Empire of Ivory (18 page)

me at sixes and sevens," Laurence said, beckoning to the

servants, who had not yet brought him any refreshment. "We

are leaving port tomorrow-a glass of wine?"

"Only a cup of tea, I thank you," Erasmus said. "Captain, I

knew as much; I hope you will forgive me for descending on

you at such a time, without notice. I was with Mr.

Wilberforce this morning, when your letter of apology

arrived, informing him you were bound for Africa: and I

have come to beg you for passage."

Laurence was silent. He had every right, as a point of

etiquette, to invite some number of guests; this being the

prerogative of dragon captains aboard a transport as much

as that of the captain of the ship herself. But the

situation was not a simple one, for they would travel on

the Allegiance, under a captain, who though one of

Laurence's dearest friends, and indeed his former first

officer, owed no small portion of his fortune to his

family's substantial plantations in the West Indies, manned

by slaves. Erasmus himself, Laurence realized with a

sinking feeling, might even once have toiled in their very

fields: he believed some of Riley's father's holdings were

in Jamaica.

Aside from all the discomfort which any strong difference

of politics among shipmates might ordinarily engender, in

the close quarters of a journey, Laurence had on previous

occasions failed to conceal his sentiments towards the

practice, and some ill-feeling had unhappily resulted. To

now inflict upon Riley a passenger whose very presence

would seem a silent and unanswerable continuation of their

argument, had the look of a calculated insult.

"Sir," Laurence said slowly, "I believe you said you had

been taken from Louanda? We are bound for Capetown, far to

the south. It will not be your own nation."

"Beggars cannot be choosers, Captain," Erasmus said simply,

"and I have only been praying for passage to Africa. If God

has opened a path for me that leads to Capetown, I will not

refuse it."

He made no further appeal, but only sat expectantly, his

dark eyes leveled steadily across the table. "Then I am at

your service, Reverend," Laurence said, as of course he had

to, "if you can only manage to be ready in time; we cannot

miss the tide."

"Thank you, Captain." Erasmus rose and shook his hand

vigorously. "Have no fear: in hopes of your consent, my

wife has already been making our arrangements, and by now

will already herself be on the road with all our worldly

substance; there is not much of it," he added.

"Then I will hope to see you tomorrow morning," Laurence

said, "in Dover harbor."

The Allegiance stood waiting for them in the cold sunny

morning, looking oddly squat with her masts stubby and

bare, the topmasts and yards laid out upon the deck, and

the enormous chains of her best bower and kedge anchors

stretching out from the water, groaning softly as she

rocked on the swell. She had come into harbor some four

weeks earlier, Laurence and Temeraire having reached

England, in the end, scarcely any sooner than their ocean

passage would have brought them, if they had sailed home

with the Allegiance after all.

"You may not complain of your delays; I am too happy to

find you alive and well and not skeletons in some Himalayan

pass," Riley said, shaking his hand eagerly in welcome,

nearly before Laurence had stepped off Temeraire's back.

"And you brought us home a fire-breather, after all. Yes, I

could scarcely help but hear of her; the Navy is bursting

with the news, and I believe the ships on blockade take it

in turn to go past Guernsey and watch her flaming away at

that old rock heap through their glasses.

"But I am very happy we shall make shipmates again now," he

continued, "and though you will be more crowded, I hope we

will make shift to see you all comfortable; you are a party

of seven this time?"

He spoke with so much earnest friendliness and concern that

Laurence was stricken with a sense of dishonesty and said

abruptly, "Yes, we are a full complement; and Captain, I

must tell you, I have brought a passenger along, with his

family. He is a missionary, bound for the Cape, and applied

to me only yesterday afternoon-he is a freedman."

He regretted his words as soon as he had spoken; he had

meant to make the introduction more gently, and was

conscious that he had let guilt make him clumsy and

indelicate. Riley was silent. "I am sorry I could not give

you more warning," Laurence added, in an attempt to make

apology.

"I see," Riley said only, "-of course you may invite anyone

whom you wish," very shortly, and touching his hat went

away without further conversation.

He made no pretense of courtesy to Reverend Erasmus when

that gentleman came aboard a little later that morning,

neglecting even a greeting, which would have offended

Laurence on the part of any guest, much less a man of the

cloth; but when he saw the minister's wife left sitting in

the small and poky boat which had been sent for them, with

her two small children, and no offer made to rig a bosun's

chair over the side to bring them aboard, he had had

enough.

"Ma'am," he said, leaning over the side, "pray be easy, and

only keep hold of the children; we will have you aboard in

a moment. I beg you will not be alarmed," and straightening

said, "Temeraire, will you lift that boat up, if you

please, so the lady may come aboard."

"Oh, certainly, and I will be very careful," Temeraire

said, and leaning over the side of the ship-well-balanced,

to her other side, by Maximus, still prodigious in weight

despite his reduced state-he seized the boat carefully in

one enormous forehand, and plucked it dripping from the

water. The boat's crew were loud in their protestations of

alarm, while the two little girls clung to their stoicfaced mother, who did not permit herself to look at all

anxious; the entire operation scarcely covered the space of

a moment, and then Temeraire was setting the boat upon the

dragondeck.

Laurence offered his hand to Mrs. Erasmus: she silently

accepted, and having climbed down, reached in herself to

lift out the children, one after another, and then her own

portmanteau and satchel. She was a tall, stern-faced woman,

more substantial in build and considerably darker of skin

than her husband, with her hair pinned severely down under

a plain white kerchief. Her two small daughters, in

perfectly white pinafores, having been admonished briefly

to stay quiet and out of the way, clutched each other's

hands tightly.

"Roland, perhaps you will see our guests to their cabin,"

Laurence said to Emily quietly, hoping her presence might

comfort them. To his regret, it was time to give over any

attempt to conceal her sex. The progression of a year and

more having its natural consequences upon her figure, which

bid fair to take after her mother's, it would soon be quite

impossible anyone should be deceived, and he must

henceforth simply brazen out any challenge, hoping for the

best; thankfully, in the present case, it could not signify

what the Erasmuses should think of her, or the Corps, as

they were to be left securely behind in Africa.

"There is nothing to be afraid of," Emily informed the

girls blithely as she led them away, seeing their stares,

"at least, not the dragons; although we had some terrific

storms on our last sea-voyage," which left them as easy in

their minds as they had been; they looked very meek as they

followed her below to their quarters.

Laurence turned back to Lieutenant Franks, commanding the

boat's crew, who had gone silent, having been set down

amidst seven dragons, even if these were mostly sleeping.

"I am sure Temeraire would be happy to put the boat back in

her traces," he said, but when that young man only

stammered miserably, a pang of guilt made him add, "but

perhaps you have another return to make," and on Franks's

relieved assent, had Temeraire set the boat back down into

the water.

He then went himself below, to his cabin, much reduced from

the previous voyage, as the space was now divided with six

other captains; but he had been given a forward room, with

a share of the bow windows, and it was better than many a

cabin he had endured in the Navy. He did not have to wait

long; Riley came and knocked-unnecessarily, as the door was

standing open-and begged the favor of a word.

"That will do, Mr. Dyer," Laurence said, to the young

runner presently ordering his things, "pray go see if

Temeraire needs anything, then you may attend to your

lessons," as he wanted no audience.

The door was shut; Riley began stiffly, "I hope you are

settled to your satisfaction."

"-I am." Laurence did not mean to begin the quarrel; if

Riley wished to stand upon the point, he might do so.

"Then I am sorry to say," Riley said, not looking very

sorry, only pale with anger, "I am very sorry to say, that

I have received a report, which I could scarcely credit, if

I had not seen with my own eyes-"

He was not speaking loudly, yet; the door swung open in the

middle of his sentence, and Catherine Harcourt looked in.

"Pray forgive me," she said, "but I have been trying to

find you these twenty minutes, Captain Riley; this ship is

too damned large. Not that I mean to complain of her in the

least, of course: we are very obliged to you indeed for our

passage."

Riley stammered a vague polite reply, staring very fixedly

at the top of her head. He had not known her for a woman at

the time of their first meeting, which had encompassed

little more than a day, and that the day after a battle.

Catherine was of a slimmer stature than Jane, and with her

hair pulled back snugly in her customary plait, her wide

pleasant face with its snub nose freckled and brown with

sun and wind, she might more easily be mistaken by the

unsuspecting. But the general secret had slipped out during

their previous voyage to China, and Riley had been very

much shocked and disapproving at the intelligence.

"And I hope you are comfortably-that your cabin-" he said

now, at a loss for the form of address.

"Oh, my bags are stowed; I suppose I will find them

sometime," Harcourt said briskly, either unconscious or

deliberately blind to Riley's awkward constraint. "That

makes no nevermind; it is these tubs of oiled sand, for

Lily to rest her head upon. I am very sorry to have to

trouble you, but we are quite at a loss where they are to

be stowed: we must have them near the dragondeck, in case

she should have a fit of sneezing and we must change them

out quick."

As the acid of a Longwing was perfectly capable, unchecked,

of eating through an entire ship straight down to the hull

and sinking her, this topic naturally engaged all the

interest which could be imagined, of the ship's captain,

and Riley answered her with energy, his discomfort

forgotten in the practical concern. They settled it that

the tubs should be stored in the galley, directly below the

dragondeck, and this decided, Catherine nodded and thanked

him, adding, "Will you dine with us to-night?"-an

inconvenient friendliness, but of course her prerogative:

to make a technical point of the matter, she was Laurence's

superior officer, as formally their assignment remained to

form a part of Lily's formation, although Temeraire had

operated under independent orders now for so long that

Laurence himself scarcely remembered the fact.

But it was delivered informally, at least, so it did not

seem offensive when Riley said, "I thank you, but I must be

on deck to-night, I am afraid," a polite excuse, which she

accepted on its face, and nodding her farewells left him

alone with Laurence once again.

It was awkward to resume, with the first natural impulse of

anger thus blunted, but with a will they rose to the

occasion, and after only a few more moderate exchanges,

Riley's "And I hope, sir, that I need never again see the

ship's crew or her boats subjected to, I am sorry to call

it so, outright interference, under not only the permission

but the encouragement-" progressed very neatly to

Laurence's reply,

"And for my part, Captain Riley, I would be glad to never

again be witness to such a positive disdain not only for

all the generally understood requirements of courtesy, but

for the very safety of her passengers, from the crew of one

of His Majesty's vessels-I will not say deliberate insult-"

They were soon in such fine form as might be expected from

two men both in the habit of command, and of full voice,

whose former acquaintance made it no difficulty to touch

upon such subjects as might provoke the most dramatic

reaction. "You cannot claim," Riley said, "not to have a