![]() ![]() Tommy-Ray's glance flitted first to his mother, who was standing at the kitchen door, barring it, then to her guest.Ī lieutenant told Jim Tile not to worry, they'd never make it out of the Keys. His eyes had a vile sheen about them a sheen Pastor John had seen in the eyes of people about to die. Both the bolts and the lock were unseated. His demand was followed by the sound of splintering wood as he kicked at the door. I have to see her and you're not going to stop me, Tommy-Ray raged. I told you never to come back into this house! she yelled at Zeffer.Didn't I? By noon they were gathered, the citizens of Popolac and Podujevo, in the secret well of the hills, hidden from civilized eyes, to do ancient and ceremonial battle. At the edge of the circle he paused, head hanging limply, shoulders slumped, and sobbed his frustration long and rackingly. ![]() And that was why the tall, good-looking, hard-eyed private called Richard Sharpe was thinking of running.ĭragosani howled like a banshee and drew out his arm from the quag, then crawled away from the shuddering, belching hole as the ground quickly settled into quiescence. Which was why he had brought Sergeant Hakeswill into the company. Now, five years later, on an Indian field, the 33rd again marched towards an enemy, though instead of the enthusiastic and generous Captain Hughes, the Light Company was now commanded by Captain Morris who did not care how clever or quick his men were, only that they gave him no trouble. Captain Hughes was dead now, killed by a bowel-loosening flux in Calcutta, but in his time Hughes had prided himself on having the quickest, smartest men in his company, men he could trust to fight alone in the skirmish line, and it had been Hughes's tragedy that he had only ever seen his picked men face an enemy once, and that once had been the misbegotten, fever-ridden expedition to the foggy island off the coast of Flanders where no amount of quick-wittedness by the men could salvage success from the commanding general's stupidity. He knew, too, that he was the tallest man in the Light Company, so tall, indeed, that he should have been in the Grenadier Company that led the battalion's advance, but when he had first joined the regiment, six years before, the commanding officer of the Light Company had insisted on having Sharpe in his ranks. Sharpe had no conception of how he looked, for he rarely saw a mirror and when he did the reflected image meant nothing, though he did know that the ladies liked him and that he liked them. Sharpe was ignorant of the Lieutenant's glance and would have laughed had he been told that his very appearance inspired confidence. Ashiant laughed.I doubt you mean that, lads, so I'll give advance notice. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |