...Oh, if only he would be so lucky as to find his regimental buttons 'round Katniss's neck. That would simple things up right quick, they would. But for now, he shoved them forlornly across the counter. Making room for the great butcher's blade he hauled from his hip.

"Mind you sharpen the back blade too, eh?" It wasn't conventional, really, but Sharpe had ground down the back blade to make the sabre's point symmetrical. The heavy cavalry trooper's sword was nearly a yard of Birmingham steel and while the cavalry it was made for complained constantly that the thing could not keep an edge, Sharpe prized it for its length and its reach. "Sharp so as it don't just slide off a bastard's ribs, eh?"