A Regimental Affair: A Novel
Allan Mallinson
Language: English
Pages: 336
ISBN: 055311154X
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
ALLAN MALLINSON’S A Close Run Thing and Honorable Company stirred readers and critics with the military adventures of young Captain Matthew Hervey at the Battle of Waterloo and amid the harsh terrain and treacherous intrigues of India. Now, in 1817, Hervey returns to an England whose hard-won peace is shaken by the distress and discord of its people. And even as he is caught up in the turbulent dawn of a new era, he must combat a deliberate attempt to orchestrate his own ruin.
The honors he won in India fell short of Captain Matthew Hervey’s deepest desire–to return to his beloved 6th Light Dragoons. But now circumstances allow him to resume command of the unit–and to marry the beautiful Lady Henrietta Lindsay, whom he has loved since childhood. Meanwhile, however, his soldier’s heart is pierced by the sight of men in British scarlet crippled in the service of king and country, now forgotten and cast off, reduced to begging and petty crime. It is no wonder that rabble-rousers clamor for reform and that lawlessness is erupting everywhere, from the cities to the countryside.
As for Hervey’s own cavalry, guarding Regency Brighton and ambushing French smugglers in midnight coves, he finds them, too, vastly changed. Their new lieutenant colonel, Lord Towcester, is a cold-eyed martinet–vain, inept, and bigoted–who cares less for the welfare of his men than for keeping the shine on their gleaming brass buttons. Moreover, it soon becomes clear that he will stop at nothing to bring about Hervey’s disgrace and downfall. For in this young officer, a war hero and former aide-de-camp to the Duke of Wellington, Towcester sees all that he himself once forfeited through cowardice.
But the scandal that haunts Towcester is an old and secret one and to expose it would cost Hervey his rank, the command of his beloved Sixth–and the means to support his radiant, passionate bride. Even the charming and determined Henrietta, not above a little politicking in high places to right wrongs, is unable to diplomatically put a stop to Towcester’s vendetta.
As the Industrial Revolution builds and food riots give way to rioting Luddite mobs, Hervey’s troop is posted to counter the threat of a general insurrection. But his field tactics and peacekeeping vision are jeopardized by enemies both within and without. And then fate calls his regiment to the dark frozen wastes of a distant frontier, where another people’s way of life is being destroyed by the march of change, and where tragedy and bloodshed will force a showdown between Hervey and his nemesis.
A Regimental Affair is a stunning tapestry of vivid characters, rousing action, and authentic historical detail that re-creates a world of polite English drawing rooms, poverty-stricken London streets, and frozen battlefields, where human passion and blind fate give birth to the destiny of a nation–and a hero.
Walking the South Coast of England
Continued the adjutant, blithely. ‘And now she’s living openly with a Mussulman of all things – the Dey of Algiers!’ There was an anxious silence. Strickland broke it. ‘And she is happy, as the Dey is long!’ It was a mercy, for there was laughter all round. Indeed, so keen was it that the chaplain must have laughed had he been there. It even seemed to restore Lord Towcester’s equilibrium. ‘Call for the port, someone,’ he said, taking a cigar from the box which the steward had brought. ‘Now’s.
Would be unseemly.’ All nodded. And then, at Sir Loftus’s bidding, they began the task of assessing the twenty claims to a coveted brevet. An hour passed in varying degrees of silence. From time to time a clerk was sent scurrying away on some errand or other, but the seven major generals laboured in the main with little need for clarification. When all were done – Sir Francis Evans the last to finish, but only by a minute or so – Sir Loftus motioned a footman to bring Madeira and seedcake to.
Who, indeed, had made little impression on the regiment since his joining six months before – stepped forward and bowed to him. ‘My lord,’ he begged, ‘have mercy now on this miserable offender, as we hope Our Lord Himself shall have in the dreadful Day of Judgement.’ Lord Towcester went a deep shade of red. ‘When I wish to hear you, reverend sir, you may be sure that I will let you know. Proceed, farrier-major!’ ‘Sir!’ There was not another sound in the school. The farrier-major raised his.
Truly necessary. Perhaps once, when I were a young trooper – two men ’ad got horrible drunk and spoiled another man’s wife. But never since then . . .’ The strange Brummagem vowels had returned as strong as ever. Hervey too had taken a large measure of the brandy, and was beginning to feel its powers. ‘I’ve heard it said there is something of a man’s spirit that’s for ever broken when he’s been flogged; that however his body mends, he’s never the same again.’ Barrow nodded. ‘I’ve heard that as.
In t’dark?’ ‘Not if you’re an officer,’ smiled Hervey wryly. ‘But at least y’knew where y’was gooin’. I’ve known some officers as didn’t even know that!’ Johnson was ever frank. It was one of the reasons he was still a private – and one of the reasons he was still Hervey’s groom. ‘And is there anything else?’ ‘Oh, ay, there is: t’RM asks if you’d like to ’elp ’im wi’ a new ’orse ’e’s just bought. Up on t’downs, away from things.’ Hervey was touched, for the riding master’s invitation to.