Free Sharpe's Regiment by Bernard Cornwell Page A

Sharpe, Simon?’
    ‘Do? Nothing! My Lord!’ He bowed to a man who climbed the steps, then glanced into Lady Camoynes’ startling green eyes. ‘I’ve sent him orders that will pack him off to Spain. Tomorrow.’
    ‘That’s all?’
    He stared at her speculatively. ‘Would it concern you if there was more? Would you warn him, Anne?’ There was a shriek of laughter at the end of the garden as a choice ruby was fished up from a pool. Lord Fenner stared at the man who had found the ruby and who now placed it, to much laughter, in the cleavage of a young woman who was one of the actresses so loved by the Prince and his circle. ‘Would it worry you, Anne, if I said that Major Sharpe will be dead by morning?’
    ‘Will he?’
    He looked at her, his eyes shamelessly staring at her body beneath its sheath of silk. ‘Did you know, Anne, that there was a report that he was hanged this summer?’
    ‘Hanged?’
    ‘It turned out to be false. So his death is overdue. Does it worry you? Did you like him?’
    ‘I talked to him, that was all.’
    ‘And no doubt he was flattered.’ Fenner stared into her eyes. ‘Don’t try and warn him, Anne. Not unless you want me to foreclose on the Gloucester estate.’ He smiled, knowing he had his victory over her, then dropped a bag at her feet. ‘I’ll let you stoop for that, Anne. It’s your payment for talking to the peasant.’ He gave her the merest hint of a bow. ‘If both my lanterns are lit when you go home, do come to see me.’ He walked away from her, going towards the revellers about the waterfall.
    Anne, Dowager Countess of Camoynes, moved so that the hem of her dress hid the bag, then, when no one seemed to be watching, she bent quickly and picked it up. It was damp. It must, she thought, contain jewels from the garden pools, jewels that would help her pay off the debt that her husband’s death had bequeathed to her and which she paid in Fenner’s bed. She paid so that her only son, away at school, could inherit his father’s estates. She hated Fenner and she despised herself, and she could see no escape from the trap that her dead husband’s profligacy had made for her. No man would marry her, despite her beauty, for her widow’s jointure was the monstrous, hateful debt.
    She turned back into the house, unable to watch the jewels fetched from the water any longer, and she thought of the Rifleman. She had not meant to take Sharpe to her bed, she had not wanted to show any weakness to the gutter-bred soldier, yet she had been astonished by the sudden need to hold onto a man. She had hated Sharpe last night because she could not possess him for ever, because she wanted him, because he was gentle. He was also, she suddenly thought, Fenner’s enemy, and any man who was Lord Fenner’s enemy must be her friend.
    Tonight, if Fenner was right, Sharpe would die. Lady Camoynes paused, the damp bag of stones in her hand, and dreamed suddenly of revenge. If Sharpe survived this night, if he proved he could win this one battle over her enemy, then perhaps he would be a worthy ally for total victory. She turned to stare into the garden and her embittered, thin face smiled. She would have an ally, a soldier, a hero, so she would take the risk and have her vengeance if only, on this night of laughter and luxury, her soldier lived.

    Richard Sharpe walked into a bad place. He did it knowingly, deliberately, and without fear.
    It was called a rookery, one of many in London, but this was as foul a rookery as any the city could boast. The houses were tiny, crammed together, and built so flimsily that sometimes, without any apparent cause, they slumped into the alleyways in a thunderous cascade of timber, bricks and tiles that killed the people who lived a dozen to a room. This was a place of disease, poverty, hunger, and filth beyond reason. It was Sharpe’s home.
    He had lived in this rookery as a child. He had learned his first skills here, how to pick locks and open barred