Royal Flash

I smiled modestly at Miss Rosanna, who was looking at me wide-eyed.

'The defender of Piper's Fort!' cries the sergeant.

'Well, well,' says I, 'it's all right, sergeant.'

'The 'Ector of Afghanistan!' cries the sergeant, who evidently studied the press. 'Damme! Well, 'ere's a go!'

He was beaming all over his face, which didn't suit my denouncer at all. Angrily he demanded that I be arrested.

'He is a fugitive,' he declared. 'He invaded our coach without permission.'

'I don't give a dam' if 'e invaded Buckin'am Palace without permission,' says the sergeant, turning back to me. 'Corporal Webster, sir, Third Guards, under Major Macdonald at 'Ougoumont, sir.'

'Honoured to know you, sergeant,' says I, shaking his hand.

'Honour's mine, sir, 'deed it is. Now then, you, sir, let's 'ave no more of this. You're not English, are you?'

'I am a Prussian officer,' says the man called Otto, 'and I demand—'

'Cap'n Flashman is a British officer, so you don't demand nothink,' says the sergeant. 'Now, then! Let's 'ave no trouble.' He touched his hat to us and gave me a broad wink. 'Wish you good-night, sir, an' you, ma'am.'

I thought the German would have an apoplexy, he looked so wild, and his temper was not helped by the lovely Rosanna's helpless laughter. He stood glaring at her for a moment, biting his lip, and then she controlled herself sufficiently to say:

'Oh, come along, Otto, get into the coach. Oh, dear, oh, dear,' and she began laughing again.

'I am happy you are amused,' says he. 'You make a fool of me: it is of a piece with your conduct of this evening.' He looked thoroughly vicious. 'Very good, madam, perhaps you will regret it.'

'Don't be so pompous, Otto,' says she. 'It's just a joke; come and—'

'I prefer choicer company,' says he. 'That of ladies, for example.' And clapping on his hat he stepped back from the carriage door.

'Oh, the devil fly away with you then!' cried she, suddenly angry. 'Whip up, driver!'

And then I had to open my mouth. Leaning across her, I called to him:

'How dare you talk so to a lady, damn you!' says I. 'You're a foul-mouthed foreign dog!'

I believe if I had kept silent he would have forgotten me, for his temper was concentrated on her. But now he turned those cold eyes on me, and they seemed to bore like drills. For a moment I was frightened of the man; he had murder on his face.

'I shall remember you,' says he. And then, oddly, I saw a look of curiosity come into his eyes, and he stepped a pace closer. Then it was gone, but he was memorising me, and hating me at the same time.

'I shall remember you,' he said a second time, and the coach jerked forward and left him standing by the gutter.

In spite of the momentary fear he had awakened in me, I didn't give a button for his threats—the danger was past, I had recovered my breath, and I could devote my attention to the important question of the beauty alongside me. I had time to examine the splendour of her profile—the broad brow and raven-black hair, the small ever so slightly curved nose, the pouting red cupid's bow, the firm little chin, and the white round breasts pushing themselves impudently up from the red satin gown.

The scent of her perfume, the sidelong look of her dark blue eyes, and the wanton husky Irish voice, were all invitations. As anyone will tell you, put Harry Flashman next to a woman like that and one of two things is inevitable—there will either be screams and slaps, or the lady will surrender. Sometimes both. In this case, just from the look of her, I knew there would be no screaming and slapping, and I was right. When I kissed her it was only a moment before her mouth opened under mine, and I promptly suggested that since my leg was still painful, a woman's touch on it would soothe the cramp out of my muscles. She complied, very teasingly, and with her free hand was remarkably skilful at fending off my advances until the coach reached her house, which was somewhere in Chelsea.

By this time I was in such a state of excitement that I could barely keep my hands still while she dismissed her maid and conducted me to her salon, talking gaily about anything and acting the cool minx. I soon put a stop to that by popping her breasts out the minute the door was closed, and bearing her down on to the settee. Her reaction was startling; in a moment she was grappling with me, digging her nails into me and twining her limbs round mine. The fury of her love-making was almost frightening—I've known eager women, plenty of them, but Miss Rosanna was like a wild animal.

The second time, later in the night, was even more feverish than the first. We were in bed by then, and I had no clothing to protect me from her biting and raking nails; I protested, but it was like talking to a mad woman. She even began to leather me with something hard and heavy—a hair-brush, I believe—and by the time she had stopped writhing and moaning I felt as though I had been coupling with a roll of barbed wire.[6] I was bruised, scratched, bitten, and stabbed from neck to backside.

In between, she was a different creature, gay, talkative, witty, and of a gentleness to match her voice and looks. I learned that she was Marie Elizabeth Rosanna James, no less, the wife of a fellow-officer who was conveniently out of town on garrison duty. Like myself, she was recently returned from India, where he had been stationed; she found life in London deadly dull; such friends as she knew were stiff and boring; there was hardly any of the bright life she craved; she wished she was back in India, or anywhere she might have some fun. That was why my appearance in her carriage had been so welcome; she had spent a preposterously dull evening with her husband's relatives, escorted by the German Otto, whom she found stuffy to a degree.

'Just the sight of a man who looked as though he had some— oh, some spunk in him—was enough for me,' says she. 'I wouldn't have turned you over to the police, my dear, not if you had been a murderer. And it was a chance to take down that conceited Prussian muff—would you believe that a man who looks so splendid could have ice and vinegar in his veins?'

'Who is he?' I asked.

'Otto? Oh, one of these Germans making the Grand Tour in reverse. Sometimes I think there's a bit of the devil in him, but he keeps it well hid; he behaves so properly because like all foreigners he likes to impress the English. Tonight, just to try and breathe some life into that collection of prigs, I offered to show them a Spanish dance—you would have thought I'd said something indecent. They didn't even say, 'Oh, my dear!' Just turned their heads to one side, the way these English women do, as though they were going to be sick.' She tossed her head enchantingly, kneeling on the bed like a naked nymph. 'But I saw the glitter in Otto's eyes, just for an instant. I'll be bound he's not so prim among the German wenches at Schonhausen, or wherever it is.'

I thought there was too much of Otto, and said so.

'Oh, yes, are you jealous, then?' says she, sticking out her lip at me. 'You've made a bad enemy there, my dear. Or is the famous Captain Flashman careless of enemies?'

'They don't concern me, German, French, or nigger,' says I. 'I don't think much of your Otto at all.'

'Well, you should,' says she, teasing. 'For he's going to be a great man some day—he told me so. 'I have a destiny', he said. 'What's that?' I asked him, 'To rule', says he. So I told him I had ambitions, too—to live as I please, love as I please, and never grow old. He didn't think much of that, I fancy; he told me I was frivolous, and would be disappointed. Only the strong, he said, could afford ambitions. So I told him I had a much better motto than that.'

'What was that?' says I, reaching out for her, but she caught my hands and held them apart, looking wicked.

''Courage—and shuffle the cards',' says she.

'Damned sight better motto than his,' says I, pulling her down on top of me. 'And I'm a greater man than he is, anyway.'

'Prove it—again,' said Miss Rosanna, biting at my chin. And, at the cost of more scratches and bruises, I did.

That was the beginning of our affair, and a wild, feverish one it was, but it couldn't last long. For one thing, she was so demanding a mistress that she came near to wearing me out, and if she was a novelty, she was one I didn't altogether enjoy. She was too imperious, and I prefer softer women who understand that it is my pleasure that counts. Not with Miss Rosanna, though; she used men. It was like being eaten alive,