and riding breeches, bandoliers, puttees and issue boots. They had
forty fat and healthy pack, mules, four Maxim machine, guns and Eccles
had trained teams to serve them.
Acheson had approved Sean's request to use Charlestown as a base.
He had arranged rail transport south to this tiny village near the
Natal border, promised support from the big flying columns in the area,
and informed Sean that he was expecting big things from him. He made
it sound like a threat.
'But, darling, you haven't even been given a real uniform. You look so
drab.' Candy, who was watching him dress from the double bed, held
very definite views on what constituted a real uniform. It had gold
lace and fragging with, say a Star of the Garter on a rich scarlet
ground. ' Look at those buttons, they're not even shiny.'
'Boers like shiny things, makes for good shooting in the sun. ' Sean
glanced over his shoulder at her. Her hair was fluffed into golden
disorder and the blue gown was arranged to provoke rather than conceal.
Hastily Sean reMmed his eyes to his own reflection in the full-length
mirror and brushed the hair back along his temples. A touch of grey in
it now. Quite dignified, he decided. Pity about the nose.
He took it between his fingers and straightened it, a hell of a nose,
but when he released his grip it returned immediately to a half, cock
position.
'Well, I'll be leaving you now,' he said, and she stood up quickly and
the laughter was gone from her lips, they trembled a little.
'I'll come down with you.' She arranged the gown quickly.
'No. ' 'Yes, I have a farewell present for you.
In the hotel yard, hitched behind four fat mules, was a scotch cart She
led him to it and lifted the tarpaulin cover.
'A few things I thought you might need. ' Against the cold she had
provided a sheepskin coat, six fine woollen blankets and a silk
eiderdown, two feather pillows and a mattress; a case of Courvoisier
brandy and a case of Veuve Clicquot champagne. Against starvation
there was potted salmon, strawberry jam, caviar in little glass jars,
tinned delicacies all carefully packed in wooden boxes. For his health
a medicine chest complete with a set of surgical instruments.
Against the Boer there was a
'Ibledo steel sabre in a leather scabbard worked with silver and a
matched pair of Colt revolvers in a mahogany presentation case.
'Candy . . . ' Sean stumbled. 'I don't know what to say.'
She smiled a little and took his arm, hugging it. 'There's something
else also.' She nodded to one of the grooms, who disappeared into the
stables and led out a full, blooded Arab stallion with an English
hunting saddle on its back.
'My God!' exclaimed Sean, and the stallion danced sideways so that the
early sun glowed on the sheen of its coat. It flared with great pink
pits of its nostrils and rolled its eyes before rearing high and
dragging the groom off his feet.
'Candy, my dear,' Sean repeated.
'Good, bye, Sean.' She lifted her lips for his kiss and then broke
away and almost ran back to the hotel.
