Sharpe's Gold by Bernard Cornwell Page B

what the price would be and turned to

    Harper. 'Are you all right?'
    'Yes, sir. Yourself?'
    'Bruised. What's the bill?'
    'Don't know for certain, sir. Jim Kelly's bad.' Harper's voice was sad and Sharpe

    remembered the wedding, only weeks ago, when the massive Pru Baxter had woven daisies

    into her hair to marry the small Irish Corporal. Harper went on. 'Cresacre was bleeding,

    says he's all right. We lost a couple, though. Saw them in the courtyard.'
    'Who?' He should have known.
    'Don't know, sir.'
    They climbed, up into the hills, up where horses could not go, back to the gully, which

    they reached as the far hills were lined with the faintest grey of dawn. It was a time for

    sleep and the men crumpled like the bodies in the cellar. Some were posted as picquets at

    the gully's rim, their eyes red with exhaustion, smeared with powder, grinning at Sharpe,

    who had brought them through. The girl sat with Kearsey, binding up his leg, while Knowles

    looked after the other wounded. Sharpe stood over him.
    'How bad?'
    'Kelly's going, sir.'
    The Corporal had a chest wound and Knowles had picked away the shreds of jacket to show a

    mangled horror of glistening ribs and bubbling blood. It was a wonder he had lived this

    long. Cresacre had been shot in the thigh, a clean wound, and he dressed it himself, swore he

    would be all right, and apologized to Sharpe as if he were making a nuisance of himself.

    Two others were badly wounded, both cut with sabres, but they would live, and there was

    hardly a man who did not have a scratch, a bruise, some memento of the night. Sharpe

    counted heads. Forty-eight men, three Sergeants, and two officers had left the gully. Four

    men had not come back. Sharpe felt the tiredness wash through him, tinged with relief. It was

    a smaller bill than he dared hope for. Once Kelly died, his body kept from the vultures by a

    shallow grave, he would have lost five men. The lancers must have lost three times that

    number. He went round the Company, to those who were awake, and praised them. The men seemed

    embarrassed by the thanks, shaking as the sweat dried on their bodies in the cold air,

    their heads jerking as some tried to stay awake and look, red-eyed, into the dawn.
    'Captain Sharpe!' Kearsey was standing in a clear patch of the gully. 'Captain!'
    Sharpe went down the side of the gully. 'Sir?'
    Kearsey stared at him, his small eyes fierce. 'Are you mad, Sharpe?'
    For a second the meaning did not percolate into Sharpe's head.
    'I beg your pardon, sir?'
    'What were you doing?'
    'Doing, sir? Rescuing you.' Sharpe had expected thanks.
    Kearsey winced, whether from the pain of his leg or from Sharpe's ingenuousness it was

    difficult to tell. The dawn was revealing the details of the gully: the collapsed men,

    the blood, the anger on Kearsey's face. 'You fool!'
    Sharpe bit back his anger. 'Sir?'
    Kearsey waved at the wounded. 'How do you get them back?'
    'We carry them, sir.'
    'Carry them, sir.' Kearsey mimicked him. 'Over twenty miles of country? You were only

    here to help carry the gold, Sharpe! Not fight a battle in the back of beyond!'
    Sharpe took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to shout back. 'Without you, sir, we

    would have had no chance of persuading El Catolico to let us take the gold. That was my

    judgment.'
    Kearsey looked at him, shook his head and pointed at Jim Kelly. 'You think it was worth

    that?'
    'The General told me the gold was important, sir.' Sharpe spoke quietly.
    'Important, Sharpe, only because it is a gesture to the Spanish.'
    'Yes, sir.' It was no time for an argument.
    'At least you rescued them.' The Major waved at the two Spaniards.
    Sharpe looked at the girl's dark beauty. 'Them, sir?'
    'Moreno's children. Teresa and Ramon. The French were holding them as bait, hoping

    Moreno or El Catolico would try a rescue. At least we've earned their thanks and that's

    probably more valuable than carrying the gold for them. Besides, I doubt if the gold