A Divided Command (14 page)

‘He has told us we will not be heading straight back home as we thought.’

‘And what, Rufus, do you reckon to that and how do the crew of
Larcher
feel, for it shames me to say I do not know?’

‘You would if there was discontent, John,’ Charlie opined, before he smiled.

Handsome in a fair way it changed his face, for he was a fellow who too often saw the dark side of anything and was wont to voice it. Originally Pearce had taken this amiss, struggling to get on terms with Charlie and the feeling had been mutual. But time and opportunity had led to tales of the Londoner’s early life and there was nothing there to bring cheer: no real parents, a street urchin who needed to steal to live, which made sense of his attitude – he had seen too many bad things to anticipate good.

Rufus was different; an apprentice who had run away from the bond paid to his parents and an employer he saw as exploiting him, he was innocence personified, at one time no more than an echo of Charlie, who knew so much more than he about life and its vicissitudes. It had been a pleasure to watch him grow into his own man.

‘What I am saying, I suppose, is this. I have no notion of what is going to happen next and there is a very good chance I might be stripped of
Larcher
and ordered to serve in another ship.’

‘Will you, John-boy?’

‘I don’t know, Michael, I have other considerations now than just my own person.’

‘Hotham,’ declared Rufus as the others nodded.

‘You know about that?’

‘Christ, John,’ Charlie hooted, ‘we knew he was to get the command afore he did.’

It was not true, but it was enough to lighten things and provide a shared laugh, that followed by a toast to the eavesdropping ability of tars before Pearce got solemn again.

‘But seriously, there’s no love lost between us and you and I know why. Added to what he thinks of me, he knows that you carry the truth about Barclay’s crimes and are victims of it, for it was he who suppressed your sworn affidavits. He will have the power, with Hood gone, to make your lives as well as mine a misery.’

‘And how, John-boy, do we avoid that?’

‘I can resign my position at any time, but as for you three – well, you can guess.’

‘Run.’ Pearce nodded when Charlie said that, but he was looking into faces seriously unconvinced and the same voice underlined the reason. ‘In a strange country where we don’t know the lingo.’

‘The harbour is full of privateers and you are all now prime hands.’

‘All of them likely to be boarded by the navy and searched for deserters,’ Rufus protested. ‘We would be strung up from the yardarm if caught and even service under Barclay weren’t as bad as that.’

‘Well, think on it,’ Pearce said, standing up, donning his coat and waving his hat. ‘I have kept you from your pleasures long enough.’

‘And you are eager to get to your own,’ said Charlie with a knowing grin.

‘There’s little to be had there at the moment, Charlie, for Emily is severely down and is even refusing to leave her lodgings.’

The looks demanded an explanation, and if it was dragged out of him, they heard every part of his problem.

‘And all I can do is hope to find each one on his own and give them a sound beating, all except that fellow Walcott,
who had the good sense to look troubled by the way his confrères behaved.’

‘You should have skewered Lipton through the belly not the arm, John-boy, as I said at the time.’

‘To which Charlie and I agree,’ Rufus added.

That got a wry smile. ‘Then maybe it would be me that faced the rope, Rufus, for it might have been seen as foul murder.’

‘Strikes me,’ Charlie said, ‘that you have the means to put these swabs in their place without you raise your own hand, John. There’s not a man jack aboard
Larcher
that don’t think kindly on Mrs Barclay and would take it amiss to see her distressed.’

‘Set my crew upon them?’

‘That precise,’ Charlie replied, having picked up the tone of voice, which was one of distaste. ‘If they won’t grant you the means to teach a lesson, well …’

‘No!’ Pearce replied, emphatically. ‘I may wish them ill with every fibre of my being, but I will not sink to their level.’ He tapped his head. ‘The answer lies up here, lads, and in time it will come to me.’

‘We might happen across them this night.’

Looking into Rufus’s eager face he saw what looked like the light of battle and on him it was risible. Charlie was no brawler either, but Michael was another matter and he was about to go out and very likely get seriously drunk, they all were, so it was to the Irishman that he addressed his injunction.

‘I ask you, if you encounter any of the men you saw in that glade, to stay well clear of them. This is my affair and I will deal with it.’

Charlie Taverner’s reply was crisp. ‘Aye, aye, sir.’

When he returned to rejoin Emily, John Pearce was surprised to find Matthew Dorling waiting for him and looking anxious. ‘We had a messenger from
Agamemnon
, Your Honour, and the commodore wishes you to attend upon him at your convenience.’

The serious look on the young master’s face left his captain in no doubt that ‘at your convenience’ meant immediately.

‘Commodore? Is it still Nelson in command?’

‘He is, sir, and he has been given his pennant by Lord Hood, which means he has overall command of the frigates with which Old Aggie came in.’

The King’s Navy was well known for its peremptory way of demanding that folk shift themselves; orders were usually accompanied by the addendum that anything one was commanded to do was to be carried out with all despatch and Pearce, when he had later examined that footnote, had soon come to the conclusion that it was rarely required, as useless as the other addition, which
was that to delay was ever accompanied by the words ‘at your peril’.

He could not obey the injunction without first determining if Emily was in a better frame of mind. Not that he would be able to say much to reassure her that it was safe to walk the streets of Leghorn without her being subjected to another bout of public humiliation, certainly not without him on her arm to offer a modicum of protection. Even that was in doubt after his encounter at the Pensione: if there were enough of those redcoats in a group he might find himself involved in fisticuffs with the odds against him.

‘You have a boat?’

‘Ready and waiting by the quayside, Your Honour.’

‘Oblige me, Mr Dorling, by going back to that and waiting. I promise I will not be too long.’

That brought on a frown. ‘Am I allowed to advise, sir, that such a course would be unwise?’

‘You are,’ Pearce replied in a tone that was, while not unfriendly, decidedly firm, ‘but not more than that. I will be along presently, and think on this: Captain Nelson, commodore notwithstanding, is no martinet, so a delay of a few bells is unlikely to cause him upset.’

The Emily he encountered once Dorling had been dismissed was no longer the tearful creature he had left earlier, that made obvious by the face she pulled when he admonished her to not go abroad alone. Yet Pearce missed it completely, so absorbed was he in what he thought was a good solution.

‘If I cannot be present myself, I will detail Michael to accompany you. I challenge anyone to insult you with him at your side.’

‘So I am to be trapped within these walls without I have an escort?’

The pitch of that was unmistakable and it was picked up; it was one of admonishment and Pearce made matters worse by his slightly irate comment that he was only trying to protect her.

‘I refuse to be a prisoner, John, and I will not let those worms dictate the way I go about my day.’

‘What I suggest is only for a few days. They are soldiers on furlough and surely must soon return to their duties.’

If Pearce had always admired Emily’s pluck – she had stood up to her bullying husband and risked everything by eloping with him – what followed was an indication of the way their relationship had matured. Whereas before he had seen courage, he now observed stubbornness. Her face was closed up and determined and the look of which he was on the receiving end boded ill.

‘Sure they will depart, to no doubt be replaced by another set of ill-bred scoundrels!’

‘Emily, I am trying to look after you.’

‘And I am telling you, John Pearce, that I do not want your protection. If I have chosen a way of life that is less than perfect I will not make it more so by hiding my face from the outside world. Or would you have me enter a nunnery?’

Her manner had turned bitter and he sought to mollify her. ‘You have a right to regret the life you have chosen—’

‘Right?’ she shouted, cutting right across him. ‘Am I to be told what I can and cannot do, that I am but a chattel, as I was as a wife?’

It was now his turn to sound cross, given he felt he was being deliberately misunderstood. ‘That is not what I meant and you know it.’

‘Do I?’ Emily scoffed. ‘Sometimes I have no idea of what it is you mean. You think it is as nothing to lie to me and go and put your life at risk. Did it ever occur to you how I would feel if I was brought news of your death, stuck here in this Italian hellhole at the mercy of every wagging tongue that spoke English—’

‘Emily—’

Pearce got no further; she was in a passion and was not prepared to listen to what she obviously saw as his excuses.

‘And who told the world of my estate, who made it common knowledge that I am a woman fallen from the required standard, laid so low in the public imagination that any Tom, Dick or Harry feels free to abuse me?’

‘I left you a letter …’

‘A letter!’

‘And everything I possessed, with a statement of my love for you.’

The voice dropped now and he knew she was once more close to tears, which made him feel utterly useless.

‘That would have kept me warm, John, would it? Your dying protestations of love. How reassuring to be cast into outer darkness and have that as comfort.’

He was at a stand, sure that nothing he could say would resolve matters; his solution was not brave, but it was better than to continue in an argument he could not win. And how alike it was to that which had happened to him earlier in the day.

‘I am commanded to go aboard
HMS Agamemnon
. You may have seen her enter the roads and anchor this morning. Nelson has been made a commodore, and even if he were not I must obey, his being so much my senior.’

‘Nelson,’ Emily replied with some distaste.

Pearce had no idea he was not her favourite officer. She had attended a ball at Sheerness without her husband – he had been away pressing at the Pelican – and greatly enjoyed her evening, being by nature vivacious: dancing, drinking punch and laughing at the sallies of the naval officers present.

This was a fact that Nelson passed on to Ralph Barclay in a way that made her sound more like a scapegrace than an innocent, for which she had been severely chastised by a spouse who was both jealous and careful of his dignity. To Emily, Horatio Nelson was no more than a sneak.

‘Anyway, I must be off, I have kept him waiting as it is.’

‘Of course, John, do hurry away and do not concern yourself with me.’

He was still seething with the unfairness of that parting shot when he got to the waiting boat. The generally benign looks that greeted him got a glare in return and a sharp command to ‘Look lively and bear away’.

Michael and Charlie had taken their carnal pleasure almost as soon as they arrived in the drinking den and were now in the process of imbibing away all the coin they had about them. Rufus had so far avoided the ladies – a loose term certainly – and was far from in a jolly mood, feeling out of place in a low-ceilinged, barred-windowed establishment that was designed to ensure that the difference between night and day was impossible to discern.

His upbringing, if not deeply religious, had been churchgoing enough to imbue in him the need for chastity; in addition Rufus was shy and lacking experience, whereas Charlie and Michael were not, and he felt out of place amongst
the noise and excesses. So while he drank, his consumption was much more sparing than that of his companions and no amount of joshing by them would bring him out of his shell.

The place was busy, the taproom and the whores of all ages and shapes doing sound business. It was full of sailors from
Agamemnon
, the frigates
Dolphin
,
Lutine
and the newly crewed Frenchman
Melpomene
. Not too many ordinary hands from the frigates had been let ashore, only the trusted ranks who could be relied upon to return, but Nelson had let a goodly number out of his sixty-four and they made up the majority.

The whole place and the raucous atmosphere, as well as the serious crowding, went up several notches when the midshipmen of the flotilla came to join their lower-rank colleagues. In age they were little different to their fellow tars but the mids of the King’s Navy had a reputation for causing mayhem of which they were inordinately proud. The owner, no stranger to the depredations of such creatures, sent out into the public area a number of burly looking coves with barely concealed clubs.

Charlie was in his element; he loved the chance to engage with and josh his fellow humans and he could tell a tale better than most and now he had an audience known to be credulous, and if not that, deeply superstitious. If they were not completely stupid, they were happy enough to be spun a yarn without ever interrupting to point up the improbabilities of Charlie’s story: that he was the foundling son of a man of great means, a titled fellow, fallen on hard times, so that instead of enjoying his coach and four as well as the attentions of his servants, Charlie had been obliged to make his own way in the world.

When pressed as to how, he had quick and well-rehearsed answers, for it was a variation on a tale he had told many times as he sought, in places like Covent Garden and Seven Dials, to dun innocents – he called it guiding them – bumpkins who had come wide-eyed to the Great Wen of London, only for them and their bulging purse to fall into the maw of a man who could show them how to spend their coin. Soon, with his fiction taking ever more improbable paths, Charlie had his audience in stitches.

Michael had started singing – wild dancing was sure to follow, then it was possible he would become upset and fists would fly, this caused by some remark he would deem as innocent were he sober – and since some of his fellow imbibers were Irish too, there was much in the way of sentimental ballads in his native tongue. All the while Rufus sipped away and wondered if it was yet dark outside, for he doubted his companions would be keen to meet the strictures set by John Pearce and return aboard
Larcher
before penury forced them to.

Barely listening to Charlie, there not being a tale he had not heard before, he did not realise his friend had moved on from his fictions to the nature of Rufus himself. So he did not hear Charlie tell the Agamemnons that his young freckled friend had yet to lie with a woman and was too shy to do so, even if he had the means in his poke to fund the purpose. To men who had taken their pleasures in every port they visited, and many of whom were the same age or even younger than Rufus, to say such a state of affairs was a red rag to a bull could be taken as an understatement.

If he was aware of the growing level of noise Rufus had no idea of the cause and when he caught, out of the corner
of his eye, the coins being tossed into the centre of the table, he assumed it to be some form of wager of which he was not part. The men who grabbed him were unknown to Rufus and had moved without threat so he was unprepared to fend off the half-dozen eager hands. The youngster found himself lifted bodily and just had a sight of a grinning Charlie Taverner as he was borne aloft to the staircase that led up to the cubicles where the whores plied their trade.

His protests were loud but ignored, as ahead of him one of the less ugly ladies, in addition a person close to his own age, was engaged to initiate Rufus into the ways of the world, to take the boy they brought with them and return him a man. To ensure he would not emerge unreformed they took the trouble to remove his ducks, which showed that if he was mentally reluctant, his body held a contrary opinion.

Thrown into the room and on to the cot, with the rickety door left open so they could see that their coin was well spent, his aggressors watched while a girl who knew her trade overcame what were feeble protests. She straddled Rufus, whose facial expressions went from objection, through wonder, to anticipation, then exhilaration, finally settling on what looked like disbelief, the whole short act, for it would not have troubled a clock, accompanied by loud cheering from his supporters, who, having thrown in his breeches, trooped noisily back down the stairs.

When he came down the stairs it was with such a smile, that it was remarked no angel ever looked more beatific.

It was flattering that Nelson came to welcome John Pearce personally and his greeting was full of good cheer.

‘Mr Pearce, I have orders for you from Lord Hood.’ That
such news was not responded to with equal enthusiasm threw Nelson slightly and he looked up at his visitor, his startlingly blue eyes confused. ‘I do assure you they are of a pleasant nature.’

‘Would I be permitted, sir, to say if that is the case, it is a novel one to my mind?’

Nelson shrugged and gave a sly grin. ‘Needless to say, I have heard of some of your exploits and have been rendered envious.’

‘I would have given way to you at any time, Captain Nelson, I do assure you, for my “exploits”, as you call them, came about more by coercion than any desire on my part.’

‘Your modesty does you credit.’

Pearce was about to protest that he was telling the truth, there was no modesty involved, but he thought better of it: to do so would be a waste of time with such an enthusiast as Nelson, so instead he apologised for being tardy.

‘I was ashore when I received your message.’

‘As are most of my officers as well as a goodly number of my crew, and no doubt they are setting the whole town by its ears. It is one of the constraints of command that such pleasures are barred to us, though I recall fondly some of my own youth. But I am glad you have come aboard at this hour, for you can dine with me, that is if you do not have a previous engagement.’

‘Of course.’

‘Good, for we have matters to discuss.’

Pearce had a vision of Emily then, not the irate one he had so recently left, but a more benign apparition. Was Nelson about to refer to their liaison? Time to deflect even the chance of that.

‘My orders are, sir?’

‘To proceed once more to Naples with despatches for Sir William Hamilton.’

The conversation had taken them from the entry port to Nelson’s cabin, a large space reasonably, if not grandly appointed and there was a servant waiting to take an order that some wine should be fetched. As he went to carry out this instruction Pearce was sure he staggered which, given
Agamemnon
was at anchor on a relatively swell-free sea, was remarkable. Nelson obviously picked up on his expression, which caused him to speak very softly.