Disclaimer: These are works of fan-fiction created for entertainment. It is not the intention of the author to infringe on anyone's copyright. No rights infringement intended. Warning: General Audience

The Sharpe Fan Fictions of A Lady.

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Bernard Cornwell’s

William Lawford Home from Spain



This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogues are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead is entirely coincidental.

William Lawford Copyright © 2025 by A Lady

DEDICATIONS William Lawford is for .

And

Bernard Cornwell who brought Richard Sharpe into our world.

William Lawford

A Novel by “A Lady” Based on Characters created by Bernard Cornwell
Chapter 1





April, 1799

Seringapatam, India


“You asked to see me, Lieutenant?” said Major John Shee that evening. He was seated at the camp table in his tent, looking as if he had been engaged in important administration, as the table was covered with its usual chaos of paperwork; but William could tell that the only business he had been undertaking before he had ducked in through the canvas flap and pushed aside the muslin curtain, meant to exclude moths, involved the mug of arrack which the Major had clumsily tried to hide, poorly concealed beneath a hastily-flung handkerchief on a side-table to his right.
Lawford stood stiffly in front of him, his hat tucked beneath his arm, waiting for Shee’s aide to leave the tent. “Yes, sir.”
“Concerning what, Mister Lawford?”
“It’s a delicate matter, sir.”
“I see. Off you go, Clarkson!”
Clarkson disappeared.
“Now, out with it, man. I have a good deal on hand. I’m not sure I have time for delicate matters.”
“It concerns Sergeant Hakeswill, sir.”
“Ah,” said Shee resignedly, a pained expression now upon his face. Most of what was wrong in the Light Company, as least as far as disciplinary matters were concerned, seemed to involve Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill, but he had long ago decided that Hakeswill was one of those problems which came into the category of Too Difficult, which, alongside its evil twin Miscellaneous, was one of the more useful classifications available to the growing cohort of bureaucrats which seemed to be taking over the organisational structures of the British Army nowadays. As far as he was concerned, the matter of Hakeswill was permanently laid-up with all the other perennial conundra which he kept mothballed in his mental baggage park, such as, why is the arrack always gone? And, why is Captain Morris? And for that matter, wherefore Ensign Hicks?
“His conduct towards the men is unacceptable, sir.”
“My guess is that Captain Morris would beg to differ. He regards our Obadiah as vitally essential to the efficient running and discipline of the Light Company.”
William responded warmly.
“Captain Morris, with respect, sir, is mistaken.”
“You know that, Lieutenant. I know that.” Shee looked at him as if to say, We have now reached the point in this conversation at which you say Goodnight, sir, and bugger off and leave me in peace. But Lawford - earnest, keen, determined bloody Lawford - persisted.
“Hakeswill persecutes the men, sir. He bullies and intimidates them. He causes them to lose items of kit or to be found with items other men have missed, in order to bring about their unjust punishment. Men have been flogged because of his tricks. I have heard on good authority that in the past men have died because of their wounds thus received. And I have been given to understand that Hakeswill routinely interferes with the mens’ women.”
Shee leaned back in his chair and stared at him for several seconds.
“Why come to me with this, Lawford? Why not go to Captain Morris? Hakeswill is in his Company. He is his responsibility.”
William looked at him in surprise. And Morris’s Company is in your Battalion and you’re acting Lieutenant-Colonel!, he said, in his head. And had they not just touched upon this point? Morris was a large part of the problem!
“Captain Morris is complicit, sir. I have been aware for some time that it was he who brought Hakeswill into the Light Company before the Thirty-Third sailed from England. Hakeswill is his creature.”
“All this is taking a turn for the worse, Lieutenant. I’d think very carefully about what I said next, if I were you, because the waters upon which you have chosen to float your frigate are exceedingly turbid and treacherous with hidden shoals. You’ve only been out here for three months. Give it another three and hopefully you will have come to understand the workings of the Light Company a little better. You have run slightly aground, I think. Time to kedge off.”
William had reached the limit of his courage on this occasion. Never at his best before figures of authority, it had taken him an immense effort of will to say as much as he had.
“I just wanted to bring the matter to your attention, sir. Before another man is made to suffer unjustly, or another poor female is molested.”
“The matter has indeed been brought to my attention and is duly noted, Mister Lawford. You have done your duty. Well done. Now good night, Lieutenant.” There was a slightly sarcastic emphasis on ‘Lieutenant’, as if to remind William of his relative insignificance in the greater scheme of things.
“Good night, sir.”

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