4th July, early evening; Red & green

Bloody worthless things, officers. He was spot-on correct, which meant he was completely wrong. Damn it!

"It wasn't Jack, sir," Mayden said firmly. "He ain't one for usin' anythin' but his fists. Trained for a bit with Tom Cribb, actually, sir."

"The knife, please." Vickery held out his hand for the knife. "Either I am completely wrong as regards both this situation and your character, or you are trying to cover for someone. I can only imagine it is the latter."

Now, why would that be the case? He glanced towards Kirridge. The answer wasn't going to be so very hard to work out: Mayden - and possibly Cotton - were more scared of Kirridge than of Vickery himself.

Which was not a state of affairs that was going to help.

Mayden hesitated before holding the knife out. Did he dare tell the captain he was in fact wrong? What would Mister Sharpe do?

"Ain't hard to be wrong, sir," he remarked flatly. " 'Specially 'bout lads you don't know."

"You would do well not to be impertinent, sir," Vickery replied, a hint of steel in his tone, and turned to Kirridge. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

It was all Jack could do not to shrug. "Jus' as Sammy says it. Some urchin wiv the Guards came round, din't 'e, Sammy belted 'im fer trepassin', an' that'n stopt it. Then Sammy went fer 'im, 'cause of it." Now he did shrug. "S'the on'y time I plays at bein' a 'ero an' all. On'y luck I weren't stuck meself, innit?"

Vickery took the knife. He was sure that wasn't quite the way things had turned out - was sure, in fact, that it had gone pretty much as he had said it had. But if they wanted to insist it had gone differently, then Vickery could oblige them.

"Right, then. You know the penalty for fighting. And I am sure I do not have to remind you of the consequences of lying to an officer, either." He turned to call for a Sergeant. It was unfortunate that Cotton had got involved as well, of course, but it couldn't be helped.

"You are all being held on charges of brawling, and will be dealt with in the morning."

At least Jack had the presence of mind not to diverge from the story Mayden had given, but he wouldn't implicate himself, would he?

"Didn't know tellin' the truth was really lyin'," he muttered, watching one of the 60th's sergeants come hurrying up.

"These three are under arrest for fighting," Vickery told the Sergeant, returning the NCO's salute. "Cotton will need to be seen by a surgeon; he appears to have hurt his arm somehow."

That was one way of putting it, Mayden thought. The bugger was lucky it'd only been his arm. He straightened his back and fell in behind Jack, ready to follow this sergeant to whatever passed for a holding place for prisoners in this company.

If he could have gotten away with it, he'd have spat on the baby redcoat's shako, which lay otherwise forgotten on the ground nearby.


Kirridge appears next here. Mayden appears next here.