A Call to Arms: (Matthew Hervey Book 4) by Allan Mallinson

Author:Allan Mallinson [Mallinson, Allan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Action & Adventure, Historical
ISBN: 9781407067650
Google: 2VM52AmpqzkC
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2010-04-27T00:00:00+00:00

For Hervey, however, nothing could have made the evening more agreeable than the inclusion of two particular names in the Governor-General’s list of guests. He had been able to call on them the afternoon before, but only for a short time, so active were his duties with horses and men alike. A card had awaited him at the regimental agents in the city, delivered promptly with letters from home brought by the overland route through Alexandria. ‘Mrs Eyre Somervile’ was engraved on pearl-white card, struck through by the pen with ‘Emma’ written below, and in the same neat round hand ‘wishes you would call on us at Number 3, Fort William on the earliest occasion.’

Almost the last letter Hervey had written from England had been to Eyre Somervile at Fort George, Madras, with the payment of a considerable premium so that it should go overland too. The card came as no surprise therefore, except in locating its sender in Calcutta, for the marriage of the Collector of Guntoor and Philip Lucie’s sister had long been a presumption in Madras. But it did not diminish Hervey’s delight at the early prospect of seeing them again. To both he owed, at the least, the preservation of his reputation; and very probably his life.

And now, the day after the fête-champêtre, he was dining with them both as their sole guest, his duties done until two days following, and thus with an easy repose before him.

‘You are the toast of Council, Hervey,’ said Somervile, refilling his glass and passing the decanter to his wife. ‘Likely as not they’ll vote you half a lakh next week. It is a prodigious achievement.’

‘Five horses only!’ agreed Emma Somervile. ‘The native cavalry lost that many last summer in one day when the Hooghly was in spate.’

Hervey smiled with satisfaction. ‘We were fortunate in having a landing at the Cape. But the saving was in the arrangements aboard the transport. The captain was uncommonly obliging. There are half a dozen troopers with wounds and sprains, though. My own groom’s mare is still on the sick list.’

‘All the same, Hervey, to bring ashore so many fit horses is truly remarkable,’ said Somervile emphatically.

Emma’s ears had pricked at the mention of Hervey’s groom. ‘Is he the dragoon who was with you before? The one who spoke so strangely?’

‘The same.’

‘A good and faithful servant indeed,’ she replied, smiling. ‘I shall look forward to seeing him again. Do you recall him, Eyre?’

It had been three and a half years since last Hervey had shared a table with Eyre Somervile, and with Emma Lucie as she had then been; but the years had fallen away in as many hours this evening, and the fellowship born of those few but strenuous months in Madras and Chintal was now returned in full and easy measure. Time played its tricks in India, the Rajah of Chintal had once told him, and in the silence that Somervile took to light his cigar, while Emma Somervile cast a sharp

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