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  ‘Sir Richard Bolitho is no stranger to most of you, and his name is known to many more…’ He gave a gentle smile. ‘Not least to Napoleon!’ There was laughter and Bethune’s eyes responded as he glanced at Bolitho.

  A heavily-built admiral, whom Bolitho recognised as the Controller, said bluntly, ‘We are here to discuss future tactics, if – and for my own part it is a very doubtful if – the Americans show intentions of war against our King.’ He glared furiously at two post-captains who were whispering together, enjoying the fact that there was no longer a King to govern them. ‘The United States would be insane to declare war on such a powerful navy!’

  The word insane brought more gleeful whispers from the two captains.

  Bethune said smoothly, ‘Sir Paul Sillitoe is come amongst us to explain more clearly what we are about.’

  Sillitoe stood up lightly, his hooded eyes scanning the gathering like a man who has something better to do.

  ‘The situation is simple enough. Between Napoleon’s land blockade and his very real threats against those of his neighbours who might dare to allow our ships to enter their ports for the purposes of trade, and our own sea blockade, we have divided the peoples of Europe into friends and foes.’

  Bolitho watched him, thinking of him with Catherine when he had escorted her to Whitechapel. A man who could be an enemy, but one who was obviously so secure in his position as adviser to the Prince Regent that he spoke almost with disdain.

  ‘It has also divided the United States into opposing parties. The War Party – let us call it – is in favour of Napoleon; the other party wants only peace. The War Party hate us and covet Canada, and also wish to continue to make money from the conflict. The United States government insists that British deserters should be safe under the American flag, and is doing all it can to weaken our fleet by encouraging many, many seamen to take advantage of their offer, dollars for shillings, a bribe they can well afford.’ His eyes flashed. ‘Yes?’

  All heads turned towards a small, dark-clad clerk at the end table. ‘With respect, Sir Paul, I cannot keep up with you!’

  Sillitoe almost smiled. ‘Something I have thought characteristic of this edifice on many occasions!’

  There was laughter and hand-clapping. In a lull Bethune leaned over and whispered, ‘Convince them.’

  Bolitho stood up as the noise died away. He felt out of place here, the scene of so many disappointments. After he had been so ill with fever in the Great South Sea, war had broken out, and he could recall himself pleading for another ship, a frigate, three of which he had already commanded by that time. And the admiral’s cold response. Were a frigate captain, Bolitho. Where plots had been made against him to force him back to Belinda’s side, and where he had broken with Herrick in that very corridor outside.

  He heard himself speaking, his voice carrying without effort.

  ‘We need more frigates. It is always the way, but this time the need is all the more urgent. I am certain that the Americans will force a war. Napoleon cannot hold out much longer unless he receives their support to stretch our fleet’s resources still further. Likewise, the Americans will have left it too late if they drag their feet.’

  The Controller held up a quill pen. ‘I must protest, Sir Richard. Nobody would dispute your gallantry and many successes at sea, but planning is the key to victory, not necessarily the broadside!’

  A voice called, ‘Hear – hear!’

  Encouraged, the Controller said, ‘We have many fine ships-of-the-line on the stocks or completing every week of the year.’ He paused and raised his eyebrows. ‘Frigates before the line of battle, is that what you advocate? For if so…’

  Bolitho answered quietly, ‘The Americans laid down seventy-fours but quickly saw the folly of it. All were converted to big frigates, and carry forty-four guns, but are said to be pierced for ten additional heavy guns.’ There was not a sound now. He continued, ‘We crossed swords last year with one of their largest, the U.S.S. Unity. I can vouch for her fire power,’ his voice was suddenly hard and bitter, ‘as can many of our brave fellows!’

  A voice called, ‘What about the line-of-battle, Sir Richard?’

  Bolitho knew it was Sillitoe, conducting the scene like a puppet-master.

  He said, flatly, ‘It is finished. The day of the leviathans sailing slowly to a costly and terrible embrace is over. We’ll not see another Trafalgar, I am certain of it.’

  He looked around at their intent faces. To some the truth of what he had said would seem like blasphemy. To those who had faced the murder of close-action it was something no one dared to admit.

  Bolitho said, ‘Think of it. The ship’s company of one first-rate could crew four fast and powerful frigates. Ships which can move from area to area with haste and without waiting for some far-off flagship to guess what is happening. I have been offered a command which reaches from Halifax and the forty-ninth parallel south to the Leeward Islands and Jamaica. In any week of any year there are ships, convoys with rich cargoes, making their way back to this country. Without ready protection and the ability to hit back in their defence, we will stand no chance.’

  Bethune asked, ‘Is that why you want Indomitable for your flagship?’

  Bolitho looked at him and forgot all the others. ‘Yes. She was cut down from a third-rate to carry the very artillery I would need. She is and always has been a fast sailer.’

  Bethune smiled but his eyes were on the others.

  ‘She was re-built and re-rated because of the operations at Mauritius, gentlemen. Unfortunately Sir Richard dished up the French before we could send Indomitable out there!’

  There was a wave of cheering and stamping.

  When he looked at Bethune again, Bolitho saw the triumph in his eyes. So long ago when they had boarded the enemy from his little Sparrow, he had seen that same expression. All or nothing.

  The Controller held up one plump hand. ‘Are they your only reasons, Sir Richard?’

  ‘Yes, my lord.’ He pictured the great fireplace at Falmouth, the family crest worn away by time and many hands. Where his father had spoken of his hopes and his fears for his youngest son, when he had first gone to sea. ‘For my country’s freedom.’ He glanced at Avery and saw what might have been emotion. ‘And my freedom from then on.’

  Bethune smiled with relief. A near thing. He might have been unseated at the Admiralty when he had scarcely begun. And Bolitho? He would probably have refused any other appointment.

  He said, ‘I will give you everything I can, Sir Richard.’

  Bolitho looked at him keenly, and afterwards Bethune thought he had been pierced through by those clear grey eyes.

  ‘I have everything, Graham. And I want it to last.’

  Bethune stared after him. He called me by name. As he had sometimes done in Sparrow.

  Avery went to look for his hat and almost ran into his uncle, who was speaking with a tall and very dignified soldier. He did not introduce his nephew, but remarked noncommittally, ‘It went well, I thought?’

  Avery watched him. Sillitoe was not interested in his opinion. Eventually Sillitoe touched his arm, nothing more, but it was a kinder gesture than he had ever been offered before.

  ‘I have to tell you, George.’ The cold eyes searched his face. ‘Your sister died in Dorchester. It was not unexpected, but still…’ He sighed. ‘I shall deal with it. I have never felt that her husband is in the right calling.’ He walked away to where his tall companion was waiting impatiently by the steps.

  Bolitho joined him. ‘Is something wrong?’

  But all Avery said was, ‘It was that day. The last time I saw her.’ He seemed to shake himself and said, ‘I’ll be glad to get back to sea, sir.’ He was staring at the groups of people breaking up and heading for club or coffee-house, but all he saw was his sister Ethel in her drab clothing. Now she would never meet Lady Catherine.

  He walked to the big doors and added, ‘It will be cleaner.’

  Lieutenant Paul Ozanne, the
burly, red-faced Channel Islander, held open the cabin door and looked aft to where Tyacke was sitting at his table, exactly as he had left him. How many times had he opened this door, at sea or at anchor, to report the sighting of a suspected slaver, or perhaps an enemy sail? Tyacke always seemed to know anyway, even before the masthead lookout.

  He noticed that Tyacke’s brass-bound sea-chest had gone, and despite what he had been told privately, it saddened him.

  Tyacke had explained that when he left the ship Ozanne was to be promoted to commander and given Larne in his place. Ozanne could still not believe the swiftness of events, or what it would mean to him.

  Tyacke had said, ‘You deserve it, I’d have no other. You ought to have been promoted long ago – I know no better seaman or navigator.’ His tone had hardened. ‘But there are those in authority, and my guess is that there always will be, who consider a man not fit for high rank if he has soiled his hands with honest work!’

  The news had gone through the little brig like a flame. Ozanne had seen it on their faces. Surprise, but certainly relief too. Larne was too intimate, and her people had been together longer than most, for some new broom to come amongst them.

  Tyacke looked up from the bare table, his face in shadow.

  Ozanne said, ‘They’re waiting, sir.’

  Tyacke nodded heavily. ‘Your commission is here…’

  ‘Will you wait, sir?’ He already knew the answer.

  ‘No. I wish you well, I daresay we shall meet again. It is the way of things.’ He became impatient. ‘Have them come in.’

  Larne’s officers filed into the cabin and found places to sit. On chairs and on the stern bench seat: when the door was wedged shut the cabin was packed tight. Larne was well blessed with both officers and master’s mates. She had taken many prizes, slavers and smugglers alike, and had always carried extra experienced men to sail their captures to the nearest friendly harbour.

  There was plenty of cognac, and Ozanne recalled the day when Sir Richard Bolitho had come aboard, and later his flag-lieutenant. He had rarely seen his commander the worse for drink. Now he knew why it had happened, or one of the reasons, anyway.

  Tyacke said, ‘Help yourselves.’ They had no choice in such a crowded cabin. He watched them without expression. Flemyng and Robyns the lieutenants, Manley Pitcair the sailing master and Andrew Livett the young surgeon, who accepted his miserly pay so that he could study tropical medicines and fevers. He had had plenty of experience on the slave coasts. The master’s mates, bronzed and reliable. But no midshipmen. That would all change like everything else when he joined Indomitable, Bolitho’s proposed flagship. She lay some two hundred yards distant but Tyache, typically, had not gone to see her. He would begin after he had read himself in, and not before.

  Everything would be different. Indomitable would carry a Royal Marine contingent like all men-of-war from sixth-rates upwards. Tyacke had not served alongside the Royals since the Majestic. He touched his scarred face and thought of Bolitho’s eye, the way he had seen him rub it when he had been thinking of something else. I should have guessed. He looked round the cabin, so small and low-beamed, but after his first and only other command, the schooner Miranda, it had seemed like a palace. He had first met Bolitho in Miranda, when he had accepted all the discomfort and shared quarters without complaint. When she had been destroyed by a French frigate he had given him Larne without hesitation. The bond, broken only by distance and the demands of duty, had strengthened from then on. He thought of Avery’s visit, his anger and despair. I should have guessed.

  He cleared his throat and every face looked aft.

  ‘Today I shall leave this command to Mr Ozanne. It is hard to describe my feelings.’ He twisted round in his chair and glanced through the thick stern windows. So many times. The thump of the rudder-post, the frothing sea rolling away from beneath the counter. So many times. God, I shall miss you, girl!

  But he said, ‘I have requested that Robert Gallaway be promoted to acting-lieutenant until it can be confirmed.’ He saw the master’s mate staring round with surprise and pleasure while his friends thumped him on the back. He would leave Ozanne to select a replacement for Gallaway. It would probably be his first duty. A pleasant way to begin a commission. The others were not even troubled by meeting his gaze. That, too, would be different in another ship. What had he expected? That he would be permitted to keep sailing the deep-water trade routes like a phantom? Now he would be out in the open for all to see.

  He took a swallow from his goblet. He would stay at an inn Pitcair had told him about. Small, no questions asked. He smiled sadly. When he received his next allotment of prize money he could buy land of his own.

  He said, ‘We have done a great deal together, and we are all the better for it. The ocean is always there waiting for us, with a mood to suit every watch and occasion. But the ship…’ Just once he reached out and touched the curved timbers. ‘There is never one like the last.’ He heard a boatswain’s call, unusually muted in the packed cabin. ‘All hands! All hands muster on deck!’ Even the thudding of bare feet was subdued.

  A seaman tapped the door and thrust his head inside. One of the older hands who had been allowed ashore because of Bolitho’s request to the port admiral.

  ‘Beg pardon, zur! But the carriage be alongside!’

  Tyacke nodded. ‘Very well, Houston. I’ll come up.’

  The seaman hesitated, unsure amidst all of his lieutenants and warrant officers.

  ‘What is it?’

  The man named Houston dragged a bright gold dollar on a chain from his pocket.

  ‘For a lady, zur – took it from that brigantine! Good luck, Cap’n!’ Then he fled.

  Tyacke stood up slowly, glad that he must bow his head between the beams and hide his face.

  Thank God he was not being pulled ashore in the gig, which was what Ozanne would have arranged had they been at anchor instead of alongside the wall. Pulled ashore by his own officers. Ozanne was that kind of man.

  He was saying now to the others, ‘Wait on deck, please, gentlemen.’

  Then, when they had filed out, he stood by the door. ‘I’ll never forget what you done for me, James. Never fret, I’ll take good care of her. You’ll be that proud when you see her again.’

  Tyacke gripped his hand. ‘I know that, old friend.’ What Bolitho called his coxswain. He wanted to say aloud, I’m afraid. Maybe I can’t do it. But all he said was, ‘She can still outsail the best of them!’

  Then, followed by Ozanne, he climbed the companion ladder, and hesitated by the coaming.

  My men. No, not any more.

  They were clinging to the shrouds and ratlines, framed against a clear bright sky. There were no dockyard workers to be seen. This was Larne’s moment and they would share it with nobody.

  The carriage with the big sea-chest on its roof waited amongst the dockyard litter. Tyacke measured the distance with his eye. It was probably the longest journey he would ever take.

  He shook hands with the officers and the men of the side-party. A murmur here and there, firm, rough hands, questioning glances; he had to press his sword against his thigh with all his strength to contain himself.

  Lastly Paul Ozanne, Commander Ozanne. Only their eyes spoke: no words would come.

  Tyacke raised his hat and climbed on to the brow. The calls twittered and then someone yelled, ‘Huzza for the Captain, lads! Huzza!’

  People hurried to the sides of other vessels nearby as the wild cheering echoed and re-echoed against the old stone walls. For such a small ship’s company, the din was enough to drown every other sound. Straight-backed, his sword at his side, Tyacke walked steadily towards the carriage, the cheers washing around him like breakers on the reefs.

  He climbed into the carriage and the driver flicked his whip.

  He did not look back. He dared not.

  Catherine was waiting at the foot of the stairs when Young Matthew drove Bolitho back from the Admiralty after yet another meetin
g. She watched him anxiously, looking for a sign, some hint that he was over-taxing himself.

  He took her in his arms, his mouth touching her hair, her neck.

  ‘It’s settled, Kate. I am to command the new squadron.’ He searched her face as she had studied his. ‘We can soon return to Falmouth. It will be a while yet before my ships are ready.’ He smiled. ‘And Young Matthew complains that London is too noisy and dirty for his tastes.’

  She linked her arm through his and turned him towards their room at the rear of the house with its tiny walled garden.

  ‘How is George Avery?’

  ‘Relieved, I think.’

  ‘I have written to him about his sister. I did not even know he had a family. He said not when I first met him.’

  ‘I know. There is another story there, I believe. By “family” I think he may have meant somebody like you.’

  He saw the brandy on the table and wondered if Tyacke had left Larne yet. He could remember his own farewells only too vividly.

  ‘For me, Richard, will you visit the surgeon before we leave Chelsea?’

  He kissed her lightly. ‘For you, anything.’

  She watched him pour some brandy. He was looking better than she had expected, his face showing once again the benefit of their being together for over two months, but last night she had been unable to comfort him, and sleep had been denied to both of them.

  She said, ‘Perhaps there will be no war across the Atlantic?’

  ‘Perhaps.’

  She saw his fingers playing with her locket beneath his shirt. He had worn it deliberately for this latest visit to the Admiralty. His protection, he had called it.

  ‘How was Sir Graham Bethune today?’ She had felt his hurt and jealousy at the beginning, but Bethune had stood by her man against the pack. Sillitoe too, although she was doubtful if his motives were so easily defined.

  ‘He was fair and helpful. He has given me most of what I requested. Maybe I will have the rest when the extent of my orders is realised.’

  He did not mention that he would be sailing first to English Harbour in Antigua. The Leeward Squadron, as Bethune had dubbed it, would establish itself there. But he could not tell her. Not yet. There would be pain enough in parting, and Antigua held so many memories. Where he had found her again, and rediscovered the love which had changed his life. His eye fell on a sealed envelope with a coat of arms adorning it.