It was the Scottish major, a stocky man called Arthur Dalton, who frowned at Peculiar Cromwell’s declaration that the war was lost. “We’ve beaten the French in India,” the major protested, “and their navy is on its knees.”
“If their navy is on its knees,” Cromwell growled, “why are we sailing in convoy?” He stared belligerently at Dalton, waiting for an answer, but the major declined to take up the cudgels and Cromwell looked triumphantly about the cuddy. He was a tall and heavy-set man with black hair streaked badger white that he wore past his shoulders. He had a long jaw, big yellow teeth and belligerent eyes. His hands, large and powerful, were permanently blackened from the tarred rigging. His uniform coat was cut from a thick blue broadcloth and heavily crusted with brass buttons decorated with the Company’s symbol which was supposed to show a lion holding a crown, but which everyone called “the cat and the cheese.” Cromwell shook his ponderous head. “The war is lost,” he declared again. “Who rules the continent of Europe?”
“The French,” the barrister answered lazily, “but it won’t last. All flash and fire, the French, but there ain’t no substance in them. No substance at all.”
“The whole coast of Europe,” Cromwell said icily, ignoring the lawyer’s scorn, “is in enemy hands.” He paused as a shuddering, grating and scraping noise echoed through the cabin. It punctuated the conversation sporadically and it had taken Sharpe a few moments to realize that it was the sound of the tiller ropes that ran two decks beneath him. Cromwell glanced up at a telltale compass that was mounted on the ceiling, then, deciding all was in order, resumed his argument. “Europe, I tell you, is in enemy hands. The Americans, damn their insolence, are hostile, so our home ocean, sir, is an enemy sea. An enemy sea. We sail there because we have more ships, but ships cost money, and for how long will the British people pay for ships?”
“There are the Austrians,” Major Dalton suggested, “the Russians?”
“The Austrians, sir!” Cromwell scoffed. “No sooner do the Austrians field an army than it is destroyed! The Russians? Would you trust the Russians to free Europe when they cannot liberate themselves? Have you been to Russia, sir?”
“No,” Major Dalton admitted.
“A land of slaves,” Cromwell said derisively.
Lord William Hale might have been expected to contribute to this conversation for, as one of the six members of the East India Company’s Board of Control, he must have been familiar with the thinking of the British government, but he was content to listen with a faintly amused smile, though he did raise an eyebrow at Cromwell’s assertion that the Russians were a nation of slaves.
“The French, sir,” Cromwell went on hotly, “face a rabble of enemies on their eastern frontiers, but none on their west. They can therefore concentrate their armies, sure in the knowledge that no British army will ever touch their shore.”
“Never?” the merchant, a solid man called Ebenezer Fairley, asked sarcastically.
Cromwell swung his heavy gaze on this new opponent. He contemplated Fairley for a while, then shook his head. “The British, Fairley, do not like armies. They keep a small army. A small army can never defeat Napoleon. Ergo, Napoleon is safe. Ergo, the war is lost. Good God, man, they might already have invaded Britain!”
“I pray not,” Major Dalton said fervently.
“Their army was ready,” Cromwell boomed with a strange relish in this talk of British defeat, “and all they needed was for their navy to command the channel.”
“Which it cannot do,” the barrister intervened quietly.
“And even if they did not invade this year,” Cromwell went on, ignoring the lawyer, “then in time they will succeed in building a navy fit to defeat ours, and when that day comes Britain will have to seek peace. Britain will revert to its natural posture, and its natural posture is to be a small and insignificant island poised off a great continent.”
Lady Grace spoke for the first time. Sharpe had been pleased and surprised to see her at supper, for Captain Chase had suggested that she eschewed company, but she seemed content to be in the cuddy though so far she had taken as little part in the conversation as her husband. “So we are doomed to defeat, Captain?” she suggested.
“No, ma’am,” Cromwell answered, softening his pugnacity now that he addressed a titled passenger. “We are doomed to a realistic settlement of peace just as soon as the jackanapes politicians recognize what is plain in front of their faces.”
“Which is?” Fairley demanded.
“That the French are more powerful than us, of course!” Cromwell growled. “And until we make peace the prudent man makes money, for we shall need money in a world run by the French. That is why India is important. We should suck the place dry before the French take it from us.” Cromwell snapped his fingers to instruct the stewards to remove the plates which had held a ragout of salted beef. Sharpe had eaten clumsily, finding the thick silverware unwieldy, and wishing he had dared take out his folding pocket knife which he used at meals when his betters were not present.
Mathilde, the Baroness von Dornberg, smiled gratefully as the captain replenished her wine glass. The baroness, who was almost certainly nothing of the sort, sat on Captain Cromwell’s left while opposite her was Lady Grace Hale. Pohlmann, resplendent in a lace-fringed silk coat, sat next to Lady Grace while Lord William was to the left of Mathilde. Sharpe, as the least important person present, was at the lower end of the table.
The cuddy was an elegant room paneled with wood that had been painted pea-green and gold, while a brass chandelier, bereft of candles, hung from a beam alongside the wide skylight. If the room had not been gently rocking, sometimes shifting a wine glass on the table, Sharpe might have thought himself ashore.
He had said nothing all evening, content to gaze at Lady Grace who, white-faced and aloof, had ignored him since the moment he had been named to her. She had politely offered him a gloved hand, given him an expressionless glance, then turned away. Her husband had frowned at Sharpe’s presence, then imitated his wife by pretending the ensign did not exist.
A dessert of oranges and burned sugar was served. Pohlmann eagerly spooned the rich sauce into his mouth, then looked at Sharpe. “You think the war is lost, Sharpe?”
“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?”