Sharpe 3-Book Collection 2: Sharpe’s Havoc, Sharpe’s Eagle, Sharpe’s Gold. Bernard Cornwell

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СКАЧАТЬ ordered me to find you,’ he told her, ‘and take you back to your mother. She was worried about you.’

      Kate blushed, ‘My mother has no cause to worry. I have a husband now.’

      ‘Now?’ Sharpe said. ‘You were married this morning? That’s what we saw in the church?’

      ‘Is it any of your business?’ Kate demanded fiercely. Vicente looked crestfallen because he believed Sharpe was bullying the woman he so silently adored.

      ‘If you’re married, ma’am, then it’s none of my business,’ Sharpe said, ‘because I can’t take a married woman away from her husband, can I?’

      ‘No, you cannot,’ Kate said, ‘and we were indeed married this morning.’

      ‘My congratulations, ma’am,’ Sharpe said, then stopped to admire an old grandfather clock. Its face was decorated with smiling moons and bore the legend ‘Thomas Tompion, London’. He opened the polished case and pulled down the weights so that the mechanism began ticking. ‘I expect your mother will be delighted, ma’am.’

      ‘It is none of your business, Lieutenant,’ Kate said, bridling.

      ‘Pity she couldn’t be here, eh? Your mother was in tears when I left her.’ He turned on her. ‘Is he really a colonel?’

      The question took Kate by surprise, especially after the disconcerting news that her mother had been crying. She blushed, then tried to look dignified and offended. ‘Of course he’s a colonel,’ she said indignantly, ‘and you are impudent, Mister Sharpe.’

      Sharpe laughed. His face was grim in repose, made so by the scar on his cheek, but when he smiled or laughed the grimness went, and Kate, to her astonishment, felt her heart skip a beat. She had been remembering the story Christopher had told her, of how the Lady Grace had destroyed her reputation by living with this man. What had Christopher said? Fishing in the dirty end of the lake, but suddenly Kate envied Lady Grace and then remembered she had been married less than an hour and was very properly ashamed of herself. But all the same, she thought, this rogue was horribly attractive when he smiled and he was smiling at her now. ‘You’re right,’ Sharpe said, ‘I am impudent. Always have been and probably always will be and I apologize for it, ma’am.’ He looked around the hall again. ‘This is your mother’s house?’

      ‘It is my house,’ Kate said, ‘since my father died. And now, I suppose, it is my husband’s property.’

      ‘I’ve got a wounded man and your husband said he should be put in the stables. I don’t like putting wounded men into stables when there are better rooms.’

      Kate blushed, though Sharpe was not sure why, then she pointed towards a door at the back of the hall. ‘The servants have quarters by the kitchens,’ she said, ‘and I’m sure there is a comfortable room there.’ She stepped aside and gestured again at the door. ‘Why don’t you look?’

      ‘I will, ma’am,’ Sharpe said, but instead of exploring the back parts of the house, he just stared at her.

      ‘What is it?’ Kate asked, unsettled by his dark gaze.

      ‘I was merely going to offer you felicitations, ma’am, for your marriage,’ Sharpe said.

      ‘Thank you, Lieutenant,’ Kate said.

      ‘Marry in haste,’ Sharpe said and paused, and he saw the anger flare in her eyes and he smiled at her again, ‘is something folks often do in wartime,’ he finished. ‘I’ll go round the outside of the house, ma’am.’

      He left her to Vicente’s admiration and joined Harper on the terrace. ‘Is the bastard still talking?’ he asked.

      ‘The Colonel’s still talking to the Crapauds, sir,’ Harper said, gazing through the telescope, ‘and they’re not coming any closer. The Colonel’s full of surprises, isn’t he?’

      ‘Stuffed as full of them,’ Sharpe said, ‘as a plum pudding.’

      ‘So what do we do, sir?’

      ‘We move Dan into a servant’s room by the kitchen. Let the doctor see him. If the doctor thinks he can travel then we’ll go to Amarante.’

      ‘Do we take the girl?’

      ‘Not if she’s married, Pat. We can’t do a bloody thing with her if she’s married. She belongs to him now, lock, stock and barrel.’ Sharpe scratched under his collar where a louse had bitten. ‘Pretty girl.’

      ‘Is she now? I hadn’t noticed.’

      ‘You lying Irish bastard,’ Sharpe said.

      Harper grinned. ‘Aye, well, she’s smooth on the eye, sir, smooth as they come, but she’s also a married woman.’

      ‘Off bounds, eh?’

      ‘A colonel’s wife? I wouldn’t dream of it,’ Harper said, ‘not if I were you.’

      ‘I’m not dreaming, Patrick,’ Sharpe said, ‘just wondering how to get the hell out of here. How do we go back home.’

      ‘Back to the army?’ Harper asked. ‘Or back to England?’

      ‘God knows. Which would you want?’

      They should have been in England. They all belonged to the second battalion of the 95th Rifles and that battalion was in the Shorncliffe barracks, but Sharpe and his men had been separated from the rest of the greenjackets during the scrambling retreat to Vigo and somehow they had never managed to rejoin. Captain Hogan had seen to that. Hogan needed men to protect him while he mapped the wild frontier country between Spain and Portugal and a squad of prime riflemen were heaven-sent and he had cleverly managed to confuse the paperwork, reroute letters, scratch pay from the military chest and so keep Sharpe and his men close to the war.

      ‘England holds nothing for me,’ Harper said, ‘I’m happier here.’

      ‘And the men?’

      ‘Most like it here,’ the Irishman said, ‘but a few want to go home. Cresacre, Sims, the usual grumblers. John Williamson is the worst. He keeps telling the others that you’re only here because you want promotion and that you’ll sacrifice us all to get it.’

      ‘He says that?’

      ‘And worse.’

      ‘Sounds a good idea,’ Sharpe said lightly.

      ‘But I don’t think anyone believes him, other than the usual bastards. Most of us know we’re here by accident.’ Harper stared at the distant French dragoons, then shook his head. ‘I’ll have to give Williamson a thumping sooner or later.’

      ‘You or me,’ Sharpe agreed.

      Harper put the telescope to his eye again. ‘The bastard’s coming back,’ he said, ‘and he’s left that other bastard with them.’ He handed Sharpe the telescope.

      ‘Olivier?’

      ‘He’s bloody given him back!’ Harper was indignant.

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