Cornwell, Bernard 01 Sharpe’s Tiger-Serigapatam-Apr-May 1799

Lawford stiffened as this offer was made to Sharpe. Sharpe hesitated, then shook his head. ‘No, sir,’ he said. ‘I reckon I’m a proper redcoat.’

Gudin had expected the reply. ‘Good for you, Sharpe. And by the way, Private, you might as well hang the medallion around your neck. They’ll find it anyway.’

‘Yes, sir.’ Sharpe retrieved the gold from his trouser pocket where he had optimistically concealed it, and looped the chain over his head.

Gudin stood and gestured towards the barracks room. ‘This way, gentlemen.’

That was the end of the pleasantries.

And Sharpe suspected it would be the last pleasantry for a very long time.

For now they were the Tippoo’s prisoners.

Appah Rao had Mary fetched to a room off the courtyard of his house. Kunwar Singh was waiting there, but Mary was frightened and dared not look at Kunwar Singh for fear of seeing a hint of bad news on his handsome face. Mary had

no particular reason to expect bad news, but she was ever wary, and something about Appah Rao’s stiff demeanour told her that her presentiments were justified. ‘Your companions,’ Appah Rao told her when the servant had closed the door behind her, ‘have been arrested. Lieutenant Lawford and Private Sharpe, the one you say is your brother.’

‘My half-brother, sir,’ Mary whispered.

‘If you say so,’ Appah Rao conceded. Kunwar Singh spoke a little English, though not enough to follow the conversation, which was why Appah Rao had chosen to question Mary in that language even though his mastery of it was uncertain. Appah Rao doubted whether Sharpe and Mary were related, but he liked the girl nevertheless and he approved of her as Kunwar Singh’s bride. The gods alone knew what the future would bring to Mysore, but it was likely that the British would be involved, and if Kunwar Singh had a wife who spoke English there would be an advantage for him. Besides, Appah Rao’s wife Lakshmi was convinced that the girl was a good modest creature and that her past, like the past of Kunwar Singh’s family, was best forgotten. ‘Why did they come here?’ the General asked.

‘I don’t know, sir.’

Appah Rao took a pistol from his belt and began loading it. Both Mary and Kunwar Singh watched with alarm as the General carefully measured powder from a silver horn into the pistol’s chased barrel. ‘Aruna,’ he said, using the name Mary had taken from her mother, ‘let me tell you what will happen to Lieutenant Lawford and Private Sharpe.’ He paused to tap the horn’s spout against the pistol’s muzzle to shake loose the last specks of powder. ‘The Tippoo will have them questioned and doubtless the questioning will be painful. In the end, Aruna, they will confess. All men do. Maybe they will live, maybe not, I cannot tell.’ He looked up at her, then pushed a scrap of wadding into the pistol. ‘The Tippoo,’ he went on as he selected a bullet from the pistol’s wooden case,

‘will want to know two things. First, why they came here, and, second, whether they were told to make contact with any person inside the city. Do you understand me?’

‘Yes, sir.’

The General placed the bullet in the barrel, then pulled out the pistol’s short ramrod. ‘They’re going to tell him, Aruna. However brave they are, they will talk in the end. Of course’ – he paused as he rammed the bullet hard down -‘the Tippoo might remember your existence. And if he does, Aruna, then he will send for you and you will be questioned too, but not so gently as I am questioning you now.’

‘No, sir,’ Mary whispered.

Appah Rao slotted the short ramrod back in its hoops. He primed the gun, but did not cock it. ‘I want no harm to come to you, Aruna, so tell me why the two men came to Seringapatam.’

Mary stared at the pistol in the General’s hand. It was a beautiful weapon with a butt inlaid with ivory and a barrel chased with silver whorls. Then she looked up into the General’s eyes and saw that he had no intention of shooting her. She did not see threat in those eyes, just fear, and it was that fear which decided her to tell the truth. ‘They came, sir,’ she said, ‘because they had to reach a man called McCandless.’

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