Napoleon's Gold: A Jack Starling Adventure
Page 47
Sir Johnathon sighed wearily. It was a beautiful beach on an ancient island, far from the horrid conflicts he had spent a lifetime struggling against. How nice to stay in such a place, he thought, how nice to rest and grow old. He glanced across the roasting sand to where Cleo lay, peering over her sunglasses at the retreating Jack with fear blooming in her eyes. Even as he watched, the tall Amazon leapt up from the beach and ran after Jack, her beach towel in one hand. A few seconds Sir Johnathon was entirely alone.
He felt the sun on his back and the heaviness in his heart as he turned from the Mediterranean and walked toward the ramshackle tavern at the edge of the pristine sand, his mind wearily spinning plots and schemes once more. Jack and Cleo were two distant shapes. Like Sir Johnathon, Jack’s mind was busy, racing through memories of the past, weighing up the friends and enemies he had left in the highlands of Afghanistan. Only Cleo was thinking of the man she had found. The blue waves lapped upon the beach behind them, beautiful, mournful and alone.
Author’s Note
For those seeking to know more about the remarkable Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, I recommend Elizabeth Longford’s Wellington, The Years of the Sword and Wellington, Pillar of State as two very insightful works about the ‘Iron Duke’.
For those who enjoy Napoleonic fiction, Bernard Cromwell’s Sharpe series (published by Harper Collins) will teach you nearly everything you need to know about life as a British Redcoat during the Napoleonic Wars – especially the importance of using real gunpowder in musket drill. Mr Cromwell has recently published Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles, a fine non-fiction account of that remarkable period in European history.
The Sherlock Holmes edition used by Jack and Cleo to uncover the clue about the Creeping Man is the outstanding The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, edited and annotated by Leslie S. Klinger, published by W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 2005.
All the best for now and thank you for reading.