over.'
He kept his eyes on Adam's and said nothing about Bolitho's money.
He moved towards the door, his face still on the young couple by the window.
There was no easy way, and his tone was almost brutal as he said, 'Vivid must weigh before nightfall. Lieutenant Bolitho here will have important news for his uncle, isn't that so?'
Adam nodded slowly, hating him, yet admiring him at the same time.
For how long they stood together he did not know. He held her to him, murmuring lost words into her hair, while she clasped his shoulders as if still unable to realize what was happening.
Then she leaned back in his arms and stared at him as she asked, 'Why? What does anything matter now? We shall have each other! Everything we've ever wanted! So why?'
Adam brushed a strand of fair hair from her eyes, all his hopes and happiness spilling away like sand in a glass.
'I have to go back, Robina. Your uncle knows why. He can explain better than I.'
Her eyes flashed with sudden anger. 'How can it concern you? You are only a lieutenant, why should he discuss such things?'
Adam held her firmly as she tried to force herself away.
'There has been a lot of fighting. Our ship sank an enemy but we were badly damaged too.' He felt her arms go limp as his words struck home. 'My uncle discovered what dangers threatened the island, and who was behind them. He sent me here to give his despatches to your uncle, so that this information could be sent to your president.'
She watched his eyes and his mouth as he spoke. 'But why should it involve my uncle or any of my family?'
Adam shrugged wretchedly. 'Because they were involved. They knew the Spanish intentions long ago, your uncle as good as told me just now. Apparently it would not suit your government to have either the French flag or ours flying above San Felipe. But now that my uncle has brought it into the open, nobody else will dare to interfere.' He could not hide the bitterness even from her. 'So my uncle stands alone to act as he must.'
She stepped away, her eyes towards the floor as she said in a small voice, 'Then you do not intend to make your life here among us?'
'It is not like that! I love you with all my heart.' 'And yet you deny me this?'
Adam moved towards her but she took two paces away. 'It's my duty -
She looked at him again, her eyes hot with tears. 'Duty! What do I care about that! We are both young, like this country, so why should you throw your heart away for a meaningless word like duty’
Adam heard Chase in the passage-way, and other, lighter footsteps, Robina's mother.
They both appeared in the doorway, Chase's face stern and determined, the woman's pale with anxiety.
Chase asked bluntly, 'You told her then?'
Adam met his gaze evenly. 'Some of it, sir.'
'I see.' He sounded relieved. 'Your Mr Tyrrell seems eager to leave. The wind's backing…' His voice trailed away.
'Thank you.' Adam turned and looked at the girl, the others unimportant and misty as he said, 'I meant every word. One day I'll come back and then…
She dropped her eyes. 'It will be too late.'
Chase took his arm and accompanied him through the beautifully panelled entrance hail. A black footman opened the outer door and Adam saw the cold blue squares of sea and sky beyond it, mocking him.
Chase said quietly, 'I'm sorry, I really am. But it's all for the best, you'll see that one day.'
Adam walked down the steps and saw Tyrrell waiting by the gates. He watched the lieutenant's face every foot of the way and then with his swinging, limping gait fell in step beside him.
'You decided then?'
'It was decided for me.' Adam could barely see where he was walking in his despair and pain.
'I ain't so sure about that, Lieutenant.' Tyrrell shot him a glance. 'I can guess how you feel.'
Adam looked at him, his voice angry. 'Why the difference? On passage here you barely said a word?'
Tyrrell grinned. 'Just wanted to be sure about you. You could'a stayed put right here.'
He quickened his pace as his eyes found the moored brigantine.
'But, like me, Lieutenant, you couldn't bargain away your loyalty.'
They stood together on the jetty and waited as a boat cast off to collect them.
Once Tyrrell looked at Adam's face and then across to his new possession. Tyrrell knew all about having a broken heart. He had learned it in a dozen ways. But a ship of your own was something else.
He clapped the lieutenant roughly on the shoulder.
'Come along, young fella, we'll catch wind and tide for once.'
Adam hesitated and looked back but the house was completely hidden from view.
He repeated what he had told her just moments earlier. 'I love you with all my heart.'
He had not realized he had spoken aloud, and Tyrrell was moved to say, 'You'll soon forget. Only dreams last forever.'
Bolitho climbed the last of the stone stairs to the fortress's battery parapet and discovered that he was not even breathless. It must be the change from shipboard life.
It was early morning, the air cool and damp from a heavy overnight downpour. It was so typical of all the islands hereabouts, he thought. Drenching rain at night and yet within an hour or two of sunrise the place would be bone-dry again.
Lieutenant George Lemoine, who commanded the platoon of the Sixtieth Regiment of Foot, touched his hat and smiled.
'I heard you were up and about early, sir.'
Bolitho leaned on the parapet and stared down at the shining harbour. A lot of the anchorage was still in shadow, but soon the sun would appear around the old volcano and the ships, like the town beyond, would quiver in another morning haze. He could see the black and buff lines of Achates' gun-decks, and wondered if Keen was still fretting about mounting lists of needs for his command.
They were running short of fresh stores. Even drinking-water had to be man-handled in casks by the seamen. There was still no sign of cooperation from the islanders, who showed their resentment by pleading poverty even when it came to fresh fruit or juices for the sailors.
Bolitho had done all he could to get to know the islanders. As admiral in command, governor and in charge of the island's defences he had seen the hopelessness of the situation. The planters and traders resented the fact that they could not move their vessels in or out of harbour, while ships which called at San Felipe to collect cargoes had to be checked before they could be allowed to anchor. It needed a full garrison and several ships to perform what Lemoine's soldiers and the marines had to carry out unaided.
Bolitho breathed in deeply. He saw his barge tied to the fortress's jetty where he had first met Rivers over three months ago. Down there too was the point where Rivers' men had fixed their boom, where Achates had burst through in pitch-darkness. Battles fought, men dead and wounded, probably a trifle to the planners in government and Admiralty.
Now it was late September, and Adam should be back at any moment. He thought of his purchase of Vivid. Reward or bribe? He still could not be sure of his own motives.
He thought too of Falmouth. Autumn. Red and brown leaves, the smell of wood smoke in the evenings. Resolute, cheerful people, now at peace because of ships like Achates.
No, not him. Tyrrell was too old a hand to be caught at this early hour.
He moved his glass again and saw the opposite headland shaking itself from the shadows. He could see the leap of surf around the reefs, and the further necklace of rocks by the point named Cape Despair, probably with some justification.
Feet clattered on the stairs and a runner barked our his report to Lemoine who in turn said, 'Message from your flagship, sir. All boats lowered and patrols alerted.'
Bolitho could see them in his mind. Small pickets of marines, backed up by volunteers from the local militia. A puny enough force, but properly used it could prevent any attempt at landing men through the reefs. There was only one safe way, and that was the one which Keen had used. And old Crocker with his heated shot would do his best if
