Forrest looked alarmed, but Hogan had taken charge and the Major did not know how to resist. Hogan took Josefina by the elbow and gave her to Forrest. “Go with Major Forrest and rescue your things. Hurry!”

She stepped to Forrest but turned back to Sharpe. “But where do I spend the night?”

Sharpe cleared his throat. “She can use my room. I can double up with Hogan.”

Forrest twitched at her elbow. “Come on, my dear, we must hurry.” The two of them splashed through the stream and hurried towards the lights of the inn. Hogan watched them go and turned to Sharpe. “Double up with me?”

“It would be best, wouldn’t it?”

“Hypocrite. You mean double up with her.”

Sharpe said nothing. He suspected that Hogan had pushed the girl away with the Major because he wanted to talk to Sharpe alone, but the Rifleman had no intention of making his friend’s life any easier by bringing up the subject. He leaned down and picked up his rifle and felt the lock to see if any dampness or mud had seeped into the pan. The lights of the Battalion fires smeared the hillside with a dying red glow.

“You know what you’re doing, Richard?” Hogan’s voice was non-committal.

“What do you mean?”

The Irishman smiled. “She’s beautiful. There aren’t many as good-looking as that one; at least, not outside Cork.” The small joke was made to lighten his tone, which was sad. “Well, you rescued her, so she’s yours for the moment. Will you be sending her home to Lisbon?” Sharpe started walking beside the stream and said nothing. Hogan caught up with him. “Are you in love with her?”

“For God’s sake!”

“And what’s wrong with that?” They walked in silence for a few yards until Hogan took a guinea out of his pocket and held it up. „I’ll bet you this against ten of yours that you’ll not double up with me tonight?“

Sharped smiled in the darkness. “I don’t gamble and I haven’t any money.”

“I know. But you’ll need it, Richard. Women don’t come free.” Hogan still spoke softly. He felt in his pocket and held out a handful of guineas. „I’ll wage you these, Richard, against one rifle bullet that you won’t double up with me tonight.“

Sharpe stared down at Hogan’s friendly, concerned face. It would be so easy to win the bet. All he had to do was put Josefina in his room and then walk to Hogan’s billet and collect the handful of gold. There were six months’ wages, there, just for staying clear of the girl. Sharpe pushed the money away. “I need all my bullets.”

Hogan laughed. “That’s true. But don’t tell me I didn’t warn you.” He put a hand on Sharpe’s belt, opened the ammunition pouch, and poured in the gold. Sharpe protested and pulled away but Hogan forced the money inside. “You’ll need it, Richard. She’ll expect a decent room in Oropesa, and in Talavera, and God knows how much it will all cost you. Don’t worry. There’ll be a battle soon and you’ll shoot a rich man and then give me the money back.”

They walked on in silence. Hogan could feel the excitement in Sharpe and knew that if he had offered him ten times ten guineas then he could not have stopped the Rifleman sleeping with the girl that night or, if Josefina said no, then Sharpe would have stayed in the room as her faithful protector, the Baker rifle across his knees. They skirted Berry and Gibbons, one of them doubled over and groaning, and splashed through the stream and back into the lights of the inn’s courtyard. Hogan looked up at Sharpe, at the eyes that were alive with anticipation, and cuffed him gently on the arm. “Sleep well, Richard.”

Sharpe grinned back. “Don’t worry.” He took the stairs three at a time, his boots squelching on the wooden steps, and Hogan watched him go. “Tis brief, my Lord.” He was speaking to himself. “As woman’s love.”

“What’s that, sir?” Lieutenant Knowles was standing beside him.

“Do you never read Shakespeare, lad?”

“Shakespeare, sir?”

“A famous Irish poet,” Hogan said.

Knowles laughed. “And what play was that from, sir?”

“Hamlet.”

“Oh him.” Knowles grinned. “The famous Irish Prince?”

Hogan grinned at him. “Oh no. Hamlet was no Irishman. He was a fool. Goodnight, Lieutenant. Time for bed.”

Hogan looked up at Sharpe’s room. He would trust Sharpe with his life, trust the Rifleman against almost any odds, but with a woman? He would be disarmed, defeated; one girl could do what a Battalion of French could never hope to achieve. Hogan muttered under his breath as he walked away, his voice quiet in the empty courtyard, repeating the line over and over as though, perhaps, repetition would rob it of truth. “Beauty provoketh fools sooner than gold.”

CHAPTER 12

“Officer of the day?”

Sharpe nodded. “Come on in.”

The Commissary officer, a plump Lieutenant, grinned cheerfully and closed the door behind him. “Good afternoon, sir. Your signature?”

“For what?”

The Lieutenant pretended to be surprised. He looked at the piece of paper he had been holding out to Sharpe. “3rd Battalion of Detachments? Right?” Sharpe nodded. “Your rations, sir.” He held the list out again. “Will you sign, sir?”

“Wait.” Sharpe looked down the list. “Seven hundred and fifty pounds of beef? That’s generous, isn’t it?”

The Lieutenant put on his professional smile. “I’m afraid that’s not just for today, sir. That’s the next three days’ ration altogether.”

“What! Three days? That’s half bloody rations!”

The Lieutenant spread his hands. “I know, sir, I know, but it really is the best we can do. Will you sign?”

Sharpe took his hat and weapons from the table. “Where are they?”

The Lieutenant sighed. “I’m sure you don’t want to… „

“Where are they?” Sharpe’s voice boomed in the small room. The Lieutenant smiled, opened the door, and beckoned Sharpe into the courtyard, where the Lieutenant’s working party was standing by a string of pack mules. The Lieutenant pulled the cover off a keg of freshly killed beef. “Sir?”

Sharpe picked up the top piece and dangled it in front of the plump Commissary officer. “Put laces in it and you could march on it.” The Lieutenant smiled; he had heard it all before. Sharpe took another piece of gristle from the keg. “It’s uneatable! How many kegs?”

The Lieutenant waved at the mules. “All this, sir.”

Sharpe looked out of the courtyard into the bright street. Another mule stood patiently in the late afternoon sunlight. “What’s that?”

“A mule, sir.” The Lieutenant smiled brightly. He saw Sharpe’s face. “Sorry, sir. My little joke.” He became serious. “That’s the supplies for the castle, sir. Sir Arthur’s. You understand.”

“I do?” Sharpe walked under the arch towards the mule, the Lieutenant alongside, and waved the muleteer away. “I happened to see the supplies delivered to the castle this morning, Lieutenant, and nothing was missing.”

The Lieutenant smiled helplessly. Sharpe was lying, they both knew that, but then so was the Lieutenant, and they both knew that, too. Sharpe pulled the cover off the nearest keg. “Now that, Lieutenant, is beef. I’ll have both these kegs instead of two of the others.”

“But, sir! This is for… „

“Your dinner, Lieutenant? And you and your fellow officers will sell the rest. Right? I’ll take it.”

The Lieutenant recovered the keg. “Why don’t you let me give you a fine chicken we just happened to find, Captain, as a gift, of course.”

Sharpe put his hand on the mule. “You want me to sign, Lieutenant? I think I’ll weigh the beef first.”

The Lieutenant was beaten. He smiled brightly and gave Sharpe the list. “I wouldn’t want you to go to the trouble, sir. Let’s just say you’ll take all the kegs, these included?”

Sharpe nodded. The day’s bargaining was over and his own working party unloaded the mules and took the beef down to the outskirts of Oropesa, where the men of the Battalion were quartered. The supply situation was hopeless and getting worse. The Spanish army had been waiting at Oropesa and they had long eaten any spare food from the surrounding countryside. The town’s steep streets were filled with troops, Spanish, British and Germans from the Legion, and there was already friction between the allies. British and German patrols had ambushed