‘Do you still persist in believing that silly story?’ She spoke in English.
More than ever, Sharpe thought, then realised that there could not have been a slow match concealed in the barrels while Madame Delaunay was in the house. So men were coming back to finish the treachery. ‘We’re assured that there’s no truth in the tale, madame,’ he said, ‘and my job now is to clear the stolen paintings out of the Louvre.’
‘Sheer vandalism! The Musée Napoléon is the most important repository of culture in Europe! In the world!’
‘I’ll do my duty, madame.’
‘Always the soldier’s excuse,’ she snarled, then calmed down. ‘The world changes, Colonel, and it’s not good. The Emperor was a clever man and a good ruler. You know the Prussians want him executed?’
‘They do, madame?’
‘They’re savages! But the Duke assures me he will plead for his life.’
‘Then we must hope the Duke lives to make that plea,’ Sharpe said.
She gave him a very hard look. ‘Did you taste the wine, Colonel?’
‘There wasn’t time, madame, and besides we like the wine chilled. We put it all in the fountains.’
‘You …’ she began, then nodded as she understood what he had done. ‘You are a clever man, Colonel Sharpe. But it’s no matter, I rather thought that fat fool the King might be here. He wasn’t.’
‘And you planned to send men here later to fire the barrels?’
‘I planned to rid France of an obese wobbling monarch, Colonel. What kind of world allows my husband to die and Fat Louis to live?’
‘A world that allows my Lucille to live.’
‘I would have regretted that,’ Madame Delaunay said. ‘I like her. She deserves better than you, of course, but look after her.’
‘I intend to, madame.’
‘Then goodnight, Colonel.’ Hoofbeats and carriage wheels sounded on the portico and she swept out of the door with what Sharpe thought was indecent haste.
Coffee and cognac were being served in the great parlour, where Lucille had attracted a small crowd of admirers. Sharpe ignored them and headed for the Duke, who was standing by a curtained window evidently having been trapped there by Colonel Kippen, who was talking earnestly and emphasising his words with a pumped fist. The Duke looked rather relieved as Sharpe approached. ‘Colonel Kippen,’ he interrupted the Prussian, ‘assures me that the Delaunay property is free of enemy.’
‘Your Grace,’ Sharpe said, ‘a word?’
‘You’ll excuse us, Colonel?’ The Duke turned away from the Prussian. ‘What is it, Sharpe?’
‘I have to commend Captain Burrell, Your Grace.’
‘Jack’s a fine fellow. I’m glad you approve of him.’
Kippen had followed them and Sharpe lowered his voice to tell the Duke of the attempt to fire the mansion. The Duke’s eyes widened as he listened. ‘You didn’t think to warn me!’
‘And interrupt your dinner? Captain Burrell had the situation well in hand, Your Grace.’
‘And that damned woman was my guest!’ The Duke was angry now, but it was a cool anger. ‘And Lanier was here?’
‘I spoke with him, Your Grace.’
‘I thought you were under orders to kill the man?’
‘A fight in the house would not have been a good idea, Your Grace. He had men, I had none.’
‘Not like you, Sharpe! Learning discretion are you?’ The Duke gave him no chance to answer. ‘So we’re safe now? You’re certain?’
‘Quite certain, Your Grace. Captain Burrell put all the powder in the pond here.’
‘Then damn the Prussians,’ the Duke went on, loud enough now for Kippen to hear. ‘Tomorrow you clean out that nest of vipers, and that’s an order.’
‘Yes, Your Grace.’
‘Colonel Kippen,’ the Duke turned to the Prussian, ‘you will be good enough to inform your masters that a British battalion will be active in the east of the city tomorrow.’
‘But—’ Kippen began.
‘No buts!’ the Duke snapped. ‘If your fellows can’t do it, mine will. Your fellows will do it, Sharpe.’ He prodded Sharpe by poking the star on Sharpe’s chest. ‘If you want to help, Colonel,’ he was talking to Kippen now, ‘then bring some troops, but Colonel Sharpe is in command. You understand?’ He did not wait for an answer, but stalked across the room, leaving Kippen and Sharpe by the empty hearth.
‘They are not there!’ Kippen pleaded to Sharpe. ‘We searched!’
‘The cellars too?’
‘Nothing there but, what do you say? Pilze?’
‘Pilze?’
‘They grow in the forest. Under the trees.’
‘Mushrooms.’
‘Ja! Mushrooms.’
‘And the tunnel, Colonel?’
Kippen looked flustered. ‘There is a tunnel?’
‘There is a tunnel,’ Sharpe said, ‘and tomorrow we search it.’
‘There is no tunnel! We would have found it! There is nothing but a mushroom farm. My men were thorough!’
‘Tomorrow,’ Sharpe said, tired of the man. ‘If you want to be part of it, Colonel, meet me in the Louvre at midday.’
‘This is madness,’ Kippen protested.
And it had been madness, Sharpe thought, since the moment he had marched his men onto the ridge at Waterloo. And damn it, the war was over, the victory won! But tomorrow he must face le Monstre and his devils. Damn it, Sharpe thought, but Kippen was right, it was madness.
CHAPTER 12
‘Midnight,’ Sharpe said firmly, putting a finger on the map of Paris. ‘You have to be here ten minutes before,’ his finger prodded the map, ‘at the elephant, you can’t miss it, and here,’ he moved his finger to the Delaunay estate, ‘when the church clocks strike midnight.’
‘And the Prussians?’ Major Morris asked.
‘We will be waiting at the gate,’ Kippen said. ‘When you arrive, Major, we all go to the house.’ Kippen had promised three companies of troops. ‘And my men will lead,’ he insisted, ‘but they will find nothing. We were there two days ago and the house was not occupied.’
‘And if it is?’ Morris asked.
‘Then you get rid of them,’ Sharpe said.
‘But the Prussians go first?’ Morris asked anxiously.
‘You all go,’ Sharpe said. ‘If there’s a battalion of French Light Infantry in Madame Delaunay’s house then three companies of Prussians won’t be enough.’
‘We will go first,’ Colonel Kippen assured the nervous Morris.
Sharpe slapped the table hard. ‘No one goes first! You attack together. I don’t give a tinker’s cuss who’s first into the house, so long as you get there fast and go in fast.’
‘The doors will be locked,’ Morris pointed out.
Sharpe looked at Captain Jefferson. ‘Get some axes from the Pioneers.’
‘I will, sir.’
Sharpe looked back to Morris. ‘The Grenadier Company will break the doors down, and the other companies can smash the windows and get in that way.’
‘But no windows on what you say is the storehouse,’ Morris said, pointing to the rough sketch Sharpe had made of Madame Delaunay’s house and warehouse.
‘So you go through the bloody door!’
‘But you think most of the French will be in that warehouse?’
‘Which is why you go in fast and hard!’
‘We searched that warehouse two days ago,’ Kippen said, ‘and there were no men there. Just a wine press and barrels.’