“Me, sir?” Sharpe was startled at being addressed.
“You, Sharpe, yes, you,” Pohlmann said. “Do you think the war is lost?”
Sharpe hesitated, wondering whether the wisest course was to say something harmless and let the conversation go on again without him, but he had been offended by Cromwell’s defeatism. “It certainly isn’t over, my lord,” he said to Pohlmann.
Cromwell recognized the challenge. “What do you mean by that, sir, eh? Explain yourself.”
“A fight ain’t lost till it’s finished, sir,” Sharpe said, “and this one ain’t done.”
“An ensign speaks,” Lord William murmured scornfully.
“You think a rat has a chance against a terrier?” Cromwell demanded, just as scornfully.
Pohlmann held up a hand to stop Sharpe from responding. “I think Ensign Sharpe knows a good deal about fighting, Captain,” the German said. “When I first met him he was a sergeant, and now he is a commissioned officer.” He paused, letting that statement cause its stir of surprise. “What does it take for a sergeant to become an officer in the British army?”
“Damned luck,” Lord William said laconically.
“It takes an act of outstanding bravery,” Major Dalton observed quietly. He raised his wine glass to Sharpe. “Honored to make your acquaintance, Sharpe. I didn’t place the name when we were introduced, but I recall you now. I’m honored.”
Pohlmann, enjoying his mischief, toasted Sharpe with a sip of wine. “So what was your act of outstanding bravery, Mister Sharpe?”
Sharpe reddened. Lady Grace was staring at him, the first notice she had taken of him since the company had sat to dinner.
“Well, Sharpe?” Captain Cromwell insisted.
Sharpe was tongue-tied, but was rescued by Dalton. “He saved Sir Arthur Wellesley’s life,” the major said quietly.
“How? Where?” Pohlmann demanded.
Sharpe caught the German’s eye. “At a place called Assaye, sir.”
“Assaye?” Pohlmann said, frowning slightly. It had been at Assaye that his army and his ambitions had been wrecked by Wellesley. “Never heard of it,” he said lightly, leaning back in his chair.
“And you were first over the wall at Gawilghur, Sharpe,” the major said. “Isn’t that right?”
“Me and Captain Campbell were first across, sir. But it were lightly defended.”
“Is that where you fetched the scar, Sharpe?” the major inquired, and the whole table gazed at Sharpe. He looked uncomfortable, but there was no denying the power of his face, nor the suggestion of violence that was contained in the scar. “It wasn’t a bullet, was it?” the major insisted. “No bullet makes that kind of scar.”
“It were a sword, sir,” Sharpe answered. “Man called Dodd.” He looked at Pohlmann as he spoke and Pohlmann, who had once commanded and heartily disliked the renegade Dodd, half smiled.
“And does Mister Dodd still live?” the German asked.
“He’s dead, sir,” Sharpe said flatly.
“Good.” Pohlmann raised his glass to Sharpe.
The major turned to Cromwell. “Mister Sharpe is a very considerable soldier, Captain. Sir Arthur told me that if you find yourself in a bad fight then you can ask for no one better at your side.”
The news that General Wellesley had said any such thing pleased Sharpe, but Captain Cromwell had not been deflected from his argument and was now frowning at the ensign. “You think,” the captain demanded, “that the French can be defeated?”
“We’re at war with them, sir,” Sharpe retorted, “and you don’t go to war unless you mean to win.”
“You go to war,” Lord William said icily, “because small-minded men can see no alternative.”
“And if every war has a winner,” Cromwell said, “it must by ineluctable logic also have a loser. If you want my advice, young man, leave the army before some politician has you killed in an ill-considered attack on France. Or, more likely, the French invade Britain and kill you along with the rest of the redcoats.”
The ladies withdrew a short while later and the men drank a glass of port, but the atmosphere was stiff and Pohlmann, plainly bored, excused himself from the company and gestured that Sharpe should follow him back to the starboard roundhouse cabin where Mathilde was now sprawled on a silk-covered sofa. Facing her on a matching sofa was an elderly man who was talking animatedly in German when Pohlmann entered, but who immediately stood and bowed his head respectfully. Pohlmann seemed surprised to see him and gestured the man to the door. “I won’t need you tonight,” he said in English.