Alexander Kent - Bolitho 17

by Honour This Day [lit]

  He felt like ice despite the searing wind, but now he could not stop. ”He thinks he’s losing the use of his left eye.”

  She stared at him, the picture leaping into her mind like a stark dream. He had been staring at the sky or the sea when she had found him. Bolitho had looked so defeated, so lost that she had wanted to run to him and take him in her arms, forget security, life itself if only she could comfort and keep him a few moments more. She recalled his voice, the way he had looked at her without seeming to see her.

  She heard herself whisper, ”Oh, dear God!’

  Allday said, ”Remember, I’ve told you nothin’, Ma’am. I’m often in hot water as it is without you adding more coals to it.” He hesitated, moved by her distress, her sudden loss of poise before him, a common seaman. ”But if you can help...” He broke off and touched his hat quickly. He whispered hoarsely, ”I see your husband hull-down on the horizon, Ma’am. I’ll be off now!’

  She stared after him, a great, loping figure in flapping blue jacket and nankeen breeches, one scarred and hurt so badly she could see it on his homely features. But a man so gentle that she wanted to cry for him, for all of them.

  But her husband did not come to her; she saw him walking along the terrace with the lieutenant called Parris.

  When she looked down the sloping pathway which led to the harbour she saw Allday turn and lift his hat to her.

  just a small gesture, and yet she knew that he had accepted her as a friend.

  The deckhead lanterns in Hyperion’s great cabin spiralled wildly, throwing insane shadows across the checkered deck covering i and across the tightly lashed nine-pounders on either side.

  Bolitho, sipped a glass of hock, and watched while Yovell finished yet another letter and pushed it across the table for him to sign. Like actors on a stage, he thought, as Ozzard busied himself refilling glasses, and Allday entered and left the cabin like a player who had been given no lines to learn.

  Captain Haven stood by the stern windows, now half- fl shuttered as the wind, made more fearsome by the darkness, broke the crests from the inshore waves, and flung spray over the anchored ships.

  Bolitho felt the whole ship trembling as she tilted to her cable, and remembered the feeling of disbelief when Dacie had severed the Spaniard’s mooring.

  Haven concluded, That is everything I can determine, Sir Richard. The purser is satisfied with his storing, and all but one working party has been withdrawn from the shore? He was speaking carefully, like a pupil repeating a hard-learned lesson to his teacher. ”I have been able to replace the three boats too, although they will need some work done on them.”

  An observation, a reminder that it had been his admiral who had abandoned them. Haven was careful not to display his true feelings.

  ”Who is in charge of the last party?”

  Haven looked at his list. ”The first lieutenant, Sir Richard.”

  Always the tide now, after their last clash. Bolitho swilled the hock around his glass. So be it then. Haven was a fool and must know that his admiral, any flag officer for that matter, could make or destroy his career. Or was it his way of exploiting Bolitho’s sense of fairness?

  Yovell looked over his steel-rimmed spectacles. ”I beg your pardon, Sir Richard, but did you intend this despatch to Obdurate to read in this fashion?”

  Bolitho gave a wry smile. ”I did.” He did not need to be reminded.

  You are directed and commanded to make ready for sea.

  Captain Robert Thynne of the other seventy-four could think what he liked. Obdurate was needed now more than ever. The vessels carrying the bulk of the treasure would have to be escorted dear of dangerous waters until they met with ships of Sir Peter Folliot’s squadron, or until they could have the sea-room to manage for themselves. Bolitho would have preferred to bide his time until his own small squadron arrived, but the change of weather had altered all that.

  He turned away from the others, glad of the lanterns’ mellow light as he massaged his eye. It was still aching from his stupid contest with the sun. Or was it another snare of his imagination?

  He was glad to be aboard this old ship again. Somervell had guessed as much when he had said his farewell.

  Somervell had explained that he and his lady were leaving after the main exodus, aboard a large Indiaman which was daily expected here. Personal comfort rated very high with Somervell.

  Bolitho had seen the other side of the man when he had asked, ”I should like to take my leave of Lady Somervell.”

  ”Impossible.” Somervell had met his gaze insolently. Bolitho could well imagine those same cold eyes staring along the barrel of a duelling pistol in the dawn fight, although it was known he favoured swords for such settlements.

  He had added, ”She is not here.”

  Antigua was a small island. If she had wanted to see him she could. Unless Somervell had grown tired of the game and had prevented it. Either way it did not matter now. It was over.

  There was a tap at the door and Lieutenant Lovering, who was the officer-of-the-watch, took a pace into the cabin and reported, ”I beg your forgiveness for this intrusion, Sir Richard,” his eyes flickered between Bolitho and Haven, ”but a courier-brig has been reported running for harbour.

  Bolitho lowered his eyes. Maybe from England. Letters from home. News of the war. Their lifeline. He thought of Adam, in command of his own brig, probably still carrying despatches for Nelson. Another world away from the heat and fever of the Indies.

  Haven leaned forward. ”If there is any mail...” He recovered himself, and Bolitho recalled what Allday had said about his wife expecting a baby. , Bolitho signed more letters. Recommendations for promotion, for bravery, for transfers to other ships. Letters to the bereaved.

  The lieutenant hesitated. ”Will you have. any letters for the shore, Sir Richard?”

  Bolitho looked at him. Lovering was the second lieutenant.

  Waiting for promotion, the chance to prove himself. If Parris fell... He shut the idea from his mind.”I think not.”

  It came out easily.

  Was it that simple to end something which had been so dear?

  Haven waited until the lieutenant had withdrawn.

  ”First light then, Sir Richard.”

  ”Yes. Call the hands - as you will, and signal your intentions to Obdurate and the Commissioner of the Dockyard.”

  When Hyperion returned to Antigua the Indiaman would have gone. Would they ever meet again, even by accident?

  ”It will take all day to work out of harbour and muster our charges into a semblance of order. This wind will decide then whether to be an ally or a foe.”

  If the treasure-ships and their escort were contained in the shelter of English Harbour for much longer, the Spaniards and perhaps their French allies might even try to counter-attack before the new squadron arrived.

  Left alone in the cabin Bolitho drank some more hock, but although his stomach was empty he was unable to face Ozzard’s meal. With the old ship swaying and groaning around him, and the duty watch being mustered every few minutes, or so it appeared, to secure and lash down some loose gear, it was impossible to rest.

  The hock was good, and Bolitho found time to wonder how Ozzard managed to keep it so cool even in the bilges.

  He toyed with the idea of sending a note to Catherine and dismissed it immediately. In the wrong hands it could ruin her.

  What it might do to his own career did not seem to matter any longer.

  He heard the clank of pumps and remembered what he had been told about Hyperion’s age and service. It was like an additional taunt.

  He lolled in his favourite chair but was awakened, it seemed within seconds, by Ozzard shaking his arm.

  Bolitho stared at him. The ship was still in darkness, the din and movement as before.

  ”The first lieutenant wishes to see you, Sir Richard.”

  Bolitho was wide awake. Why not the captain?

  Parris entered, soaked with spray. He looked flush
ed despite his tan, but Bolitho knew he had not been drinking.

  ”What is it?”

  Parris steadied himself against a chair as the deck swayed again. ”I thought you should know, Sir Richard. The guardboat reported earlier that a schooner left harbour. One of the commodore’s own vessels, it seems.”

  ”Well?” Bolitho knew there was worse to come.

  ”Lady Somervell was on board.” He recoiled slightly under Bolitho’s grey stare. ”I discovered that she intends to sail round to St John’s.”

  Bolitho stood up and listened to the wind. It was a gale now, and he heard the water surging against the hull like a flood tide.

  ”In this, man!” He groped round for his coat. ”Viscount Somervell must be informed.”

  Parris watched dully. ”He knows. U told him myself.”

  Haven appeared in the screen door, his sleeping attire covered by a boat-cloak. ”What’s this I hear?” He glared at Parris. ”I shall speak to you later!’

  Bolitho sat down. How could Somervell let her do it? He must have known when he had said it was impossible for her to make her farewell. A small schooner could founder if wrongly handled.

  He tried to remember who commanded Glassport’s vessels.

  Even in calm weather it was dangerous to make casual passages amongst the islands. Pirates were too commonplace to mention. For every one rotting in chains, or on the gallows, there were a hundred more in these waters.

  He said, ”I can do nothing until daylight.” Haven regarded him calmly. ”If you ask me He fell silent then added, ”I must attend the watch on deck, Sir Richard.”

  Bolitho sat down very slowly. I did this to her. He did not r T know if he had spoken aloud or not, but the words seemed to echo around the cabin like a shot.

  He called to Ozzard, ”Rouse my flag lieutenant, if you please.” He would send him ashore with a message for Somervell, in bed or not.

  He stood up restlessly and walked to an unshurtered window.

  If I go myself one of us will surely die.

  Bolitho strode out on to the quarterdeck and felt the wind lift under his boat-doak, and the spray which burst over the weather quarter like tropical rain.

  He held on to the nettings and sfitted his eyes against the gale.

  It was strong but clammy, so that it did nothing to refresh his tired limbs. Two days since they had clawed their way out of English Harbour to assemble their small but priceless convoy. In that time they had barely logged fifty miles.

  By night they rode out the storm under a reefed maintopsail and little else, while the four transports and the smaller vessels lay hove-to as best they could under savage conditions.

  Secrecy was now of secondary importance and Hyperion burned flares and her vice-admiral’s top-lights to try and hold the ships together. Then as each dawn found them it had taken a full day to reassemble the badly scattered ships and to begin the formation all over again. Everything was wet, and as the men toiled aloft to fight the wind-crazed sails or stumbled to replace their companions on the bilge-pumps, many must have wondered what was keeping.them afloat.

  Bolitho stared abeam and saw the faint sheen of the sloop-of war’s topgallants. Phaedra was standing up to windward, heeling every so often as the waves lifted her slender hull like a toy.

  Iffie brig Upholder was invisible, far ahead in the van, and the other brig Tetrarch was an equal distance astern.

  CHAPTER NINE

  A Sloop Of War

  Bolitho climbed up a few steps on a poop ladder and felt the cloak stream away from him, his shirt already soaked with spray and spindrift. There was Obdurate, half-a-mile astern, her black and buff bows shining like glass as the waves burst into her. It felt strange to have another third-rate in company again, although he doubted if Thynne was thanking him for it. After a long stay in harbour, repairing the last storm battering she had suffered, it was likely that Obdurate’s people were cursing their change of roles.

  Bolitho climbed down to the deck again. There were four seamen at the big wheel, and nearby Penhaligon the master was in deep conversation with one of his mates.

  The wind had backed decisively to the south-west and they had been blown many miles off their original course. But if the sailing master was troubled he did not show it.

  All around, above and along the maindeck, men were working to repair any storm damage. Lines to be replaced or spliced, sails to be sent down, to be patched or discarded.

  Bolitho glanced at the nearest gangway where a boatswain’s mate was supervising the unrigging of a grating.

  Another flogging. It had been worse than usual, even after Ozzard had closed the cabin skylight. The wild chorus of the wind through stays and shrouds, the occasional boom of reefed topsails, and all the while the rattle of drums and the sickening crack of the lash across a man’s naked back.

  He saw blood on the gangway, already fading and paling in the flung spray. Three dozen lashes. A man driven too far in the middle of the storm, an officer unable to deal with it on the spot.

  Haven was in his quarters writing his log, or re-reading the letters which had been brought in the courier bag.

  Bolitho was glad he was not here. Only his influence remained.

  The men who hurried about the decks looked strained, resentful.

  Even Jenour, who had not served very much at sea, had remarked on it.

  Bolitho beckoned to the signals midshipman. ”The glass, if you rp- - please, Mr Furnival.” He noticed the youth’s hands, raw from working all night aloft, and then trying to assume the dress and bearing of a King’s officer by day.

  Bolitho raised the glass and saw the sloop-of-war swim sharply into focus, the creaming wash of sea as she tilted her gunports into a deep swell. He wondered what her commander, Dunstan, was thinking as he rode out the wind and waves to hold station on his admiral. It was a far cry from Euryalus’s midshipman’s berth.

  He moved the glass still further and saw a green brush-stroke of land far away on the larboard bow. Another island, Barbuda.

  They should have left it to starboard on the first day. He thought of the schooner, of Catherine who had asked the master to take her around Antigua to St John’s instead of using the road.

  A small vessel like that would stand no chance against-such a gale. Her master could either run with the wind, or try to find shelter. Better ships would have suffered in the storm; some might have perished. He clenched his fingers around the telescope until they ached. Why did she do it? She could be lying fathoms deep, or clinging to some wreckage. She might even have seen Hyperion’stoplights, have known it was his ship.

  He heard the master call to the officer-of-the-watch, ”I would approve if you could get the t’gallants on her, Mr Mansforth.” The lieutenant nodded, his face brick-red from the salt spray.

  ”I I shall inform the Captain.” He was very aware of the figure by the weather side, with the boat-cloak swirling around him.

  Hatless, his black hair plastered to his forehead, he looked more like a highwayman than a vice-admiral.

  Jenour emerged from the poop and touched his hat. ”Any orders, Sir Richard?”

  Bolitho returned the glass to the midshipman. ”The wind has eased. Please make a signal to the transports to keep closed up.

  We are not out of trouble yet.”

  The four ships which were sharing most of the treasure were keeping downwind of the two seventy-fours. With a brig scouting well ahead, and the other trailing astern like a guarddog, they should be warned in time should a suspicious sail show itself. Then Hyperion and Obdurate could gauge their moment before running down on the convoy, or beating up to windward to join Phaedra.

  Flags soared up to the yards and stiffened to the wind like Painted metal.

  ”Acknowledged, Sir Richard.” Then in a hushed voice Jenour added, ”The Captain is coming.”

  Bolitho felt the bitterness rising within him. They were more like conspirators than of one company.

  Haven walked slowly
across the streaming planking, his eyes on the gun-breechings, flaked lines, coiled braces, everything.

  He was apparently satisfied that he had nothing to fear from what he saw, and crossed the deck to Bolitho.

  He touched his hat, his face expressionless while his eyes explored Bolitho’s wet shirt and spray-dappled breeches.

  ”I intend to make more sail, Sir Richard. We should carry it well enough.”

  Bolitho nodded. ”Signal Obdurate so that they conform. I don’t want us to become separated.”

  Captain Thynnc had lost two men overboard the previous day and had backed his mizzen topsail while he had attempted to send away the quarter boat.

  Neither of the luckless men was recovered. They had either fallen too far from aloft and been knocked senseless when they hit the sea, or like most sailors, were unable to swim. Bolitho had not intended to mention it.

  But Haven snorted,’I will make the signal at once, Sir Richard.

  Thynnc wants to drill his people the better, and not dawdle about when some fool goes outboard through his own carelessness!’

  He gestured to the lieutenant of the watch.

  ”Hands aloft and loose t’gan’sls, Mr Mansforth!’He looked at the midshipman. ”General signal. Make more sail.” His arm shot out across the quarterdeck rail. ”That man! Just what the bloody hell is he about?”

  The seaman in question had been wringing out his checkered shirt in an effort to dry it.

  He stood stockstill, his eyes on the quarterdeck, while others moved aside in case they too might draw Haven’s wrath.

  A boatswain’s mate yelled, ”Tis all right, sir! I told him to do it!”

  Haven turned away, suddenly furious.

  But Bolitho had seen the gratitude in the seaman’s eyes and knew that the boatswain’s mate had told him nothing of the kind.

  Were they all so sick of Haven that even the afterguard were against him?

  ”Captain Haven!” Bolitho saw him mm, the anger gone. It was i unnerving how he could work up a sudden rage and disperse it to order. ”A word, if you please.”