Sharpe 3-Book Collection 5: Sharpe's Company, Sharpe's Sword, Sharpe's Enemy (96 page)

‘Stop!’ Hakeswill crouched halfway up the steps, next to the bloody body of the one man who had fought back. ‘Wait, lads, wait.’

He carried his bag of gold in his hand, crept up the stairs, and saw the passageway beyond the door empty. Packs and greatcoats were piled in the passage and, better still, muskets piled against a wall. The muskets had been put there by Sharpe for the final desperate defence of the Castle, muskets captured from Pot-au-Feu’s men and now returned to them.

Hakeswill moved fast. He went left and peered into the inner courtyard and swore silently when he saw the picquet that guarded the southern exit. He went the other way, plucking a greatcoat as he went, and he saw that the courtyard was oddly empty except of French dead and strange, smoking cylinders that lay on the cobbles. He went back to the cellar steps. ‘Coats up here, lads, and muskets. Get one each, then follow me.’ He would go through the courtyard, across the wall, then break right into the thorns. He prepared himself, steeled himself for the rush, planned the route he would take south. He grinned at his fellow deserters, waited for a twitching of his head to stop. ‘They can’t kill me, lads. Nor you, while you’re with me.’

He looked at the daylight in the Castle yard, at the smoking cylinders, at the dead, and he thought only of life. Of his new chance for life. He cackled to himself, and pushed lank hair from his eyes. Obadiah Hakeswill could not be killed. ‘Come on!’

They ran, naked feet slipping on the slick cobbles, but desperation forcing them on. They faced nothing but a firing squad if they were marched westward, and it was better to run into the savage southern hills in this winter than to face the line of muskets in some Portuguese field. They scrambled over the rubble, some hauling themselves by gripping the fallen Spanish gun, and then Hakeswill was in the open, turning right, and a Spanish soldier saw him, was scared of the huge, yellow-faced man who seemed naked beneath his unbuttoned coat, and the Spaniard jerked his unloaded musket into his shoulder.

The movement saved his life. Hakeswill saw only the threat of the bullet, saw the sky-blue uniforms in the thorns behind the man, and he broke left again, into the open valley and led his ragged, dirty band into the clear, clean air of Adrados’ fields. ‘Run!’

They were like rats that had run from a fire only to find themselves ringed by fire. To the left were Fusiliers and Riflemen, to the right the Spaniards who still came through the thorns, and ahead were the French. Already the Spanish were cutting off the deserters, shouting at them to surrender, and even though the Spaniards did not know this was an enemy, they knew that this filthy, villainous crew were not friends.

Hakeswill ran into the open valley, his breath harsh in his ears, his feet numbed by the snow, and he glanced left and saw he had far outrun the Fusiliers, and he thought he saw Sharpe, but that was no concern for this moment, and then he saw the Riflemen beyond Sharpe and he feared their weapons so he cut right, sprinting in desperation, the gold in his greatcoat pocket, the musket heavy in his hand. The French! There was nowhere else to go, nowhere! He would offer his services to the French, desert properly, and though it was not much of a choice it was better than being cut down like a dog in this snowfield. He ran for the nearest Battalion of French infantry, a Battalion that retreated towards the village, and then he heard the hooves behind him.

The hooves had been muffled by the snow and he realized, desperately, that the horseman was close. He turned, toothless mouth aghast with the horror, and he saw the lifted weapon that threatened to crush his skull with a heavy brass hilt and he fumbled with his musket, brought it round as he fell away from the downward stroke, and pulled the trigger.

He laughed maniacally. Death, his master, had not deserted him, and this he had prayed for too! Not this way, perhaps, but he laughed as he saw the bullet lift the rider from the horse, a bullet that went through the lower throat, travelling upwards, and death was as swift as death can be. The body was lifted upwards, the horse swerved away, and the body fell, spread-eagled, thumping onto the snow and the rifle, unloaded, that had threatened his life with its brass-bound butt, fell into the coldness.

Hakeswill paused. It was a moment of sweet victory, a moment to be remembered in the days to come, and he gibbered his victory call at the low clouds and his half-naked body jigged with the joy of it! He had lived! Death was still favouring him! And then he turned and ran for the French ranks. ‘Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!’

Hakeswill would live yet! He staggered into the French Battalion, gasping with pained lungs, and he grinned as his head twitched. He had escaped.

Sharpe had watched Hakeswill break into the open field, had sworn, but then a voice had hailed him from behind and he turned to see Major General Nairn beaming at him from a horse. ‘Sharpe! My dear Sharpe!’

‘Sir!’

Nairn groaned as he slid from the horse. ‘Major Sharpe! You’ve had a full-scale war while my back is turned!’

‘Looks that way, sir.’ Sharpe grinned.

‘You disturb my Christmas, force me to drag weary bones up into the snows of winter!’ He smiled a huge smile. ‘I thought you’d all be gone by now!’

‘It crossed my mind, sir.’

‘Sir Augustus said you’d be dead.’

‘He did?’

Nairn laughed at Sharpe’s tone. ‘I sent him packing with his lady wife. She’s a rare looker, Sharpe!’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Mind you, your lady wife told me she was too fat! Told me something else, too, which I’m sure can’t be true. Something to do with the fact that the lady’s not a lady at all! Can you believe that, Sharpe?’

‘I wouldn’t know, sir.’

Nairn grinned, but said nothing. He was looking at the French back at the village, and he glanced left and right where his first troops had secured the wreckage of the Convent and now reinforced the watchtower hill. Nairn stamped his feet on the ground. ‘I think our froggie friends will call that a day! Don’t you?’ He clapped his hands in delight. ‘They won’t attack again, and in a couple of hours I’ll be in a position to attack them.’ He looked at Sharpe. ‘Well done, Major! Well done!’

‘Thank you, sir.’ Sharpe was not looking at Nairn. He was looking up the valley at a loose horse, at a dark figure on the snow, and his voice was far away, distracted.

‘Sharpe?’

‘Sir?’ But Sharpe was already walking away, and the walk broke into a run, and he still stared at the figure on the snow.

The hair was black against the pure whiteness, long and black. He had seen it like that on a white pillow when she had teasingly raised her head and splayed her hair in a great tempting fan. The blood at her throat was like a broken necklace of rubies, half spilt onto the snow, and her eyes stared unseeing at the clouds.

He knelt beside her, wordless, and he felt the thickness in his throat, the sting of tears in his eyes, and he put his arms about the slim body, raised her, and her head fell backwards so that the big ruby in the hollow of her neck leaked a slow trickle towards her chin. He put a hand under her head, feeling where the cold snow was on her hair, and he pressed her cheek against his and he wept for Teresa was dead.

Her hands were in the snow, cold hands frozen by the ride, yet there was still warmth in her. Warmth that would fade. He held her to him as though he could force life back into the body and he sobbed into the black hair. She had loved him with a pure, simple love that forgave, understood, and she had loved him.

He had no picture of her. She would be a memory that would fade as her warmth would fade, .but would fade over the years, and he would forget the passion that gave life to this face. She had seethed with life. She had been restless and forceful, a killer of the border hills, yet she had a childlike faith in love. She had given herself to him and never doubted the wisdom of the gift as he had sometimes doubted it. She had kept the faith, and she was dead.

He cried, not caring who watched, and he rocked her in his arms and held her tight because he had not held her enough when she lived. They had met through war, war had held them apart, and now war had done this. It should have been himself who died, he thought, not this, and his grief was formless, incoherent, a pain that was betrayed love and filled the universe.

‘Sharpe?’ Nairn touched his shoulder, but Sharpe did not hear, did not see, he only rocked the body in his arms. His left arm was entwined in her hair, gripping it because he did not want to lose her, he did not want to be alone, and she was the mother of his child, his motherless child, and Nairn heard the moan, half howl, that came from Sharpe’s throat. Nairn saw the face of the body and straightened up. ‘Oh God.’

Patrick Harper crouched opposite Sharpe. ‘There’ll be a priest with the Spanish, sir.’ He had to repeat it, and then Sharpe looked up, eyes strange to Harper.

‘What?’

‘A priest, sir. She must be shriven.’

Sharpe appeared not to understand. He was holding Teresa as though Harper would take her away, but then he frowned. ‘After death?’

Harper was not embarrassed by the tears. ‘Aye, sir. It can be done.’ He put out a hand and, with extraordinary gentleness, closed the eyelids. ‘We must send her to heaven, sir. She’d be best laying down, so she would.’ He spoke as if to a child and Sharpe obeyed.

He knelt by the body till the priest came and he was in the confused world of the grief and he babbled promises at her and inside was the insane hope that the eyes would open and she would smile at him, tease him as she used to tease him, but there was no movement in her. Teresa was dead.

Her cloak was open at the waist and he pulled it over her and felt the lump tucked into the sash she wore. He pulled out the cloth bundle, unwrapped it, and he looked at the Rifleman which was his daughter’s present and he did not think it worthy of her so he broke it, tore it, scattered the small shreds on the snow.

He stood unseeing as the priest knelt by the body, as the Latin words whirled over the snow like meaningless, dead things. The wafer was put to dead lips, the sign of the cross made, and Sharpe stared at the face that was so calm and still and utterly without life.

‘Sharpe?’ Nairn touched his elbow. Pointed eastwards.

Dubreton was riding slowly towards them and behind the French Colonel was Sergeant Bigeard, walking, and in Bigeard’s grip once more was Hakeswill. Hakeswill clutched the greatcoat about his nakedness and jerked helplessly against the big Frenchman’s hold.

Dubreton saluted Nairn, spoke softly with him, and then turned to Sharpe who had stepped protectively towards Teresa’s body. ‘Major Sharpe?’

‘Sir?’

‘He did it. We saw it. I give him to you.’ He spoke very simply.

‘He did it?’

‘Yes.’

Sharpe looked at the twitching, yellow-faced man who cringed in fear because Bigeard was holding him towards Sharpe. Sharpe felt the uselessness of the hatred he had for Hakeswill when measured against the pain of this loss. His sword was lying a few feet‘away, dropped there when he had run to the body, but there was no desire to pick it up, to bury it in this lumpen man whose curse had killed the mother of Sharpe’s child. Sharpe wanted this place of her death to be peaceful. ’Sergeant Harper?‘

‘Sir?’

‘Take the prisoner. He’s to live for a firing squad.’

‘Sir.’

The wind stirred the snow in powdery ripples that banked against Teresa’s boots. Sharpe hated this place.

Dubreton spoke again. ‘Major?’

‘Sir?’

‘It’s all over now.’

‘Over, sir?’

Dubreton shrugged. ‘We’re going. You won, Major. You won.’

Sharpe looked uncomprehending at the French Colonel. ‘Won, sir?’

‘You won.’

Won so that a child’s present could be strewn in the snow. Won so that he could feel this pain that was bigger than anything he had ever felt.

By the village Major Ducos watched through his telescope as Sharpe lifted the body from the snow and walked with it towards the Castle. He watched the big Sergeant pick the sword out of the snow and then Ducos snapped the glass shut. He had sworn his revenge on Sharpe, on the Rifleman who had thwarted this winter victory, but revenge, Ducos believed with the Spanish proverb, was a dish best eaten cold. He would wait.

Snow drifted over the broken doll in the Gateway of God.

Christmas was finished.

Sharpe was in the room where it had all started last year. Last year. That seemed strange, but 1813 was already ten days old, Teresa’s death two weeks in the past, the spring would come and with it would come a new campaign.

The fire burned in the same hearth by which Sharpe had learned with such joy of his promotion. There was no joy now.

Wellington looked at Hogan as if for help, but the Major shrugged. The General put levity into his voice. ‘I’ll have to keep those damned rockets, Sharpe. You saw to that.’

Sharpe looked up from the fire. ‘Yes, my Lord.’ He supposed he had seen to that. After their success at Adrados they could hardly be sent back to England. ‘I’m sorry, my Lord.’

‘We’ll fit them in somewhere.’ Wellington paused. ‘As we’ll fit you in somewhere, Major.’ He gave one of his rare smiles. ‘You took a lot on yourself, Sharpe. A whole Battalion under your command!’

Sharpe nodded. ‘Sir Augustus complained I took too much on myself, my Lord.’

Wellington grunted. ‘Good thing you did. What was the matter with the man? Lily-livered?’ His voice was suddenly harsh.

Sharpe shrugged, then decided the truth was better than politeness. ‘Yes, sir.’

‘How did it feel to fight a Battalion? Good?’

‘At times, sir.’

‘Like being a General, eh? Perhaps you’ll find that out, Sharpe.’

‘I doubt it, sir.’

Wellington’s piercing blue eyes watched him. The General stood in muddied boots in front of the fire, the skirts of his riding coat lifted by clasped hands. ‘The glory gets tarnished, yes?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Some people never learn that. They think I enjoy this, but its a job, Sharpe, that’s all, a job. Like being a street-sweeper or a slaughterman. Someone has to do it or the filth will overwhelm us.’ He seemed embarrassed to have said so much.