Page 21 of Baron Bolt

There were seven possibilities.

One was a colonel and could be struck off at once. Another had been buried before witnesses. A third was barely twenty and the man they had carried from the field had been older than that.

Four remained.

Luc drew his finger down the names.

Four English officers who might have lain upon the doctor’s slab.

Four families who might have received a son or brother home from Waterloo they had not expected to see again.

He folded the paper and carried it downstairs.

Dr. Rochat was beside the empty slab.

“I have found him,” Luc said.

The doctor turned.

“His name?”

“I have found four names.”

For an instant, disappointment crossed Rochat’s face.

Then something else replaced it.

“Four?”

Luc laid the list upon the stone.

Rochat came to him.

He read each name slowly.

“These men have homes?”

“They had homes.”

“Families?”

“Most men do.”

“And the English keep records.”

Luc glanced at him.

“Yes.”

Rochat’s fingertip rested upon the first name.

Then moved to the second.

The third.

The fourth.

For the first time since the corpse had walked out of his cellar, the doctor smiled.