'He is all that, and more,' Mr. Peel mused. 'Snobbish, impatient with his inferiors. Sure of his wits and talent, when he doesn't have a tenth of Twigg's trade-craft, nor an hundredth of his sagacity or patience, his cleverness.'
'When not orderin' the murder of thousands,' Lewrie sneered.
'Sublimely self-confident when he has no right to be,' Mr. Peel Went on, 'and not a young fellow open to suggestions. An uncle, a former ambassador to Austria, sponsored him with the Foreign Office. Naturally, he was shoved into our branch. Twigg was leery, soon as he'd briefed him. Warned me to mind my p's and q's, he did. Same as he cautioned me to keep a wary eye on you. Sorry.'
'And who wouldn't, I ask you?' Lewrie posed, too engrossed with the hope of 'useful dirt' on the pestiferous Pelham.
'Pelham put me on notice, right off,' Peel told him, 'that I'd best tread wary and sing small, or I'd be an un-employed ex-captain of cavalry, an «-employed agent, and I was no proper gentleman, to boot! Fetch and tote, run his chores? He'd do the thinking, thankee very much. Damn him, he enjoys having me on tenter-hooks.'
'Surely he must know by now that he's been sold a complete bill of goods on this Saint Domingue business,' Lewrie scoffed. 'He can't expect to win, after better men than he broke their health and reputations trying.'
'Sometimes he makes me wonder, Lewrie, he truly does,' Mr. Peel said with a slow, befuddled shake of his head. 'Pelham's one of those who think pot-holes fill before they step in them, as if the rules are different for the rich and titled. Pelham's smart enough to see this mission as a morass, but it's rare to see him suffer a single qualm. Then he comes over all energetic, as if, does he scheme and wheedle hard enough, he's going to win and prove his mettle, despite it being a bloody pot-mess!'
'Let him, then,' Lewrie said with a dismissive shrug. 'He sent you on a journeyman's errand to finish off Choundas, and ride 'whipper-in' on me… and thank your lucky stars for't. We're a side-show, to Pelham's lights, whilst he stays on Jamaica with his eyes on what he thinks is the main prize. He won't even know he chose wrong 'til it's much too late. Whereas the do-able part of his compound orders- our part-is well in hand, and damn'-near done.'
'Well… when you put it that way,' Peel said, perking up some.
'How did you get saddled with this chore, and Pelham, anyway?'
'Well, other than Mister Twigg, no one else knew as much about Choundas and his methods,' Peel tossed off, as if it was of no matter. 'Then, discovering you were out here, so aptly placed… someone else of whom I had personal knowledge… even Twigg said my presence was a necessity. I tried to stay in the Mediterranean, but…' he said, shrugging. 'Pelham came as a surprise. By then, it was simply too late to demur without poisoning my credentials with the bureau. And I relish this job!'
'Hmmm,' Lewrie mused, pulling at his nose. 'So all Pelham knows is what you tell him in your reports?' Lewrie broadly hinted, tapping the side of his nose sagely.
'Lewrie, that sounds suspiciously… mutinous,' Mr. Peel gaped (or pretended to) with a hand to his chest as if aghast at what he was hearing. 'You don't actually mean that I should lie to him! Or… are you?' Peel added, sounding almost wishful.
'Not lie, Peel, no,' Lewrie quibbled, 'just couch things in the best light. Give him chapter and verse of your best justifications as to the Yankee Doodles. Just passing mention of the faint possibility of secret cooperation leadin' to better things,' Lewrie sweetly coaxed. 'And make sure that Twigg and your superiors back in London are kept appraised of what a spectacular opportunity just… fell into your lap. Your lap, Peel, not Pelham's.'
'Well… Twigg would like to know what we're doing, I'd wager,' Peel muttered, indeed looking a trifle ill-at-ease at the ploy. 'He's still got good entree at the Foreign Office. And Choundas was the main target to him, all along. Twigg was never taken with the scheme about buying Saint Domingue by suborning L'Ouverture or Rigaud. In a private moment, he conjured me to not be too disappointed did the larger scheme fail.'
'Twigg must have seen that Pelham would be in over his head, and so aspiring a twit he most-like plans t'be Prime Minister,' Lewrie said with a sneer. 'Yet you still go out of your way to uphold that, too.'
'Do recall, Captain Lewrie,' Peel said with his nose in the air, 'that I, in my fashion and present line o' work, am as duty-bound as you to your Admiralty. To support my superiors in all they do and obey orders with alacrity and enthusiasm. No matter if I think them daft as bats,' he sardonically commented. 'Though I am no longer an Army officer, I still know how to 'soldier,' sir!'
'One hopes, when you led a troop of horse, you could adjust to changes, though, not just clatter about obedient to out-dated orders like a mechanical, clockwork toy grenadier. When out of touch with a higher authority… as we are at present, on a 'roving commission'?' Lewrie pressed, determined not to appear impatient with Peel's sturdy sense of honour. Surely in his line of work, such was a hindrance!
'Well, of course,' Peel allowed.
'But you think like a soldier, not a seafarer, Mister Peel, and I will tell you the diff'rence,' Lewrie added, smiling now, sure that he had him lured, hooked, and in play, with the gaffing and landing to come as certain as sunrise. 'Can't send a galloper off to the colonel and expect an answer an hour or so later. Once out of sight of land, we're completely on our own, d'ye see, and weeks or months 'twixt new instructions, with only the vaguest idea where we'd be found if anyone tried. It all depends on time, distance… and the winds, Peel.'
'I have noticed that ships are driven by the winds, believe it or not!' Peel retorted, getting his back up again.
'Pelham lies downwind of us, Peel, nearly ten days to a whole fortnight there-to- here, close-hauled to Antigua,' Lewrie explained with a smirky, confidential air. 'No matter how angry you make him he can only cob you long-distance. The packet brig he'd use to communicate with London starts at a disadvantage to the packets which depart from upwind of Jamaica, d'ye see? Do we put into Antigua, the next few days, assumin' a Jamaica packet's in port and ready to sail, your report takes a full week t'reach him. A day more, say, for Pelham to scream and run about in tiny circles before he damns you by post, but it'll be six weeks 'fore his irate scribblin' reaches London… and perhaps six weeks before they tell him he can lop yer prick off. And Twigg and your superiors'd have your reports two weeks to a month before that. By then, we could very well have ev'rything in our bailiwick wrapped up neat as Boxing Day gifts! Choundas… and a preliminary alliance with the Americans, both. Then who's boss-cock, and who's the goat, eh, Mister Peel?'
'Dear Lord, Lewrie!' Peel exclaimed with a shudder of dread, and looked about himself for the prim Mr. Winwood, who would chide Vice-Admirals for blasphemy. 'Why is it every time you start scheming, that I suddenly feel like a prize ram being led into the shearing pen? No, worse! A runt ram, bound for the ball-cutter shears! These years you spent on your roving commissions, so independent… I fear you've been hopelessly corrupted.'
'O' course I have!' Lewrie cheerfully laughed. 'That, and all that 'drink and bad companions' I mentioned, too. But you do believe we'll get Choundas, in the end?'
'Yes, I do. I'm sure of it,' Peel was forced to agree.
'Do you think we'll get the Yankees into alliance with us?'
'Well, I've my doubts on that'un,' Peel demurred.
'No matter,' Lewrie quickly dismissed with a wave of his hand. ' 'Tis the effort that matters, the chance that beguiles, when London hears of it… from you. Surely it's an option they already considered, but… to see one of their agents hard at work on it? One o' their delirium tremens dreams, most-like, right up there with… bright-red, man-eatin', dancin' sheep!'
'Well, there is that,' Peel muttered, gnawing on a thumbnail. 'By God, Lewrie, the effort would seem bold, even inspired! I do take your point. Did one wish to present the Crown with a plan more likely of fruition… as
