His green eyes widened. Because -- "And I bloody well know you, lass."

But he couldn't remember her name. Something strange; something sinister. Something half-way familiar but, he hoped, beyond ironic. Sharpe lifted his palm from his sword's hilt.

If she was here, then was he even home? No. The yellow light on her pale face already proved to him that this wasn't the Rookery of his youth.

"...Them bastards have us caught up in another of their Shifts, don't they? Tell a man they'll send him home and -- look, nothing but metal and 'lectricity."