As Keen had remarked, 'Why this ship, damn his eyes? A plague on the man!'
Ozzard patted the gold-laced coat into place and eyed the epaulettes with professional interest. He reached for the fine presentation sword on its rack but dropped his hands as Bolitho gave a quick shake of the head.
He waited for Allday to take the sword and clip it to his belt. As he had always done.
Bolitho had written to Belinda about Allday's courage and the price he had paid for it. She, better than anyone, would know what to do. In a fast packet his letters would reach home long before Achates.
'Thank you. I shall go and meet our, er, guest.'
He glanced quickly round the cabin but Ozzard had already gone.
'Ready, Allday?'
Allday made to straighten his back but Bolitho said, 'Not yet. It takes time.' He watched his despair. 'As it did when I nearly died, remember? When you cared for me every hour of the day?'
He saw something of the old sparkle in Allday's eyes. 'I'll not forget that, sir.'
Bolitho nodded, moved by Allday's pleasure at the memory.
'Flag at the fore, remember that too? I'll see you an admiral's coxswain yet, you scoundrel!'
They went on deck together and Bolitho saw Rivers waiting by the entry port flanked by an escort of soldiers. He wore manacles on his wrists, and Lieutenant Lemoine, who was in charge, said hastily, 'My colonel's orders, sir.'
Bolitho nodded impassively. 'Sir Humphrey is under my protection, Mr Lemoine. There will be no irons here.'
He saw Rivers' look of extraordinary gratitude and shock. Then he watched as his eyes moved up the foremast truck where the flag lifted in a fresh breeze. As a vice-admiral himself he was probably hanging on to this moment as his other world fell in ruins.
'Thank you for that, Bolitho.'
Bolitho saw Keen frowning in the background and said, 'It is all and also the least I can do.'
Rivers looked across at the waterfront. People had flocked there to watch him leave. No cheers, no rebukes either. San Felipe was that sort of place, Bolitho thought. With a stormy past and a future just as uncertain.
Why should I care? Even feel sorry for the man, he wondered? A traitor, a respectable pirate who had caused too many deaths because of his own selfish greed. Rivers had two sons in London, so it was likely he would be well defended at his trial. He might even talk his way out of it. After all, if war came, the island's security owed much to him, whatever the true reasons had been.
In his heart Bolitho knew that the real blame lay with powerful men in London. Who had allowed Rivers to extend his role here for his own advantage.
Keen watched Rivers being escorted below and said, 'I'd have put him in the cells.'
Bolitho smiled. 'When you've been a prisoner, Val, and I hope that never happens to you, you'll understand.'
Keen grinned, unabashed. 'But until then, sir, I don't have to like him!'
Ferrier, the senior midshipman, touched his hat to Keen.
'Mr Tyrrell's come aboard, sir.'
Bolitho turned. He had imagined that Tyrrell had stayed ashore for most of the time since Vivid's loss because he did not want to talk about it. Or, independent to the end, he had been seeking a berth in some other vessel.
He had heard Achates was sailing very soon. The whole island seemed to know. There would likely be a few more babies on the plantations, black and white, after Achates had crossed the ocean. It was good to hear the seamen calling out to the people in the boats in the harbour and along the waterfront. The yards of the ships were festooned with coloured streamers, and every inch of space had been filled with fresh fruit and gifts from the islanders who had once hated and feared them.
He saw Tyrrell's shaggy head appear above the ladder to the quarterdeck and walked to meet him.
'Thought I'd make a quick farewell, Dick. To you an' the youngster. Next time he an' I meet he'll be a post- cap'n.'
Like Allday, he was finding it hard, and at any second he would blunder away on the wooden pin which he hated so much.
Bolitho tried to gauge the moment, knowing that any careful speech would be taken as charity, even condescension.
'Will you go back home now, Jethro?'
'Got no home. All gone, dammit, I told you!' He relented immediately. 'Sorry about that. Bein' with you again has unsettled me quite a bit.'
'Me too.'
'Really?' Tyrrell stared at him, wary of a lie.
'I was thinking…' Bolitho saw Knocker from the corner of his eye hurry to the first lieutenant, who in turn looked at the captain. Bolitho knew why. He had felt the shift of wind on his cheek even as he had been speaking with Rivers. It was not much, but with the winds here so perverse it must not be wasted. But just as when Ferrier had come to tell him about the brig's arrival, so now he would not break the spell by looking up at the masthead pendant. He continued, 'There's England, you know.'
Tyrrell threw back his head and laughed. 'Hell, man what are you sayin? What would I do over there?'
Bolitho looked past him at the shore. 'Your father came from Bristol. I recall you telling me. It's not all that far from Cornwall, from us.'
Tyrrell watched the sudden activity as the relaxation on deck changed to purpose and movement. He knew all the signs. A ship leaving was nothing new. But homeward bound…
He said desperately 'I'm a cripple, Dick, what th' hell use am I?'
'There are plenty of ships in the West Country.' He dropped his voice. 'Like Vivid.'
He saw Keen moving nearer. It could not wait.
Bolitho said, 'Anyway, I want you to come.'
Tyrrell gazed around as if he could not trust his own judgement.
'I'd work my passage, I'd insist on that!'
Bolitho smiled gravely. 'It's settled then.'
They shook hands and Tyrrell said, 'By God, I'll do it!'
Bolitho turned to his flag-captain.
'You may get the ship under way when it suits.'
Keen yelled, 'Hoist all boats inboard! Both watches of the hands, Mr Quantock!'
He looked at Bolitho and the one-legged man by the quarterdeck rail and shook his head.
Men were dashing aloft and out along the yards, and with her capstan manned Achates shed her ties with the land and moved slowly out to her anchor.
Adam said excitedly, 'Hear them, Jethro? They're cheering us!'
Along the waterfront the handkerchiefs waved and voices echoed across the water as the great capstan continued to clink round.
Tyrrell nodded. 'Aye, lad, this time they are.'
Captain Dewar marched across the deck and touched his hat with a flourish.
Keen caught the mood too. 'Very well, Major, you may play us out if that was what you were about to suggest?'
Bolitho found that he was gripping the worn rail with unusual force. He had seen it all before countless times, but somehow this was quite different.
'Anchor's hove short, sir!'
'Loose the heads'ls!'
Bolitho turned and saw Allday beside him. His right arm.
'Man the braces there!' Quantock strode about, his head jutting forward, immersed for the moment in the complexities of his trade.
'Anchor's aweigh, sir!'
It was not a blustery departure, with the ship heeling over under a pyramid of canvas. With all the dignity of her years Achates swung slowly across the wind, the sunlight glancing off her figurehead, the armour-bearer, and along
