Free Lance
by George Shipway
India in 1800: teeming, chaotic, corrupt, filled with rich prizes for Englishmen brave or ruthless enough to seize opportunities. And neither Lieutenant Hugo Amoury nor his friend Charles Marriott, humble clerk of the East India Company, intend to miss the chances that come their way; both mean to take all that can be wrenched from this vast and violent land. Success will mean riches, women, power and glory; failure: a lifetime of rotting in some forsaken office or army barracks. So together they set out, the young merchant and the young military adventurer - to carve themselves a kingdom founded on money and blood.