To bait a trap (Sharpe and Veronique)

Sharpe and Veronique had spoken to Hogan, the old Irish Spy-master agreeing with their vague idea of having Veronique placed under some kind of protection. Of course what he had bullied them both into accepting was having some of the Colonel's men as the guards, with Sharpe being the only one there loyal to Wellington and Veronique.

Of course the Chosen Men would be all around them, waiting for the chance to spring an ambush, but on the face of it, it was just Sharpe and Veronique in the nest of vipers.

Sitting down next to Veronique, he smiled to her to try and give her some measure of confidence.

They were sat as far away from the fire as possible while still being in the light. All of the Colonel's men were crowded closer to the fire, all of them caught up in their own conversations. If he had to guess, Sharpe would say that they were under orders to wait until the Colonel himself gave the order.

Somehow this didn't make Sharpe feel any better.

He passed some stew to Veronique and leant in closer to her to whisper so that only she could hear him,

"Eat something yeah? Keep your strength up." he suggested to her before glancing around to check if they were being watched before continuing, "The rest of the Company is just over the ridge doing some exercises... there's nothing to be afraid of. They wouldn't dare do anything when they're this close. Trust me Veronique..."

Veronique was so scared, scared that something was going to happen to her tonight seeing as they were put under guard with the men belonging to the Colonel, she had thought that they would have kept her with the Chosen Men but no...no she had to be under protection with the very men that they were supposed to be protecting her against!

It made her nauseous to think that something could so easily happen to her, in a split second, that could never be undone. This man wanted her dead, and it seemed that he was used to getting the things that he wanted.

Biting her lip softly she clasped her hands tight around the bowl of stew that Richard had given her, she didn't want to eat, her stomach was doing flips and she was regretting bringing up the matter with Sharpe in the first place. Although she knew this was just selfishness talking, she had done the right thing, for the greater good.

Richard seemed very good at reassuring her, because she felt like she could manage something to eat knowing that the Chosen Men were just over the ridge, the ridge that wasn't too far away. She was sure that if needed they could get shots from there as well if any trouble occurred.

"Alright Sharpe, I will try my best but it's just hard." she whispered softly "I'm not used to this type of thing, I was taught that doing what was right earns you rewards, this is by no means a reward, I feel like my hearts been pulling double time for the past day!" Veronique sighed irritably.

Looking up into his eyes, she smiled gently; "I do trust you, I trust you with my life, as you see so today."

Sharpe had to admit that this whole situation was massively... what did Pat call it that one time? FUBAR? Said it was French but Sharpe was much better at French than Pat and he had no idea what it meant. Besides, the man's smirk had suggested he had been giving him a bit of ribbing. But it wasn't totally messed up though; they had some sort of a plan after all. If they tried anything funny then Sharpe and Veronique would hold out until the Chosen Men arrived. That way they'd catch the Colonel red handed in the act and have more than enough evidence to have him tried and probably shot before dawn.

He knew that it was hard and he knew that neither of them had a choice in the matter anymore. She was marked for death and he cared too much about her to just leave her. He would stand by her side to the bitter end and he was only just beginning to think about just why he thought that way about her,

"It is hard... but we're harder right? Come on Veronique, we've been through worse than this. Remember your first battle?" he teased her gently, remembering how she had actually almost shot his foot in her fright, "I know it doesn't add up but trust me, you'll have your reward when this sting is over alright? Probably get a medal or something."

He reached out and cupped her cheek gently in his hand, stroking her soft skin gently with his thumb,

"Glad to see that we trust each other the same way." he told her with a grin before his thumb gently stroked over her soft lips, "I won't let anything happen to you Veronique..."

He smirked a little bit and gave her a secret little wink, "Besides, how would I live without my little flower eh? You brighten up my day!"

Veronique was happy to see that Richard was here with her and didn't look like he was going to be going anywhere, after all if she was all on her own then she would have no chance of keeping all of these men at bay...even if she was a sharper shooter, these men were all far more physically strong than she was. They could eat her for breakfast if she was alone.

But she wasn't alone...Richard was here and the thought made her smile softly to herself. It made her feel stronger.

"Oh yes, we can beat this as long as we stick together." she whispered happily before groaning and placing her head in her hands "Why ever did you have to mention that, I still feel very very bad about what happened....I never meant to almost shoot your foot."

Sighing softly she allowed Richard to stroke her cheek, it felt nice to have his rough skin touching hers as they comforted each other. Veronique's eyes glittered softly when she felt him touching her lips with his fingers, it tickled, and she felt herself sparking with arousal. It made her want to reach forwards and kiss Richard.

"And I wont let anything happen to you Richard." she murmured gently "And I thought I was your little rabbit, Sharpe, you can't just keep alternating like this." Veronique joked but, seemingly on instinct leant forwards closer to him.

Sharpe wasn't going anywhere and he was already pretty well prepared to defend both himself and Veronique from attack. There was a little dug out hole just a few feet away from them where they could dive in for cover at a moment's notice. And four primed rifles waiting to be used, for speed of shooting in the crucial first few seconds. He had already told Veronique about this little measure so that even if he was hit or something she would have somewhere to get to in order to defend herself better.

He laughed a little bit when she said she felt bad about almost shooting him in the foot. She was going to feel a bit worse after his next revelation then, he thought to himself. Reaching down, he poked his finger into a hole in his boot that had been lightly patched up,

"What do you mean almost?" he teased her with a smirk, "Thankfully I moved my toes for some reason at the time so I didn't feel a thing until I realised that my toes were getting a little bit of a breeze."

Every touch of her soft skin was something akin to torture for Sharpe, even if he couldn't actually tell you what 'akin' meant. Either way, just touching her was sending pleasurable shivers throughout his entire body.

He didn't take his hand away from her cheek.

"Oh so I can't have more than one nickname for you?" he joked a little bit before stroking her cheek again softly, tenderly, before adding, "But no matter what, you'll always be my little rabbit... no matter what happens."

Veronique frowned softly and she thought about what Sharpe could mean, did something else happen while she was new? To be honest it wouldn't surprise her. She had made her fair few blunders during their first week in the Regiment. Biting her lip softly she worried it between her teeth, she hoped that she hadn't hurt someone, she didn't think she had otherwise she would have gotten in trouble right?

Opening her mouth in shock when she saw the hole in Sharpe's boot, Veronique paled and couldn't help but groan again, at her own incompetence. How on Earth had she managed to survive this long, she thought to herself.

"Oh heavens above." she groaned "I am so so sorry Major. I could have really harmed you, but...maybe fate decided to give you a little bit of a heads up, for all the bad luck that you've been having these days." Veronique commented with a soft smirk.

The continued touch of him on her skin made Veronique shiver softly, and she was about to turn her head to kiss Richard's hand but she stopped herself. They couldn't do something like this! The Colonel's men were just there by the fire, they could see them if they but turned their head and decided to look at them with intent.

"Nothing will happen." she grinned "We can do this together Richard, I know we can."

Her mood was picked up, and picked up drastically, so she decided that she would try and reassure Richard as well. He mustn't be feeling confident right now just like she; "Richard...they could see us should we...should we move apart?"

Sharpe laughed a little bit when she recognised what she had done. She should feel bad... it had taken place months ago now and he was still using the same boots! Knowing how crap the supplies were she should have at the very least shot him in an area that could be stitched back up with some thread or something. That way he wouldn't have to fork out a large part of his paycheck just to get some black market boots.

Of course he was never going to replace these boots.

They reminded him of perhaps the first time he had met her and he wouldn't trade that for anything in the world, definite not a new pair of boots,

"Don't worry about it, tends to happen a lot around me to be honest." he told her before smirking a little bit, "It's not all been bad luck... I got to meet and get to know this beautiful woman who works with me so it's all good to me."

Sharpe could tell by the way that she was looking at him, and his hand, that she wanted to do something or say something that wouldn't strictly be allowed. Of course right now his eyes are almost glued to her soft lips and his mind is wandering to thoughts that would definitely not be allowed... if she was actually a man that was. She was a woman though so it was perfectly acceptable to him,

"Together."

He couldn't help but lick his lips a little bit and glance at the colonel's men. They all seemed to be looking the other way. Turning back to Veronique, Sharpe moved his face closer to hers,

"No... not yet..." he whispered before leaning in and gently kissing Veronique on the lips. It was a soft and tender kiss that made Sharpe want to wrap her up in his arms. Breaking the kiss, he backed away a step, "Always wanted to do that..."

Veronique couldn't help but bite her lip softly when she saw him looking back at the other men, they all scared her to be honest, they were all big and burly so much bigger than herself. They could snap her like a twig if they so wished, and in a matter of time they would wish for that to happen. They would be given their orders and she and Sharpe would be fighting to the death.

Although, that time was not right now, and she was enjoying losing herself in the small touches he was giving her, and the fact that they were finding it hard to look anywhere else but deep into each others eyes for the time being. It was like there was a most urgent pull, something that she could not ignore.

When Richard pressed his lips to hers, she gasped softly, hoping that nobody would notice the sound but the sensation was just so great and unexpected that she couldn't help it. Closing her eyes Veronique softly returned the kiss, if they were allowed she would have wrapped him in her arms and held herself close to him.

"I suppose...I suppose that we should be heading off to get some sleep." she murmured with a soft blush "I know I shall not get much however, perhaps I will be able to finish my book." Veronique laughed with a happy grin.

Gently, she squeezed his shoulder affectionately, her wide smile making her eyes sparkle; "I shall head in first and then you can follow, right? Gives me some time to get ready for bed before you come barging in." Veronique joked.

****

Murmuring in her sleep, Veronique felt herself stirring and she sat up groggily. There was something going on, she could hear some noises in the distance and immediately she was sat bolt upright and she was holding her rifle in her hand, it was already loaded ready to go in case of emergencies. Wildly she looked around the tent and pulled on her boots so that she was ready to be up and fighting in mere moments.

It was then she realised that Richard was not here.

A cold stone plummeted into her stomach and her mouth popped open in dread. Where was Richard? Had he gone to the bathroom or...or had something worse happened.

Barrelling out of the tent she was just in time to see Richard being hauled somewhere by a gang of officers and men, they were not the men that she was being protected by. Gritting her teeth she called out;

"Major Sharpe!" Veronique called, her voice gruff with sleep "Major Sharpe, where are you taking him! He is part of my guard! I require him here with me!" she protested venomously.

Sharpe had been sloppy.

In kissing Veronique the night before, however wonderful it had felt for both of them, he had doomed them to this outcome. Apparently it hadn't been as dark as he had thought and some of the colonel's men had been watching. Either that or they had been planning this from before. If that was the case then Sharpe would actually bow to the Colonel for his excellent ability to see the future.

The soldiers meant to 'protect' Veronique had ratted him out to some officers as a homosexual based on the kiss he had given Veronique who was, according to everyone else, obviously a man. And homosexuality was illegal. So his reward for having such a lovely kiss from the woman he had such strong feelings for?

Being dragged out of his bed by a dozen redcoats as several officers (all of whom had expressed hatred of Sharpe in the past) told him that he was going to be taken away for trial. He saw Veronique come out of the tent and he buckled against the redcoats, sending quite a few sprawling as he tried to make his way over to Veronique,

"No! No god damn it! I have to stay!" he growled aggressively, breaking one soldier's nose easily with a punch, "I have to protect her! You don't understand...! I have to-!"

He was cut off in his shouts, this time by a heavy rifle butt hitting the side of his head. Groaning in pain, he saw blackness creeping into her vision from the edges of his sight. Seeing Veronique looking so distressed, the colonel's men smirking nearby, he couldn't help but groan and fall into unconsciousness.

But he vowed, with his last waking thought, that he would return to save her.

*Time Skip*

Veronique had spent one of the most nervous times of her life in the tent she was assigned to stay in today, honestly she had truly truly hated every minute of it. What was worse was that the Chosen Men had to leave their camp and go and run an errand, that meant that she was all on her own here with these men who obviously wanted to kill her.

Her nails were bitten down to the quick and she was just reading her book once more, having already finished it in the early hours of the morning yesterday. Since then she had been feeling so terribly ill, her heart was pounding and didn't feel like it was going to stop. Veronique had not eaten since that stew with Sharpe last night and she had been having trouble keeping fluids down as well.

This was what people on death's row must feel like.

Now though she was here, here waiting in her tent at night, scared to fall asleep for she knew that would be the time they were most likely to strike.

She could hear them outside the tent, laughing and joking but the clink of metal let her know that something was going on she should be prepared for. Gripping her rifle in her hands she slowly, crept out the back flap of the tent, a small slit she had made there while they were not looking during the day. It would allow her to come out without them noticing.

"...this is going to be quick." she heard them say "Doesn't look like much does he? Probably doesn't even know which way around to hold the bloody rifle." they quipped.

"Hey! Where the hell has the bastard gone?!" one of the men growled, letting Veronique know that they were inside the tent looking for her.

Gritting her teeth, she hot footed her way to the small ditch that she and Sharpe had left the rifles behind before, but unfortunately she gave her position away as she did so. Growling softly she aimed her already loaded rifle and shot the man closest to her in the knee, making him drop to the floor, she didn't want to kill anyone just disarm them.

Unable to stop herself from crying out as a bullet whistled past her ear, Veronique ducked down behind the ditch wall and picked up another rifle. They were getting closer now, and swiftly she poked her head up, and shot off the loaded round, hitting one of the men square in the upper arm, snapping the bone.

Panicked, and with nobody to rely on but herself, Veronique hugged the rifle to her and took out her hunting knife she kept with her, it was illegal but she thought it needed on this occasion. There were still five men there, and they were gaining on her, one was coming over the ditch and he held in his hand a large sword, rolling away to gain distance, Veronique tried to get cuts on the mans hand, making him drop the sword. With a loud cry she jumped up and whacked the man on the chin with her elbow, knocking him out.

The trial had been quick and thank god for that.

He had been knocked out by the rifle to the side of the head for hours and with each passing hour in his little cell the danger to Veronique grew more and more real. He hated feeling so helpless! When the trial itself began it was clear that a lot of the officers in charge of the trial wanted to see him gone and were going to use this as the perfect chance to do away with him. They were trying to have him imprisoned and clinically sterilised.

That was until Hogan showed up.

The old Irish engineer-turned-spy had simply walked right into the middle of his trial like he own the place, giving Sharpe a wink as he passed, before handing the acting judge a package. Inside the package, Hogan told him later, was the truth about who Veronique was. Along with a threat for the man never to reveal it or else his several affairs would be revelled to the public at large. Even the schoolboy one with a local sheep.

Not five minutes after his initial intervention, Hogan had returned Sharpe's rifle to him and had given him something to definitely help even the odds with the colonel's men. He had given him the best soldiers of the South Essex Company and he was going to use them to rain fire and death upon the colonel's men!

Hearing the shots being fired, rifle shots, he immediately picked up the pace. Veronique was in trouble... Veronique needed him! Double timing it into the clearing, Sharpe swore when one of the colonel's men seemed to recognise him and fire his musket at him. Damn thing had almost hit Sharpe in the face! Charging forwards, he moved to the side as the South Essex caught the men's attention. Flanking them, he emerged near Veronique and pulled her down under the cover as the colonel's men tried to fight people from both sides.

But fighting wasn't the first thing on Sharpe's mind.

"Veronique!" he cried out as he gave her a quick, but strong, hug before he began to reload his rifle quickly, "I told you I won't let anyone hurt you and I'm here to make good on my promise my love."

Veronique was beginning to feel a little bit desperate, she didn't think that she was going to be able to fight them all off without herself getting hurt. If she was at a longer distance, then sure she would be able to kill them all no problem but she was so close up that she had little to rely on but using her musket to keep them at arms length away from her.

As soon as she heard that there were other shots, shots that were mercifully on her side her heart leapt, could it be that Sharpe had returned despite being carted off in the night? Had his trial finally finished and he was set free?

When he appeared in her sight Veronique beamed and she wanted to give him a passionate kiss, she wanted to wrap him up in her arms and never let go again, but, now was not the time for that. Now was the time for fighting and now Richard was here her confidence was up.

"Richard!" she cried happily as she returned the hug "I am so glad that you managed to make it, it was looking a bit dodgy there for a minute but, lets kick some ass shall we?" Veronique grinned, reloading her rifle and sending another shot into the flailing hand of another guard as he tried to reload his own rifle to attack them once more.

Concentrating well, she saw that the South Essex were now fighting on their side and she sighed when she saw that it was the men she had injured that were left alive, slipping down the bank, resting her head against the soil.

"I was so worried..." she whispered softly "I am so sorry. It seems like I'm not good for much but causing trouble and shooting you in the foot..." Veronique hugged the rifle to her chest and almost pouted but she pulled herself together "I guess this is a conversation for another time, it sounds like they're calling for us."

Slowly, she popped her head up out of the bank and stood up, her hat was askew but her hair was still shoved up in it thankfully. Slinging her rifle on her back she stuck her hands in her pockets and made her way to the area that they were holding the live prisoners. Unable to stop a wicked smirk she gave them a mock bow;

"Ain't so useless now am I? Awww looks like you aren't walking again...too bad old boy." she snickered.

Sharpe was willing to bet that both he and Veronique would have little to no problems with just dropping their rifles to the ground and kissing each other in their obvious relief at being together again. But right now they needed to focus. Even with the South Essex mopping up they had to be careful. Only Sharpe, Hogan and the judge knew that she was a woman after all. Meaning if anyone saw him kissing her then he'd be right back in the courtroom,

"Sorry I was late, had to take a bit of a detour via some trial..." he joked a little before before he finished reloading his rifle, "Let's!"

The fighting was less of a battle and more of a massacre to be perfectly honest. In the end only one soldier was left alive and he was the one that Veronique had injured before Sharpe had even arrived. That was his girl, able to down a man with a shot to the kneecaps. He smiled a little bit at her as the weapons were taken off the last surviving man,

"Don't worry, it's because of you I have such an interesting life as of late." he told her with a wink before smirking, "Yes for later. Preferably when we're alone and no one is around to get me hauled off for a trial."

Deciding that he was going to have a little fun with the prisoner, he hummed casually as he walked up to where the man was tied to a tree. He paused for a moment before, with seemingly little interest, he kicked the man hard in the bollocks. As the man howled in pain, Sharpe grinned,

"Oh I'm sorry... that looked like it hurt." he said with mock sympathy before stamping on the man's wounded knee, getting a louder cry, "Oh now hold on! That sounded like it hurt a lot more. So let's get this straight... which hurts more? A?"

He kicked the man in the jewels again.

"Or B?"

Stamping on the man's knee, he ground his heel into the wound,

"Now... is your colonel a spy for the French?" He demanded. When his answer was spit, he turned to Veronique, "Want to try your hand?"

Veronique, although she was supposed to be a man...was not finding this situation entirely comfortable. There was something to mocking someone, and then there was actually physically hurting them, she had made sure that he had stayed alive so that they could get information out of him, however she didn't want them to get into even more pain than she had already put them in.

Although Richard seemed to be entirely comfortable with causing other people pain, well, when they had deserved it. It was safe to say that this man deserved it, as did the Colonel when they eventually found him...she wondered where he was, leaving his men to do his dirty work.

The answer to that came now, as he was hauled in by a couple of the Officers on Sharpe's side, he was looking at her like he wanted nothing more than to tear out her eyes and make her eat them. Of course, it wasn't a very happy circumstance for him to be in but she was happy about that, he had made her life hell for a period of time.

"No." she stated quietly, with a shake of her head "I am not entirely comfortable with this method of interrogation, a little bit too personal for my liking. Besides, I would not wish to bruise my hand, on something so insignificant as this mans face." she smirked softly.

Veronique turned to Richard with a smile on her lips, retreating back a little bit and resting against a nearby tree, she wanted to be able to have a small rest, after the battle and her long night it was beginning to take its toll on her.

Sharpe had to admit that the only reason he was being this vicious was that this bastard of a man had tried to kill his darling Veronique and had been part of the plan to get him taken away so that he couldn't stop them. That meant that the guy had an awful lot of Richard's hate directed squarely at him with no better way to vent than to cause the man pain until he agreed to tell them everything that they wanted to know.

He could see that Veronique didn't like his methods and, frankly, neither did Sharpe. Something about beating a defenceless man didn't sit too right with him. But at the same time he knew that there were some things that needed to be said by the man and he was a tough nut to crack. He nodded to Pyecroft when Veronique moved away from the main group.

He went to go to Veronique but was held back for a second by Ross, who just smiled at Sharpe with a happy little smile that spoke of knowing far too many secrets,

"I've taken the liberty of getting the captain here to hand over his room key at the local inn..." he glanced significantly at Veronique and handed the key to Sharpe with a smile, "Please do enjoy the room."

Taking the key, Sharpe moved over to where Veronique was resting. Deciding that he could pass it off as helping an injured soldier, Sharpe picked her up and began to carry her bridal style towards the inn. He smiled down at her softly,

"Don't worry Veronique, we're going to an inn." he told her with a wider smile, "We'll have privacy to talk about what we like."

Veronique couldn't help but make a loud noise of surprise when she was picked up by Sharpe and carried bridal style off to god knows where. The snickers from the rest of the soldiers were enough to make her cheeks turn pink with embarrassment and she struggled a little bit in his grip, to be honest even if she was a woman she would dislike such treatment in front of a bunch of men, never mind a man being DE masculinised in such a manner.

"What the DEVIL are you doing Major Sharpe!?" she protested "P-put me down this instant I can walk you know!"

Giving up, and pouting profusely when they were away from the rest of the soldiers, she couldn't help but look up at Richard with that same cute pout that she had been wearing since they had cleared the fighting area and the people making fun of her.

"Thank you, thank you very much for that, I'm going to have the fun taken out of me for months by Harper." Veronique complained, although, it wasn't serious, true she was a little bit annoyed but, it was nothing that she wouldn't get over.

At the mention of where they were headed, Veronique blushed softly;

"An inn? Well I think somewhere private was due...I mean I was getting paranoid back there in the camp when you were taken away...I thought maybe someone else was going to try it on." she joked but really she had been worried about that "However did you manage to get away with it...?"

Wrapping her arms around his neck, her blush grew slightly; "I don't suppose it matters though, I'm just so glad that you were there. Like I said I...it was a bit close back there without you. Thanks, Richard." she murmured, kissing her cheek.

Sharpe knew that both he and Veronique were going to be getting a lot of stick for him carrying her like this, Veronique moreso than him but still. It would go around the camp that Veronique, or Sebby, was a little bit too weak after a fight and had to be carried home by his softie of a major. Oh he knew there would be rumours and he was amused by them,

"Ah of course you could walk..." he teased her with a smirk, "But you might be in shock little Sebby... and I have to look out for my soldiers."

When they were away from the group he chuckled a little bit and held her a little bit more tenderly rather than the rougher way he'd use to carry her if she was actually a man. He smirked a little but when she mentioned having the fun taken out of her,

"You're a big 'boy' aren't you? Sticks and stones and all that." he teased her with a wink before grinning cheekily, "Besides, when else am I going to get the chance to cradle you to me in public like that?"

Nodding to her, he had to agree that somewhere private was indeed needed. For various reasons too seeing as she would want to feel safe and he hadn't been able to stop thinking about her soft lips since she had kissed him the night before,

"Well this room will give us the security that we both sorely desire right now." he told her with a grin before chuckling a little bit and waving his hand with a smirk, "Oh that was easy... Hogan the spy master knew from the beginning you were a woman. Got me off the hook seeing as I've done nothing homosexual. He had to tell the judge... but he was blackmailed too so your secret is still safe."

Making his way into the room, he smiled happily when she wrapped her arms around his neck and he kissed her gently on the cheek as he set her down, locking the door to the room too for privacy and security,

"I'm sorry I was ever taken away from you... But I promised I'd keep you safe and I did."

Veronique to be honest had been hoping that when the war was over they would still stick together, it would be easier then, both she and her brother could just pretend that they had been each other the whole time. Veronique had a thoroughly boring home life, only made better by the arrival of a handsome Major Sharpe sweeping her off her feet, and Sebastian had many great stories of war to tell to the children back home.

"Well if you so desire it, the opportunity may arise when we travel back to England, after all there I shall be myself all of the time, and not just in these little flashes that you see." she stated with a soft smile on her lips "Then you may princess lift me as much as you please."

About to protest that now others new her secret, Veronique thought better and closed her mouth, of course the spy master would know...he was the spy master. In fact she would be worried if he couldn't tell something as simple as who was a man and woman. So she merely was silently thankful that he had kept her situation to himself.

"I am becoming less and less bothered about my secret being safe, and more bothered about getting this goddamn war over so that...well so that I wont be getting you in trouble quite so often." Veronique blushed softly.

Now that they were in the inn room she sighed softly and looked around, there were candles lit and a large soft bed which was all that she needed to know. But, as an added bonus for all the trouble that she had been through, it seemed as if God was answering her prayers as he had provided for her...a bath.

"I am just glad that you are safe Richard." she commented with a small smile "I was so worried about what would happen to you. This room is amazing isn't it though, I don't think I will ever want to leave it. It is so warm and cosy, and this bed is as wide as three of the ones in our little tents outside!" Veronique exclaimed "And a bath! I long for a decent bath..."

Sharpe had to admit that the idea of spending more time like they were now, only openly, was something that greatly appealed to him. He was a man of simple pleasures but one thing he had been pining for recently was a woman he could proudly tell anyone and everyone that she was with him. Unlike many of the other women he'd been with. Veronique could fit that bill nicely, he decided with a soft smile. After all, he felt more for her than any other woman he'd met,

"Well I'll hold you to that." he told her with a soft smirk, "I've been wanting to go out with you in public and I'd love the chance to do so when we're back in England."

He knew that she would be a little bit annoyed that someone else knew her secret but to be fair it wasn't like it was anything they had done that had tipped Hogan off. Hogan knowing this was actually a good sign considering his nature as the spy master of the army,

"It's almost over now don't worry." he told her with a grin, "And when it is I'll be on the first boat back to England with you, mark my words because that's a promise."

Sharpe couldn't help but notice the bed. Without a word he crossed the room and fell onto the bed, face first, and simply enjoyed being so comfortable. He groaned a little bit and rolled over onto his back so that he could talk,

"Same here, all I could think about was what was happening with you... and what my odds were of surviving an escape attempt in order to save you." he admitted with a grin before nodding, "Well there's a kettle there for the water to heat up in so why don't you start drawing a bath? Until then... lie on the bed. It's so soft!"