Windrush - Cry Havelock E-Book

Malcolm Archibald

• Herausgeber: Next Chapter
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

Captain Jack Windrush and the infamous 113th Foot are assigned to India, just before the Indian Mutiny breaks out.

Returning from a five-day march with his company, Jack finds that the sepoys have rebelled and massacred their officers, and most of the other company of the 113th. Gathering together a number of survivors, Jack and his company fight their way out of the cantonment and escape.

After Jack learns that the British are besieged by a large rebel army, he takes his men to Allahabad to relieve Cawnpore, and meet with General Havelock. He proves to be a capable commander, but lacks manpower.

As the war rages around them, Jack faces new challenges - both military and personal.

Leseprobe

Cry Havelock

Jack Windrush Series – Book IV

Malcolm Archibald

Copyright (C) 2017 Malcolm Archibald

Layout design and Copyright (C) 2019 by Next Chapter

Published 2019 by Next Chapter

Cover art by http://www.thecovercollection.com/

Edited by D.S. Williams

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the author's permission.

For Cathy

Time upon time, the sepoys struck their blows,

Digging in about them, the white warriors fought well.

On their feet they wore boots, on their bodies' kilts.

Tassels of silk on their hats and trembling aigrettes

The white warriors went into battle like elephants on heat

With no fear of death, they set their faces to the front.

Indian song about Sir Colin Campbell's relief of Lucknow, 1857

Prelude

'Jack Baird Windrush.' The words whispered through the night. 'Do your duty, Jack Baird Windrush.'

When the words faded, a bearded face leered at him with hate in its eyes.

Jack started up with tight beads of sweat already formed on his forehead and streaming in rivulets down his back. Looking into the darkness, he struggled to control his breathing. Jack had never liked confined spaces. Living in the open air was best for him, and here he was in claustrophobic darkness surrounded by nightmares. He took a deep breath. Where was he? Under the ground; he was under the ground somewhere, and there was great danger of a kind he had never encountered before, together with some new and terrible sorrow.

Jack closed his eyes, opened them again; nothing had changed. There was darkness and confinement and danger. He reached out, feeling the earth under his fingers. He was underground. Why was he underground? He struggled backwards, trying to escape back to the open air. Where was he?

The call of a jackal awakened him, and he lay sweat-sodden and scared. Oppressive heat pressed down on him and the high-pitched hum of insects reminded him where he was.

India. He was back in the land of his birth after an absence of twenty-two years. That voice echoed in his head as he swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up. 'Jack Baird Windrush.'

Nobody had called him that for many years; he had never informed anybody of his full name. Opening the door of his bungalow, he peered outside. The configuration of the stars was familiar, although he had not seen it since his early childhood.

'I'm home again,' Jack said and shivered. India was in his blood; something of him belonged here. Even the distant howl of a jackal was strangely reassuring; it was part of the land, as natural as the nocturnal croak of frogs and the smell of spices that permeated every native village and town. He was in India, timeless, friendly, familiar and home.

'Jack Baird Windrush.' He reached for a memory that lived in the shadows of his mind. He couldn't grasp it; the voice was female and elusive, yet comforting. Wondering from which part of his childhood it had come, he reached for a cheroot, lit it and inhaled calming smoke deep into his lungs. Something momentous was about to occur; there had been good and bad in that dream. Well, let it happen. He was Captain Jack Windrush of the 113th Foot, a veteran of Burma and the Crimea and he was alone in the world, rejected by his family and with nobody outside the regiment to care a damn for him. Well then, in that case, why should he care for anybody outside the 113th?

Damn them.

Damn them all.

Chapter One

'Don't you ever feel the heat, Jack?' Elliot dragged the back of his hand across his forehead, leaving a temporary dry track that perspiration soon refilled. 'This is unbearable.'

Jack took a breath of the perfumed air. 'It will get a lot worse before it gets better. It's only April; wait until June, and we'll really know about it.'

'I forgot.' Elliot threw him a glance that combined jealousy with admiration. 'You were born in this country, weren't you?'

'So I've been told.' Jack straightened his uniform. The details of his early life were so confused and contradictory he had never worked them out. 'I don't remember much about it; I was young at the time.'

'That explains it then.' Elliot adjusted the crimson cord on his shoulder. 'God, I miss the old uniform. This one is so dull in comparison.'

Brushing an inquisitive insect from his single-breasted scarlet tunic, Jack gave Elliot a final glance over and nodded. 'This new uniform is a bit more practical than the old; easier to keep clean.' He forced a smile. 'You'll do, Arthur. You're fit to fight the French.'

'Or the Russians.' Elliot pulled back his shoulders. 'You'll pass fit to muster too, Jack.' He took a drink from a small silver flask and replaced it inside his tunic. 'Scotch courage. Right then, let's go; God knows what this will be like and Jeffreys has invited some guests along too.' He sighed. 'I miss the old days; things were never this formal when old Colonel Maxwell was in charge.'

'Life has changed,' Jack agreed, 'and not for the better.'

The officer's mess stood on its own within a rectangle of impeccably cropped grass, kept free of leaves or other litter by an industrious native gardener. With so many new men in the regiment to replace the losses of the Crimea, Jack was not surprised he didn't know either of the sentries at the door. He acknowledged their salutes by lifting a hand to his shako.

'Here we go, then,' Elliot murmured and stepped aside. 'After you, sir.'

'Quite right too,' Jack said. 'I am the senior officer here.'

'Rank before beauty,' Elliot responded.

Stout and red-faced, Major Snodgrass greeted them formally, looked them up and down, made unnecessary adjustments to Jack's jacket, frowned irritably at Elliot's nervous grin and ushered them in. 'Don't forget,' he said quietly, 'Colonel Jeffreys likes things done properly. He will allow none of the lax ways of his predecessor.'

'Yes, sir,' Jack said.

'And there are East India Company guests,' Snodgrass said. 'Don't let the regiment down.'

'We won't, sir.' Jack noted the Victoria Cross prominent on Snodgrass's chest. He had been awarded the medal after supposedly killing a prominent Cossack officer at Inkerman. Jack knew that Charlotte Riley, wife of Sergeant Riley, had shot the Cossack – but Snodgrass had accepted the credit.

'Deep breath, Jack,' Elliot murmured as an immaculate Pathan servant opened the door into the dining hall.

They walked into a wall of noise and conversation with the officers of the 113th Foot standing in small groups, nursing glasses and puffing on cheroots or cigars. The uniforms of the guests shone among them; the two native infantry regiments and the native cavalry regiment who shared the Gondabad cantonment with two companies of the 113th. Snatches of conversation drifted to Jack as the officers spoke to each other or issued sharp orders to the soft-footed servants. As was to be expected the John Company – East India Company – officers were far more fluent in the native languages.

'Hey, brandy and water and quick about it.'

'Mero lagi pani!'

'Not quite like England is it? This heat is insufferable!'

'Queen's officers eh? They know nothing about India and like to parade their ignorance at every opportunity.'

'I thought we had a punkah-wallah to keep the place bearable. The old duffer must have fallen asleep. I'll give him toco and wake him up.'

'Blasted John Company wallahs; they think they know everything about this damnable country.'

Amidst the casual conversation, Jack heard snatches of what they called shop-talk as men discussed their respective regiments.

'Your Queen's soldiers fought well in the Crimea, I heard,' a tall, bronzed lieutenant in the uniform of the Bengal Native Infantry said. 'You'll find things different here. Our men would have given the Ruskies the right-about turn, I can tell you.'

An ensign of the 113th with the peeling red face of a griffin gave a snort. 'Your sepoys? They'd hardly be a match for white troops.'

'Oh, I wouldn't agree,' the Company lieutenant said. 'Given the opportunity, my boys are second to none in the deadly charge, the skirmish and the escalade. Military ardour is bright in my sepoys.'

'Don't they run when they meet European troops?' the ensign sneered. 'Just a rabble of blacks, aren't they?'

The lieutenant's face closed into a frown. 'There is no army in the whole of Europe in which military discipline is better maintained; there are no soldiers more faithful, braver or more strongly attached to their Colours and their officers than those of the Bengal Army.'

The ensign laughed. 'I heard that blacky is as deceitful as his colour is black and as selfish as he is double-faced.' He saw Jack listening. 'Don't you agree, sir? These sepoys have all the faults of Irishmen and none of the courage.'

Jack grunted. 'They fought well enough in Burma,' he said, 'and the Sikhs gave us hard knocks a-plenty. I suggest you read your regimental history Mr.… What's your name?'

'Shearer, sir. John Sebastian Shearer of the Hertfordshire Shearers.'

'Indeed, Mr. John Sebastian Shearer of the Hertfordshire Shearers,' Jack said. 'Well, you'll learn, no doubt – or cholera or the Sikhs will teach you.' He dismissed Shearer with a sharp inclination of his head.

Down the centre of the room, the table dominated. A splendid array of bone china, silver cutlery and sparkling crystal almost hid the white linen table cloth and proclaimed the 113th was now fit to take its place alongside any regiment in the British Army.

'Colonel Jeffreys shelled out for most of this.' As always, Elliot had all the gossip and most of the knowledge.

Jack remembered the canvas tent they'd used as the officer's mess during much of the Crimea campaign. 'We are living like lords of Gondabad,' he said.

'Lords of Gondabad,' Elliot repeated with a small laugh. 'I may enjoy this cantonment after all.'

Standing proudly in the centre of the table were two huge brass mortar cases, inscribed with the regimental number and the slogan: Captured at Sebastopol 1855. Now they did duty as bottle holders and served to remind new officers of the recent history of the regiment.

'You lack battle honours,' a splendidly whiskered captain of the Bengal Native Infantry pointed out. 'My men have been winning battles since Plassey.'

'Oh?' Elliot raised his eyebrows. 'In the 113th we don't rely on history. We make our own. Inkerman and Sebastopol, don't you know?'

The memory of the letter that pressed against his breast tempered Jack's small smile of satisfaction.

Helen!

He heard loud laughter from Major Snodgrass as somebody admired his medal and saw Shearer in light conversation with a young cornet of Bengal Native Cavalry.

The atmosphere altered as Lieutenant-Colonel James Jeffreys entered the room and the officers of all regiments stiffened to attention. The servants, efficient and impassive, seemed to vanish into the background.

'Good evening, sir.' As the senior major, it was the duty of Snodgrass to greet the colonel and ensure everybody present behaved correctly.

'Good evening, Major Snodgrass.' Jeffreys returned the formal salute and gazed around the room. Tall and slender, he stood as erect as a Guardsman and noted the name, rank and bearing of every man present. 'Take your places, gentlemen.' Jeffreys stepped to the head of the table and stood beside his seat until all the officers were ready. He sat down slowly.

'We cannot sit until his Majesty is comfortable on his throne.' Elliot intended his whisper only for Jack's ears, but in the hush, it was audible to at least half the officers present. Snodgrass glared at him.

'Did you have something to say, Lieutenant Elliot?' Jeffreys' voice was acidic.

'No, sir,' Elliot said.

'Then kindly keep quiet until a senior officer speaks to you. Junior officers should learn there is a time and place for conversation.'

Behind each diner, an Indian servant waited. Dressed in white and adorned with a scarlet cummerbund, they could have been carved from marble.

The officers ate in strained silence except for the music of the regimental band outside the building. Jack tried to recognise each tune and hoped to avoid the colonel's eye. He wondered which was worse: advancing against Russian artillery or enduring a full mess dinner under the gaze of Colonel Jeffreys and Major Snodgrass. Each required a different form of courage, active and passive, yet each was draining.

Thankfully, the evening wore on and after an eternity of courses while sweat soaked the back of Jack's tunic the servants replaced the water glasses with wine glasses. Decanters of whisky, Madeira, port and sherry appeared, to circulate clockwise around the table and empty at an astonishing speed. Jack knew he was no drinking man and pressed the side of his foot against Elliot's, to warn him not to imbibe too deeply.

'Careful, Arthur.'

Elliot shifted away, filled his glass with whisky, drained it in a succession of quick swallows and filled it again before passing the decanter on to the next man. Only when each officer's glass was fully charged did the colonel lift a small brass bell and ring it softly. The sound seemed to echo around the quiet room.

Colonel Jeffreys rose to his feet and lifted his glass. 'Gentlemen,' he said crisply. 'The Queen.'

The assembled officers stood up as one and lifted their glasses in salute. 'The Queen.'

On cue, the music outside halted and after a few tense seconds, the strains of God Save the Queen crashed out. Jack stood in silence, glass in hand as he pretended to have noble and patriotic thoughts. Instead, he felt the letter in his breast pocket and remembered the contents which he had read a score of times and still refused to accept.

The tune stopped abruptly and Colonel Jeffreys sat down. He lifted his glass again.

'Gentlemen of the 113th! We drink to the regiments whose officers have graced us with their presence. The native regiments of the Bengal Army of the Honourable East India Company!'

The officers of the 113th stood up and lifted their glasses to their guests. Once again Jack barely sipped at his and frowned at Elliot, who drained his glass in a single swallow.

The Company officers responded in kind, with toast following toast so within an hour, Jack felt light-headed and wondered if drinking to excess might not be a bad idea after all.

'Now gentlemen,' Jeffreys' tone had altered from crisply officious to benignly paternal. 'You may relax. Light up, smoke and talk for this is your home.'

Jack looked around as a buzz of conversation began. On the wall behind the colonel, a portrait of Queen Victoria hung below the cased Colours of the 113th. He remembered these Colours standing above the remnants of his shattered company at Inkerman, when the Russian dead lay piled before them in the drifting mist and his men robbed corpses for ammunition. Now, they presided in mute splendour, a memory of past suffering and glory. Every morning and every night the youngest ensign in the regiment had the duty of dusting the Queen's portrait and ensuring the Colours were safe.

'Gentlemen.' The colonel spoke again, his voice cutting through the conversation as smoothly as a bayonet through a straw-stuffed target. 'This regiment, our regiment, has been given a bad name in the past. We have suffered from poor morale and low-quality men.'

There was silence as the officers of the113th Foot – the Baby Butchers, –waited to hear what their new colonel had to say. Becoming aware of a slight drumming, Jack looked down to see his fingers beating a rapid tattoo on the table-top. He withdrew them hurriedly, hoping the Colonel had not noticed. The officers of John Company listened in respectful silence, smugly aware that their regiments were blessed with excellent reputations.

'We partially redeemed ourselves in the Crimea.' Colonel Jeffreys didn't mention that he had joined the regiment since then. He clearly preferred to have his officers imagine he already considered himself as one of them. 'However, there is much work to be done. A regiment takes its motivation from the top, from the officers, so you gentlemen must show an example to the men. They must look up at you with respect and devotion.'

Jack nearly smiled. He tried to imagine Donnie Logan or Thorpe or Coleman or any of his Crimea veterans looking up at any officer with respect and devotion.

'To gain their loyalty and trust, we must form ourselves into a tight bond; we must be as close as a family and know each other as intimately as you know the boys in your form at school.'

Jack kept his face immobile. His family had disowned him when they found out he was illegitimate and he had endured his school years with a passive hatred which still surfaced from time to time.

'To that end, the junior officers will sing songs.' The Colonel eased his gaze over the assembled men. 'Lieutenant Elliot, I hear you have a musical ear. Sing for us.'

'Yes, sir.' Elliot surprised Jack by immediately standing to sing.

Once more the trumpet clangs to war! That blast is widely heard!

And from its brief repose in peace is the martial spirit stirred

The British soldier hears the sound and rises in his might;

The sepoy feels the thrill of joy and girds him for the fight!'

Officers of both Queen's and Company regiments cheered, and a Company officer jumped up with a song of his own. Jack listened to the words.

The valour of our Sepoy sires lives in us o'er again

The British banner in our keep has never met with stain!'

There were other songs, some familiar, others locally composed but all dealt with a similar theme, the valour of British soldiers and sepoys fighting side by side. After half an hour or so Colonel Jeffreys ordered:

'There is a tradition in many regiments for officers to play games; as of this moment it is also the tradition in the 113th.' He looked down the length of the table. 'Young gentlemen of the Company regiments are of course welcome to participate. Officers of more seniority are invited to repair to the ante-room with me.'

'It has never been a tradition in the 113th' Snodgrass murmured and raised his voice. 'I think it is a first-class idea, sir. 'We will start with High Cockalorum, gentlemen, and then try some wall racing. Servants! Clear the table; jildi!'

As the servants moved smoothly to obey, Elliot winked at Jack. 'You will enjoy yourselves, by order,' he whispered.

'What the devil's High Cockalorum?' Jack asked.

'We'll soon find out.'

High Cockalorum proved to be a military variation of a children's game where the officers climbed on each other's backs to create the largest possible human pyramid.

'Come on Jack, don't be shy!' Elliot threw himself into the game with such enthusiasm that Jack had to join in.

As the drink flowed, the men grew more daring, until at one point Jack was at the apex of a pyramid that pressed him against the underside of the ceiling. At another, he was struggling under the weight of a dozen men with a lieutenant's boot in his ear and Ensign Shearer's knee heavy on his shoulder.

When the pyramids collapsed with shouts and laughter, the officers began wall-racing.

'What's the deuce is wall racing?'

'Watch and learn, young man,' Elliot slurred his words. 'Watch and learn.'

For a moment Jack watched as young officers launching themselves at the wall at great speed and ran as far as possible in a nearly horizontal position. A few minutes later he was balancing along the wall and whooping with the best of them. When he landed heavily on the floor, he came to his senses and regarded his antics with a mixture of disgust and embarrassment.

'These are the antics of school-boys,' he said and withdrew to the more tranquil atmosphere of the ante-room.

'It was a bad move, taking over Oudh,' Irvine, a Company captain in his late thirties was saying as he nursed a brandy glass. 'Nevertheless, we have now the opportunity to extend the blessings of British rule, tranquillity and security to the people, but the sepoys resent it.'

'I can see nothing wrong in taking over Oudh,' Snodgrass said.

'Many natives can,' Irvine explained. 'They believe we are appropriating all of India. In the last ten years we – the Company – have followed the Doctrine of Lapse, so if the ruler of a state dies without leaving a direct male heir, the Company has the right to take it. In local custom, you see, an adopted heir can rule.'

'Damned good thing if you ask me,' Snodgrass said, glancing at Jeffreys to ensure he agreed. 'We're far better than the perverted and dissipated creatures that rule these blessed places.'

'That may well be so,' Irvine sipped carefully at his brandy, 'but they were native states governed by the indigenous peoples according to their local customs and practises.' He twirled the brandy around his glass. 'In the last decade, we have taken over by one method or another Jhansi, the Punjab, Satara, Nagpur and Sambalpur, and now Oudh. The Indian princes must be uneasy; they are our allies and our friends and must feel we threaten their security.'

'There's not much they can do about it.' Snodgrass was drinking whisky at a rate that would put Elliot to shame. 'If these damned black princes start trouble the Company will just smash them.'

Irvine raised bushy eyebrows. 'As I said, Major Snodgrass, they are our friends. We have neither desire nor intention to smash them, as you put it. Anyway, it's not only the rulers who suffer. When we took over Oudh – or Awadh, to use its real name, we put thousands of men out of work. There were two hundred thousand men in the army alone and Lord alone knows how many in the royal household, plus thousands of armourers.' He shrugged.

'Two hundred thousand men!' Snodgrass marvelled. 'That is a large army to have on our border.'

'Yes, I realise the numbers may sound threatening, but Awadh was friendly and our biggest recruitment area. Now, thanks to the Doctrine of Lapse, we have tens of thousands of disaffected men there, within our borders.'

'Are they so disaffected?' Jack felt himself rapidly sober.

'There is a new feeling of unease in the land,' Irvine said. 'Things are happening that I for one don't understand and I have been in the Company's service for over twenty years.'

'What sort of things?' Jeffreys asked.

Irvine put his glass on a table and shook his head when the imperturbable Pathan servant offered a refill. 'There are silly, inconsequential things that individually make no sense at all, but when put together indicate an unhappy country. For example, down in Baroda some men are taking a pariah dog around the villages and feeding all the local dogs.'

'Why?' Jack asked.

'Only they know.' Irvine shrugged. 'The Maratha god of the sword is a dog, so it could mean there is violence imminent. Or it could mean the natives fear the Company will end all forms of caste; everyone sharing the same food, don't you know?'

'I don't know at all,' Snodgrass said.

'Nor do I, frankly,' Irvine admitted. 'Then there are the chapattis.'

'What the devil?'

'Small cakes…' Irvine began.

'I know what a chapatti is, for God's sake,' Snodgrass said. 'I want to know how they are suddenly famous.'

'I don't know why,' Irvine said. 'It's something I have never come across before. A stranger will appear in a village with four chapattis. He gives them to the chowkidar, the watchman, and asks him to bake another four and take them to the next village along.'

'Why?' Jack asked.

'Nobody knows,' Irvine said. 'I doubt even the villagers understand, yet it is undoubtedly a message.' He grinned. 'India is a strange place, full of intrigue, mystery and danger, which is why I love it so much. I intend to settle here when my time is up.'

'Don't you wish to go home?' Snodgrass ran a hand through his luxuriant whiskers.

'This is my home,' Irvine said. 'I am what is known as a 'serious' officer. I think it my Christian duty to teach these misguided souls about our Lord. We have to use kindness and slow the process of taking over their lands and decreasing their pay as we do. The more of India we annexe, the more my sepoys lose their batta – the money we pay them for serving beyond the Company's borders.'He smiled. 'No soldier likes to lose part of his wages.'

The tall servant moved slightly, spilling a single drop of wine onto Irvine's shoulder.

'Be careful, blast it!' Irvine shouted as the man salaamed in apology.

'I am no expert,' Jack waited until the servant withdrew a pace. 'But interfering with people's religion is pretty fundamental, is it not?'

'We must spread the truth,' Irvine said. 'We must hasten the time when the people throw off the dark cloud of idolatry and superstition which has hung for ages over this land – our land and our responsibility.'

Jack shifted uneasily. 'You know them better than I do,' he said, 'so I must bow to your experience. I do know England has failed to persuade most of Ireland to convert from Catholicism to the Church of England despite centuries of attempts.'

'These are both branches of Christianity,' Irvine pointed out.

'Opposing branches,' Jack said. 'And when King Charles the First tried to impose Episcopalianism on Scotland, he ended up on the losing side in a bloody war.'

Irvine laughed. 'There will be no bloody war in Bengal,' he said. 'Our sepoys are the match for any native army – no, they are the match for any ten native armies combined. And as we now possess the Punjab, we will have the magnificent Khalsa as well. That's the Sikh army, don't you know?'

'But the sepoys themselves?' Jeffreys asked. 'Are they to be trusted? There have been cases when they have disobeyed, even mutinied.'

Irvine shook his head. 'These were isolated misunderstandings, sir. The sepoys are the most loyal men and the best soldiers in the world,' he said. 'I would stake my life on their fidelity.'

Jeffreys lifted his glass. 'I'm glad to hear it,' he said. 'If ever we have another set-to with the Russians, we may need your sepoys. There was hard fighting at Sebastopol, God knows, and we needed more men than we had.'

'My sepoys would have shone,' Irvine said stoutly.

'Now you, Windrush; go back and join your colleagues,' Jeffrey's ordered. You are a young man still, far too junior in years to be jawing shop with us oldsters. Go and enjoy yourself.'

'Yes, sir.' Jack had no alternative but to obey orders, although he wished to learn more about the current situation in India.

The evening ended in raucous laughter and singing as one by one the officers decided to return home. The older married men were first, and then the older single men as the younger became rowdier without their elders' moderating influence.

'Come on, Arthur.' Jack took the glass from Elliot's hand. 'It's time you were getting to bed.'

'I'm not ready yet,' Elliot tried to snatch his drink back. 'I'm not leaving until I'm ready.'

'Come on.' Handing the glass to an expressionless servant, Jack took Elliot's arm. 'Time to go.'

'You're not my father!' Elliot's words slurred as he shouted. 'You can't order me around as he does!'

'No, but I can.' Colonel Jeffreys must have drunk equal to any man in the room yet he was as precise of speech and stance as if he had not touched a drop. 'Get back to your quarters, Elliot! You're a disgrace.'

'He had a bad time in the Crimea, sir,' Jack defended Elliot.

'We all had a bad time in the Crimea. If he cannot handle his drink, then there is no place for him in a regiment of British infantry.'

'He'll be all right, sir. I'll take care of him.' Sliding an arm around Elliot's back, Jack supported him. 'Come along, Arthur.'

Jack supported Elliot outside the mess and along the path with wan moonlight as a lantern. Jeffreys watched for a moment, turned around, slammed his boot on the ground like a sentry and marched away.

'It's not fair,' Elliot slurred. 'It's not fair.'

'No, it's not,' Jack knew there was no point trying to get any sense from Elliot when he was drunk. 'Come on, Arthur. We're nearly home.' A jackal howled beyond the cantonment; the sound of India.

'I've to be a general.' Elliot staggered sideways, nearly pushing Jack into the prickly hedge that bordered the path. 'My father expects me to be a general and I'm only a lieutenant.'

'You're only twenty-two,' Jack said. 'Nobody can be a general at twenty-two.' He tightened his hold as Elliot's feet slipped from under him. 'Not even the Duke of Wellington was a general when he was twenty-two.'

'I'm only a lieutenant. You're a captain, and I'm as good an officer as you are.'

'Better, probably,' Jack murmured. He heard something moving outside the cactus and wondered if it was one of the servants or if there was some wild animal on the prowl. 'Come along, Arthur.' He adjusted his grip on Elliot and inhaled deeply of the hot night air, momentarily wishing he had brought his revolver.

'Here we are.' Jack stopped where the mohur tree marked the driveway to Elliot's bungalow. Half-seen by starlight, the lawn was close-cropped, and the sound of insects and frogs filled the air. 'Come along home.'

As an unmarried Lieutenant, Elliot occupied one of the smaller bungalows, but it was palatial by the standards he could have expected back in Britain. Hardly seen in the dark, brilliant purple bougainvillaea coiled around the colonnaded porch which protected the front door from the scorching sun of the day.

With the alcohol still coursing through his system, Jack was uncaring of the neighbours. He raised his voice. 'Awake inside there!'

The response was immediate as lights flared behind the windows and Indian voices came in reply. The watchman stormed out first with his iron-tipped staff ready to repel any threat to his master's house.

'Rambir!' Jack shouted. 'Help me with the sahib here!'

More servants scurried out, some stopping to salaam with both hands to their forehead as they recognised that a British officer was making all the fuss, others concentrating on Elliot, who was now breaking into song:

In Nottingham, there lives a jolly tanner

With a hey down, down, a down, down.

His name is Arthur-a-Bland,

There is never a squire in Nottinghamshire

Dare bid bold Arthur stand.

Jack grinned. Despite their years of campaigning together, he had never heard Elliot sing that particular song before. 'You're out of tune, Arthur. Come on, and these nice people will help you to bed.'

Elliot turned aside and grinned vacantly. 'Bed? I know a song about beds,' he said and began to sing.

There was a monk of great renown

There was a monk of great renown

There was a monk of great renown

He fu—'

'Enough,' Jack slipped a hand over Elliot's mouth. 'There are women and children around. I don't know what your mother would say.'

Rambir and the butler took hold of Elliot, faces impassive. They had seen drunken British soldiers before.

'We'll take care of the sahib,' Ramdass the butler salaamed to Jack.

'All right, Ramdass.' Jack had found it surprisingly easy to pick up some Urdu phrases. He watched as the servants gently and expertly eased Elliot up the stairs and through the large front door of the bungalow. Trying to imagine how British servants would have coped, Jack shook his head and turned away. Elliot was in good hands. He would wake up washed and shaved in his bed, without knowing a thing about it.

As Jack followed the path around the cantonment, a pale moon gleamed above the surrounding palms, and small bats flitted around, feasting on the plentiful insect life. He knew if he returned to his bungalow he wouldn't sleep. There was too much in his mind for rest and the night's mixture of formality, conversation and stupidity had only acted as a reprieve from his thoughts.

Extracting a cheroot from his inside pocket, Jack lit up and inhaled the sweet smoke. He looked around; he was in India, in effect ruled by the Honourable East India Company and the spiritual and actual second home of the British Army. India was the jewel of the Empire and the landmass from which Britain drew much of her wealth, power and prestige. And for the next ten years or so, this would again be his home.

He began a slow walk around the British cantonment, listening to the regular fall of his feet on the ground and the sounds of the Eastern night all around. Tall palms thrust upward among the dark foliage outside the camp, where sentries patrolled in bored routine, swearing under their breath as British soldiers always did and always would do. The world would be a strange place if British soldiers ever stopped grousing, swearing and complaining.

Jack stopped at the edge of the broad road that separated the officers' bungalows from the barracks of the other ranks. His men were over there: Riley, Thorpe, Logan, Coleman, Whitelam and the rest. These were the men he had fought and suffered beside throughout the Burmese War and the horrors of the Crimea. Men who had stood at his side at Inkerman and the Redan, who had crouched under the parapet of the Sebastopol trenches; companions, comrades and, he liked to think, friends.

Under the old commander, Colonel Maxwell, such bonds of friendship were cherished and valued. He could have slipped over the road to pass an hour with the sentries, shared a pipe of tobacco and a joke and spoken of old times along the Woronzoff Road or how the new Enfield rifle compared to the Minié that had done such sterling work in the Crimea. However, Colonel Jeffreys had stopped such friendly intercourse.

'Officers and men live different lives,' Jeffreys had announced on his first day on taking over command. 'It is your duty to lead and theirs to obey.'

'My men saved my life more than once,' Jack began, only for Jeffreys to cut him short.

'They were doing their duty for an officer's life is worth more than theirs,' Jeffreys said. 'There will be no more mixing with the other ranks unless duty compels it. We must maintain a proper and respectful distance and speak to the men only through the agencies of the sergeants. That is what sergeants are for; to relay and translate our orders into language the troops can understand.'

Drawing on his cheroot, Jack peered across the road, wondering how his men were coping with this new regime. After the ordeal of the Crimea, to be shipped to India must have come as something of a shock to them.

For a moment Jack contemplated breaking the Colonel's rules, crossing the road and talking to his men. Then he shook his head; they were soldiers. They knew rules and regulations governed the lives of the officers every bit as much as they did other ranks. Instead, he watched as the sentries marched on their pre-ordained routes and tossed away his half-finished cheroot, so the glowing end arced into the dark. Sighing, he followed the road to where the flagpole soared upright toward the sky. At the base of the pole was a granite slab, inscribed with the names of all the British regiments that had garrisoned Gondabad in the previous thirty years. Jack stopped and waited until a cloud eased away from the moon, so the light returned.

A bat fluttered past, its shadow a strange reminder of his nightmare. Jack fought his shudder. His gaze passed over the famous regimental names and numbers on the slab. He recalled the legends attached to the men who had garrisoned Tangiers, the bloodied battalions at Quatre Bras, the stubborn soldiers who faced the Sikhs and the unfortunate 44th cut down to the last man at Gandamack. And there, near the bottom of the list, was the Royal Malverns. Jack felt his hand shaking as he produced another cheroot and scratched a light.

The Royal Malverns, his family regiment, had been here from 1830 until 1835; he was now twenty-four years old, so he had been born here, in this cantonment at Gondabad. Jack looked around; fate played strange tricks sometimes.

There was the murmur of voices, and he saw that the sentry opposite him was Riley, the gentleman thief with whom he had shared so much in the Crimea. About to call a greeting, Jack realised Riley was not alone.

'What are you up to, Riley?' he said softly and peered into the darkness.

Jack saw that Riley was with Charlotte, his wife. He smiled, knowing how close the two were and opened his mouth to interrupt them. Instead he turned away. Riley was one of the few men he genuinely trusted and even with Charlotte at his side he would be a better sentry than most men. Besides, this was peaceful Gondabad, in the heart of British India and with two companies of the 113th as well as two native infantry regiments, and three troops of native cavalry within call. Nothing could happen here.

'Good luck Riley,' Jack said quietly. 'And you Mrs. Riley.' He stepped back toward his bungalow, pulled on his cheroot until the tip glowed brightly and he thought of Helen.

A picket of sepoys marched smartly past on some mission of their own. The naik in charge threw Jack a perfect salute. He responded, watched them disappear into the barracks and allowed his mind to return to Helen.

'Sahib!'

The voice came from the darkness beyond the cactus. Jack frowned; he hadn't recognised the voice. It came again in a husky whisper.

'Sahib; sir!'

'Show yourself, whoever you are.' Jack felt at his belt and grunted when he remembered he had neither sword nor pistol with him. 'Come out!' He lifted his fists, ready to face whoever emerged from the dark be it badmash, dacoit or a servant seeking a favour.

Dressed in a mixture of European and Indian clothing, the man had a ragged blue turban on his head and a long, old-fashioned pistol at the waist of his baggy red trousers.

'Don't come any closer.' Jack glanced around, hoping a sentry was within earshot. 'How did you get past the pickets?'

'They did not see me, sahib.' The man stopped about ten yards away. Slightly built, he leant heavily on a stick. Jack guessed his age at somewhere between fifty and seventy. 'I am here to warn you.'

'Are you indeed?' Jack wished he had at least his sword with him. 'Warn me about what?'

'There is a scarlet storm coming to India.' The man's voice was husky, his words hoarse.

Jack frowned, wondering if he was speaking to some madman, or perhaps a fakir. 'I am not here to listen to your nonsense,' he said.

The man leant closer. 'You are a British officer, a captain of the 113th Foot,' he croaked.

'I am.' Jack tried to retain his patience while wondering if he should summon Riley and have this madman removed. 'And who might you be?' He stepped back as the man suddenly slammed to attention.

'Fraser, sir, Private, 78th Foot.'

'You're a British soldier?' Jack heard his voice rise.

'I was, sir. I was invalided out in 1820.' He limped forward, face wrinkled with curiosity. 'Beg pardon, sir, but what year is it now?'

'It is May 1857,' Jack said. 'Have you been in India all this time?'

'Yes, sir. I was wounded you see,' he tapped his left thigh. 'I lost some use of my leg, so the army had no further use for me. There was nothing for me back home; the landowner emptied my glen for sheep.' As he spoke, Fraser's voice strengthened. 'India is my home now, sir.'

'I see,' Jack said. 'There seems to be a few British soldiers deciding to stay here.'

'Yes, sir. It's a fine country except bad times are coming.' Years of service compelled Fraser to stand to attention.

'What sort of bad times, Fraser? Oh, stand easy, man! You're not on parade now!'

'I move around with the natives, sir, and I hear them talking about a scarlet storm. I don't think they know themselves, but there's talk of kicking the British out of India. There's a prophesy our rule will end a hundred years after the Battle of Plassey, sir, and that was in 1757.'

Jack nodded. 'So I believe, Fraser.'

'The sepoys are unhappy sir. I've heard them talking in the markets about the new cartridges having a covering of pig and cow fat. The Moslems think pigs are unclean, sir and will hurt their religion and cows are sacred to Hindus, so if they bite or touch cow fat, it damages their caste.'

Jack frowned, remembering his recent conversation with Irvine about unrest in some of the East India Company's native regiments. 'Is this discontent widespread?'

'I wander about quite a lot, and I've heard the same sort of stories from the borders of the Punjab right across to Calcutta.' Fraser's voice strengthened the more he spoke.

'I'm sure his Excellency the Governor- General knows about them,' Jack said.

'There is more, sir,' Fraser glanced around him.

'Carry on.'

'Some of the people believe we intend to convert them all to Christianity and others are saying the Company is grabbing all their land.'

Jack remembered Irvine's conversation. 'They seem to have reasons for discontent.' He thought of the bravery and sacrifice of the sepoys during the Burmese War. It was wrong to ill-treat such soldiers.

'I thought I should warn you,' Fraser said. 'And I have. What you do next is up to you.' He stepped back just as another cloud concealed the moon.

'Wait!' Jack strode forward, but Fraser had gone. He lit another cheroot, turned around and walked to his bungalow. He had much to ponder.

Chapter Two

Lying on his bed with the mosquito net loose above him and the night sounds muted by the walls of his bungalow, Jack lit the lamp. Soft light diffused around the room. Whatever Elliot believed, the humidity affected him, so he stripped off his clothing and lay naked, staring at the lizard that crawled along the ceiling on its never-ending hunt for insects.

Fraser's words reverberated through his head. Unhappy sepoys, soldiers grumbling about new cartridges and British land grabs. Were such things his concern? He was a British officer, a man in command of a company of soldiers in the heart of India. Of course it was his concern. He would pass on the information to Colonel Jeffreys first thing in the morning. It may well only be bazaar gossip, the sort of grumbles soldiers always had. Yet there had been unsettling incidents with native regiments refusing the new cartridges and a sepoy named Mangal Pandey attacking British officers.

Jack sighed. Fraser hadn't given him any new information, so there was no need to interrupt the colonel's sleep. Irvine's earlier conversation proved the authorities knew what was happening and had plans to remove the grievances. After all, John Company, the Honourable East India Company, had been in India for centuries and knew the people well.

Stretching out, Jack dragged over his tunic and pulled out the letter from his inside pocket. It was crumpled and well-thumbed from constant use, and he knew the contents by heart, yet he opened it with care and scanned the words. It had been his nightly ritual ever since the letter had arrived and every time he read, he felt sick and hoped he had misunderstood the meaning.

'My dear Jack' it began.

Jack ran his fingers over those words as if by touch he could bring the writer closer to him. Her writing was large and bold, slightly untidy. Jack could picture her so clearly; he could see the crinkle of her eyes and the set of her mouth.

'I hope you are in good health and the remainder of the campaign in the Crimea was successful.'

He re-read the words. He had spent so much time with Helen over there; they had shared experiences, danger and dreams of a mutual future.

'I often think of our times together and smile at the memories. My father always spoke highly of you, and he took an interest in your career, as did I.'

Her father was Colonel Maxwell, who had commanded the 113th Foot through much of the campaign in the Crimea. Now he had left, promoted to brigadier and sent on to England, taking his family with him.

'As you know, I became very friendly with your brother William before the Russians captured him. He was repatriated in a prisoner exchange and was on the same ship as we were when we sailed home.'

Home. Helen had never been to England until that point and still thought of it as home. The eternal nostalgia of the exile, as Jack knew well.

'Father and Mother both approved of our friendship so when William asked their permission for my hand in marriage, they gave it and I, naturally, had no hesitation in accepting.'

Jack read the passage three times, mouthing the words silently as moths fluttered around his lantern and the lizard crept slowly across the ceiling. 'Oh, naturally,' he said. 'So brother William not only has my house and land, but he has also stolen my girl.'

He put the letter down, closed his eyes and swore. Damn him; damn William to hell, and damn Helen too; the lovely, vivacious, unpredictable Helen. Damn them both. Damning them didn't help, so Jack continued to read.

'I was not happy to learn how you had abandoned William and allowed him to be taken deep into Russia, and now I have learned certain things about your history that are frankly quite disturbing.'

'I did not abandon William,' Jack said to himself. 'He chose to remain a prisoner with his drinking and womanising!'

'Indeed, Jack, I find I am quite disappointed in you. I had thought you to be a gentleman and now I know you are not. William and I will be happy if we no longer have anything to do with you. I do not wish you to reply to this, the last message I will ever send you.'

The letter ended with three curt words:

Helen Windrush (Mrs).

Jack re-read the entire letter, slowly, knowing it would hurt him, knowing he could do nothing to assuage the pain yet still reading. He leant back as the sweat from his hands soaked into the paper, smudging the ink and blurring some of the words. It didn't matter; he knew them off by heart and could repeat the sentences blindfold if he needed to.

His Helen was gone, married to his half-brother. For over two years he had imagined taking her to Wychwood Manor and showing her his favourite places, introducing her to the Malvern Hills and the villages, fields and woods where he grew up. Now Helen would see all these places with his brother, William, who had turned his back on him as soon as he learned he was illegitimate.