'

d‘Alembord was convinced that Sharpe would detest it, but it was not his place to say so. ‘It seems a very good house, Ma‘am,' he said with as much diplomacy as he could muster.

‘Of course I share the house at the moment,' Jane was eager to stress the propriety of her situation, ‘with a widow. It would hardly be proper otherwise, would it?'

‘I'm sure you would do nothing improper, Ma'am.'

‘It's such a pity that the Lady Spindacre is still abed, but dear Juliet's health is not of the best. You must visit us, Captain, one evening at eight. We usually receive downstairs at that hour, but if no link is lit outside, then you will know that we are not at home. If a lamp is lit then you must announce yourself, though I should warn you that London is sadly bored with soldiers' tales!' Jane smiled as though she knew her charms would ameliorate the rudeness of her words.

‘I would not dream of inflicting soldiers' tales on you, Ma'am.' d'Alembord spoke stiffly.

‘London has so many other fascinations to indulge besides the late wars. It will be good for the Major to come here, I think. Especially as he made some very high connections on his last visit, and it would be impossible to preserve those connections if he buries himself in Dorsetshire.'

‘You refer to the Prince?' d'Alembord said in the hope that he would learn more of Jane's conversation with Lord Rossendale.

‘But none of those connections, I think, will care to travel into the remote parts of the country to hear stories of war,' was Jane's only response. She looked at the clock again, then held out her hand to indicate that the conversation was over. ‘Thank you for visiting me, Captain.'

‘It was my pleasure, Ma'am.' d'Alembord bowed over the offered hand. ‘Your servant, Ma'am.'

Once outside the house d'Alembord leaned for an instant on the black railings, then shook his head. He had a suspicion that he had achieved nothing, but he could not quite pin down the reasons for that suspicion. Yet there was one thing for which he was supremely grateful, which was that he had no address by which he could reach Sharpe. What in hell could he have written? He sighed, wondered if there was anyone else he could approach for help, then walked away.

The horse-pistol had been loaded with three small pistol bullets. The first had entered the upper part of Sharpe's left arm where it first shattered his shoulder joint, then ricocheted to crack the blade of the big bone behind. The second bullet tore off the top half of his left ear and gouged a deep cut in his scalp that bled horrifically, though the wound itself was slight enough. The impact of that second bullet had plunged Sharpe into an instant and merciful unconsciousness. The third bullet fractured Sharpe's right thigh-bone just above the knee and tore the leg's big artery. The blood puddled about the kitchen's threshold.

Lucille Castineau, once the shot was fired, had lowered the big smoking pistol and stared defiantly at Frederickson who was picking himself up from the mud outside the door. ‘Now shoot me,' she said, and though her words sounded dramatic even to herself, she nevertheless felt at that moment as if her defiance embodied a prostrated and defeated France. Indeed, though she never admitted it to anyone but herself, at that proud instant she felt exactly like Joan of Arc herself.

‘We don't even have weapons!' Frederickson snapped the words in French, then shouted for water and rags. ‘Quick, woman!' He tore his snake-buckled belt free and twisted it as a tourniquet round Sharpe's right thigh. ‘Come on, woman! Help me, damn you!'

‘Why should we help you?' Lucille was finding it hard to keep her Joan of Arc poise, but she managed to put a superb scorn into her voice. ‘You killed my brother!'

Frederickson twisted the tourniquet as tight as it could go, then stared in shock at the tall and oddly calm woman. ‘Your brother's dead?'

‘You killed him! Out there!' She pointed to the yard.

‘Madame, I have never been here before.' Frederickson turned and snapped at the boy, who had plucked up courage to creep close to the door, then turned again to Lucille. ‘You have my word of honour, Madame, as a British officer, that none of us has been here before, nor did any of us kill your brother whose death, believe me, I regret to the very depths of my soul. Now, Madame, will you please give me bandages and water. We need a doctor. Hurry!' He twisted back to the door. ‘Sergeant Harper!' He bellowed hugely into the night. ‘Sergeant Harper! Come here! Quick!'

‘Sweet Jesus.' Lucille crossed herself, stared at the great pool of blood, and at last suspected that her certainty of who had murdered her family might be wrong. Then, because she was a practical woman, and because recriminations would have to wait, she tore a linen cloth into strips and sent the boy to fetch the doctor.

While Sharpe, pale-faced and with a fluttering pulse, just groaned.