Free The Daughters of Eden Trilogy: The Shadow Catcher, Fever Hill & the Serpent's Tooth by Michelle Paver

staff officer looked up doubtfully from his notebook, as if wondering how to take that down. ‘You see,’ said the colonel, ‘I shouldn’t normally trouble myself with what was clearly a matter for Major Falkirk to resolve.’ He frowned. ‘However,’ he went on, ‘it is my unenviable duty to investigate a second report. A report of an extremely grave and utterly repellent nature.’
    The staff officer bent his head and scribbled furiously.
    ‘Yesterday,’ the colonel went on with his eyes on Cameron, ‘shortly after Major Falkirk fell, you were seen – you were seen, to put it baldly, despoiling the body.’
    Again Cameron swayed. He hadn’t thought of that. He hadn’t thought.
    ‘You were seen’, the colonel continued, ‘systematically rifling the pockets, then extracting a piece of paper from the breast of the major’s tunic.’ He paused. ‘Well? What have you to say? Do you deny it?’
    Cameron watched the staff officer finish writing with a flourish. ‘No, sir,’ he said. ‘I don’t.’
    The staff officer looked up and blinked.
    The colonel’s narrow face was incredulous. ‘Are you telling me that these reports are true?’
    ‘Yes sir.’
    There was silence in the tent. Outside, the night wind threw sand against the canvas. A horse coughed. An Egyptian hissed at his camels to be still.
    The colonel looked so shocked that Cameron almost felt sorry for him.
    ‘This paper,’ the colonel said at last, ‘this paper which you were seen to – remove. Where is it now?’
    ‘I burnt it, sir.’
    The staff officer met his eyes and quickly glanced away.
    ‘You burnt it,’ repeated the colonel. This time when he tapped the desk he did it slowly, as if tapping out a dirge. ‘What was it? A promissory note? Gambling pledge? Letter from a woman?’
    ‘I’d rather not say, sir. It’s a private matter.’
    ‘Not any more,’ snapped the colonel. ‘Not when it results in one of my officers publicly desecrating the body of a brother in arms – his own CO, God damn it. Not when it leads him to defy the colonel of his regiment. Not when . . .’
    Cameron stopped listening. He was back on the battlefield, kneeling by Ainsley’s body with Clemency’s letter in his hand. The paper was yellow with age, and soft from much folding and unfolding. How many times had Ainsley read it over the years? She at least has forgiven me. She wrote to me. I keep her letter with me always.
    If the letter were found, the truth would come out. Ainsley would be exposed as a scoundrel who had deserted his wife, disgraced his name, and deceived his brother officers for years. The careful fiction which his father had worked so hard to construct would be in ruins, and the scandal would break.
    But if the letter disappeared, then the world would honour Alasdair Falkirk, a good soldier and a pure-hearted man who gave his life for his country. And Jocelyn would know a measure of peace.
    ‘Captain Lawe. Are you listening to me?’
    Cameron studied him for a moment. ‘Yes, sir,’ he said.
    ‘Because I wish there to be no mistake about this. No misapprehension as to the gravity of your position. I am giving you an order. I expect you to carry it out. You shall provide me – now – with a complete explanation of your conduct in this affair.’
    The staff officer raised his head and waited, his pencil poised.
    ‘Captain Lawe,’ said the colonel, ‘I’m waiting. Tell me the truth.’
    Cameron licked his dry, cracked lips. The truth, he thought. Why should I tell you the truth? To justify myself? To prove that I’m not the scoundrel you think I am – and to hell with Ainsley and Jocelyn and the whole damn lot? He said, ‘Sir, I can’t tell you anything.’
    The colonel leaned forward. ‘Can’t or won’t?’
    ‘Won’t, sir.’
    ‘Captain Lawe. I’m ordering you. Explain yourself at once.’
    Cameron met the colonel’s eyes. ‘No,’ he said.
     
    An hour after Cousin Lettice and Cousin Septimus arrived at Cairngowrie