Bolitho replied vaguely, 'I was not expecting you.'
He watched the girl as she walked to one of the windows. She was wearing a loose white dress, and her rich chestnut hair hung across her shoulders untied and unchecked.
As the others left the room she said quietly, 'You are welcome, Captain.' Her eyes dropped to his empty sleeve. 'I heard from my brother what happened. It must have been horrible.'
Bolitho felt strained. 'He did well, Miss Seton. His own wound was bad enough, even for a seasoned man.'
She did not seem to hear. 'When I -saw him with his bandaged arm I think I nearly hated you. He's such a boy. He was never meant for this sort of life.' Her eyes flashed in the sunlight and seemed to match the green water below the headland. 'I suppose that is quite natural. But as I listened to him I came to realise that he is changed. Oh how he is changed!' She looked directly into Bolitho's face. 'And all he can talk about is you, did you know that?'
Bolitho did not know what to say. All his carefully rehearsed words had flown as soon as she had entered the room. He said clumsily, 'That, too, is natural. When I was his age I thought much the same of my captain.'
She smiled for the first time. 'I am glad that you at least have not changed, Captain. Sometimes in the cool of an evening I walk along the rampart and think back to that voyage from Gibraltar.' Her eyes were distant. 'I can even smell the ship and hear the thunder of those terrible guns.'
'And now I have come to take you to St. Clar.' The words seemed to stick in his throat. `But I imagine you were expecting a ship?'
'A ship, yes.' She nodded, the movement of her hair and neck bringing a fresh ache to Bolitho's heart. `But not your ship, Captain.' She stared up at him, her hands clenched. 'Were you ordered to come for me?'
'Aye. It was your, I mean, Sir Edmund's wish.'
She looked away. 'I am sorry it had to be you. I thought we would never meet again, you and I.'
'I know.' He could no longer hide his bitterness. 'I expect that I will be there too when you become Lady Pomfret!'
She stepped back, her face flushing beneath her tan. 'Do you despise me then, Captain? Does your pride never allow you to make a mistake or do anything to spoil your sense of duty?' She held up her hand. 'Do not answer! It is plain on your face what you think!'
Bolitho said quietly, 'I could never despise you. What you do is your choice. I am one of Sir Edmund's officers. -I could have been anyone.'
She ran her hand across her face to brush away a loose hair, the gesture both familiar and painful. 'Well, let me tell you something, Captain. When my mother died in the uprising in Jamaica things were bad enough. But shortly afterwards. there was a great storm when many ships were lost. Among them were two owned by my father. The rioters had destroyed most of our crops and all the buildings. My father needed those two ships to reach England with our last full cargo, you understand? He needed them!'
Bolitho watched her anger and despair with growing helplessness. 'I heard of that storm.'
'It ruined my father! And with my mother gone his health gave way completely. Sir Edmund came to Jamaica with his ship to crush the rising. He did not have to help us, but he never hesitated. He paid our passage back to Fngland and covered my father's debts. We could never repay him, because my father's mind became as sick as his body.' She gestured helplessly. 'We were even allowed to use his town house as our own, and Sir Edmund paid for Rupert's education and encouraged him to go to sea in a King's ship, your ship, Captain.'
'I am sorry.' Bolitho wanted to reach out and touch her, but his limbs felt like stone.
She stared at him searchingly. 'Look at me, Captain. I am twenty-six years old. With Rupert at sea I am completely alone now. I know Sir Edmund does not love me, but he needs me as a wife. I owe him that at least!'
Bolitho said, 'The years pass, and then suddenly you feel that something has escaped you…' He broke off as she took a step towards him, her face both shocked and hurt.
'I told you, Captain, I am twenty-six already. That does not mean I have to throw my body to the first man who asks! Sir Edmund needs me and that is enough, it has to be.'
Bolitho looked at the floor. 'I was speaking of myself, not of you!' He did not dare to face her until he had finished. Then he would leave. 'I am ten years older than you, and up to our first meeting I never regretted anything. My home is in Cornwall, even the land itself was just an interval in time. Somewhere to have roots, but not to stay.' He waited for a sudden outburst but she remained silent. 'I cannot offer you the fine living of London and Sir Edmund's way of life, but I can offer you… '
His voice trailed away as she asked quietly, 'What can you offer me, Captain?'
He raised his head and saw her standing very erect, her face in shadow. Only the quick rise and fall of her breasts showed either emotion or anger.
He kept his voice level. 'I can offer you my love. I do not expect it to be returned in the same way, but if you will give me the chance, just the chance, I will try and make you happy and give you the peace you rightly deserve.' He was aware of the great silence around the room, the indistinct sounds of lapping water beyond the windows. Above all the painful beating of his heart.
Then she said, 'I must have time to think.' She walked quickly to a window, hiding her face from him. 'Do you really know what you are doing, Captain? What it could meant
'I only know what you mean to me. Whatever you decide, nothing can or will ever change that.' He saw her shoulders quiver and added quietly, 'I would tell Sir Edmund if you decided. '
She shook her head. 'No. I must decide.' Then almost distantly she added, 'Sir Edmund can be a hard man. It might go badly for you.'
Bolitho's heart gave a quick leap. Then you think, I mean, you really believe you might…?'
She turned and then laid her hands on his shoulders, her eyes shining so that they seemed to fill her face. 'Was there ever any doubt? But as he made to hold her with his sound arm she stepped away, her hands held up to his chest. `Please! Not now! Just leave me alone to think.'
Bolitho stepped backwards towards the door, his mind awhirl with a hundred churning thoughts and ideas. 'But you will marry me? Just tell me once, before I go!'
Her lip trembled and he saw a tear splash down across her breast. 'Yes, Richard.' She was smiling in spite of the tears. 'You are all the man my brother worships, and more besides. Yes, I will marry you gladly!'
Later, when the barge carried him back to the Hyperion, Bolitho could feel nothing but numbness. The officer of the watch made a formal report as he climbed to the quarterdeck, but he neither heard what he said nor did he remember his own reply.
Herrick was standing dejectedly beside the poop ladder, a telescope beneath his arm. Bolitho crossed the deck in quick strides and said, 'I owe you an apology, Thomas.' He waved aside the unspoken protests. 'My attitude was inexcusable, my words nothing more than ridiculous!'
Herrick was watching him anxiously. 'Is your wound troubling you, sir?'
Bolitho stared at.him. 'Wound? Of course not!'
Herrick said awkwardly, 'Well, I am sorry too, sir. I could not bear to see you in trouble, not of your own making.' He gave a great sigh. 'But now we can get to sea, and after the wedding all will be well again. And that is as it should bel' He grinned with sudden relief.
Bolitho eyed him cheerfully, undecided whether or not to play with him further. He said, 'The wedding is postponed, Thomas.'
'Postponed, sir?' Herrick looked dazed. 'I do not understand.'
Bolitho massaged his bandaged arm with his fingers. 'I think Falmouth will be a more suitable place, don't you? And you can give the bride away, if you would do that for me?'
Herrick was almost speechless. 'You didn't? You couldn't possibly have!' His mouth was opening and shutting in confusion. 'Not Miss Seton, sir? The admiral's lady?'
Bolitho grinned. 'The very same, Thomas!'
He walked below the poop, and before the cabin door slammed shut Herrick heard him whistling. Something Bolitho had never done before at any time.
Herrick grasped the teak rail. 'Well I'll be damned!' He shook himself like a dog. 'Well, I'll be double- damned!'
