Sharpe 16 - Sharpe's Honour Read Online Free PDF

Terror. She had married, on instructions from Paris, a man close to the Spanish King, a man privy to the secrets of Spain. She was still married, though her husband was far off, and she bore the title that he had given her. She was the Marquesa de Casares el Grande y Melida Sadaba. She was lovely as a summer dream and as treacherous as sin. She was La Puta Dorada.
    Ducos smiled. A hawk, high above its victim, might have felt the same satisfaction that the bespectacled French Major felt as he ordered his aide to send his compliments to the Marquesa with a request, which, from Pierre Ducos, was tantamount to an order, that her Ladyship come to his presence immediately.
    La Marquesa de Casares el Grande y Melida Sadaba, smelling of rosewater and smiling sweetly, was ushered into Major Ducos' bare room an hour later. He looked up from the table. `You're late.'
    She blew a kiss from her lace-gloved hand and walked past him to the bastion. `The country looks very pretty today. I asked your deliciously timid Lieutenant to fetch me some wine and grapes. We could eat out here, Pierre. Your skin needs some sun.' She shaded her face with a parasol and smiled at him. `How are you, Pierre? Dancing the nights away, as ever?'
    He ignored her mockery. He stood in the doorway and his deep voice was harsh. `You have six wagons in this fortress.'
    She pretended awe. `Has the Emperor made you his wagonmaster, Pierre? I must congratulate you.'
    He took a folded piece of paper from his waistcoat pocket. `They are loaded with gold and silver plate, paintings, coins, tapestries, statues, carvings, and a wine cellar packed in sawdust. The total value is put at three hundred thousand Spanish dollars.' He stared at her in silent triumph.
    `And some furniture, Pierre. Did your spy not find the furniture? Some of it's rather valuable. A very fine Moorish couch inlaid with ivory, a japanned escritoire that you'd like, and a mirrored bed.'
    `And doubtless the bed in which you persuaded General Verigny to guard your stolen property?' General Verigny was the cavalry officer whose men had guarded the wagons on their journey from Salamanca.
    `Stolen, Pierre? It all belongs to me and my dear husband. I merely thought that while Wellington threatens to defeat us I would remove our few household belongings into France. Just think of me as a simple refugee. Ah!' She smiled at Ducos' aide who had brought a tray on which stood an opened bottle of champagne, a single glass, and a dish of white grapes. `Put it on the parapet, Lieutenant.'
    Scowling, Ducos waited till his aide had gone. `The property is loaded on French army wagons.'
    `Condemned wagons, Pierre.'
    `Condemned by General Verigny's Quartermaster.'
    `True.' She smiled. `A dear man.' `And I will countermand his condemnation.' She stared at him. She feared Pierre Ducos, though she would not give him the satisfaction of showing her fear. She recognised the threat that he offered her. She was running from Spain, running from the victory that Wellington threatened, and she was taking the wealth with her that would make her independent of whatever tragedies befell France. Now Ducos menaced that independence. She plucked a grape from the bunch. `Tell me, Pierre, do you order your breakfast with a threat? If you want something of me, why don't you just ask? Or is it that you want to. share my plunder?'
    He scowled at that. No one could accuse Pierre Ducos of greed. He changed the subject. `I wanted to know how you felt about your husband returning from America.'
    She laughed. `You want me to go back to his bed, Pierre? Don't you think I've suffered enough for France?'
    `Does he still love you?'
    `Love? What an odd word from you, Pierre.' She stared up at the tricolour. `He still wants me.'
    `He knows you're a spy?'
    `I'm sure someone's told him, aren't you? But Luis doesn't take women seriously, Pierre. He'd think I was a spy because I was unhappy without him. He thinks that once he's back and I'm neatly tucked up