Sharpe ducked under the lintel of the opened doorway to find himself in a lavishly furnished cabin that extended the width of the Vengeance’s wide stern. A dozen officers, their wine glasses catching the light from the galleried windows, sat around a polished dining table.
“Major! We meet in happier circumstances.” Captain Horace Bampfylde greeted Sharpe with effusive and false pleasure. “No damned American to spoil our conversation, eh? Come and meet the company.”
Seeing Bampfylde in his ship made Sharpe realize how very young the naval captain was. Bampfylde must still lack two years of thirty, yet the naval captain possessed an ebullient confidence and a natural authority to compensate for his lack of years. He had a fleshy face, quick eyes, and an impatient manner that he tried to disguise as he made the introductions.
Most of the men about the table were naval officers whose names meant nothing to Sharpe, but there were also two Army officers, one of whom Sharpe recognized. “Colonel Elphinstone?”
Elphinstone, a big, burly Engineer whose hands were calloused and scarred, beamed a welcome. “You haven’t met my brother-in-arms, Sharpe; Colonel Wigram.”
Wigram was a grey-faced, dour, bloodless creature who acknowledged the ironic introduction with a curt nod. “If you could seat yourself, Major Sharpe, we might at last begin.” He managed to convey that Sharpe had delayed this meeting.
Sharpe sat beside Elphinstone in a chair close to the windows that looked on to the big, grey Atlantic swells that scarcely moved the Vengeance’s ponderous hull. He sensed an awkwardness in the cabin, and he judged that there was disagreement between Wigram and Elphinstone, a judgment that was confirmed when the tall Engineer leaned towards him. “It’s all bloody madness, Sharpe. Marines have got the pox so they want you instead.”
The comment, ostensibly made in a confiding voice, had easily carried to the far end of the table where Bampfylde sat. The naval captain frowned. “Our Marines have a contagious fever, Elphinstone; not the pox.”