Sharpe, who'd never had a brother, tried to imagine whether a jilting kept in the family could truly hurt less than any other sort of jilting. He frowned as he tried to work this out, wondering if fraternal affection could be so powerful. Wondering whether Faith was telling herself so because it was an easy thing to imagine.

But he had one thing he had to make very clear, Edward's mad choice to abandon this creature be damned: "Had he tried his luck, he'd find he wouldn't have much of it. I..."

What he wanted to say was something more along the lines of I'm yours but it came out as a cowardly "I'm not...I'm no...that ain't me, love."