Sharpe's Sword Part 31

Sharpe twisted the blade back and the light ran down the steel. "It's beautiful."

"Just the old '96 pattern, sir. Standard issue. Nothing special. I took the odd nick out the edge, sir. Would it be'true, sir, that we're moving tomorrow? To higher circles, I hear?"

Sharpe nodded, but he was not listening to Harper's words properly. He was looking at the blade, letting his gaze go up and down the steel, from the new point on the sword to the place where the steel buried itself into the reshaped guard. The weight was too much for him and it sank, slowly, until the tip rested on the rush matting. He looked up at Harper. "Thank you."

"For nothing, sir. Thought you might need it."

,I'll kill the b.a.s.t.a.r.d with it." Sharpe grimaced with the effort, but the blade came up again. ,I'll slaughter the b.a.s.t.a.r.d."

Patrick Harper grinned. Richard Sharpe was going to live.

PART THREE.

Tuesday, July 21st to Thursday, July 23rd, 1812

CHAPTER 17.

Sometimes the river was silver, a sheen of pitted silver, and sometimes it was dark green like velvet. At dusk it could look like molten gold, heavy and slow, pouring itself richly towards the Roman bridge and then on towards its junction with the River Douro and then, the far off sea. Sometimes it was mirror smooth, so the far bank was perfectly seen upside down on its surface, and at other times it was grey and broken,r but Sharpe never tired of sitting in the pillared shelter that a previous Marques had built right on the water's edge. It was a private place, entered only through one door, and when the door was shut and bolted, the sounds of the house and garden faded.

He exercised for hours in the shelter, strengthening his sword arm, and he walked further each day so that by the time they had been in the house six nights he could walk the mile to the city and back and the only pain was a dull, tugging ache. He ate prodigiously, wolfing down the beef that, as a true Englishman, he knew to be the only source of strength. Captain Lossow, of the King's German Legion, contrived to send Sharpe a wooden crate that proved to be full of stone-bottled beer. A letter was nailed to the crate. It was very short. "The French could not kill you, so drink yourself to death. Your Friend. Lossow." Sharpe could not imagine how Lossow had contrived to find a whole crate of beer in Spain, but he knew how generous was the gift and he was touched by it.

On the fifth day he fired Harper's rifle, letting the b.u.t.t kick into his shoulder, forcing his tired arms to hold the barrel steady, and on his tenth shot he smashed one of the empty stone bottles into shards and felt content. He was strengthening. He had written to Hogan on the first day without cruel pain and the Town Major's office forwarded the reply and Hogan was delighted at Sharpe's news. The rest of the letter was grim. It told of fruitless marching and counter-marching across the plains, of the army's discontent because the French seemed to be outmanoeuvring the British, beating them without a battle being fought, and Hogan hinted that soon the army might be retreating on Salamanca.

Hogan apologised in his letter because he had still not reached Teresa. The message, he knew, had travelled as far as Casatejada, but Sharpe's wife was not there. She was further north harrying the troops of the French General Caffarelli and Hogan did not know how long it would be before she heard the news. He hoped it would be soon. Sharpe felt guilty, because he did not share Hogan's hope. Once Teresa was in Salamanca then he would be forced to give up the company of La Marquesa. She visited most evenings, coming to the shelter beside the river, and Sharpe found himself looking forward to the visits, needing her company, and Harper kept his wonder to himself.

Major Hogan had spoken of Leroux in his letter. "You are not to concern yourself, Richard, nor to feel responsible for what happened." That, thought Sharpe, was kind of Hogan because Sharpe was responsible. The failure nagged at him, depressed him, and he tortured himself by imagining what the Frenchman would do to La Marquesa to make her talk. She thought that Leroux was probably in the city, and Hogan agreed. "He will lie low, we think, until Salamanca is again in the hands of the French, (for that, I fear, is a possibility if we cannot bring Marmont to battle) and we must hope that his plans are frustrated. If we do fight Marmont, and win, then Leroux will have to leave Salamanca. Perhaps he has already, we do not know, but in the meantime we have put a guard on El Mirador and you are not to concern yourself with anything except a full recovery."

The mention of a guard puzzled Sharpe. La Marquesa came alone, except for her coachman, postilion, and chaperone. The coachman and postilion would wait in the servants' quarters, the chaperone be sent to read a book in the long, gloomy library of the house, while La Marquesa went alone with Sharpe to the pillared shelter beside the river. He showed her the letter and she laughed. "It would be a little obvious, Richard, wouldn't it? If I rode out here with an armed man riding beside me? Stop worrying."

The next evening Lord Spears came with her and they could not hide in the small shelter. They walked in the garden, chatting, and Sharpe had to pretend, though he guessed Spears knew otherwise, that he hardly knew La Marquesa, that she had plucked him from the hospital as an object of charity, and he said 'Ma'am' and 'Milady' and felt tongue-tied and clumsy, just as he had at their first meeting. At one moment in the evening, when the sun was a glorious crimson in the west, La Marquesa went to the low wall beside the river and threw bread sc.r.a.ps to the ducks. Sharpe was alone with Spears. The Rifleman remembered how the cavalryman had so desperately wanted to know the ident.i.ty of El Mirador; how he had quizzed Sharpe in the Plaza Mayor on the morning after the first a.s.sault on the three fortresses. Sharpe grinned at Spears. "So you found out?"

"About you and Helena? You were hardly discreet, my dear Richard, coming here to her lair."

Sharpe shook his head. "No. I meant about El Mirador."

An extraordinary look of alarm crossed Spears' face. It was followed by anger and a question that was almost hissed at Sharpe. "You know?"

Sharpe nodded. "Yes."

"What the h.e.l.l do you know?"

Sharpe tried to talk calmly, to quieten Spears' anger. "I know that we've put a guard on El Mirador, and I presumed that you were doing that."

"How did you know?"

"Hogan wrote to me." It was not the whole truth. Hogan had written that El Mirador was guarded, but he had not named names. The rest had been Sharpe's deduction and he had not expected this near violent reaction. He tried to calm Spears again. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend."

"No, no offence." Spears pushed his hair back. "Christ! We're told this is the biggest b.l.o.o.d.y secret since turning water into wine and then Hogan has to write to you! How many more people know?" Spears glanced towards La Marquesa, then back at Sharpe. "Yes I am, but for G.o.d's sake don't tell anyone."

"I'm hardly likely to."

"No, no I suppose not."

Sharpe wished he had not mentioned it. He had traduced Hogan by suggesting that the Irish Major had written everything in his letter, but Spears' anger had made Sharpe decide not to launch himself on a convoluted explanation.

La Marquesa came back and looked at Spears. "You're looking positively fl.u.s.tered, Jack."

Spears smiled at her. "A wasp, Helena, threatening my virtue."

"Such a tiny thing to threaten." She looked at Sharpe. "You're happy here, Captain?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

She made polite conversation for Spears' benefit. "The house is rather pretty. My husband's great-uncle built it. He was a leper, so he was forced to live outside the city. The house was built here and he could rot away happily on his own. They say he looked perfectly dreadful which is why there are such high walls."

Spears grinned. "I hope you scrubbed the place before you put Sharpe here."

She looked at him, smiled, then touched his cheek with her fan. "Such a charming man you are, Jack. Tell my coachman to get ready, will you?"

Spears half bowed. "You'll be safe with Sharpe?"

,I'll risk it, Jack. Now begone."

She watched Spears walk towards the house and then drew Sharpe into the shade of some bushes. A stone bench was set in a small clearing and she at on it. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought him."

"I think you should."

She seemed unmoved by that. "Why?"

"He is your guard. It's his job."

She watched Sharpe for a few seconds. "How do you deduce that, Richard?"

He felt confused. First Spears had reacted almost violently, and now La Marquesa was quizzing him as if he was rendering the accounts for her estates. Then he thought that she must be frightened. If Spears had told Sharpe, then Spears was not to be trusted. He smiled at her. "First, he's here with you. Second, I asked him. He didn't offer the information, in fact he was quite angry that I knew."

She nodded. "Good. What did he say?"

"That he was the guard for El Mirador." He smiled. "La Miradora."

She smiled at that. "There's no such word, I've told you. Miradors are masculine in Spanish, they cannot be feminine. He can be trusted?"

"He got quite angry."

She sighed, then twitched her fan at a fly. "He's a fool, Richard. He's no money, he's gambled it all away, but he is amusing sometimes. Are you jealous?"

"No."

"Liar." She smiled at him. "I won't let him come again. He insisted tonight." She laughed at him. "You remind me tonight of the first time we met. You bristled with dignity. You were so ready to take offence."