Lawford spoke brusquely, then stopped abruptly because they had gone into the stable yard where Captain Vicente was trying to calm Sarah Fry, who was now wearing one of Beatriz Ferreira’s dresses, a concoction of black silk that Major Ferreira’s wife had worn when mourning the death of her mother. Sarah had taken the dress gratefully enough, but was repelled by its ugliness and was only placated when she was assured that it was the only garment left in the house. Lawford, oblivious to the dress and noticing simply that she was damned attractive, took off his hat and bowed to her.
Sarah ignored the Colonel, turning on Sharpe instead. ‘They took everything!’
‘Who?’ Sharpe asked. ‘What?’
‘My trunk! My clothes! My books!’ Her money had disappeared too, but she said nothing of that, instead she demanded, in fluent Portuguese from a stable boy whether her trunk really had been left on the cart. It had ‘Everything!’ she said to Sharpe.
‘Allow me to present Miss Fry, sir,’ Sharpe said. ‘This is Colonel Lawford, miss, our commanding officer.’
‘You’re English!’ Lawford said brightly.
‘They took everything!’ Sarah rounded on the stable boy and screamed at him, though it was hardly his fault.
‘Miss Fry, sir, was the governess here,’ Sharpe explained over the noise, ‘and somehow got left behind when the family left.’
‘The governess, eh?’ Lawford’s enthusiasm for Sarah Fry noticeably diminished as he understood her status. ‘You’d best ready yourself to leave the city, Miss Fry,’ he said. ‘The French will be here in a day or two!’
‘I have nothing!’ Sarah protested.
Harper, who had brought the Colonel and his entourage to the house, now led Lawford’s four horses into the yard. ‘You want me to rub Lightning down, sir?’ he asked the Colonel.
‘My fellows will do that. You’d best get back to Captain Slingsby.’
‘Yes, sir, at once, sir, of course, sir,’ Harper said, not moving.
‘Everything!’ Sarah wailed. The cook came into the yard and shouted at the English girl to be silent and Sarah, in fury, turned on her.
‘If you’ll permit it, sir,’ Sharpe said, raising his voice over the din, ‘Major Forrest told me to find some turpentine. He wants it to ruin the salt meat, sir, and Sergeant Harper will be a great help to me.’
‘A help?’ Lawford, distracted by Sarah’s grief and the cook’s protest, was not really paying attention.
‘He’s a better sense of smell than me, sir,’ Sharpe said.
‘He’s a better sense of…’ the Colonel began to ask, then frowned at Sarah who was shouting at the cook in Portuguese. ‘Do whatever you want, Sharpe,’ Lawford said, ‘whatever you want, and for God’s sake take Miss whatever-her-name-is away, will you?’
‘He promised to take the trunk off the wagon!’ Sarah appealed to Lawford. She was angry and, because he was a colonel, she seemed to expect him to do something.
‘I’m sure it can all be sorted out,’ Lawford said, ‘things usually can. Will you escort Miss, er, the lady away, Sharpe? Perhaps the battalion wives can assist her. You really do have to leave, my dear.’ The Colonel knew he would get no sleep while this woman protested about her missing possessions. Any other time he would have been happy enough to entertain her, for she was a pretty young thing, but he needed some rest. He ordered his servants to carry his valise upstairs, told Lieutenant Knowles to post a pair of sentries on the house and another pair in the stable yard, then turned away, immediately looking back. ‘And about that proposition of yours, Sharpe,’ he said. ‘Don’t do anything rash.’
‘About the turpentine, sir?’
‘You know exactly what I mean,’ Lawford said testily. ‘The Portuguese, Sharpe, the Portuguese. Oh, my God!’ This last was because Sarah had begun to cry.
Sharpe tried to soothe her, but she was devastated by the loss of her trunk and her small savings. ‘Miss Fry,’ Sharpe said, and she ignored him. ‘Sarah!’ He put his hands gently on her shoulders. ‘You’ll get everything back!’
She stared up at him, said nothing.
‘I’ll sort Ferragus out,’ Sharpe said, ‘if he’s still here.’
‘He is!’
‘Then calm down, lass, and leave it to me.’
‘My name is Miss Fry,’ Sarah said, offended at the ‘lass’.
‘Then calm down, Miss Fry. We’ll get your things back.’
Harper rolled his eyes at the promise. ‘Turpentine, sir.’
Sharpe turned to Vicente. ‘Where will we find turpentine?’
‘The Lord alone knows,’ Vicente said. ‘A timber yard? Don’t they treat timber with it?’
‘So what are you doing now?’ Sharpe asked him.
‘My Colonel gave me permission to go to my parents’ house,’ Vicente said, ‘just to make sure it’s safe.’
‘Then we’ll come with you,’ Sharpe said.
‘There’s no turpentine there,’ Vicente said.
‘Bugger the turpentine,’ Sharpe said, then remembered a lady was present. ‘Sorry, miss. We’re just keeping you safe, Jorge,’ he added, then turned back to Sarah. ‘I’ll take you down to the battalion wives later,’ he promised her, ‘and they’ll look after you.’
‘The battalion wives?’ she asked.
‘The soldiers’ wives,’ Sharpe explained.
‘There are no officers’ wives?’ Sarah asked, jealous of her precarious position. A governess might be a servant, but she was a privileged one. ‘I expect to be treated with respect, Mister Sharpe.’
‘Miss Fry,’ Sharpe said, ‘you can walk down the hill now and you can find an officer’s wife. There are some. None in our battalion, but you can look, and you’re welcome to try. But we’re looking for turpentine and if you want protection you’d best stay with us.’ He put on his shako and turned away.
‘I’ll stay with you,’ Sarah said, remembering that Ferragus was loose somewhere in the city.
The four of them walked higher into the upper town, going into a district of big, elegant buildings that Vicente explained was the university. ‘It has been here a long time,’ he said reverently, ‘almost as long as Oxford.’
‘I met a man from Oxford once,’ Sharpe said, ‘and killed him.’ He laughed at the shocked expression on Sarah’s face. He was in a strange mood, wanting to work mischief and careless of the consequences. Law-ford could go to hell, he thought, and Slingsby with him, and Sharpe just wanted to be free of them. Damn the army, he thought. He had served it well and it had turned on him, so the army could go to hell as well.
Vicente’s
