Allday ignored it. 'Sir Richard's troubled. He worries about Cap'n Tyacke, an' about me, an' about everybody but himself!'
Ozzard regarded him scornfully. 'Captain Tyacke? Don't you know, for God's sake?'
Allday sighed inwardly. He could kill the stooping servant with one blow, and he sometimes wondered why they had remained friends. Of a sort.
Ozzard snapped, 'It's a woman, you blockhead! It's always a bloody woman when trouble's at the door!'
Allday left the pantry, touching the little man's shoulder as he passed. If he stayed, he knew he would make matters worse.
It was like sharing a terrible secret. It was not Captain Tyacke's pain Ozzard was describing. It was his own.
Major-General Sir Ralph Valancy stepped into the stern cabin and glanced around while Ozzard took his hat. Bolitho noticed that he showed no sign of discomfort and that his uniform was perfectly pressed, his boots like black glass, although if he had been dressed in rags one would have known him to be a professional soldier. He must keep his orderly very busy, to appear so untroubled by Malta's heat and the dust.
Valancy took a chair. 'I could never have been a sailor, Sir Richard. Too confined, even for an admiral!'
Bolitho waited while Ozzard fetched wine, and wondered why this man reminded him of someone. Then it came to him. Halifax, where he had met the young captain from the King's Regiment, who had been at the siege of York, and had given a miniature of herself back to the girl, Gilia St. Clair, who would soon marry Valentine Keen.
That young captain would be very like this major-general, if he lived long enough.
Valancy sipped the wine and made a sound of approval.
Bolitho said, 'It's a mite warm, but cooling anything is not easy with the ship at anchor.'
Valancy's face broke into a grin. 'Any wine tastes good to me, sir! I've ridden, marched and damned well crawled over every kind of territory, and like my men, I've had most dislikes steamed out of me!' He became serious. 'You've heard about the missing transport vessel, the GaliciaT
Bolitho recalled Allday's scorn for the military in general, and the marines in particular.
'I have not had an official signal as yet.'
Valancy shrugged. 'I only heard myself this morning. The Galicia was under charter to the army, on passage for Malta. A fisherman reported seeing her attacked by a heavily-armed vessel. He made off before he became another victim.'
'Algerine pirates?'
Valancy nodded. 'Sailing too close to the Saracen coast, as they call it. The Dey of Algiers will have had a hand in it. The whole North African coast would be part of the Turkish empire if he and the Bey of Tunis could find enough ships.'
Bolitho thought of his time as a flag captain, when he had been involved with that same coast and the notorious port of Djafou to the west of Algiers. Slavery, cruelty and torture; he had seen even his most experienced seamen sickened by what they had found. Piracy was common in these waters, and when the fleet had been fully employed against the French and maintaining a blockade, some of those same pirates had even flouted all authority to prey as far north as the Channel and the Western Approaches.
If the Mediterranean was to become stable again, this menace to trade would have to be removed. If peace and mutual trust were not restored, Britain's new allies would soon look for other means of enforcement.
Bolitho said, 'I have six frigates, and a few smaller vessels.' He glanced at the nearest quaker. 'And my flagship. Not a great force, but I have worked with far less in the past.'
'Indeed, I know, Sir Richard. You won't remember me, but I was aide to the general at Good Hope when you came to our aid.' He gave a faint smile, remembering. 'I was with the Sixty-First then. It was a fine regiment.'
It was the smile, exactly like the captain who had fought at York. The professional soldier.
'I remember.' He recalled that other general. They would not give the Cape of Good Hope back to the Dutch, either.
The soldier said, 'Yes, we'd not long heard about Trafalgar. And Nelson's death. Such a shock, although inevitable, I suppose. I often wonder what happened to his mistress after his death. Shunned by everyone, I suppose.'
Then he looked directly at Bolitho. That was a stupid remark. I apologise, Sir Richard.'
Bolitho said, 'It is something I think on myself, Sir Ralph.' He stood up abruptly, thinking now of Catherine, how they had first met, the deadly chebecks closing in under sail and oars, ready to fire into any larger vessel's vulnerable stern. When Catherine's Spanish husband had died. And we lost one another… He said, 'I shall send the only frigate I have in harbour. Frobisher will remain here, as she must, until more men-of-war arrive.' He could already hear Tyacke's disagreement, and his doubt.
Valancy nodded slowly, surprised, perhaps, at this sudden decision, but careful not to show it.
The frigate's captain.' He hesitated, as he might before leading a charge. 'Will he know the instability of these people? They have countless sailors and fishermen, thrown into their rotten jails, and for no other reason than that they are Christians! Barbarians!' He became very earnest. 'And the Dey of Algiers has some six hundred guns, according to our latest intelligence……'
'May I ask you something? If this matter were to be entrusted to the army, who would you send?'
Surprisingly, Valancy laughed. 'A mission like this, which might fan the flames of another war? I'd go myself! Right or wrong, it would be my responsibility.'
Bolitho smiled, and tapped his glass with a paper-knife. 'Another glass, Sir Ralph?'
When Ozzard appeared to pour the wine, Bolitho said to him. 'Ask Allday to find Captain Tyacke, and have him lay aft.' He noticed that Ozzard did not lift his eyes, nor did he show any surprise.
As he left the cabin, Bolitho said quietly to Valancy, 'I thought you would say as much.' He sipped the wine, and added, 'I shall go in Halcyon.' He recalled her captain's face when he had described his fear and helplessness aboard Majestic at the Nile, when Tyacke had given him back his courage and his pride.
Frobisher, or a larger group of ships would invite disaster… Allday entered by the other door and paused, as if uncertain. That, in itself, was unusual.
Bolitho said, 'Well?'
'Cap'n Tyacke is with the purser, Sir Richard.' He refused to look at the major-general. 'I left a message, but I thought.
Bolitho sat again. 'It is why we are here. Why I was sent.' He smiled. 'My compliments to the captain, and ask him to come aft.'
Allday departed, and Valancy said, 'Remarkable fellow. Although I don't see that it is possible for anyone to know what you intend.'
Bolitho touched his eye. 'Remarkable, yes. Your general said as much at Good Hope. He also said that he could use a few thousand more like him.'
The soldier got to his feet. 'I shall detain you no longer, Sir Richard.'
Bolitho shook his hand. Tonight Valancy would probably regale his staff with tales of the strange ways of the navy, and how an admiral had taken the time to reassure a common seaman.
And yet, somehow, he knew he would not.
Tyacke entered the cabin as soon as the major-general had been seen safely into his boat.
Bolitho said, 'Have Halcyon's, captain repair on board, James. There is something I wish to discuss with you.' He saw the immediate signs of argument. 'It is a matter of some urgency.'
'You're leaving Frobisherl Your flagship?'
'Presently. While I am away, I would be pleased if the guns were replaced in my quarters.'
Tyacke left the cabin without asking another question; there was no need.
The sunshine and the brightly painted boats meant nothing to him. His was still a ship of war.
Lieutenant George Avery put down his pen and passed the finished letter across his small table. There. I hope it does justice to your thoughts.' He watched as Allday, who had been squatting on a chest in the hutch-like cabin, made his mark carefully and deliberately at the bottom of the page. Avery had asked him once what the distinctive symbol meant, and Allday had told him that it was like the stone Cornish cross that stood outside the church in Fallowfield where he and Unis had been married.
