The clock struck twelve and the door behind him opened.
‘Richard! By all the Gods! Richard!’ Sharpe turned, startled by the good-natured interruption. A one-armed man, elegantly dressed in civilian clothes; a handsome man, smiling in unforced welcome, faced him. ‘My dear Sharpe! I had business with the Adjutant General and the porter told me you were here!’
‘Sir!’ Sharpe smiled in genuine pleasure.
‘My dear Richard! How very good to see you, and almost properly dressed!’
Sharpe shook the one hand. ‘How are you, sir?’
‘My dear fellow! I’m wondrously healthy. You look very good yourself, very good indeed.’ The Honourable William Lawford was pumping Sharpe’s hand up and down. ‘Except for your face. Had a fight with a cat?’
Lawford was plumper than in the days when he had been the South Essex’s Lieutenant Colonel, and much plumper than when he had been a Lieutenant in India and Sharpe had been his Sergeant. They had been imprisoned together by the Sultan Tippoo, and in those days Lieutenant Lawford had been thin as a ramrod. Now, out of the army, and evidently prospering as a civilian, he had spread in the waist and his handsome face was rounded with good living and success. ‘What are you doing here, Richard?’
‘I’m hoping to see the Duke.’
‘My dear fellow! You’ll wait in vain! He’s gone to Windsor and I doubt we’ll see him again this week. You’ll take some lunch?’
Sharpe hesitated, but Lawford’s certainty that the Duke would not be returning to the Horse Guards swayed him. ‘Yes, sir.’
‘Splendid.’
Lawford had a carriage; a rich, high, open vehicle drawn by four horses and driven by liveried servants. They crossed the parade ground at a fast clip and Lawford raised his cane to acknowledge a greeting from a horseman who came from the park. He smiled at Sharpe. ‘I heard you were in London. You saw Prinny, yes?’
‘Yes.’
‘What a fool he is! Almost took my head off with the sword when he gave me the knighthood.’ He laughed, but Sharpe sensed that the true message being given was that Lawford was now Sir William.
‘You were knighted?’
‘Yes.’ Lawford smiled modestly at Sharpe’s evident admiration. ‘All nonsense, of course, but Jessica approves.’
Sharpe gestured at the coach they sat in. ‘You must be prospering, sir!’
‘That’s kind of you, Sharpe!’ Sir William smiled. ‘I’ve a few acres these days. I’m in the Commons, of course.’ He laughed as though it was a minor thing. ‘I sit as a magistrate and send a few villains to Australia as well. It keeps me busy, what? Ah! Here we are!’
They had passed St James’s Palace, stopped on the hill beyond, and servants hastened to open the carriage door. Lawford gestured Sharpe forward, then up some steps into a great hallway where Sir William was greeted by obsequious servants. It was evidently a gentlemen’s club. Sharpe was relieved of his sword and ushered into the dining room.
Lawford took Sharpe’s elbow. ‘They do a cold spiced beef, Richard, which I really must recommend. The salmagundi is truly the best in London. Turtle soup, perhaps? Ah, this table, splendid.’
The meal was excellent. It seemed odd to think that their last meeting had been in the convent at Ciudad Rodrigo where, the city still stinking of fire and cannon-smoke, Lawford had lain in bed with his left arm newly amputated. Lawford laughed at the memory. ‘Seems I was damned lucky to miss Badajoz, yes?’
‘It was bad.’
‘You survived, Richard!’ Lawford raised his glass of claret and signalled with his head for the waiter to bring another bottle.
Cigars were given to them and Sharpe admiringly watched the skill with which Lawford used his one hand to clip and light the cigar. He refused to let the waiter do it, preferring, he said, always to cut his own. He blew out a plume of smoke. ‘So why on earth were you trying to see York?’
Sharpe told him. He wanted to tell someone, and who better than this Member of Parliament, magistrate, and old soldier with whom he had fought on two continents.
Lawford listened, sometimes asking a question, more often prompting Sharpe to continue. His shrewd eyes watched the Rifleman and, if the story of Foulness astonished him, he took care to hide it. Indeed, the only real surprise he showed was when Sharpe described the attempt in the rookery to murder him.