Another half shrug. “Everyone knows Captain Verity’s ‘soldiers’ are servicing half the battalion by now. Why should I abstain?”

Winter took a deep breath. She wanted to scream at him, take a rock and beat a lesson into his tiny skull. Jane must be rubbing off on me. It wouldn’t be appropriate behavior from a superior officer; fortunately, she had other options.

“Lieutenant Benjamin Novus,” she said, “you are hereby relieved of your command. You’ll be returned to Vordan City with the next supply train and held there to await the judgment of the army commander.”

“You’re not serious.” He jerked, as though he wanted to jump to his feet, and tugged against his ropes. “She struck me!”

“Ranker Valon was defending herself against assault, in the best traditions of the army.”

“You incompetent fool,” Novus spit. “You have no idea who my family is, do you? If you planned on having a career after escaping from this freak show, forget about it. You’ll be lucky if they don’t ship you back to Khandar!”

“You’re right that I have no idea where you come from,” Winter said. “Nor do I care. More important, I doubt Janus cares, either. He sent a dozen colonels packing, so one lieutenant is not going to trouble him.” She leaned a little closer. “More to the point, Lieutenant, you are lucky I’m willing to be so lenient. I’d be within my rights to shoot you.”

That might be stretching the point a bit, but not too far. There was nothing in the Regulations about attempted rape, but “unprovoked assault on another soldier resulting in serious harm” could be a capital offense in the field, at the commanding officer’s discretion. Valon’s well-thrown punch had most likely saved Novus’ life, not that the lieutenant was ever likely to thank her for it.

Novus gaped. “You can’t do this. You can’t! We’ll be fighting tomorrow. The men need me.”

“I think the men will manage.” Though Winter did feel guilty about depriving Captain Sevran of a staff lieutenant on the eve of battle. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go and clean up the mess you’ve made.”

Novus was correct about one thing—there would be fighting tomorrow. The Deslandai army showed no signs of pulling back from its position around Gaafen, a semicircular line anchored on the outlying edge of the town and some surrounding farmhouses, with each end snug against the river. The brilliant stroke Winter had hoped Janus would come up with to avoid a frontal battle had yet to make an appearance. Orders had come dawn before dusk that the Third Regiment of the Line was to seize a ridge about a mile forward of their current camp in the morning, then wait for further instructions.