Alexander Kent - THE INSHORE SQUADRON
Swinburne winked at Browne. 'Done! You go to those blockheads of Admiralty if you must. But be back here in time for our celebrations.' He rubbed his hands. 'It will be just like the old days!'
When Bolitho returned he knew it was pointless to protest or argue. Sometimes it was better to give in. Fate, Herrick's Lady Luck, or whatever you chose to call it. Something had decided he should leave Benbow at the first possibility. Something had prompted Browne to borrow the comfortable coach instead of catching the London Mail. If he had insisted on the latter it would have taken another, busier road.
He tried to smother the ridiculous hope, to destroy it before it destroyed him.
Swinburne said loudly, 'Of course, dammit! Bolitho! I did not realize it was you. I've been reading about you in the Gazette and The Times.' He shook his fist at Browne. `You're a bigger fool than your father, Oliver! You didn't tell me! God damn your eyes, man!' He was beside himself with pleasure.
Browne said smoothly, 'You did not give me much of an opportunity, m'lord.'
A servant threw open the doors, and Lady Swinburne, moving with the stately confidence of a ship of the line, swept in to greet her guests.
She nodded to Browne. 'Ah, Oliver.'
That was all she said, but Bolitho guessed that it meant far more.
She took Bolitho's hand and studied him curiously. She was a very large lady, a head and shoulders taller than her husband.
'Rear-Admiral Bolitho, you are very welcome. You are like I would have wished our oldest son to be. He fell in battle at the Chesapeake.'
Swinburne said, 'Don't distress yourself, Mildred. It's a long time ago.'
Bolitho squeezed her hand. 'Not to me, my lady. I was there also.'
She nodded. 'I thought you were of an age.' A smile swept her sudden sadness aside.
She said, 'There is a young lady upstairs who wishes to see you. To thank you for what you did.' She saw the doctor give a quick shake of the head and then realized there was a bloodstain on Bolitho's breeches which even some of the doctor's spirit had failed to remove. 'Well, later then.' She beamed at the others. 'A wounded hero and a lady in distress, what better ingredients for Christmas, eh?'
11. An Old Score
Bolitho stood uncertainly by a newly laid fire and listened to the sleet lashing the windows. It was evening, and for all he knew he could have been quite alone in the great house. They had not even roused him for a midday meal, but had allowed him to sleep in a small room on the ground floor.
When he had at last awakened he had discovered his clothes neatly laid out, his breeches as white as new with no trace of the bloodstain.
The house was very old, he decided, and had probably been added to through the various generations of the Swinburne family. This room was lined with well-used books which reminded him of the one in Copenhagen where he had supposedly met the Crown Prince. That, too, seemed like part of a dream. Only the painful reminder of his wound kept the rest alive in his mind.
He tried to think of the girl from the wrecked carriage as a total stranger, as he would have done had she been different. It was like standing well back to examine a portrait, to fit the pieces together which were blurred by being too close.
The door opened quietly and he turned, expecting it to be Browne or one of Swinburne's attentive servants.
She stood framed against the lights in the other room, her face and arms shining in the fire's glow.
Bolitho was about to cross the room when she said, 'No, please. Remain where you are. I have heard about your injury. By helping to save my life on the road you could have risked your own.'
She moved into the reflected firelight, her gown swishing across the floor. It was white with a yellow flowered pattern.
Her long chestnut hair was tied back in a ribbon of the same yellow.
She saw him staring and explained, 'It is not mine. Lady Swinburne's daughter loaned it to me. My luggage has already gone ahead to London.' She hesitated and held out her hand. `I am indebted to you and your friends.'
Bolitho took her hand and sought helplessly for the right words.
`I am thankful we were in time.'
She released her hand gently and sat down in one of the chairs.
'You are Rear-Admiral Bolitho.' She smiled gravely. `I am Mrs Belinda Laidlaw.'
Bolitho sat opposite her. Her eyes were not like Cheney's at all. They were dark brown.
He said, 'We were also going to London. To the Admiralty. We have just returned from duty.' He tried not to look at his leg. `I had the misfortune to stand up when I should have been lying down!'
She did not respond to his feeble joke.
`I, too, have just returned to England from India. It all seems changed here.' She gave a shiver. `Not just the climate, everything. The war seems so near I can almost picture the enemy across the Channel waiting to invade us.'
'I can think of several good reasons why the French will never come.' He smiled awkwardly. 'Though they may try.'
'I suppose so.' She looked lost, wistful.
Bolitho thought that the bruises and concussion might have been worse than the doctor had realized.
He asked gently, 'Is your husband with you?'
Her eyes darkened in shadow as she looked towards the closed door.
'He is dead.'
Bolitho stared at her. `I am so sorry. It was wrong of me to pry. Please forgive me.'
She faced him again, her expression one of curiosity.
`You really mean that. But I am through the worst of it, I think. He was with the East India Company. At Bombay he was happy, dealing with the company's mercantile affairs, trade, all the expanding business he was helping to build. He had been a soldier, but was a gentle man and glad to be rid of his commission.'
She gave a brief shrug, the movement stabbing at Bolitho's concern like a knife.
'Then he became ill. Some fever he caught when he was away on a mission inland.' Her eyes, like her tone, were dreamy, as if she was remembering each moment. 'It got worse and worse, until he could not even move from his bed. I nursed him for three years. It became part of life, something to accept without pity or hope. Then one morning he died. What I did not know was that he had been doing some private business of his own. He'd hinted at it sometimes, of how he was going to break away from the company and not just be a link in their chain. But he left me no details of whatever he was doing and, needless to say, none of his "friends" came forward to explain. In just a few hours of his death I discovered that I was penniless and completely alone.'
Bolitho tried to imagine what it must have been like for her. And yet she spoke without bitterness or rancour. Perhaps, like her husband's long-drawn-out suffering, she had been forced to accept it.
He said, 'I should like to make it plain that if there is anything I can do…'
She raised her hand and smiled at his concern. 'You have done enough. I will go on to London as soon as the road is clear and begin my new life.'
'May I ask what that may be?'
'When I was in Bombay I encountered the only piece of good fortune I can recall. Quite by chance I met with one of the company's officials, and to our astonishment we discovered that we were related.' She smiled at the recollection. 'Very distantly, and very remotely, but it was like finding a willing hand when you are about to drown.'
Bolitho looked at the carpet, his mind reeling. 'Rupert Seton.'
'How on earth could you know that?'
He replied, 'I was in Copenhagen recently. I heard that he had passed through there on his way to England.'
She watched his expression anxiously. 'What is wrong?'
'I was married to his sister.' His words were dull and without hope. 'She was killed in a coaching accident while I was at sea. When I saw you in the coach this morning, your hair, I thought, I imagined…' He took several seconds to complete it. 'You are so like her.'
In the long silence he heard a clock ticking, the beat of his own heart, and somewhere far away a dog barking with sudden excitement.
She said softly, 'So I did not imagine all of it. Nor was I delirious. The way you were holding me. I knew somehow that I was going to be all right.'
The door opened and Browne said, 'I beg your pardon, sir. I thought you were alone.'
The girl said, 'Please come in, Lieutenant. This house makes you feel like a fugitive!'
Browne rubbed his -hands in front of the fire. 'You. look much better after that rest, sir. I have been speaking with Lord Swinburne's steward. He says that the road will be clear soon after first light. The snow is changing to rain again.'
When Bolitho said nothing he hurried on, 'So with your permission I will take the carriage to London with your despatches.'
'Very well.' Bolitho looked at the fold in his breeches, hating the wound. 'I will wait here for your return.'
Her gown swished across the floor and she said, 'May I share your carriage, Lieutenant? I think they will be alarmed if I am any later in arriving.'
Browne looked from one to the other, unusually confused. 'Well, ma'am, that is to say, well, I will be delighted to be of assistance.'
She turned and waited as Bolitho got to his feet. 'I would have liked to have continued our talk.' She laid one hand on his arm. 'But I fear it might have done both of us harm. So I will thank you again for all your kindness, and now I will go to bed in readiness for an early start. It has been a very demanding day, one way and the other.'
Bolitho stared at her hand as she removed it from his arm. The brief contact was broken. It had never begun.
Browne stared helplessly as the door closed behind her.
'I am really sorry, sir!'
'Sorry? For what?' Bolitho turned towards the fire and said in a calmer tone, 'There, you made me break an old rule. I had no cause to use my hurt on you.' He knew Browne was going to speak and added, 'You are a good fellow, Browne. At first I hated the idea of having a flag lieutenant, someone to share my confidences. But I have come to know you well, and have grown fond of you.'
'Thank you for that, sir.' Browne sounded astonished.
'Say no more of this. I was a fool to myself and an embarassment to the lady. I have been a sailor too long to change now. My place is on the sea, Browne, and when I am no further use then I were better under it!'
Browne moved silently from the room and shut the door. If only Pascoe or Herrick were here, he thought. Even Allday was powerless to break past the chain of command of Swinburne's household. And Bolitho needed somebody.
Browne thought of the despatches, of the other nagging doubts he had nursed since Bolitho's appointment to the Inshore Squadron. He would be as fast as he could. He glanced back at the closed door, recalling Bolitho's words. Grown fond of you. In Browne's world nobody ever said things like that and it had deeply affected him.
He saw a footman gliding towards a stairway, a silver tray beneath one arm. He beckoned him over and said, 'Would you take a drink to my admiral?'
The footman regarded him bleakly. Like a frog. 'French brandy, sir?'
'No, not that. My admiral has been at war with the French for seven years and before that also.' He saw that his words were finding no response in the froglike face and added, 'Some cool wine from the countryside. He seems to like it.'
As the footman moved away Browne saw Lord Swinburne coming down the great stairway.
Swinburne asked, 'All well, Oliver?'
'I have a favour to ask, m'lord.'
'Huh. That doesn't surprise me. Just like yer father.' He chuckled. 'Well?'
'Would it be possible for my admiral to have his coxswain with him?'
"His coxswain? Here?' His robin's eyes sparkled. 'Of course, he has not brought a man with him. I will speak with my steward, Has he asked for his coxswain?'
An Old Score 155
Browne shook his head. 'No, m'lord. It is just a feeling I have.'
His lordship shuffled away, shaking his head. 'Quite mad, just like yer father!'
Later, as the same footman was about to enter the room with his tray, Allday touched his arm and said abruptly, 'Here, matey, I'll take it.'
The footman glared at Allday, and then saw his expression and the size of his fists.
Allday balanced the tray in one hand and opened the door. There may be a squall and a few damn and blasts, he thought. After that… we shall see.
Bolitho fidgeted impatiently while Allday painstakingly adjusted his neckcloth and collar and wondered how he was going to get through the evening. It was Christmas Day, a day of many comings and goings at the big house. Farmers and neighbours, tradesmen with last-minute additions for the dinner which Swinburne's kitchen must have been preparing for weeks.
He could hear the lively music of violins from below and toyed with the idea of saying he was too tired to join Swinburne and his guests. But the lie would be churlish and unforgivable after the way he had been cared for and treated.
It was snowing outside, but without much substance, so that the carriageway and the roofs of the outbuildings glistened in a dozen colours from the lanterns which had been hung to guide the new arrivals to the entrance.
Bolitho had moved to the room from the floor below, but even the change of view did little to settle his thoughts. He wished now he had gone to London in the carriage and damn the consequences for his wound.
Allday stood back and said, 'Good, sir. You look your old self again.'
Bolitho noticed how Allday kept his voice level, his gaze shuttered off in case he did or said something to provoke him.
Bolitho felt ashamed. He must have given Allday a difficult time.
He said, 'I wish you could take my place at table.' He glanced at Aliday's reflection in the mirror. `You deserve it, and far more.'
Allday met his gaze in the mirror and grinned, the strain slipping from his face as he replied, `With all those fine ladies, sir? God bless you, I'd be in real trouble, an' that's no error!'
Somewhere a gong boomed importantly. Allday took Bolitho's best coat and held it out for him. `I've got a pretty little wench to press it for you, sir.'
Bolitho slipped his arms into the sleeves. 'No doubt you will repay her for the kindness?'
Allday followed him to the door and stood aside for him. 'No doubt, sir.'
Bolitho paused. 'I owe you an apology, Allday. I seem to be trampling on everyone who is trying to help me these days.' He turned, listening to the voices and music surging up the great stairway like an invisible throng.
Allday said quietly, 'Best be about it, sir. You'll not escape by backing your tops'ls!'
Bolitho nodded and made his way slowly down the stairs, feeling vaguely unsure of himself without hat or sword.
He barely recognized the hall as the same place. It was packed with brightly coloured gowns, half-bared bosoms, the red coats of the military, and such a mixed array of people he wondered where they all came from.
A footman saw him coming and called, 'Rear-Admiral Richard Bolitho.'
A few heads turned towards him, but most of the guests had not even heard the announcement above the din.
Swinburne bounced from the crowd. 'Ah, Bolitho, good fellow!' He steered him through the less important fringe of the gathering and muttered, 'Want you to meet me friends. Most of 'em have never set eyes on a fightin' man before.' He lowered his voice as they passed a scarlet-faced major who looked old enough to have been in two previous wars and added, 'Him, for instance. Supposed to be recruitin' for the Colours. God, the country lads take one look at him and run off to join the French, I shouldn't wonder!'
