Hervey 07 - An Act Of Courage (25 page)

Laming turned bright red. The mess had never let him forget it. ‘Ma’am,’ he spluttered, ‘I—’

She smiled the more. ‘Do not trouble, Colonel. I merely wanted to know if it
were
you. I recall that you were very kind to the man.’

‘
Kind
, ma’am? I had filled his back with shot!’

‘Oh, come, Colonel. It was a very little shot and he made a rapid recovery. I meant that you sent him comforts, and visited him.’

Laming was now more composed. ‘I did what any man should, ma’am. And I must protest, as everyone at the time was quick to point out to me: the footman had strayed far from his line.’

‘Yes, Colonel; my father reminded me of that, too.’

Laming settled back into the plush of his corner again. ‘We were all most grateful for your father’s hospitality. Some of the best sport I ever recall, partridges faster than Congreve’s rockets!’

Isabella nodded, approving. ‘And, now, I recall it was you whose sister came to Belem?’

Laming was at last able to smile. ‘Indeed, ma’am. She spent a very happy winter here.’

‘I believe I recall, too, that your sister . . .’ She inclined her head.

‘Frances.’

‘Yes. That Major Hervey was much taken with Frances.’

It was true. And Laming had been hopeful that the affection might become something more, for although his fellow cornet had not had a penny to his name, he was a man he would have been pleased to call brother-in-law. ‘Yes, there was a strong affection. But we were very young!’

‘Indeed we were, Colonel!’

Laming was discomfited again. ‘Ma’am, I did not mean that—’

‘Colonel, do not trouble yourself. We are none of us in our
première jeunesse
!’

Isabella’s smile was so warm, Laming could not quite catch his breath. So used was he these past few years to fashionably tight lips that her want of inhibition caught him off-guard. He had never married, and such intimacies had been largely denied him. His pleasure now was more than he had imagined.

‘Major Hervey’s wife, Colonel – can you tell me anything of her?’

Laming regained his composure. ‘I can indeed, ma’am. She was a most excellent woman. If I tell you she chose to accompany the regiment to Canada in the depths of winter, while she was with child, that will speak of her quality. It was, of course, that which occasioned her death.’

‘I know a little of it, Colonel. Would you tell me more?’

Laming unfastened the front of his pelisse coat. The carriagewarmer had taken the chill off the air, and he found himself able to relax more. ‘I will tell you what Hervey himself would approve, ma’am, but there are some things which go profoundly hard with him, even after the passage of ten years.’

‘Of course.’

He took off his gloves, looking pensive, then tapped his knee with them, as if signalling for the off. ‘At that time, the regiment was commanded by the most disreputable man I have had misfortune to meet – a coward, jealous of Hervey’s reputation and ability. They were soon at odds. He sent him across the border into America, to co-operate with their army against the native Indians. Henrietta joined him at a later date, leaving behind the child with a nurse, but the commanding officer took objection and sent her away from the fort back to Canada. She was not long gone when her party was ambushed by Indians.’

Isabella’s face betrayed her horror. ‘I did not know the end was so . . .’ She looked out of the window for a long moment. ‘And I imagine that Major Hervey blames himself in some part?’

‘You have it perfectly, ma’am. He cannot quite get it from his mind that had he been either more obliging to the lieutenant-colonel, or else had exposed him for the villain he was, then Henrietta would be alive today.’

Isabella nodded. ‘I can see that it would go very hard with a man like Major Hervey.’

She took off her gloves, revealing elegant hands. Laming found it difficult to picture them holding a foil, as Wainwright had spoken of. He saw the rings that showed she had once been married – perhaps married yet, in her own mind.

‘And what of the child, Colonel?’

‘What? Oh, the child . . . yes – a daughter. I confess I don’t recall her name. Hervey’s sister is guardian.’

‘She lives with Major Hervey?’

Laming raised an eyebrow. ‘There again, ma’am, you touch on a nerve – although you must understand that he and I have not been close these past years. Our duties have taken us different ways, he to India, principally. But those who know him better say that their separation causes him much unrest.’

‘Of course, of course. I imagine Major Hervey is the sort of man who is torn by . . .
conflicts
, do you say?’

Laming nodded; it was the most apt word.

‘By conflicts of his duty almost every day!’

Laming smiled, ruefully. ‘You are most perceptive, ma’am. I am of the opinion – as are many – that if Hervey were able to find it in himself to be a little more accommodating to those superiors he finds himself in disagreement with, he would by now be brigadier-general.’

Isabella returned the smile. ‘I can suppose it. But then, my own country would now be sorry for it, since Colonel Norris, evidently, was incapable or unwilling to do more than rebuild a few old forts!’

‘No doubt, ma’am. It seems a pity, though, that it should come to this: you and I having to travel to Elvas.’

Isabella frowned. ‘It is no hardship for me, Colonel, I assure you.’

Laming let the remark go. It was no hardship for him either. Indeed, rather the opposite. His worry was that, from all he had heard in London and Hounslow, his old friend’s restlessness was manifest in the situation before them now at Elvas; or, more to the point, at Badajoz. He had seen others the same; not men with Hervey’s capability, that was for sure, but others who had let some deep disquiet in their lives run them hard against everything that ought to have been their support. Ultimately, they had fallen apart, like a horse that would not take the bit. He smiled to himself, for the remedy was plain – even to him, a bachelor.

He looked out of the window at the once-familiar road. It was
far
from hardship to take it again to Elvas. They had marched this way with Sir John Moore (and in this season), and he had thrilled to the sight of the mountains, the rivers, the forests, and to the call of the eagle – everything that had been so different from the green face of England, which to that date had been his sole experience. Elvas, he fancied, he could remember well: they had rested there a good deal. Badajoz less so. Badajoz had given them comfort after Talavera; that much he could recall perfectly. But Badajoz had also been the place of sheer, bloody murder, and he could scarce bare to think of it.

His eyes began closing – the little stove, the gentle rocking of the carriage. Forget Badajoz the night of the storming; obliterate the memory. Think on Badajoz as it had welcomed them after Talavera. Think on
Talavera
! What a battle to have shared with his old friend: nothing its like until Waterloo!

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

THE NIGHT HORSE

Talavera, late evening, 27 July 1809

‘Stand down one in three, off-saddle and feed by half-sections.’

Sir Edward Lankester, pleased with what he saw at evening stand-to-arms after their fighting withdrawal, and that Lord George Irvine had seen likewise, patted his handsome sorrel on the neck as the squadron officers closed to him. Drawn up to the west of the dry riverbed of the Portiña, beyond a screening line of olive trees, willow and cork oak, they might be in a different world from the infantry’s. Here they could rest, unobserved by the enemy, his guns unsighted. The other side of the trees, the domain of the redcoat, there could be no such ease; not, at least, until darkness, and even then the regiments would have to picket strongly, for the French might think the day had been theirs, and victory only a night attack away.

‘A memorable day, I think, gentlemen. But it will be the more so tomorrow, I’ll warrant. For tonight, we shall stand down the remainder after dark, and I would that the men get a good sleep. The regiment is to send additional gallopers to each of the divisions, our squadron one each to Hill’s and Campbell’s. Hervey to the former, if you please.’ He paused, looking at him, as if to ask if he felt up to the exertion.

Hervey nodded.

‘Bruce to the latter. Are there any questions?’

There were none.

‘Very well, gentlemen, to your duties.’

Hervey was disappointed. Had he been assigned to Campbell’s division he might have seen Ayling – and perhaps a little action, since the division stood beyond the Portiña still, in the centre of the allied position. They would be Wellesley’s ears for the night, Sir Edward explained. But Hervey had no idea where was ‘Daddy’ Hill’s division – only, as Sir Edward said, ‘up there’, on the Cerro de Medellin, the ridge that ran east–west in the middle of the position: just about the quietest place to be in the entire allied line, he reckoned.

‘Loyalist, please, Sykes,’ he told his groom. Loyalist may not pass the riding master’s inspection as a charger ‘fully trained’, but Jessye had earned her night’s rest after the day’s exertions.

A cannonade like thunder startled the Second Division’s staff, not least the general himself. ‘Great heavens, gentlemen! What can be their purpose at this time of day? I’m surprised they see anything; there’ll be no light at all in another hour.’

Hervey, just come, looked at his watch. By his reckoning there were another
two
hours of daylight yet, but he hardly thought it the thing to correct the divisional commander; at least, not in front of his staff. He had only just shaken hands with him.

The general’s hand was a surprise. But, then, as Hervey knew, the commander of the Second Division was no ordinary man. Major-General Rowland Hill was not yet forty, but he had the appearance and manner of one considerably older. Hervey could see why he was called ‘Daddy’, even without his reputation for the care of his men. His face was ruddy, not in the least stern – indeed, to Hervey’s mind rather cherubic – his voice was soft, and his eyes kind. It would have been easy to imagine that here was a country squire in the uniform of the local militia.

It had not been Hervey’s first encounter with this redoubtable infantryman. On the second occasion, when he had galloped for Colonel Long at Corunna, Hill and his brigade had stood like a stone wall astride the road to the harbour, so that Sir John Moore had taken one look at them and then turned to gallop back to the centre, confident he need have no fear for his left flank.

‘I know you, sir. We have met in more agreeable surroundings,’ said Hill, closing his telescope and turning back to face the temporary addition to his staff. ‘Mr Hervey and I, gentlemen, share the inestimable advantage of an education in that finest of counties, Salop.’

The staff smiled politely at the diversion, while Hervey puzzled as to how on earth the general could recall his meeting a schoolboy two years ago. It was not even as if he had received a prize when Salop’s most distinguished soldier had visited his school. He bowed, acknowledging, and stood in respectful silence.

The general turned back towards the guns. ‘Well, gentlemen—’ he began.

The guns thundered again. All the staff now turned, telescopes raised.

‘A mile, d’ye suppose? A couple of batteries?’

‘But not heavy, General,’ said one of his aides-de-camp. ‘It’s scarcely throwing up earth yonder.’

Even with two hours to go before sunset, the shadows were beginning to lengthen appreciably. Hervey imagined that every man’s thoughts would be turning to the night. The ‘gentlemen in red’, the junior ranks at least, would be thinking of sleep: it was all scrub and couch grass, not bad bedding for the night, if they were permitted to lie down; but the officers would be thinking there was not a deal of cover either; whether day
or
night, that was not the best of arrangements. General Hill’s division formed the second line of Sir Arthur Wellesley’s defensive position, although the brigades of the first line were still taking ground – which was as well, Hervey observed, for the French shot was arching across the Portiña from the Cerro de Cascajal and plunging onto the crest at the eastern end of the ridge, where the French gunners must suppose the outposts of the first line to be. It fell too far east to be any real threat to the division, but Hervey knew that General Hill would be occupied by what the fire portended. He looked at his watch – a quarter to seven.

‘It is not at all auspicious,’ said the general, scanning the ridge. ‘I can still see no one. There ought by now to be pickets up there, at least. I would that Wellesley were here.’ He snapped closed the telescope. ‘I’d better go to find him.’

The aide-de-camp beckoned for their horses.

Hervey reckoned they had perhaps an hour and a half to find the commander-in-chief before the light failed; the moon would not be up for four hours and more. He shortened stirrups before mounting: he had stumbled about enough on Salisbury Plain in the dark to know what they might be in for.