Sharpe's Revenge (29 page)

‘Drink your soup,' Frederickson said, ‘and shut up.'

Sharpe obediently drank some soup.

‘It's good soup, isn't it?' Frederickson asked.

Sharpe said nothing, just scowled.

‘You're very ungrateful,' Sweet William sighed. ‘That soup is delicious. Madame made it specially for you.'

‘Then it's probably bloody poisoned.' Sharpe pushed the bowl away.

Frederickson shook his head. ‘You should be kinder to Madame Castineau. She feels very guilty about what she did.'

‘She bloody well should feel guilty! She's a murderous bloody bitch. She should be hanged, except hanging's too good for her.'

Frederickson paused, then blushed. ‘I would be deeply obliged, my friend, if you would refrain from insulting Madame Castineau in my presence.'

Sharpe stared aghast at his friend.

Frederickson straightened his shoulders as though bracing himself to make a very shameful confession. ‘I have to confess that I feel a most strong attachment towards Madame.'

‘Good God.' Sharpe could say nothing else. This misogynist, this hater of marriage, this despiser of all things female, was in love?

‘I understand how you feel about Madame Castineau, of course,' Frederickson hurried on, ‘and I cannot blame you, but I think you should know that I have the warmest of feelings towards her. Towards,' he paused, tried to meet Sharpe's gaze, failed, but then, with the coyness of a lover, said the widow's Christian name fondly, ‘towards Lucille.'

‘Bloody hellfire!'

‘I know she isn't a great beauty like Jane,' Frederickson said with an immense but fragile dignity, ‘but she has a great calmness in her soul. She's a very sensible woman, too. And she has a sense of humour. If I had not met her I would scarcely have believed that so many excellent qualities could have been combined in one woman.'

Sharpe blew on a spoonful of soup and tried to accustom himself to the thought of Sweet William in love. It was like discovering a wolf purring, or learning that Napoleon Bonaparte's favourite occupation was embroidery. ‘But she's French!' Sharpe finally blurted out.

‘Of course she's French!' Frederickson said irritably. ‘What possible objection can that be?'

‘We've been killing the buggers for twenty years!'

‘And now we're at peace.' Frederickson smiled. ‘We might even make an alliance to mark that peace.'

‘You mean you want to marry her?' Sharpe stared at his friend. ‘I seem to remember that you thought marriage was a waste of money. Can't you hire its pleasures by the hour? Isn't that what you said? And do I remember you telling me that marriage is an appetite and that once you've enjoyed the flesh you're left with nothing but a dry carcass?'

‘I might have questioned the validity of marriage once,' Frcderickson said airily, ‘but a man is permitted to reconsider his opinions, is he not?'

‘Good God Almighty. You are in love!' Sharpe was flabbergasted. ‘Does Madame Castineau know how you feel?'

‘Of course not!' Frederickson was profoundly shocked at the thought.

‘Why ever not?'

‘I have no wish to embarrass her by a precipitate declaration of my feelings.'

Sharpe shrugged. ‘Love is like war, my friend. Victory goes to those who pounce first and pounce hardest.'

‘I can hardly imagine myself pouncing,' Frederickson said huffily, but then, because he had a desperate need to share his feelings with a friend, he coyly asked Sharpe whether his looks would be a barrier to his suit. ‘I know myself to be ugly,' Frederickson touched his eye-patch, ‘and fear it will be an insuperable difficulty.'

‘Remember the pig-woman,' Sharpe advised.

‘My feelings in no way resemble the transactions of that squalid tale,' Frederickson said sternly.

‘But if you don't confess your feelings,' Sharpe said, ‘then you'll get nowhere! Do you sense her feelings in this matter?'

‘Madame behaves very properly towards me.'

Sharpe reflected that proper behaviour was not what his friend sought, but thought it best not to say as much. Instead he wondered aloud whether Frederickson would take a letter to the carrier who risked the dangers of the country roads by travelling once a week to Caen.

‘Of course,' Frederickson agreed, ‘but may I ask why?'

‘It's a letter for Jane,' Sharpe explained.

‘Of course.' Frederickson sought to turn the subject back to Lucille Castineau, but did so in such a roundabout way that Sharpe might not suspect the deliberate machination. ‘It occurs to me, my friend, that there have been times when I might have been a trifle unsympathetic towards your marriage?'

‘Really?' Sharpe flinched as a stab of pain went from his shoulder down to his ribs.

Frederickson did not notice Sharpe's discomfort. ‘I assure you that I jested. I see now that marriage is a very fortunate state for mankind.'

‘Indeed.' Sharpe resisted discussing Frederickson's new devotion to the married state. ‘Which is why I would like Jane to travel here.'

‘Is that safe for her?' Frederickson asked.

‘I thought you and Patrick might meet her at Cherbourg and escort her here.' Sharpe had resumed drinking the soup which, despite his earlier boorish verdict, was quite delicious. ‘And once she's here we can all rent a house while I recover? Maybe in Caen?'

‘Maybe.' It was clear that Frederickson had no wish to leave the château, yet he agreed to deliver Sharpe's letter to the village carrier.

But, as it happened, there was no need for the letter to go to the postal office in Caen, for the very next night Patrick Harper offered to carry the letter clean into London itself. ‘You're not going to be fighting fit, sir, not for a month or two, and I'm worried about Isabella, so I am.'

‘She's not in London,' Sharpe said.

‘Mr Frederickson thinks it'll be quicker to get a ship for Spain out of England, sir, than it will be from France. So I'll go to England, see Mrs Sharpe, then fetch my own lass back from Spain. Then I'll take her to Ireland.' Harper smiled and suddenly there were tears in his eyes. ‘My God, sir, but I'll be going home at last. Can you believe it?'

Sharpe felt a moment's panic at losing this strong man. ‘Are you going home for ever?'

‘I'll be back here, so I will.' Harper tossed the seven-barrelled gun on to Sharpe's bed. ‘I'll leave that here, and my uniform too. It's probably best not to travel in uniform.'

‘But you will be back?' Sharpe eagerly sought the reassurance. ‘Because if I'm going to find Ducos I'll need you.'

‘So you are going to find him, sir?'

‘If I have to go to the end of the bloody earth, Patrick, I'll find that bastard.' It was obvious now, from the evidence of the two fingers that had been hacked off Lassan's dead body, that it must have been Pierre Ducos who had killed Madame Castineau's brother. Lucille herself had accepted that verdict, and her acceptance had only increased the remorse she felt for her precipitate shooting of the Rifleman. Sharpe did not care whether she felt remorse or not, nor did he much care that her brother was dead, but he did care that he should find Ducos. ‘I'll get well first,' he now told Harper, ‘then I'll hunt the bugger down.'

Harper smiled. ‘I'll be back here to help you, sir, I promise.'

‘It would be harder without you,' Sharpe said, which was his way of saying that he could not bear it if Harper deserted him now. Sharpe had always known that peace might separate their friendship, but the immediate prospect of that separation was astonishingly hard to bear.

‘I'll be back by the summer, sir.'

‘So long as the provosts don't catch you, Patrick.'

‘I'll murder the bastards before they lay a hand on me.'

Harper left the next morning. It seemed strange not to hear his tuneless whistle or his loud cheerful voice about the château. On the other hand Sharpe was pleased that the Irishman was carrying the letter to Jane for she had always liked Harper and Sharpe was certain she would respond to the big man's plea that she travel quickly into Normandy where her husband lay ill.

A week after Harper had left, Frederickson carried Sharpe downstairs so he could eat at a table which had been placed in the château's yard. Madame Castineau, knowing that Sharpe disliked her, had kept a very politic distance from the Rifleman since the night when she had shot him. This night, though, she smiled a nervous welcome and said she hoped he would eat well. There was wine, bread, cheese, and a small piece of ham that Frederickson unobtrusively placed on Sharpe's plate.

Sharpe looked at Frederickson's plate, then at Madame Castineau's. ‘Where's yours, William?'

‘Madame doesn't like ham.' Frederickson cut himself some cheese.

‘But you like it. I've seen you kill for it.'

‘You need the nourishment,' Frederickson insisted, ‘I don't.'

Sharpe frowned. ‘Is this place short of money?' He knew that Madame Castineau spoke no English, so had no qualms about talking thus in front of her.

‘They're poor as church mice, sir. Rich in land, of course, but that doesn't help much these days, and they rather emptied the coffers on Henri's betrothal party.'

‘Bloody hell.' Sharpe sliced the ham into three ludicrously small portions. His actions were very clumsy for he could still not use his left arm. He distributed the meat evenly between the three plates. Madame Castineau began to protest, but Sharpe growled her to silence. ‘Tell her my wife will bring some money from England,' he said.

Frederickson translated, then offered Lucille's reply which was to the effect that she would accept no charity.

‘Tell the bloody woman to take what's offered.'

‘I'll hardly tell her that,' Frederickson protested.

‘Damn her pride, anyway.'

Lucille blanched at the anger in Sharpe's voice, then hurried into a long conversation in French with Frederickson. Sharpe scowled and picked at his food. Frederickson tried to include him in the conversation, but as it was about the château's history, and the styles of architecture that history reflected, Sharpe had nothing to offer. He leaned his chair back and prayed that Jane would come soon. Surely, he persuaded himself, her previous silence had been an accident of the uncertain delivery of mail to the army. She would have already spoken to d'Alembord, and would doubtless welcome Harper's arrival. Indeed, it was probable that Harper was already in London and Sharpe felt a welcome and warm hope that Jane herself might arrive at the château in less than a week.

Sharpe was suddenly aware that Frederickson had asked him a question. He let the chair fall forward and was rewarded with an agonizing stab of pain down his plastered right leg. ‘Jesus bloody Christ!' he cursed, then, with a resentful glance at the widow, ‘I'm sorry. What is it, William?'

‘Madame Castineau is concerned because she told the Paris lawyer that we murdered her brother.'

‘So she damn well should be.'

Frederickson ignored Sharpe's surly tone. ‘She wonders whether she should now write to Monsieur Roland and tell him that we are innocent.'

Sharpe glanced at the Frenchwoman and was caught by her very clear, very calm gaze. ‘No,' he said decisively.

‘Non?'
Lucille frowned.

‘I think it best,' Sharpe suddenly felt awkward under her scrutiny, ‘if the French authorities do not know where to find us. They still believe we stole their gold.'

Frederickson translated, listened to Lucille's response, then looked at Sharpe. ‘Madame says her letter will surely persuade the authorities of our innocence.'

‘No!' Sharpe insisted a little too loudly.

‘Why not?' Frederickson asked.

‘Because the damned French have already faked evidence against us, so why should we trust them now? Tell Madame I have no faith in the honesty of her countrymen so I would be most grateful if, for so long as we are in her house, she would keep our presence a secret from Paris.'

Frederickson made a tactful translation, then offered Sharpe Lucille's reply. ‘Madame says she would like to inform the authorities who was responsible for the murder of her mother and brother. She wants Major Ducos punished.'

‘Tell her I will punish Ducos. Tell her it will be my pleasure to punish Ducos.'

The tone of Sharpe's voice made any translation unnecessary. Lucille looked at Sharpe's face with its slashing scar that gave him such a mocking look, and she tried to imagine her brother, her gentle and kind brother, facing this awful man in battle, and then she tried to imagine what kind of woman would marry such a man. Frederickson began to interpret Sharpe's reply, but Lucille shook her head. ‘I understood, Captain. Tell the Major that I will be for ever grateful if he can bring Major Ducos to justice.'

‘I'm not doing it for her,' Sharpe said in curt dismissal, ‘but for me.'

There was an embarrassed pause, then Frederickson studiedly returned the conversation to the château's history. Within minutes he and Lucille were again absorbed, while Sharpe, warm in the evening sun, dreamed his soldier's dreams that were of home and love and happiness and revenge.

Patrick Harper liked London's cheerfully robust chaos. He could not have contemplated living there, though he had relatives in Southwark, but he had enjoyed his two previous visits, and once again found an endless entertainment in the hawkers and street-singers. There were also enough Irish accents in the capital to make a Donegal man feel comfortable.