Captain Liversage sighed, and there was genuine sympathy in his eyes as he stared at William. It seemed that at that moment some sort of painful memory had reared its head from the still loch that was the captain’s mind. A congealed anguish inched through his veins, and he quickly looked away from William, and clenched his jaw and balled his hands into tight fists to stem the sudden flood of emotion.
‘Love,’ he murmured quietly, his gaze distant. ‘Love is both the greatest and most terrible force known to mankind.’
A stab of pain twist its iron sharpness through William’s core, and he exhaled slowly.
‘That it is, sir. That it is.’
The Captain did not respond for a few drawn-out, deeply introspective moments, and he lost himself in a whirl of memories, leaving the present for at least thirty or forty seconds before he blinked, coughed slightly and looked back into William’s eyes.
‘I’m sorry to hear about the position you’re in, Gisborne. Does this girl love you, truly?’
William did not hesitate for a moment in his answer.
‘With all her heart, sir. I know it wi’out a shadow ay a doubt.’
With a barely perceptible nod, Captain Liversage smiled sadly.
‘There was one I once loved with all my heart and soul too, lad. But society’s … rules and prejudices did not allow us to be together.’
‘I’m sorry tae hear that, sir.’
‘Yes lad, it was a sad and tragic tale. Perhaps I shall tell you of it sometime, but not now. I will say, though, that I hope that your story does not end up as mine did.’
Liversage’s eyes glistened in the light with the sting of fresh tears, and he turned away from William, who also felt a burning at the corners of his eyes, and a tight knot balling in his throat as sadness twisted its jagged blade in his guts.
‘I hope that it ends well, sir. I pray for that every night.’
The words came out as a half-choked whisper. Captain Liversage was silent for some time, his mind returning to the mists of the past again before he replied. When he turned to face William, the pain and longing had vanished from his eyes, and his countenance was now neutral, his eyes veiled in a blankness that verged on stony apathy.
‘I’m sure that you do,’ he said, almost coldly. ‘I suppose you’ll be hoping to somehow be promoted from the ranks and achieve an officer’s commission, then? In order to gain access to the upper strata of society, thus giving you a chance at legally legitimising your love for this lady of the landed classes?’
The tone that the Captain adopted when saying this made William feel embarrassed to admit it, cringing with the acute awareness of his own naivety and foolishness, but admit it he did.
‘Aye sir. Tha’s what I was hoping fir when I joined up.’
An uncomfortable blush flooded his cheeks, and he felt like even more of an idiot for vocalising this impossible dream to an officer. He could not look Captain Liversage in the eye after this, but the scepticism in Liversage’s voice was tempered with kind sympathy.
‘You do realise that the chances of that happening are extremely slim, do you not?’
William stared at the ground, his ears burning with shame.
‘Aye sir,’ he replied, his voice cracking a little with the loss of hope.
‘Chin up my boy. I said slim, not impossible. Serve me well, and we will see what can be done … in a few years, of course.’
This sliver of fresh hope was enough to perk William up from the gloom of despair.
‘Thank you sir!’ he blurted out, his sudden gush of excitement joyously buoyant. ‘Why, I’ll be the best aide you’ve ever had, sir!’
William looked up and saw that the same childlike sparkle he had seen before was once more aglow in Captain Liversage’s eyes. He was a man of a somewhat shifting temperament, it seemed, which could be a good thing … or rather a bad thing. William wasn’t quite sure what to make of it at the present.
‘Good!’ Captain Liversage said with chirpy enthusiasm. ‘Well my boy, another of your duties is to be my fencing partner. One of my passions in life is swordplay, and such an interest requires strict discipline and a regular routine of practice and drills.’
‘I, er, I’m not too good wi’ a sword, sir,’ William ventured. ‘I mean, I’m a lot better now than I was a few weeks ago, thanks tae Private Smythe givin’ me extra training an’ pointers an’ such—’
Captain Liversage held up a hand to silence William and shot him a sympathetic smile.
‘Not to worry, Private Gisborne! After a few weeks with me you’ll be one of the best swordsmen in the regiment. I have studied under some of the most renowned masters in all of Europe, you know. What that crabby old sergeant has been teaching you is the most bare bones stuff of swordsmanship, and from the sound of it, it has at least been somewhat embellished by your friend Private Smythe … but what I’ll teach you is the art of swordplay. For that’s what it is, Gisborne, an art, as pure and beautiful as any dance … and deadly. I’ll tell you this much: it is no empty boast on my part that I could cut down any man in this regiment in mere seconds, should the need arise. I have been studying this artform with a passionate vigour since I was a young boy. I spent years under the tutelage of the greatest blade masters in Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Prussia and Poland. Since I am nearing the end of my years and have no children of my own to pass my skills on to, I shall pass what I can of the art to you, Gisborne. My previous batman, poor Bowker, was doing well in the acquisition
