Sharpes Havoc   ::   Корнуэлл Бернард

„I married him,” Kate said, „because life in Oportois 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.

„Don’t you?” Sharpe responded.

She stared at him in silence and he half expected her to be angry, but instead she shook her head and sighed. „I dare not believe that,” she said, „though I do believe marriage is a gamble and we don’t know how it will turn out, but we still just hope. We marry in hope, Mister Sharpe, and sometimes we’re lucky. Don’t you think that’s true?”

„I’ve never married,” Sharpe evaded the answer.

„Have you wanted to?” Kate asked.

„Yes,” Sharpe said, thinking of Grace.

„What happened?”

„She was a widow,” Sharpe said, „and the lawyers were making hay with her husband’s will, and we thought that if she married me it would only complicate things. Her lawyers said so. I hate lawyers.” He stopped talking, hurt as he always was by the memory. He drank the port to cover his feelings, then walked to the window and stared down the moonlit drive to where the smoke of the village fires smeared the stars above the northern hills. „In the end she died,” he finished abruptly.

„I’m sorry,” Kate said in a small voice.

„And I hope it turns out well for you,” Sharpe said.

„Do you?”

„Of course,” he said, then he turned to her and he was so close that she had to tilt her head back to see him. „What I really hope,” he said, „is this,” and he bent and kissed her very tenderly on the lips, and for a half-second she stiffened and then she let him kiss her and when he straightened she lowered her head and he knew she was crying. „I hope you’re lucky,” he said to her.

Kate did not look up. „I must lock the house,” she said, and Sharpe knew he was dismissed.

He gave his men the next day to get ready. There were boots to be repaired and packs and haversacks to be filled with food for the march. Sharpe made sure every rifle was clean, that the flints were new and that the cartridge boxes were filled.