Malachi Braithwaite is a minor antagonist in the Bernard Cornwell novel Sharpe's Trafalgar. He is a British secretary in 1805.
Biography[]
Braithwaite was the son of a parson and educated at Oxford. He travelled to India as the secretary of an English merchant but his employer died out there and he found himself a job as the personal secretary of Lord William Hale. He had designs on Hale's young wife Grace. He accompanied the couple as they set off for home aboard the merchant ship Calliope but was resentful that, unlike his previous employer, Hale would only pay for a room in steerage for him and would not pay for him to eat at the captain's table. He made an attempt to befriend fellow passenger Ensign Richard Sharpe, claiming Sharpe owed him a favour after he ignored Hale's instruction to write a letter of complaint about him to his former commanding officer Colonel Campbell.
However, Braithwaite's view of Sharpe soured when he realised Sharpe was having an affair with Grace. Braithwaite attempted to blackmail Sharpe, demanding the jewels he knew Sharpe had stored with the ship's captain, Peculiar Cromwell, in return for his silence. Sharpe dismissed Braithwaite as a threat, threatening to kill him if he said anything. The Calliope was subsequently captured by the French and then liberated by the Royal Navy ship HMS Pucelle. Braithwaite transferred over to the Pucelle with his employers, anticipating having Grace to himself, and was shocked when Sharpe joined them.
Braithwaite turned his attention to Grace, demanding jewels and sexual favours from her in return for his silence. By threatening her, he gained Sharpe's emnity. Sharpe cornered him in the ship's hold where Braithwaite drew a pistol and tried to convince Sharpe to spare him. Sharpe tricked him into firing off his only shot in the dark, then easily overpowered. Braithwaite claimed that he had left a letter for Hale revealing everything, but Sharpe didn't believe him and broke his neck, leaving his body at the bottom of a ladder so he would appear to have fallen. However, Braithwaite was telling the truth and Lord Hale learned of the affair from his letter.
