Harry—drunk and bleary eyed, disheveled, clothes stained and even torn, stinking after two days without any encounter with water or soap, razor or tooth powder or a change of linen—had encountered, or been encountered by, a recruiting sergeant and had taken the king’s shilling in exchange for his spindly signature and a spot in some unprestigious regiment as a private soldier. By the time Avery came up with the group—it consisted of a few other ragamuffin recruits as well as Harry and the sergeant—his ward was looking pale and glum and mulish and the obvious possessor of a gigantic headache.
The Duke of Netherby, who had bathed and changed his clothes since last night, regarded the disgusting huddle of military would-be heroes through his quizzing glass—he had chosen a jeweled one deliberately so that it would wink in the sun—while the disgusting huddle gawked back and Harry looked green and defiant.
“Harry,” His Grace said with a sigh. “It is time to come home, my lad.”
“’Ere, ’ere.” The sergeant stepped forward to within one foot of His Grace. “The lad ’as been recruited, pretty boy, and belongs to the king, and there ain’t a bleeding thing you can do about it.”
Pretty boy? This felt a little like that first year at school all over again.
The man was at least eight inches taller than Avery and at the very least twice his weight—more probably three times. His head had been shaved, and every inch of his body that was visible was pitted and scarred to show him for the great bruiser of a soldier he was.
Avery regarded him through his glass. It was not an attractive sight, especially when magnified, but it was an impressive one, and might well put the wind up a whole battalion of French soldiers, not to mention one pretty boy. The sergeant looked uneasy under the leisurely scrutiny, but, to his credit, he did not retreat by even a fraction of one inch.
“Quite so,” Avery said with a long-suffering sigh. “I will see my ward’s signature, my man.”
“I ain’t yur man, and I don’t ’ave to—” the sergeant began.
“Ah, but you will,” the Duke of Netherby informed him, sounding bored.
The recruiting paper was produced.
“As I thought,” Avery said after taking his time perusing it through his glass. “This is indeed my ward’s signature, but it is shaky, for all the world as though he had been coerced into writing it.”
“’Ere,” the sergeant said, frowning ferociously. “I don’t like your tone, guv, and I don’t like wot you are hinsinuating.”
“I assume,” Avery said, “one of the king’s shillings is at this moment nestled in one of my ward’s pockets?”
“Unless ’e ’as ate it,” the sergeant said.
The disgusting huddle snickered.
“Harry.” His Grace of Netherby stepped up to the boy, one hand outstretched. The other recruits were gawking again. A small but ever-growing crowd was gathering in a circle about them. “If you please.”
“Give it to ’im, ’arry,” someone in the crowd yelled, “and let the serge take ’im instead of you. The Frogs would eat ’im for tea, they would.”
There was a wag in every crowd.
Harry produced the battered shilling and handed it over. “I’ve signed, Avery,” he said. “I’m going to be a soldier. It’s all I’m good for. It’s what I want to do.”
Avery handed the shilling to the sergeant. “You may take this back,” he said, “and you may tear up that paper. It is worthless. It would not stand up in court.”
One element of the crowd cheered while another booed.
“’e don’t want it torn up,” the sergeant pointed out. “You ’eard wot ’e said. Take yourself off, guv. ’e belongs to the king now, and I am the king’s hagent. Take yourself off before I pop you a good one and make you cry and wet yourself.”
Wild cheering from the ever-growing crowd. It was a challenge almost worth accepting, but one really must not indulge in the temptation to show off. Avery sighed and lowered his glass.
“But you see,” he said, “the boy is my ward. His signature, and what he believes to be his wishes, mean nothing without my permission. My permission is not granted.”
“And ’oo might I be haddressing?” the sergeant asked.
“He is the Duke of Netherby,” Harry said sullenly.
Instead of instantly groveling, the sergeant glowered, and Avery regarded him with approval. “And I s’pose you ’ave the ear of the king whenever you want it,” the man said bitterly, “and all the other nobs’ ears ’oo don’t ’ave to live by the laws of the land like all the rest of us salt of the earth ’umans.”
“It does seem rather unfair,” Avery agreed.
“’e would be useless, anyway,” the sergeant said, turning his head to spit in the dirt, only narrowly missing the left boot of the nearest of the spectators. “Just look at ’im. The best soldiers are the scum of the earth, like the rest of ’em there. I’ll whip ’em into shape in no time flat, Lord love ’em.”
The scum of the earth gawked back at him. One of them then leered at Avery, favoring him with a view of a mouthful of rotten teeth.
“Take ’im,” the sergeant said, tearing the recruitment paper in two lengthwise and then again crosswise before dropping the pieces and setting a giant boot over them. “And good riddance. Let ’im drink ’imself to death. ’e is well on ’is way already.”
“I don’t want to leave,” Harry said mulishly.