Accidental Warrior_The Unlikely Tale of Bloody Hal by Colin Alexander

Author:Colin Alexander [Alexander, Colin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Published: 2017-09-17T04:00:00+00:00

20

The New Year’s Ball

“HAL, YOU ARE one dumb schmuck,” he told the ceiling as he lay in bed just after waking up. A couple of long strands of brown hair on the other side of the bed told him that it had been occupied by more than just his imagination.

The problem wasn’t that he’d had sex with a maid. He would bet that sort of thing happened all the time at this fort, or any other. But, no, I had to go and fuck Johanna’s maid. Of all the possible ways to land himself in trouble, that was probably the worst. His friends at school all discussed the girls they went out with, sometimes in astonishing detail. Would Annelise be doing the same thing with her friends? “He’s not bad,” she might be saying, “once you get him started.” Oh, God, how fast would gossip like that spread? Would she actually tell Johanna? Had she already done so? Would Gustavus fire him? Or worse?

But, no, that made no sense. Annelise would be in worse trouble than he would. There was no way she would tell Johanna. For the same reason, she would probably not tell anyone else. Relax, Hal. He didn’t really relax, but it was enough to get him out of bed and into his uniform.

He reported to Anderson after breakfast. The sergeant then lined up the entire company for drill. It was then that Hal saw just how bad the fight at Nieuwmarkt had been. Where Gustavus had come into Gap with thirty troopers, there were now only twenty in line, including him. Anderson had them form a column, two abreast, and proceeded to march them around the practice field. Then he had them switch from the column to a single-line formation, twenty men wide, each an arm’s distance from his neighbor on either side. They practiced moving as a line, keeping the line even and their spacing unchanged. Anderson managed to find fault with everyone, though none so much as Hal, who was always either ahead of or behind the line and who, when they made a pivot with the line, had a tendency to close up with the man on his left.

“This is a line of battle, not a town dance, Woodsey! God dammit, I’ll bet you’re no use on the dance floor either. Arm’s length spacing, God dammit!” After that, Anderson’s cursing became more graphic.

Hal wondered how he had managed to learn to walk by himself. But by the time the drill was done he was doing better, as he had done two days before. With no other duties, he was then free to do as he wished, Anderson’s only restriction being that if he went into town, he had to be back by dark.

Finally, he had time to look for someone who knew about Magicals!

The guards at the gate let him through without question. The uniform of Nya Sverige was all the pass he needed. Once through, however, he faced the same problem he had had when he came off the dock.

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