All in Scarlet Uniform (Napoleonic War 4) by Adrian Goldsworthy Read Free Book Online

worked.
    ‘Oh aye, he will when the time comes. Up till then he will want to take the battalion by the scruff of the neck and stamp his mark on it. Easier to do that when some of the big characters are off. So I reckon it won’t be long before there are some temporary postings. That’s if he is as smart as he looks.’
    They marched on in silence for a while, Murphy and the drummer leading the recruits some distance ahead of them. Williams thought about Dobson’s idea. He did not want to go away so soon, now that there was a chance of seeing Miss MacAndrews again. Part of him wanted to dismiss the veteran’s suspicion. Unfortunately it made a good deal of sense. After a while another thought came to him.
    ‘How about you, Dob? If he really wants the characters out of the way.’
    The grin was even bigger now. ‘Depends how smart he really is.’
    Williams knew there was more than one way to take that, but decided not to press the issue. The sun came from behind the clouds and he had to squint as they marched on. It was not strong, but there was still a hint of warmth and that was good to feel on the skin.
    ‘I think he is smart,’ Williams said after a while, and half hoped that he was wrong.

4
     
    ‘ H ere’s to Christmas at home!’ said Williams, raising a glass of Hanley’s champagne. A series of wins at cards had left his friend in funds and inclined to celebrate. Williams loathed almost all alcohol, but the discovery that he quite liked champagne was fairly recent. The toast was one they had repeated often enough on their way back from Talavera, when all of them were weary and Pringle and Hanley both recovering from wounds. Now it rang rather hollow.
    ‘Well,’ said Hanley thoughtfully, ‘perhaps Spain is more home to me now than England.’ Orders had arrived detaching him from the battalion and sending him back to the war.
    ‘You were most welcome to stay with my family,’ said Williams.
    ‘Yes, and the invitation is most kind.’ Privately Hanley was relieved. He and Pringle had visited Bristol and met Williams’ family – as it turned out, in time for his sister to run off. Mrs Williams was severe at the best of times, and he doubted Christmas would be any too jolly. Now that the newly married Mrs Garland was there, no doubt lording it over her sisters, the idea of another visit had little appeal.
    ‘Do you know any more about your orders?’ asked Truscott.
    ‘Nothing has been said, although I am to go to London before I leave.’ Hanley mused for a moment. These were his closest friends, and the urge to tell them fought against a growing habit of secrecy. ‘Do you remember Baynes?’
    Truscott thought for a moment, but Williams at once looked up sharply.
    ‘Oh yes, that portly civilian who was with Wellington’s staff at Talavera,’ said Truscott. ‘Some political wallah or other. Is he involved?’
    Williams knew Baynes to be considerably more than that, and so guessed that there might be a certain delicacy involved in Hanley’s role. ‘Good luck, William,’ he said, and then thought it better to change the subject. ‘I wonder when the battalion will follow you?’
    ‘You’ve been listening to rumours again, young Bills,’ said Truscott.
    ‘The battalion is once again reunited, and with all the recruiting parties out, we may soon be back to something like full strength. Is it not reasonable to suppose that such a rare thing will before long be sent abroad?’ Only the absence of the three companies driven back to Portugal had prevented the 106th from being sent on the expedition to Antwerp earlier in the year, since almost every other unit that had come back from Corunna had joined the new expedition. ‘By all accounts the corps coming back from Holland are in no state to be sent abroad again.’
    Truscott shook his head sadly. ‘That sounds as if it was a ghastly business, and little more than a waste for no good end. However, simply because the regiment is in prime