Sharpe 3-Book Collection 1: Sharpe’s Tiger, Sharpe’s Triumph, Sharpe’s Fortress

‘Worry you?’

‘Of course it does! He was British!’

‘Can’t skin a cat without making a bloody mess,’ Sharpe said comfortingly.

‘Jesus!’ Lawford said angrily.

Sharpe poured half his liquor into Lawford’s glass, then beckoned to one of the serving girls who circled the tables refilling glasses. ‘You had to do it,’ he said.

‘If I’d have missed like you,’ Lawford said ruefully, ‘Gudin would have been just as impressed. That was a fine shot of yours.’

‘I was aiming to kill the bugger.’

‘You were?’ Lawford was shocked.

‘Jesus Christ, Bill! We have to convince these buggers!’ Sharpe smiled as the girl poured more liquor, then he tipped a handful of small brass coins into a wooden bowl on the table. Another bowl held a strange spice which the other drinkers nibbled between sips, but Sharpe found the stuff too pungent. Once the girl was gone he looked at the troubled Lieutenant. ‘Did you think this was going to be easy?’

Lawford was silent for a few seconds, then gave a shrug. ‘In truth I thought it would be impossible.’

‘So why did you come?’

Lawford cradled the glass in both hands and stared at Sharpe as if weighing up whether or not to answer. ‘To get away from Morris,’ he finally confessed, ‘and for the excitement.’ He seemed embarrassed to admit as much.

‘Morris is a bastard,’ Sharpe said feelingly.

Lawford frowned at the criticism. ‘He’s bored,’ he said chidingly, then he steered the conversation away from the danger area of criticizing a superior officer. ‘And I also came because I owe gratitude to my uncle.’

‘And because it would get you noticed?’

Lawford looked up with some surprise on his face, then he nodded. ‘That too.’

‘Same as me then,’ Sharpe said. ‘Exact same as me. Except till the General said you was coming with me I had half a mind to run proper.’

Lawford was shocked by the admission. ‘You really wanted to desert?’

‘For Christ’s sake! What do you think it’s like in the ranks if you’ve got an officer like Morris and a sergeant like Hakeswill? Those bastards think we’re just bleeding cattle, but we’re not. Most of us want to do a decent job. Not too decent, maybe. We want a bit of money and a bibbi from time to time, but we don’t actually enjoy being flogged. And we can fight like the bloody devil. If you bastard lot started trusting us instead of treating us like the enemy, you’d be bloody amazed what we could do.’

Lawford said nothing.

‘You’ve got some good men in the company,’ Sharpe insisted. ‘Tom Garrard is a better soldier than half the officers in the battalion, but you don’t even notice him. If a man can’t read and doesn’t speak like a bleeding choirboy you think he can’t be trusted.’

‘The army’s changing,’ Lawford said defensively.

‘Like hell it is. Why do you make us powder our hair like bleeding women? Or wear that bloody stock?’

‘Change takes time,’ Lawford said weakly.

‘Too much bloody time,’ Sharpe said fervently, then leaned against the wall and eyed the girls who were cooking at the tavern’s far end. Were they whores, he wondered? Hickson and Blake had told him they knew where the best whores were, then he remembered Mary and suddenly felt guilty. He had not seen her once since their arrival in Seringapatam, but nor had he thought that much about her. In truth he was having too good a time here; the food was good, the liquor cheap and the company acceptable, and to that was added the heady spice of danger. ‘After that brilliant piece of sharpshooting,’ he encouraged Lawford, ‘we’re going to be all right. We’ll have a chance to get out of here.’

‘What about Mrs Bickerstaff?’ Lawford asked.

‘I was just thinking of her. And maybe you were right. Maybe I shouldn’t have brought her. Couldn’t leave her with the army though, could I? Not with Hakeswill planning to sell her to a kin.’

‘A kin?’

‘A pimp.’

‘He really planned that?’ Lawford asked.

‘Him and Morris. In it together, they were. Bloody Hakeswill told me as much, the night he got me to hit him. And Morris was there with that little bastard Hicks, just waiting for me to do it. I was a bloody fool to fall for it, but there it is.’

‘Can you prove it?’

‘Prove it!’ Sharpe asked derisively. ‘Of course I can’t prove it, but it’s true.’ He blew out a rueful breath. ‘Just what am I going to do with Mary?’

‘Take her with you, of course,’ Lawford said sternly.

‘Might not have a chance,’ Sharpe said.

Lawford stared at him for a few seconds. ‘God, you’re ruthless,’ he finally said.

‘I’m a soldier. It fits.’ Sharpe said it proudly, but he was not proud, merely defiant. What was he to do with Mary? And where was she? He drank the rest of his arrack and clapped his hands for more. ‘You want to find a bibbi tonight?’ he asked Lawford.

‘A whore?’ Lawford asked in horror.

‘I don’t suppose a respectable woman will help us out much. Not unless you want a spot of polite conversation.’

Lawford stared aghast at Sharpe. ‘What we should do,’ the Lieutenant said softly, ‘is find this man Ravi Shekhar. He may have a way of getting news out of the city.’

‘And how the hell are we supposed to find him?’ Sharpe asked defiantly. ‘We can’t wander the bloody streets asking for this fellow in English. No one will know what the heck we’re doing! I’ll ask Mary to find him when we see her.’ He grinned. ‘Bugger Shekhar. How about a bibbi instead?’

‘Maybe I’ll read.’

‘Your choice,’ Sharpe said carelessly.

Lawford hesitated, his face reddening. ‘It’s just that I’ve seen men with the pox,’ he explained.

‘Christ! You’ve seen men vomit, but it don’t stop you drinking. Besides, don’t worry about the pox. That’s why God gave us mercury. The stuff worked for bloody Hakeswill, didn’t it? Though God knows why. Besides, Harry Hickson says he knows some clean girls, but of course they always say that. Still, if you want to ruin your eyes reading the Bible, go ahead, but there ain’t no mercury that will give you your sight back.’

Lawford said nothing for a few seconds. ‘Maybe I will come with you,’ he finally said shyly, staring down at the table.

‘Learning how the other half lives?’ Sharpe asked with a grin.

‘Something like that,’ Lawford mumbled.

‘Well enough, I tell you. Give us some cash and a willing couple of frows and we can live like kings. We’ll make this the last drink, eh? Don’t want to lower the flag, do we?’

Lawford was now deep red. ‘You won’t, of course, tell anyone about this when we’re back?’