The Emperor (79 page)

‘
My dear brother, I know all about small boats and sea
breezes, and I assure you I wouldn't miss seeing you taking
up your first command for the world.’

Harry shifted uncomfortably. 'Aye, but look here, Luce,
what will they think if I turn up with a woman in tow?
They'll think I'm tied to your apron strings. It will look
damned odd.'

‘
Nonsense,' Lucy said serenely. 'I promise you the
officers of the
Semele
will know perfectly well why I am
there. Worry about that if you want to worry about any
thing. Now come along. I've had a chaise and pair waiting
these ten minutes, while you preened yourself before the
mirror. Docwra, have your dinner! I will send word if I am
to be late.’

*

It was almost dark by the time they reached the ship. She hung a darker grey bulk between the colourless masses of
the sea and the sky, snubbing herself restlessly against her
anchor on the choppy swell. She was already shewing her
riding lights, and as they rounded the stern, someone lit the
lamps in the captain's cabin, and suddenly her stern
windows were a row of yellow jewels dancing in the grey
half-light.

The lookout hailed them. 'Boat, there!'

‘Aye aye!' the oarsman hailed back; and then there was a
muffled cry and a flurry of activity which told Lucy that
someone had recognized her. By the time she reached the
quarter-deck, Weston and his officers were assembled to greet them. Hats were touched, hands were shaken, intro
ductions made, but Lucy saw only Weston's face, and his
eyes devouring her, and the astonished delight of his smile.
Her hand tingled from the pressure of his, and from the light
brush of his lips against it, which was all that, with respect
for naval discipline, he could allow himself by way of touch
ing her.

‘
I had not thought to see you so soon,' Weston said,
looking at Harry but really addressing Lucy.

‘
I hoped you wouldn't mind, sir,' Harry said. 'I didn't
want to waste a minute in taking over my command. After
all — '

‘
I understand perfectly,' Weston grinned. 'I felt the same
way. Come to my cabin, and I'll tell you all about her, while
Bates packs my dunnage.’

Harry blushed. 'I don't want you to think I'm trying to
hurry you away,' he stammered.

‘
Don't give it a thought, my dear fellow,' Weston said,
leading the way. 'I assure you I am perfectly happy to hand
her over to you at once and go ashore.' He met Lucy's eyes
again, and an irresistible smile came to the lips of both.

‘
Have you dined?' he asked her softly. She shook her head,
her eyes glowing with delight simply at being near him
again. 'Then we shall dine on shore, if it pleases you, my
lady.’

In the day-cabin that Lucy remembered so well, she sat
on the long window-seat and renewed acquaintance with the
ecstatic Jeffrey while Bates received his orders.

‘
Put my immediate necessities in a cloak-bag,' Weston told him, 'and I'll take that with me. You can pack every
thing else in my trunk and follow on with it. I'll make
arrangements with Mr Morland about my furniture.' He
turned to Harry with a smile. 'I dare say you have not had
time yet to think about cabin furniture? I shall be happy to
allow you to use mine for a day or two, until you have had
time to go ashore and buy your own. Now then, these are
the watch bills and the station bills — ‘

Lucy listened with half her attention as Weston gave
Harry useful information about the way the ship handled,
and about the qualities and foibles of the officers and men,
and admired his patience, when she knew perfectly well that all he wanted to do was to get to some private place with her
so that they could touch each other. At the end of an hour
Weston was ready to leave, Jeffrey was forced, spitting
furiously, into his basket, and Bates took him and the cloak-
bag to the boat while Weston ordered all hands, his last act
as captain of the
Semele.

When the hands had assembled in the waist, Harry,
standing at the rail, read himself in in a voice that barely
trembled with excitement. Then the hands were dismissed, the officers not on duty touched their hats and retired, and Lucy embraced the newest captain in the King's Navy and
whispered, 'You did chat
beautifully,
Hal! One would think
you'd done it a hundred times!’

Weston grinned and shook hands, and said, ‘If there's
anything you want to ask me, don't hesitate to send word.'
He glanced at Lucy. 'I dare say you'll know where to find
me.'

‘
And do let us know when you are coming ashore,
Harry,' Lucy said. 'Perhaps you will dine with us in a day or
two. when
^y
ou are settled in?'

‘
Your dunnage is in the boat, sir,' mentioned a midship
man at Weston's elbow.

‘
Thank you, Mr Wells. Well, goodbye, then, for the
present, Captain.'

‘Goodbye, sir. Thank you,' said Harry.

A few moments later Lucy and Weston were in the stern-
sheets of the shore-boat, with Jeffrey howling mutedly in his
basket between their feet, the big warm bulk of the
Semele
growing smaller behind them, and the cold black eternity of
the sea opening around them. Lucy shivered a little, and Weston's warm hand crept under her cloak and captured
her.

‘
There are the lights of the shore, look,' he said, knowing,
as he so often seemed to, what was in her mind. She fixed
her eyes on them, and spoke in a normal voice.

‘
I'd never seen that done before. It's a solemn thing, isn't
it?'

‘
Reading in a new captain? Most solemn. Harry will
never forget it. And for me — from captain to passenger in a
matter of minutes! Satan took longer than that to tumble
from Heaven.’

Lucy looked at him cautiously. 'But you will have your
new ship as soon as she comes in,' she said. Weston pressed
her hand and grinned.

‘
Long may she be delayed! I am in the best of positions,
my lady, don't you know that? I have shore leave, but
without the misery of doubt as to whether I will get another
commission. I can be with you all day and every day until
the
Thames
makes harbour, and I don't even have to get
special permission to sleep out of my ship!’

Lucy thought of the rooms she had taken at the Golden
Lion, of the private sitting-room where they could have
their dinner alone together, with Jeffrey stretched out
luxuriously before the first fire he would have seen in two
years. She thought of the big bed and the night to come, and
the bliss of being able to wrap herself unreservedly in
Weston's arms; and all the other days and nights to come, at
least two weeks of them, perhaps four or even six, when
they could be together and do exactly as they pleased, until
duty and the
Thames
called him away again. She was so happy she felt as though she might burst. ‘Well, that's all right then,' she replied.

*

After only a brief discussion, Weston and Lucy decided to
remain at the Golden Lion. It didn't matter much to either of them where they stayed, as long as they were together.
Their rooms there were comfortable, and the landlord, in
view of Lucy's liberality with her purse, raised no objection
to the addition of Weston and Bates to her entourage.

Their time together was longer even than they had
expected, for contrary winds delayed the
Thames
in the
Channel, and she did not reach Spithead until the middle of
February. After a long commission and a difficult voyage
home, she was in need of extensive refitting, and had to go
immediately up to the dockyard where she spent a week in
dry dock. When she was returned to her moorings, Weston
had too much to do to sleep ashore, but it was another two
weeks before she was ready to go to sea, and Lucy took up residence in the captain's quarters, which she found a little
more commodious than on board the
Semele.

A great many things happened during those weeks they
spent together. Prime Minister Pitt, pushed to the wall over
the Catholic Relief Bill, felt obliged to stand by his
principles and resign, and the King chose Henry Addington
to replace him. Addington had been the Speaker of the
House of Commons since the beginning of the war, and
though a quiet man of modest abilities, he was known to be
honest, reliable, and a staunch churchman, which the
harrassed King, at that moment, was likely to value most of
all.

Only a week later, the King, perhaps because of the strain
he had been under, fell ill, and began to shew symptoms
alarmingly reminiscent of those he had displayed back in
'88.

On the naval front, the
London Gazette
had announced
that Lord Nelson had been promoted to Vice-Admiral of
the Blue, and was to return in the
San Josef
to the Mediter
ranean as second in command to Sir Hyde Parker. The
Austrians had signed the treaty of Luneville, making peace
with the French, and a strong presence in the Mediterranean
was more than necessary.

‘
On the other hand,' Weston said to Lucy as they break
fasted together — a source of unfailing delight to Lucy, who
could not conceive how poets had failed to remark that ham and eggs and requited love were perfect foils for each other
— 'I shall be astonished if Their Lordships do not put
together a squadron to go to the Baltic. If we can't persuade the Armed Neutrality to disband itself, we shall be properly
in the suds.’

His guess proved correct, for at the beginning of
February the news filtered back that Sir Hyde Parker was to
take his squadron into the Baltic instead of the Mediter
ranean, with Nelson still his second in command, but in the
St George
instead of the
San Josef

‘
So if the
Thames
comes in before they sail, I suppose I
shall be attached to them,' Weston said. 'The Baltic at this time of year would not be my choice. Let's hope the winds
blow contrary for the
Thames
for a good few weeks yet.'

‘
But if they have their orders, won't they sail at once?'
Lucy asked.

‘
Oh no, there will be plenty to do before they weigh
anchor,' said Weston, and added with a grin, 'besides,
Parker has a new young wife, and he won't be in any hurry
to leave her behind.’

Lucy was intrigued by the rumour which Docwra brought
to her that Lady Hamilton's figure had undergone a sudden
and marked reduction. 'Twins, they say, my lady, though I
set no store by that. There's some people as'd say anything! Herself was up and about again in no time, as she'd need to
be, if she was to pretend there was nothing amiss; and they
say Lord Nelson's as thrilled as a lark.’

By the end of February, the King's condition had
deteriorated so far that there was some fear that he would
die. It was confirmed that his illness was the same flying
gout which had caused his bout of madness back in '88. He
was confined in the care of the Willises, who had been his
gaolers on the previous occasion, and there was much
speculation as to whether a Regency would be necessary.

On the ninth of March Weston reported his ship ready
for sea, and was ordered to take her up to Yarmouth Roads
to join the Baltic squadron. Lucy sailed with Weston and they arrived to find preparations for sea going ahead at a
leisurely pace, and a grand farewell ball arranged by
Admiral Parker for the thirteenth.

Weston, like the Admiral, was perfectly happy with that
plan, but it soon appeared that Vice-Admiral Nelson was
not. He wrote a letter of complaint about the delay to
Troubridge, who passed it on to St Vincent. St Vincent sent
orders to Parker that he should sail the moment the wind
served. The ball was cancelled, and on the twelfth of March Lucy found herself ashore again, watching the fleet sail out
into the grey choppy waters of the Channel. She watched
until even she could not believe there was anything more to see on the murk of the horizon, and then turned away to the
comfort of Docwra's sympathy, who handed her a clean
handkerchief and chose to pretend that her mistress's
streaming eyes were caused by the sharp wind.