Quick recap
India, 1817. Heading home, Sharpe and Harper agree to escort Frenchwoman Marie-Angélique to the hill fort of Kalimgong, where her fiancé, Major Joubert, is posted. On the way they take charge of a wagon train carrying a prisoner, Barabbas, Obadiah Hakeswill's son. The fort's garrison has been slaughtered, and only a raving Simmerson is left. Sharpe works out that Russian colonel Dragomirov and Joubert are growing opium for the East India Company and blaming bandits for the massacres. Marie-Angélique kills Joubert with his own pistol. Sharpe escapes a pit of cobras, defends a village with its people and an old cannon, and Harper kills the traitor Wormwood. Barabbas arrives with the cavalry, Sharpe kills Dragomirov and makes peace with Simmerson.