The Bloody Ground. Bernard Cornwell

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СКАЧАТЬ rigid with the effort needed not to show that pain. “Battalion, soldier?” Starbuck snapped.

      The man grimaced, then managed to say a single word. “Punishment.”

      “Then you are my business,” Starbuck said. He took his folding knife out of a pocket, unsnapped the blade, and sawed at the rope binding the prisoner’s ankles. The motion made the prisoner whimper, but it provoked Sergeant Case to leap forward threateningly.

      Starbuck paused and looked up into Case’s eyes. “I’m an officer, Sergeant,” he said, “and if you lay a damned hand on me I’ll make sure you spend the rest of today on this horse. You won’t walk for a goddamn week. Maybe not for a goddamn month.”

      Sergeant Case stepped back as Starbuck cut through the last strands of hemp and put a hand under one of the prisoner’s boots. “Ready?” he called, then heaved up hard, throwing the prisoner off the beam. The man thumped onto the damp ground where he lay still as Starbuck crouched and sliced through the rope about his wrists. “So what did he do?” Starbuck asked Sergeant Case.

      “Son of a bitch!” Case said, though whether of Starbuck or the prisoner it was impossible to tell, then he turned abruptly and strode away with his companion.

      The prisoner groaned and tried to stand, but the pain in his crotch was too savage. He crawled to one of the horse’s supporting trestles and dragged himself to a sitting position, then just clung to the timber. His eyes watered and his breath came in small, stuttering gasps. Even Sally flinched at his evident pain. “Guns,” he finally said.

      “Guns?” Starbuck asked him. “What about them?”

      “Son of a bitch is stealing guns,” the freed prisoner said, then was forced to stop because of the pain. He clutched his groin, held a deep breath, than shook his head in an effort to banish the dreadful agony. “You asked why I was on the horse? Because of guns. I was on a detail to unload rifles. We got twenty boxes of them. Good ones. But Holborrow made us put them in crates marked CONDEMNED and then gave us muskets instead. Richmond muskets. Hell,” he spat, then momentarily closed his eyes as a spasm of pain made him grimace. “I don’t want to go shooting no Yankees with buck and ball, not if they’ve got minie balls. That’s why I argued with that son of a bitch Sergeant Case.”

      “So where are the rifles now?” Starbuck asked.

      “Hell knows. Sold, probably. Holborrow don’t care so long as we never go to war. We’re not supposed to fight, see? Just get supplies that the son of a bitch sells.” The man frowned up at Starbuck. “Who are you?” he asked.

      “Potter!” A new and angry voice yelled from the headquarters building. “Potter, you son of a bitch! You bastard! You lunkheaded piece of dog shit. You black-assed fool!” The speaker was a tall, lean officer in a braided gray coat who stumped toward Starbuck with the help of a silver-tipped cane. Sergeant Case marched behind the officer, who had a neat blond goatee beard and a narrow mustache that had been carefully waxed into stiff points. He shoved the cane hard into the turf to aid each step and in between he brandished it toward the astonished Starbuck. “Where the hell have you been, Potter?” the officer demanded. “Just where the hell have you been, boy?”

      “He’s talking to you?” Sally asked Starbuck in bemusement.

      “Hell, boy, are you drunk?” The limping officer bellowed. “Potter, you black-ass lunkhead piece of leper shit, are you drunk?”

      Starbuck was about to deny being either Potter or drunk, then a mischievous impulse welled up inside him. “Don’t say a word,” he said quietly to Sally and Lucifer, then shook his head. “I ain’t drunk,” he said as the officer came close.

      “Is this how you repay a kindness?” the officer demanded fiercely. He had the stars of a colonel on his shoulders. “My apologies, ma’am,” the colonel touched his free hand to the brim of his hat, “but I can’t abide tardiness. Can’t abide it. Are you drunk, Potter?” The colonel stepped close to Starbuck and thrust his goatee up toward the younger man’s clean-shaven chin. “Let me smell your breath, Potter, let me smell your breath. Breathe, man, breathe!” He sniffed, then stepped back. “You don’t smell drunk,” the colonel said dubiously, “so why the hell, forgive me, ma’am, did you throw Private Rothwell off the horse. Answer me!”

      “It was upsetting the lady,” Starbuck said.

      The major looked at Sally again and this time he registered that she was a startlingly pretty young woman. “Holborrow, ma’am,” he said, snatching off his brimmed hat to reveal a head of carefully waved gold hair, “Colonel Charles Holborrow at your service.” He gaped at Sally for a second. “I should have known,” he said, his voice suddenly softening, “that you come from Georgia. Ain’t girls anywhere in the world as pretty as Georgia girls, and that’s a plain straight fact. ’Pon my precious soul, ma’am, it’s a fact. The Reverend Potter did say as how his son was married and was bringing his good lady here, but he never did say just how pretty you are.” Holborrow shamelessly leered down to judge Sally’s figure before grasping her hand and giving it a firm kiss. “Sure pleased to meet you, Mrs. Potter,” he said, still holding on to her hand.

      “Pleasure’s all mine, Colonel.” Sally pretended to be flattered by Holborrow’s admiration and left her hand in his.

      Holborrow leaned his cane against his hip so he could fold his other hand over Sally’s. “And you were upset by the punishment, ma’am, is that it?” he inquired solicitously, massaging Sally’s hand between his.

      “Reckon I was, sir,” Sally said humbly, then sniffed.

      “Right upsetting for a lady,” Holborrow agreed. “But you have to understand, ma’am, that this lunkhead prisoner struck Sergeant Case. Struck him! A serious military offense, ma’am, and your husband here had no business interfering. None at all. Ain’t that the case, Sergeant Case?”

      “Sir!” Case snapped, evidently his way of articulating an affirmative to officers.

      Holborrow let go of Sally’s hand to step closer to Starbuck. “Sergeant Case, boy, is from North Carolina, but he spent the last fourteen years in the British army. Ain’t that the case, Case?”

      “Sir!” Case snapped.

      “Which regiment, Case?” Holborrow asked, still staring into Starbuck’s eyes.

      “Seventh, sir, Royal Fusiliers, sir!”

      “And while you were still sucking the milk from your mother’s titties, Potter, forgive me, ma’am, Sergeant Case was fighting! Fighting, boy! Ain’t that the case, Case?”

      “Battle of the Alma, sir! Siege of Sevastopol,” Case snapped, and Starbuck got the impression that he was listening to a much practiced dialogue.

      “But Sergeant Case is a patriot, Potter!” Holborrow continued, “and when the Yankees broke the Union by attacking us, Sergeant Case left Her Majesty’s service to fight for Jeff Davis and liberty. He was sent here, Potter, to turn the Yellowlegs into a proper regiment instead of a bunch of schoolgirls. Ain’t that the case, Case?”

      “Sir!”

      “And you,” Holborrow spat at Potter, “dare to countermand a man like Sergeant Case! You should be ashamed of yourself, boy. Ashamed! Sergeant Case has forgotten more about soldiering than you ever learned or ever will learn. And if Sergeant Case says a man deserves punishment, then СКАЧАТЬ