Burning Bright (38 page)

“You will not, if he assigns me elsewhere, because I will not see you hang for mutiny,” Elinor whispered back.

“That’s not mutiny. And it’s hardly wrong, if you’re going where you’re supposed to be.”

“Stratford, I will not see you or any of
Athena
harmed on my account. The captain will find a solution, if it comes to that. But I hope I will be returning with you with Admiral Durrant’s blessing.”

They reached the entrance hall, as thronged with uniformed men as ever. A captain standing near the door noticed her, jerked in surprise, nudged his companion, and pointed surreptitiously. Conversations ceased, except for a few whispered comments as those who did not know her were enlightened by those who did. Ramsay was right; her anonymity was gone.

Elinor’s heart, which had been thumping like a rabbit fleeing the fox, sped up to flutter hummingbird-fast. Nearly twenty men in the room, and every one of them knew the truth: the Extraordinary Scorcher was a woman, and how many steps was that information to the knowledge that she was Elinor Pembroke, Josiah Pembroke’s daughter? She curtsied to them all, the merest bob, and turned on her heel, hands clutching her gown in a desperate attempt to keep them from shaking.

Her walk through the halls to the admiral’s chamber felt like a gallows march. Every man stopped what he was doing to watch her pass. She had no idea what they saw in her, because she was afraid to meet their eyes. She hoped they took her rigid silence for indifference to their attention, for aloofness, and silently prayed for the kind of calm strength of presence Ramsay always had, no matter to whom he was speaking. When she put her hand to the iron doorknob, her fingers trembled hardly at all. She took a last deep breath, turned the knob and pushed the door open.

Crawford stood by the fireplace, leaning against the mantel and looking down at the clean, empty grate. His head came up at her entrance. Durrant was nowhere to be seen.

Elinor felt the blood drain from her face in sheer surprise, and a moment of irrational terror flashed through her before common sense reasserted itself.
Crawford
ought to be afraid of
her.
Abandoning a member of his crew, even intentionally, might be passed over as the exigencies of the moment, but she now knew that the attempted murder of an Extraordinary could mean prison or even death. Crawford must be—what was Beaumont’s phrase?—
pissing his trousers
wondering what she might do.

“If you try to press the issue, you might face a fatal accident,” Ramsay had said, but the temptation to attack Crawford was so great Elinor had to press her lips together to keep from screaming accusations at him before filling the grate with his ashes.

“I am glad you are not dead,” Crawford said, too formally, his jaw clenched.

“So am I,” said Elinor, feeling her body sing with the desire to fill itself with fire.

“It was…an unfortunate mistake…that you were left behind.”

“A mistake I am certain you regret.”

Crawford nodded, a touch too vehemently. “I hope you do not bear me any ill will.”

Elinor’s eyebrows rose. She wanted to laugh at his brazen, bald-faced effrontery.
No ill will?
“I see no reason why I should, if it was an…unfortunate mistake.”

Crawford stiffened. Elinor continued, “And I am alive despite my ordeal, so I do not believe any good will come of either of us dwelling on the incident.”

Crawford now looked as if he were not certain what she was saying. Elinor smiled and came toward him, stretching out her hand and saying, “Come, Captain, we should be friends.”

Blinking in surprise, Crawford reached to take her hand, then jerked away with a curse as flames sparkled along Elinor’s fingers. She gasped in pretended shock and shook her hand, causing droplets of liquid fire to spatter Crawford’s uniform jacket. “I beg your pardon, Captain,” she said in tones of sincere apology. “Occasionally deep feeling causes me to manifest my talent unexpectedly. I
do
hope you were not injured.” She made the gemlike fire vanish and ostentatiously wiped her hand on her skirts.

Crawford brushed at the front of his jacket, now speckled with spots of char. “I…no, Pem—I mean,
Miss
Pembroke,” he said, and he sounded afraid rather than angry, which satisfied Elinor down to her core.

The door behind Crawford opened, and Durrant entered. “You’re early,” he said to Elinor, and to Crawford, “I hope you’ve made your apologies. It was all very unfortunate.”

“Yes, sir, and I believe Miss Pembroke…bears me no ill will,” Crawford said, his face absolutely still.

“Good. No sense holding a grudge, when no malice was intended,” Durrant said. Elinor was certain he knew nothing of what had actually transpired on
Glorious’
ravaged quarterdeck. So Crawford had been afraid to tell Durrant the truth, which meant he was doubly afraid Elinor might give away his secret. So long as he was more afraid of what Elinor might do to him personally, it was unlikely he would try to silence her.

“I completely agree, sir,” she said, and smiled sweetly at Crawford, who went as white as her sister Amelia once had.

“Now, Miss Pembroke, I would like to hear your account,” Durrant went on, seating himself but offering her no chair. Elinor was glad for it; standing made her feel confident, as if she had some sort of dominance over the admiral.

“Well, Admiral Durrant, I was able to swim to an—”

“No, Miss Pembroke, I was referring to the battle. I wish to know what your actions were so we can determine if you were negligent.”

Her mouth dropped open. “I, negligent?”

“You are effectively an officer and bound by the Articles of War. If you displayed cowardice, you could face court-martial.”

She wanted to burn him. She wanted to burn the room and everything in it. Cowardice? She had spent nearly all her endurance until her back wanted to split open, had saved Fortescue from the enemy Scorcher’s fire…though did that count as bravery, when he had almost certainly drowned? “I assume I am not to feel insulted by the accusation of cowardice,” she said, her voice trembling with rage.

“This is a formality,” Durrant said, his eyes giving his tongue the lie.

Elinor saw the trap. They would find her guilty, would ship her back to England—they could not afford to execute her no matter what she had or had not done—and Crawford would not be convicted in court-martial, because they would not allow her to testify against him, and she seemed to be the only one who knew the truth of how he had failed.

“I think,” she said, “and I say this with all due respect, Admiral Durrant, but I think you are not qualified to judge whether I, an Extraordinary Scorcher, performed to the best of my abilities. I can tell you I was able to ignite three thousand square-feet of fire-resistant sail and you will not realize how…extraordinary…that is. I can tell you I fought another Scorcher who shared my abilities to a standstill, and you will not know that such an action would be impossible for any of my fellow Scorchers on
Glorious
. I can recount any number of smaller events, including saving Mr. Fortescue from immolation, and you will not know whether I could have done more. So I believe, Admiral, that such questions should be deferred to someone who is my peer.”

Durrant was as white as Crawford had been. “You dare—”

“Admiral,
you
are the one who accused me of possible negligence. I should be asking you how
you
dare.”

Durrant’s eyes darted to her waist, and Elinor realized her hand was once more on fire.
How odd, that my lie to Crawford should turn out to be true.
She extinguished it and met Durrant’s eyes once more, trying to project Ramsay’s cool indifference when the fire was raging inside her begging to be freed.

With a visible effort, Durrant brought himself under control. “I take it you mean no insult,” he grated.

“No more than you did, sir. I believe we have simply misunderstood one another.”

“Indeed.” He laid his hands flat on the mirror-bright surface of the table and spread his fingers wide. “I am convinced you acted to the fullest of your capacity, Miss Pembroke. I see no need for further questions.”

“Thank you, Admiral Durrant. Now, sir, I wish to discuss with you the pirate stronghold on the island where I was shipwrecked.”

Durrant smiled at her unpleasantly. “Captain Horace relayed your claim. Do you expect me to believe a lone woman found what the entire Fleet of the Americas could not?”

It is not as if you were looking very hard for it.
Elinor wished she dared put her disdain for him into words. So he hadn’t heeded her warning, after all. “Please listen to my story,” she said instead, and recounted the details of her adventure, beginning with the arrival of the two pirates on her beach. Durrant’s expression went from disdain to surprise to a calculated cunning that worried Elinor. When she was finished, he said, “Did you see Evans?”

“I would not recognize him if I did. But I saw the captured Navy ship that attacked
Glorious
, so even were it not for the words of those two pirates, I would still conclude that this secret location is important to the Brethren.”

“It couldn’t be large enough to contain every pirate in Evans’ fleet,” Crawford said.

“It wouldn’t have to be,” Durrant said. “The pirates loyal to Evans have home ports all over the Caribbean. But the Brethren themselves, the leaders, they have to have somewhere to meet, to work out their strategies. More than one place, for them to have eluded our search for so long.”

“You’re not saying you believe this wild tale?”

“I doubt Miss Pembroke, with her inexperience in naval matters, could make up such details as she’s recounted.” Durrant glanced at Elinor with an appraising air. “It’s unfortunate her information is irrelevant.”

“I beg your pardon, Admiral, but how is that?” Elinor said, outraged.

“Don’t get testy with me, young lady. The pirates failed to capture you. You are an enemy Scorcher, therefore Evans will know his location has been compromised, and will already have moved to a new stronghold. We have no way to know where that is.”

“But…but I cannot believe…” Elinor was struck by inspiration. “Surely our Seers could use whatever he has left behind to locate him!”

Durrant waved his hand dismissively. “He’d have destroyed anything useful. There’s no point.”

“Admiral, it is certainly worth looking! There are many ships in Port Royal—one of them could visit the place and investigate. It would take very little effort.”

“It’s a waste of time, Miss Pembroke.”

“Was it a waste of time to search for me, when there was no reason to believe I lived?” The fire began to bloom along Elinor’s fingers, and she struggled to control her anger and frustration. “Admiral, think how much of an advantage this will give you if Evans has been careless. Your strategies will be even more effective, and you will know better how to direct the fleet. If nothing comes of it, you are none the worse for it, correct?”

Durrant eyed her narrowly, then sighed. “Very well, but I don’t expect we’ll find anything. Captain Horace can stop by on his way to Saint-Domingue. And I will set the Speaker reticulum to watching for unusual ship movement. Will that satisfy you?”

“I do not care about my satisfaction, only about finding the Brethren.”

“Evans is crafty,” Crawford said. “We’ve searched for him for seven years and found nothing. What makes you think this will be any more successful?”

“I have faith in the Royal Navy’s abilities,” Elinor said, “and it is possible, is it not, that Evans may make mistakes now that he has been discovered once?”

Durrant shrugged. “As you say, it’s worth investigating.” He seemed to have forgotten his earlier objection to her plan. “Now, we must decide where you will be assigned next. We have only two other fourth-rates, true—
Glorious
was a hard loss.”

“I will return to
Athena
,” Elinor said.

Durrant leaned back in his chair and clasped his hands in front of him. “You have no authority to dictate your postings, Miss Pembroke.”

“I will return to
Athena
because it is the only sensible choice, Admiral.” Her voice was calm, her hands steady, and she could feel Ramsay’s presence, hear his voice saying
You have nothing to fear
.

“Is it, now.”

“Yes, sir.” She took a step forward and clasped her hands behind her back. Her hair was beginning to fall down, but she ignored it. “You said we have few fourth-rate ships, but I do not believe a ship of that size is suited to my abilities. Most of the pirate ships are far too maneuverable for a fourth-rate to successfully engage, which means I will be almost useless because I would not be able to efficiently affect the enemy.” She clenched her hidden fists together, hoping his lack of knowledge about her talent would prevent him seeing the inconsistencies in this statement.

“Anything smaller than a frigate would not have the firepower to stand up to the larger pirate ships alone, which would mean I would effectively be the sole weapon, and that would be a waste of my talent. That leaves the Fleet’s fifth-rate frigates, and were I assigned to any of them but
Athena
, I would have to endure days or even weeks of teaching the crew not to fear me. I am known to the officers and crew of
Athena,
and we have proven how well we suit. So, Admiral, I suggest that my returning to
Athena
is the only sensible course of action.”

Crawford’s eyes narrowed. “And your attachment to its captain is irrelevant.”

Elinor’s face flushed. “It is true Captain Ramsay is my friend,” she said, “but I hope you are not implying I would compromise the Navy’s trust in me by suggesting I serve anywhere but where I will be most effective.”

Durrant pursed his lips, his tongue moving inside his mouth as if he were trying to remove a bit of food from between his teeth. “Very well,” he said. “Your logic is sound. I will send Ramsay his orders soon. And I had better not regret this.”

Elinor had to stop herself from smiling like a fool. “You will not, Admiral Durrant, I assure you that you will not.”