Company Of Spears

morning, and here, as they walked alongside the Physic Garden.

‘Matthew, dearest, one thing intrigues me about Lady Lankester – by the way, what is her name? You have not said.’ (As he had not said a lot of things, she felt like adding.)

Hervey changed hands with the whip as he came up on the offside of Kat’s mare, having at last got the young gelding round a hay-cart athwart the road. ‘Kezia.’

‘Heavens!’ She kicked herself: it really wouldn’t do to make any disparaging comment, no matter how provoked. ‘What I wanted to ask, what intrigued me, is why did Lady Lankester – Kezia – why did she accept at once when the acquaintance was so slight? Oh, don’t mistake me, Matthew: I can think of no reason why any woman should not at once accept an offer of marriage from you—’

‘Kat, really, you—’

‘No, Matthew, I do not jest. You are a most eligible man.’ She would not add ‘except in fortune’, for she did not wish him bruised at this stage. ‘But widowhood with a good name and adequate means would be a very respectable situation for her. Was she, do you know, predisposed to affection towards you; had she a tendresse?

Hervey sighed, inwardly. It was a question he had asked himself; but that was very different from discussing the matter with Kat. ‘In truth, I don’t think I can say, except that perhaps Kezia Lankester is a woman of very decided … spirit. She went out to India with Sir Ivo, after all.’

‘I would have travelled to India had you asked me, Matthew.’

‘Kat!’

She loosed the reins a little, giving the mare a chance to stretch her neck after the collection of the previous half-hour. ‘You do not suppose she wishes to become colonel’s wife once more? I know what a powerful hold the prospect of command has for a man; does it, I wonder, extend to the female of the species?’

‘Really, Kat, that is quite outrageous! I never thought it for a moment.’

‘And she will not know, yet, of your disappointment in that regard.’

‘Stop it!’

‘Then we suppose that we do not in truth know why Lady Lankester accepted. “Le Coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connattpoint.”’

Hervey smiled. ‘Bonnes “Pensees”.’

Kat smiled too. ‘You can be really quite clever, Major Hervey.’

He held the smile. He rather enjoyed being clever in Kat’s company.

She had been turning something else over in her mind, however, and she now judged it the time. ‘Your going to the Cape Colony, Matthew: a year, you say?’

‘That is what Eyre Somervile proposes. But the Horse Guards will have to approve it first’ (he smiled again) ‘though Somervile thinks he can bend the commander-in-chief to his will.’

‘I think it a capital idea. I think being second horse to Hol’ness – though he’s a fine man, I know well enough – would be vexing for you in the extreme.’

Hervey was surprised. He had considered this news to be as objectionable to her as the first, and when he had told her, at supper, she had seemed to confirm his fears. ‘You are very percipient, Kat. But I must say once more that this egg may miss the pudding just as did the first.’

Kat said nothing. But she had no intention of letting this egg break other than to her lover’s advantage – and thereby to hers.

Hervey was determined that in the business of the Cape – unlike the business of command – he would not waste a moment in advancing his cause. And an ideal opportunity had arisen that morning, for he had received a letter from General Tarleton asking him to call at the United Service Club, where Hervey’s newest supporter was staying for two nights on matters touching on his old regiment and the Horse Guards.

It was, too, a most promising meeting. The general’s manner was cordial throughout, and when Hervey revealed his disappointment in failing to secure command, Tarleton commiserated with him in the strongest terms, saying that it was the fault of a dozen years’ peace: he would have him command his own regiment had it not been so disgracefully disbanded! Indeed, he explained, it was in connection with this very matter that he intended calling this day on the ‘new commander-in-chief’, the Duke of Wellington (whom he referred to throughout as ‘Wellesley’ in much the way that a colonel might refer to a favourite cornet), for was it not time to re-raise every regiment of light cavalry that had so usefully extended the Line, now that Ireland looked set for trouble once more and so many regiments of Foot were being sent to the colonies?

Hervey had seen no immediate prospects for himself in such a petition – certainly not within a year at least – but he had recognized an opportunity to advance his ‘Africa suit’. He did not know quite how these things were arranged between senior officers – he did not need to, only that they were – but he believed that General Tarleton might prevail on the Horse Guards to assign the duty to him. Indeed, it was in all probability but a mere detail, to be attended to in passing; perhaps a matter for the staff only and not the duke.

Tarleton had appeared delighted by the request. He thought it a capital idea that Hervey should have the Cape commission: he would be glad to recommend him to the duke, and gave his opinion in the most decided terms that the duke would at once concur. And Hervey had felt much relieved that his future lay in the hands of such an eminent soldier. He decided therefore not to call on Lord John Howard: that would be better left until the morning, after the general had visited. He returned instead to Hounslow, but with a vastly lighter heart than he had come up with the night before.

XIII

FRIENDS AT COURT

Next morning

Shortly after eleven o’clock Hervey was shown into a waiting room at the Horse Guards by a civilian clerk who eyed him as if he might be dangerous. He was puzzled: it was, after all, a perfectly routine visit – not even official, merely a call on the assistant quartermaster-general, Lieutenant-Colonel Lord John Howard. After not too long, however, his old friend appeared, with a man he did not recognize. Hervey, in a plain coat (he was visiting privately), rose.

‘Lord Hol’ness, may I present Major Hervey.’

Hervey bowed.

‘Major Hervey, I am excessively glad to meet you at last,’ said Lord Holderness, with an easy smile and hand outstretched.

Hervey observed a man perhaps five years his senior, a little shorter than he, with fine, almost pretty, features, black hair cut quite short, an active sort of frame, and wearing the undress of the 4th Dragoon Guards, in which regiment he had been senior major, though for the last two years he had been on half pay, attending to his estates in Yorkshire. ‘Good afternoon,Colonel.’

‘I wish I had known you were to come. I have to be back in the House, presently. I am here simply to pay my respects.’

‘And I to see my old friend, here. But this is very opportune nevertheless, Colonel. Might I take five minutes of your time? There are two things of some moment that would benefit from an early decision.’

Lord Holderness looked at his watch. ‘If you press me, Major Hervey. They are not matters you are able to decide as acting in command?’

‘One of them is not; the other is the regimental colonel’s business, but he would expect your opinion.’

‘Very well, of course.’

Hervey told him the circumstances of RSM Hairsine’s ‘field promotion’ and the vacancy occasioned by Captain Snagge’s sudden resignation, recommending that Lord George Irvine be advised to appoint Vanneck to the