Sharpe's Havoc

six feet, but seemed taller. He was a big man, not fat, just big, with’a strong face and quick eyes and a swift smile. „If I was a Spaniard,” he said, „and I nightly thank the good Lord that I am not, then I would call myself something dramatic. The Slaughterman, perhaps, or the Pig Sticker or the Prince of Death”-he was talking of the partisan leaders who made French life so miserable-”but I am a humble citizen of Portugal so my nickname is the Schoolteacher.”

„The Schoolteacher,” Sharpe repeated.

„Because that is what I was,” Lopes responded energetically. „I owned a school in Braganga where I taught ungrateful little bastards English, Latin, Greek, algebra, rhetoric and horsemanship. I also taught them to love God, honor the King and fart in the face of all Spaniards. Now, instead of wasting my breath on halfwits, I kill Frenchmen.” He offered Sharpe an extravagant bow. „I am famous for it.”

„I’ve not heard of you,” Sharpe said.

Lopes just smiled at the challenge. „The French have heard of me, senhor,” he said, „and I have heard about you. Who is this Englishman who lives safe north of the Douro? Why do the French leave him in peace? Who is the Portuguese officer who lives in his shadow? Why are they here? Why are they making a toy fort on the watchtower hill? Why are they not fighting?”

„Good questions,” Sharpe said dryly, „all of them.”

Lopes looked at the Quinta again. „Everywhere else in Portugal, senhor, where the French have left their dung, they have destroyed places like this. They have stolen the paintings, broken the furniture and drunk the cellars dry. Yet the war does not come to this house?” He turned to stare down the driveway where some twenty or thirty men had appeared. „My pupils,” he explained, „they need rest.”

The „pupils” were his men, a ragged band with which Lopes had been ambushing the French columns that carried ammunition to the gunners who fought against the Portuguese troops still holding the bridge at Amarante. The Schoolteacher had lost a good few men in the fights and admitted that his early successes had made him too confident until, just two days before, French dragoons had caught his men in open ground. „I hate those green bastards,” Lopes growled, „hate them and their big swords.” Nearly half his men had been killed and the rest had been lucky to escape. „So I brought them here,” Lopes said, „to recover, and because the Quinta do Zedes seems like a safe haven.”

Kate bridled when she heard Lopes wanted his men to stay at the house. „Tell him to take them to the village,” she said to Sharpe, and Sharpe carried her suggestion to the Schoolteacher.

Lopes laughed when he heard the message. „Her father was a pompous bastard too,” he said.

„You knew him?”

„I knew of him. He made port but wouldn’t drink it because of his stupid beliefs, and he wouldn’t take off his hat when the sacrament was carried past. What kind of a man is that? Even a Spaniard takes off his hat for the blessed sacraments.” Lopes shrugged. „My men will be happy in the village.” He drew on a filthy-smelling cigar. „We’ll only stay long enough to heal the worst wounds. Then we go back to the fight.”

„Us too,” Sharpe said.

„You?” The Schoolteacher was amused. „Yet you don’t fight now?”

„Colonel Christopher ordered us to stay here.”

„Colonel Christopher?”

„This is his wife’s house,” Sharpe said.

„I did not know he was married,” Lopes responded.

„You know him?”

„He came to see me in Braganga. I still owned the school then and I had a reputation as a man of influence. So the Colonel comes calling. He wanted to know if sentiment in Braganca was in favor of fighting the French and I told him that sentiment in Braganga was in favor of drowning the French in their own piss, but if that was not possible then we would fight them instead. So we do.” Lopes paused. „I also heard that the Colonel had money for anyone willing to fight against them, but we never saw any.” He turned and looked at the house. „And his wife owns the Quinta? And the French don’t touch the place?”

„Colonel Christopher,” Sharpe said, „talks to the French, and right now he’s south of the Douro where he’s taken a Frenchman to speak with the British General.”

Lopes stared at Sharpe for a few heartbeats. „Why would a French officer be talking to the British?” he asked and waited for Sharpe to answer, then did so himself when the rifleman was silent. „For one reason only,” Lopes suggested, „to make peace. Britain is going to run away, leave us to suffer.”

„I don’t know,” Sharpe said.

„We’ll beat them with you or without you,” Lopes said angrily and stalked down the drive, shouting at his men to bring his horse, pick up their baggage and follow him to the village.

The meeting with Lopes only made Sharpe feel more guilty. Other men were fighting while he did nothing and that night, after supper, he asked to speak with Kate. It was late and Kate had sent the servants back to the kitchen and Sharpe waited for her to call one back to act as her chaperone, but instead she led him into the long parlor. It was dark, for no candles were lit, so Kate went to one of the windows and pulled back its curtains to reveal a pale, moonlit night. The wisteria seemed to glow in the silver light. The boots of a sentry crunched on the driveway. „I know what you’re going to say,” Kate said, „that it’s time for you to go.”

„Yes,” Sharpe said, „and I think you should come with us.”

„I must wait for James,” Kate said. She went to a sideboard and, by the light of the moon, poured a glass of port. „For you,” she said.

„How long did the Colonel say he would be?” Sharpe asked.

„A week, maybe ten days.”

„It’s been more than two weeks,” Sharpe said, „very nearly three.”

„He ordered you to wait here,” Kate said.

„Not through eternity,” Sharpe replied. He went to the sideboard and took the port which was Savages’ finest.

„You can’t leave me here,” Kate said.

„I don’t intend to,” Sharpe said. The moon made a shadow of her cheek and glinted from her eyes and he felt a pang of jealousy for Colonel Christopher. „I think you should come.”

„No,” Kate said with a note of petulance, then turned a pleading face to Sharpe. „You can’t leave me here alone!”

„I’m a soldier,” Sharpe said, „and I’ve waited long enough. There’s supposed to be a war in this country, and I’m just sitting here like a lump.”

Kate had tears in her eyes. „What’s happened to him?”

„Maybe he got new orders in Lisbon,” Sharpe suggested.

„Then why doesn’t he write?”

„Because we’re in enemy country now, ma’am,” Sharpe said brutally, „and maybe he can’t get a message to us.” That was very unlikely, Sharpe thought, because Christopher seemed to have plenty of friends among the French. Perhaps the Colonel had been arrested in Lisbon. Or killed by partisans. „He’s probably waiting for you to come south,” he said instead of voicing those thoughts.

„He would send a message,” Kate protested. „I’m sure he’s on his way.”

„Are you?” Sharpe asked.

She sat on a gilt chair, staring out of the window. „He must come back,” she said softly and Sharpe could tell from her tone that she had virtually given up hope.

„If you think he’s coming back,” he said, „then you must wait for him. But I’m taking my men south.” He would leave the next night, he decided. March in the dark, go south, find the river and search its bank for a boat, any boat. Even a tree trunk would do, anything that could float them across the Douro.

„Do you know why I married him?” Kate suddenly asked.

Sharpe was so astounded by the question that he did not answer. He just gazed at her.

„I married him,” Kate said, „because life in Oporto is so dull. My mother and I live in the big house on the hill and the lawyers tell us what happens in the vineyards and the lodge, and the other ladies come to tea, and we go to the English church on Sundays and that is all that ever happens.”

Sharpe still said nothing. He was embarrassed.

„You think he married me for the money, don’t you?” Kate demanded.