Commander.'
As Tyacke described his sighting of the French ships, and his later meeting with Herrick's convoy, Bolitho felt the anger and dismay crowding in from the flashing panorama beyond the ship.
Gambier persisted, 'You are certain, Commander?'
Tyacke turned from the shadows and momentarily displayed his ravaged face.
'A second-rate, possibly larger, and another sail of the line astern of her. There were others too. I had no opportunity to linger.'
Gambier said, 'This is a small-ship war now that the army is ashore, Sir Richard. I did not anticipate that RearAdmiral Herrick would need further protection. It seems I was wrong, and should have left your squadron on its station until-'
Bolitho interrupted sharply, 'Do you think they've found the convoy?'
Tyacke shrugged. 'Doubt it. But they will, if they maintain their course and speed.'
Bolitho looked at the admiral. 'I am asking you to allow me to order my squadron to sea, sir.'
Gambier eyed him severely. 'Impossible. Out of the question. In any case, most of your ships are to the east'rd in the Baltic approaches. It would take two days, longer, to get them in pursuit.'
Tyacke said bluntly, 'Then the convoy will perish, sir, as will its escorts.'
The admiral frowned as a gust of laughter came up from his quarters. 'People are dying over there! Do they care for no damned thing! '
He seemed to make up his mind. 'I will release your flagship. You can have one other-Nicator, as she is moored with you. Poor old girl will probably fall apart if she is called to battle! ' Then he exclaimed, 'But there is no one to guide you through the Sound.'
Bolitho said desperately, 'I did it before, under Nelson's flag, sir.'
Tyacke remarked calmly, 'I'll lead the way, Sir Richard. If you'll have me.'
Gambier followed them to the side and said to his own captain, 'Would you say I am an easy man to serve?'
The captain smiled. 'Fair, sir.'
'Not the same.' He watched the guardboat speeding across the water, one minute in total darkness, the next illuminated so brightly in the falling Congreve rockets that he could see every detail.
Then he said, 'Just now, in my own flagship, I felt that he was in command, not I.'
The flag captain followed him aft towards the din of voices. It was a moment he would savour all his life.
Back aboard Black Prince, Bolitho rapped off his orders as if they had been lurking there in his mind.
'Send a boat to your old ship, Val. She's to weigh and follow without delay.' He gripped his arm. 'I'll not have any arguments. Larne will lead us out. I said this might happen, damn them! '
The great three-decker seemed to burst alive as calls trilled between decks and men ran to their stations for leaving harbour. Anything was better than waiting and not knowing. They would not care whatever the reason. They were leaving. Bolitho thought of the unknown wag who had called out in the darkness.
The capstan was clanking busily, and he knew that the kedge-anchor would soon be hoisted inboard.
A lantern moved across the water, and occasionally Bolitho saw the brig's sturdy shadow as she made ready to take the lead.
Two great rockets fell together on the city, lighting up the sky and the ships in a withering fireball.
Bolitho had been about to call for Jenour when it happened. As the fire died away he took his hand from his injured eye. It was like looking through clouded water, or a misted glass. He lowered his head and murmured, 'Not now. Not yet, dear God! '
'Cable's hove short, sir! '
Keen's voice was harsh in the speaking-trumpet. 'How does the cable grow, Mr Sedgemore?' Then he paused until the next flash so that he could see the angle of the lieutenant's arm. There was not much room, especially in the darkness. He needed to know how the ship, his ship, would perform when she tore free of the ground.
Cazalet bellowed, 'Loose tops'ls! ' A few paces aft. 'Stand by, the Afterguard! '
Black Prince seemed to tilt her lower gunports close to the black water as the cry came drifting aft.
'Anchor's aweigh, sir! '
Bolitho gripped the tarred nettings and tried to massage his eye.
Jenour asked in a whisper, 'May I help, Sir Richard?'
He cringed as Bolitho swung on him, and waited for the stinging retort.
But Bolitho said only, 'I am losing my sight, Stephen. Can you keep a secret so precious to me?'
Overcome, Jenour could barely answer, but nodded vigorously, and did not even notice a boat pulling frantically from under the black figurehead while the ship continued to swing round.
Bolitho said, 'They must not know.' He gripped his arm until Jenour winced with the pain. 'You are a dear friend, Stephen. Now there are other friends out there who need us.'
Keen strode towards them. 'She answers well, sir! ' He glanced from one to the other, and knew what had happened. 'Shall I send for the surgeon?'
Bolitho shook his head. Maybe it would pass; perhaps when daylight found them, it would be clear again.
'No, Val… too many know already. Follow Larne's stern-light and put your best leadsmen in the chains.'
Allday materialised from the darkness, holding out a cup. 'Here, Sir Richard.'
Bolitho swallowed it and felt the black coffee, with a mixture of rum and something else, steady his insides so that he could think again.
'That was more than welcome, old friend.' He handed him the cup and thought of Inskip. 'I am over it now.'
But when he looked at the burning city again, the mist was still there.
19. True Colours
WITH HER great yards braced so hard round that to a landsman they might appear to lie fore-and-aft, Black Prince steered as closehauled to the wind as was possible. For most of the previous night they had clawed their way up the narrow Sound from Copenhagen, pursued all the while by the continuous thunder of the bombardment.
Somehow Nicator had held station on the flagship, but for Black Prince, a powerful three-decker, it had been a trial of nerves as well as skill. Urgent voices had passed each sounding aft from the leadsmen in the forechains, and at one time Bolitho had sensed that only a few feet lay between the ship's great keel and disaster.
Dawn had found them heading out into the Kattegat, still comparatively shallow, but after the Sound it felt like the WesternOcean. Later, when Bolitho watched the pink glow on the choppy water, he knew that darkness would be upon them early that night. A glance at the masthead pendant assured him that the wind was holding steady, north-east. It would help them tomorrow, but had he waited until daylight as Gambier had suggested, the wind's sudden veer would have bottled them up in harbour. He thought of Herrick for the hundredth time. Lady Luck.
Keen crossed the deck and touched his hat, his handsome features raw from a full day on deck in chill wind.
'Any further orders before nightfall, sir?'
They looked at one another, like friends across a common garden wall at the close of an ordinary day.
'It will be tomorrow, Val. Or not at all. You know what these supply convoys are like, the speed of the slowest vessel in it, necessary for mutual protection. RearAdmiral Herrick's convoy apparently numbers some twenty ships, so if there was a battle, some of the fastest must surely have reached the Skagerrak at least by now?'
He forced a smile. 'I realise you think me morbid, even mad. Herrick will probably doff his hat to us at first light tomorrow, and sail past full of noble contentment! '
Keen watched him, the man he had come to know so well.
'May I ask something, sir?' He glanced round as the calls twittered in the endless daily life of a man-of-war: Last dogwatchmen to supper!
'Ask away.' He saw the gulls pausing to rest on the pink water like flower petals and thought of the dead Captain Poland, who had seen nothing but the path to duty.
