‘No sir,’ Michael and Paul mumbled.
‘Come over here and let me smell your breath. Do it!’
Both of them hurried over to Captain Liversage and opened their mouths. He sniffed at each man’s mouth and then stepped back from them.
‘Good, you half-wits are at least sober. No hint of rum nor gin nor beer there.’
He locked a withering stare into each man’s eyes in turn, and the power of his wrath was paralysing in its intensity. Even Michael, with his imposing stature, broad shoulders and powerful build, seemed to wilt before the older man’s authority. Liversage let the weight of his anger sink in for a few uncomfortably drawn-out seconds, before he eventually let up and stepped back to speak in a more subdued tone of voice.
‘I’ll let you fools off this time, but by God if I catch any other troopers laying hands on one other, you’ll be flogged to within an inch of your lives. Save your damned strength for the Russians!’
‘Yes sir!’ both men shouted, a little too loudly to effectively mask their discomfort.
‘Stand down and go on about your business, whatever it may be,’ Liversage muttered, glowering at the two of them until they slunk away with their tails between their legs.
The captain then walked over to William as Michael and Paul climbed sheepishly into their cots, both stinging from the vehemence of the chastisement they had just received.
‘Private Gisborne, do you remember what we talked about on the day of the battle of the Alma?’
‘Aye, sir.’
‘Excellent. Well, my poor batman, Lieutenant Bowker, has this very morning left this world as a result of cholera. I’ll be needing a new aide immediately, and I do believe you’d do quite nicely. Pack your things and report to my tent in an hour. From now on you’ll be staying by my side for the duration of this war.’
William was at once too taken aback to be able to respond with anything other than a surprised ‘yes sir’.
‘Good man, good man,’ Captain Liversage said. ‘At ease, troopers. I’ll be on my way now. Good day to you!’
‘Good day tae you too, sir!’ they all shouted in unison.
As soon as Captain Liversage strolled out of the tent, William and his friends sat down, the air abruptly crisp with a sense of buzzing excitement.
‘What’s this now, Will?’ Andrew asked, his voice chirpy with surprise and excitement. ‘You’re off tae become Captain Liversage’s batman?’
‘Aye,’ replied William. ‘I dunnae why he picked me, but while we were waiting tae charge at the Alma, he just came over an’ told me he’d like me tae be his batman, on account ay my horsemanship, he said.’
‘Well that’s no surprise,’ Paul said. ‘You’re the best rider in the regiment, I’ll wager.’
‘You certainly are, lad,’ added Michael, who had calmed down rather quickly after Captain Liversage had threatened him with a flogging.
‘I hope I can live up tae whatever expectation’s he’s got ay me,’ William said, with more than a smidgen of doubt clouding his words.
‘You will, boyo,’ Andrew said, placing a reassuring hand on William’s shoulder and giving it a squeeze. ‘I’ve no doubt in my mind ay that. Now get going wi’ yer packing! You wouldnae want tae make a bad impression on the captain by arriving late now, would you?’
***
Half an hour later William had packed his things and was walking across the camp with his possessions when a gruff, abrasive voice barked out his name from amidst the packed mass of soldiers, horses and tents.
‘Gisborne! What in all seven hells are you doing?!’
William turned around and saw Sergeant Fray transfixing him with a look of flagrant disbelief, flavoured liberally with bristling rage.
‘Answer me, blast you!’ Fray yelled. ‘Where are you taking your things?! Are you trying to desert?! You are, aren’t you?! Thinking you could bloody run off in the middle of the day, just like that?! You’ll be swinging from the gallows before the sun sets, you cowardly—’
‘Sergeant Fray!’
Captain Liversage trotted over on his horse and fired a scathing stare at the sergeant from atop his mount. Fray froze in his tracks, regarding Liversage with an expression of confusion contorting his ruddy, rough-hewn features.
‘Why in God’s name are you harassing my new batman, Sergeant?’ Liversage demanded.
A crash of biting embarrassment, laced heavily with disbelief, slugged Sergeant Fray square in the face.
‘Your new … I, er, he’s, sir, he was…’
‘He’s moving his things to my tent, which I ordered him to do, Sergeant. You wouldn’t be interfering with my orders now, would you?’
‘N-, no sir.’
Sergeant Fray stood stiff and still, and he spoke through tightly clenched teeth, staring blankly into the distance and refusing to make eye contact with either William or Captain Liversage. Liversage trotted over to Fray and walked his horse in a slow and deliberate circle around the sergeant as he spoke to him in a soft yet unmistakably threatening tone.
‘Good. That is good indeed, Sergeant. You see, I certainly wouldn’t want to have to discipline you in front of all the men for interfering with my orders. No, no, that would not do. It would certainly not do to humiliate you before your entire squadron, not at all. Such an act would grievously pain me, yes, it would, but sometimes such things are necessary for the greater good. Will you be requiring a public disciplining, Sergeant Fray? Will you man?! I’m asking you! Answer me, damn you!’
‘No sir!’ Fray shouted hoarsely, choking on the impotence of his barely contained fury and frustration.
‘I didn’t quite hear you, Sergeant, would you kindly repeat yourself?’
‘I said, I’ll not be interfering wiff your orders, sir.’
Sergeant Fray’s knuckles were ice-white, the bones threatening to erupt through the liver-spotted skin of his rough hands. He was trembling with anger, and his utter inability to do anything about his humiliation only served to further fan the flames of his wrath.
‘And you will not be interfering with the duties of my batman,
