”
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 heavensent 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.
Through the telescope Sharpe could see Christopher riding back toward Vila Real de Zedes accompanied by a single man, a civilian judging by his clothes, and certainly not Lieutenant Olivier, who was evidently riding northwards with the dragoons. „Those Crapauds must have seen us,” Sharpe said.
„Clear as daylight,” Harper agreed.
„And Lieutenant Olivier will have told them we’re here,” Sharpe said, „so why the devil are they leaving us alone?”
„Because your man’s made an agreement with the bastards,” Harper said, nodding toward the distant Christopher.
Sharpe wondered why an English officer would be making agreements with the enemy. „We should give him a smacking,” he said.
„Not if he’s a colonel.”
„Then we should give the bastard two smackings,” Sharpe said savagely, „then we’d find the bloody truth quickly enough.”
The two men fell silent as Christopher cantered up the drive to the house. The man accompanying him was young, red-haired and in plain civilian clothes, yet the horse he rode had a French mark on its rump and the saddle was military issue. Christopher looked at the telescope in Sharpe’s hand. „You must be curious, Sharpe,” he said with unusual geniality.
„I’m curious,” Sharpe said, „why our prisoner was given back.”
„Because I decided to give him back, of course,” Christopher said, sliding down from the horse, „and he’s promised not to fight us until the French return a British prisoner of equal rank. All quite normal, Sharpe, and no occasion for indignation. This is Monsieur Argenton who will be going with me to visit General Cradock in Lisbon.” The Frenchman, hearing his name spoken, gave Sharpe a nervous nod.
„We’ll come with you,” Sharpe said, ignoring the Frenchman.
Christopher shook his head. „I think not, Sharpe. Monsieur Argenton will arrange for the two of us to use the pontoon bridge at Oporto if it’s been repaired, and if not he’ll arrange passage on a ferry, and I hardly think our French friends will allow a half company of riflemen to cross the river under their noses, do you?”
„If you talk to them, maybe,” Sharpe said. „You seem friendly enough with them.”
Christopher threw his reins to Luis, then gestured that Argenton should dismount and follow him into the house. „‘There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.’ „Christopher said, going past Sharpe, then he turned. „I have different plans for you.”
„You have plans for me?” Sharpe asked truculently.
„I believe a lieutenant colonel outranks a lieutenant in His Britannic Majesty’s army, Sharpe,” Christopher said sarcastically. „It always was so, which means, does it not, that you are under my command? So you will come to the house in half an hour and I shall give you your new orders. Come,monsieur.”He beckoned to Argenton, glanced coldly at Sharpe, and went up the steps.
It rained next morning. It was colder too. Gray veils of showers swept out of the west, brought from the Atlantic by a chill wind that blew the wisteria blossoms from the thrashing trees, banged the Quinta’s shutters and sent chill drafts chasing through its rooms. Sharpe, Vicente and their men had slept in the stable block, guarded by picquets who shivered in the night and peered through the damp blackness.