The Victory (6 page)

‘
Not yet. He'll probably get the Toulon station again, but I
think Their Lordships will delay as long as possible in
appointing him, in order to shew their disapproval of his
private life.’

She stared at him in sudden concern. 'Oh Weston —!’

 
‘
What is it, my love?’

She gripped his hand tighter. 'It has just come to me,' she
said reluctantly. ‘Do you suppose ... could it be that it is our
relationship which has prevented you from getting your ship?’

Weston hesitated, and shrugged. He never lied to her: their relationship was not built along those lines. 'It is possible.'

‘Oh Weston —!'

‘
Now, Lucy, don't look so tragic. There'll be ships for all
the active officers as soon as war is formally declared. I've
never blotted my service record, don't forget. Disapproval of
my private life may delay matters, but I shan't be left on the
beach, never fear.'

‘
I don't know how any of them dares to point a finger,' she
said indignantly. ‘As if they were above reproach! Why, I dare
say if one enquired —'

‘
Precisely so — if one enquired. Their Lordships don't like
officers to be involved in public scandals. That's where Nelson
goes wrong — he and his Emma do make such a noise about
their love! If they would but sin quietly, no-one at the
Admiralty would care two straws. And you and I, until last
year, were discreet enough. It's only since I came to live here
that we have become the object of gossip.'

‘
They can't bear openness and honesty, that's what it is.
Hypocrisy and show is all they care about.' She looked at him
anxiously, her face a little pale. 'Perhaps you ought to have a place of your own again, like before, when you had rooms in
Ebury Street. If you lived apart from me, perhaps the scandal
would die down, and you would get your ship.'

‘
My love,' he said tenderly, 'you refine too much on it. We
only became a scandal because the Season was so quiet. As
soon as war is declared, everyone will have too much to talk
about to be interested in us. I shall have my ship, don't worry.
And ...' He hesitated.

‘Yes?’

He lifted her hand to his lips again. ‘Only this — that since war must come, and I must go away from you, for God knows
how long, I had rather be with you, properly with you, for
every moment I can.' He smiled faintly. 'I must be the only
red-blooded man in England at this moment who is actually
glad Addington has kept the peace so long.’

Lucy bit her lip, and understanding much of what she felt,
he released her hand to consult his pocket-watch, and stood up with a lighter smile. ‘I had better let Docwra back in, or
you won't be dressed in time for your visitors. Is this what you
are to wear?' He touched a lilac-coloured muslin which was
lying over the back of a chair. 'You'll look charmingly, as
Always.’

He bowed, and had his hand to the door knob when Lucy
called him.

‘Weston!’

He turned back enquiringly, and watched as she struggled to
find words for what she felt too deeply for speech. 'I have
been so happy this past year,' she said at last, awkwardly.
'Thank you for it.’

He had no answer for her, could only bow again, and leave.

*

Captain Haworth was the first to lift the great knocker on the
front door. He arrived with naval promptness exactly at noon,
and, as a family connection, took the liberty of advising Hicks
to save his legs. 'I can find my own way up. I know her lady
ship is expecting me to call, because I told Captain Weston so
this morning.’

George Haworth had astonished the fashionable world ten
years ago by marrying Lucy's older sister Mary, who had
been famed as one of the three most beautiful women in
England, and who had turned down so many offers for her
hand, even from such eligible
partis
as the Earl of Tonbridge,
that everyone had decided she meant to go a maiden to her
grave. Why she should have accepted Haworth's offer, when
he had neither fame, fortune, rank, nor even particularly
distinguished looks, was something that no-one in the
ton
could determine.

The fact of the matter, as Lucy could have told anyone
who was interested, was that Mary fell in love with the
obscure and shabby sea-captain the very instant she saw him,
and had lived in blissful happiness with him until she died of
childbed fever on board the
Africa
off the Egyptian coast five
years ago. Lucy could perfectly well understand it. She liked
George Haworth very well; he reminded her of her father.

‘
Congratulations, Captain, on your appointment,' she
greeted him. 'You must be pleased it is the
Africa.
Do you
know where you are bound?'

‘
I'm meant for the Channel Fleet,' Haworth said, 'but not
for a few weeks yet.
Africa's
only just out of dry-dock. They'll
be warping her up to Spithead tomorrow, and as soon as I
join her I have to take her out for sea trials.'

‘
I told Lucy about her troubles,' Weston said. 'Sea trials
suggest that she's in a bad way.'

‘
I'm afraid so,' Haworth said with a rueful smile. 'You
were congratulating me on an early appointment, but if
Africa
has
to go back into dock, you may well be at sea before me.'

‘
Have you got your old crew back?' Weston wanted to
know.

‘
A large number of them. As soon as the word went round that
Africa
was commissioning, they started to volunteer. It
was most touching.'

‘
It's a tribute to you,' Lucy said, 'that they should be so
loyal.’

Haworth smiled. 'You mustn't make too much of it. They
know they will be pressed anyway, sooner or later. By volun
teering they get the bounty, and the choice of ship.'

‘
Well, at all events, you are spared the problem of man
ning,' Lucy said.

‘
I shall still have to take my share of quota-men, but I'll
probably sail short-handed at first. It won't matter for the
trials, and Their Lordships are anxious to have them
completed as soon as possible.'

‘
I'm astonished they are granting you time for trials at all,'
Weston grinned. 'They don't usually flinch from sending men
to sea in sinking ships. Remember the poor old
Rochester,
that fell to pieces in calm weather off Martiniqe in '91?'

‘
That reminds me,' Haworth said to Lucy. 'I was talking to
Nepean just before I walked up here, and he said that a report
has come in from Santo Domingo which will be of interest to
you.'

‘My brother William?’

Haworth bowed. The
Argus
was in a successful single-ship
action with a French seventy-four, the
Glorieux.
The French
man struck after a spirited defence, but both ships were badly
damaged, and Captain Morland had much to do to get them
to Kingston to refit.'

‘
He won't be sorry to stay there a while, I imagine,' Weston
said. 'I hear the Yellow Jack is raging all through Hispaniola.'

‘
William's had it, years ago,' Lucy said. 'But his wife and
child are in Kingston, so I expect he'll be glad to be there for
that reason. And talking of children —'

‘Yes, I had meant to bring up the subject,' Haworth said apologetically. 'The thing is, you see —'

‘No need to explain,' Lucy said firmly. 'Your girls can go to
Wolvercote and stay as long as you wish. Miss Trotton is an
excellent governess, and it can make no difference to anyone
there how many children they have to look after. They have
nothing else to do for three-fourths of the year.'

‘
It is more than generous of you, ma'am,' Haworth
said, 'and I do believe it's what Hippolyta wants more
than anything. She misses your daughter Flaminia very
much.'

‘
I always told you she would,' Lucy said, 'though I suppose
Farleigh has enjoyed having her back. How is old Farleigh?'

‘
She has not been at all well recently, and though she loves
the children dearly, I think she finds them wearing. She
wants to retire. She has family in Devon, and her savings, and
I don't feel I ought to stand in her way.'

‘
I never thought of Farleigh's having family,' Lucy said in
surprise. 'In all the years she was Mary's personal maid, I
never once heard her mention a relative.'

‘
Commonly the lot of servants, I imagine,' Weston
murmured, lifting his hands from his knees so that his cat
Jeffrey could jump up. Jeffrey turned round three times and settled, his claws clenching and unclenching in delight, his rusty purr throbbing like an engine as he flattened his head
up under Weston's hand.

‘
Well, it doesn't matter,' Lucy had continued. 'Let her go
as soon as she likes. I can send a servant down to collect the
girls, if you can't bring them yourself.'

‘
It would be helpful if you could send someone for Polly,'
Haworth began, and Lucy interrupted him.

‘Polly? You don't mention Africa.'

‘
I've seen it coming these ten minutes,' Weston said. 'Look
at that guilty expression! Let me save you the trouble of
explaining, Haworth. You want to take your younger brat to
sea with you again. How old is she now?'

‘
Nearly five. We've never been parted, you see, and the
idea upsets her dreadfully; and she's lived most of her life on shipboard. She doesn't like living on shore a bit.'

‘
But if Farleigh doesn't go with you, who will look after
her?’

The carpenter's wife is a very good sort of woman, and she's willing to do what's necessary. But Africa's such an independent child, she hardly needs looking after, and on
board ship all the men keep an eye on her.'

‘
I've heard it works both ways,' Weston said. 'She keeps an
eye on them, too.'

‘She's more useful to me in keeping discipline than the cat,'
Haworth agreed with a smile. 'The men don't even cuss when
she's around.'

‘
Well, I've nothing to say to it,' Lucy said. 'You must do as
you think fit. But I should like to know that you had plans to
attend properly to her education.’