A King`s Commander

It amounted to Ј50/8/0, he'd thought smugly; a bargain. If the damn' fool will just realize it! Markets not a stone's throw off, down to the waterfront, or a short block uphill and one over, to that plaza we saw, and all the market stalls. No need for a carriage, after all, or even the keep of a single horse! Furnished, mostly; a tad tawdry, at present. Two bedchambers above-stairs, both with balconies and ocean views, rather good bedsteads an' such. His price would have been Ј72, and that'd be a trifle steep, even for a decent set of London rooms!

Expostulating that he'd been gored, diddled, raped, the agent had at last acceded, and the place was theirs; if they'd pay the year in advance! Feeling just as gored, Lewrie had been forced to accede on his part, as well. Knowing that as long as the French had a Navy in-being, in Golfe Jouan or Toulon, that could threaten their hold on Corsica, or the sea-lanes across the Ligurian and Tyrrhenian seas to Genoa, Porto Especia, Rome, or Naples, he'd most like be based out of San Fiorenzo far longer than that.

Half that ponderous purse of his disappeared into the agent's poke, with a further stipulation that he'd remove any items of furnishings they didn't need, or wished to replace; thus lowering the rent somewhat, later on. That had required another spitting, hissing catfight to negotiate, but in the end it was done, to the begrudging dissatisfaction of both parties.

Phoebe had received the heavy ring of keys from him, had hugged them to her bosom, and had skipped and danced around her new parlor in great delight, after the agent had taken his leave.

'Alain… eez so…!' She'd sighed at last, coming to him and flinging her arms about him, crooning as he lifted her off her feet to eye level. 'Eez non ze appartement no more… eez ze 'ouse grande, si

bellel Eez non ze… shabby? Solid an' secure! An' I mak' eet even nicer, soon! Merci, mon amour. Oh, merci si trиs beaucoup]'

And there had been tears of joy in her eyes, to be so settled, at long last. Her lips had trembled against his as she kissed him so warmly. And her little shoulders had shaken in grateful emotion.

'We mus' 'urry, Alain!' she'd declared finally. 'We can 'ave mov-ed een, avant coucher de soleil, uhm… before sundown? Non cook, we 'ave, t'night, mais … we fin' ze cafй, an' zen, een our own bed, I tell you 'ow ver much I love you for…! Non, I show you… 'ow much I am thanking you, mon chou!'

They'd left Phoebe's chests and luggage at a waterfront osteria, a tavern/ lodging house, in the care of an elderly couple, who had made much of Phoebe's arrival in their midst. Lewrie was arranging a burro and cart, and Phoebe was chatting away, gay as a magpie, with her fellow countrymen, and stroking Joliette, who was daintily lapping at some goat milk, when Midshipman Spendlove arrived, with a packet under his arm, sweating heavily.

'Sir!' Spendlove announced, doffing his hat. 'Thank God you're here, sir. Else I'd have had nary a clue as to where in the town…'

'Trouble aboard, Mister Spendlove?' Lewrie barked, breaking off his negotiations with the carter.

'No, sir.' Spendlove took the time to smile. 'Orders, sir! Come aboard not a quarter-hour past.'

'Mmm eood.' Lewrie sighed in relief. 'That was quick work, I must say. I didn't… Mister Spendlove. These have been opened,' he rasped, turning stern and surly in an instant.

'Not my doing, sir,' Spendlove assured him with some heat. 'Nor the first lieutenant's. Uhm… your clerk, Mister Mountjoy, he, ahh…'

'Mountjoy?' Lewrie snapped.

'Said he thought they were normal correspondence, sir, that he… as your assistant, should read first, so…' Spendlove shrugged. Not in defense of the captain's clerk, no. By the tone of his voice, even a lowly midshipman could express a tiny bit of exasperation, or disgust, with a 'new-come' who knew so little. Or could not seem to learn.

'Damn fool!' Lewrie growled. Ship's orders were addressed for captains only, for their eyes only. 'Not you, Mister Spendlove. Pardon the comment, sir. No one else aboard has read them, yet?'

'No, sir!' Spendlove strenuously denied. 'Mister Hyde was at the gangway to receive them, and took 'em aft, still sealed, to your quarters. We informed Mister Knolles, of course, and he thought it best if you saw them straightaway, so I readied a boat, to fetch you, Captain. But, were they urgent, Mister Knolles then thought to send them on, so he went aft, to get 'em, and he asked of them from Mister Mountjoy, well…' 'My 'assistant'!' Lewrie hooted sourly. 'My God, that's rich!' But, as long as he had them, he might as well read them, so he stepped away for a tiny shred of privacy. When he discovered:

You are directed to ready your vessel for sea, and, at your earliest convenience, the wind being obliging, -proceed to the port of Leghorn, upon the Italian mainland, carrying with you the assistant surgeon of the fleet, his appurtenances, and monies, for the purchase of a quantity of onions and thirty to forty pipes of wine from the Tuscan authorities; to store aboard as expeditiously as possible the aforesaid, upon affirmation by the assistant surgeon of the fleet as to the antiscorbutic properties, then to proceed afterward to San Fiorenzo Bay with the onions and wine …'

'And just what do you draw, Lewrie, hey?' he muttered, half amused. 'Jesus Christ!' There went all his previous speculation on hopes of neck-or-nothing sea service. Amazing, really, what fickle Dame Reality actually had up her sleeve!

He folded them and stuck them into an inner coat pocket.

'Very well, Mister Spendlove. Go back aboard, and deliver my utmost respects to Mister Knolles and the sailing master. They are to ready the ship for sea. Tell Aspinall we'll have a single piece of live-lumber' aft, in the great- cabins, with some dunnage of his to store away in my personal lazarette. Have 'Chips' run him up a bed cot. And warn my cook he'll be 'sizzling' for two, this evening.'

San Fiorenzo Bay was a mirror. There wasn't a breath of wind, and every commissioning pendant, every sail freed of its gaskets and let hung to prevent mildew, were as slack as a hangman's noose, still and flaccid. There'd be no departure this evening. Perhaps the morning might bring up enough wind to work out of harbor on. Or, they'd lower the ship's boats and row her out, in tow, to a sea breeze. He'd have about an hour, no more, to settle Phoebe, leave her some coin for incidentals, but would have to forego her expressions of 'gratitude.'

Before he could inform her of that sad fact, though, he espied a Navy officer at the dockside, one familiar to him, about to mount a horse.

'Captain Nelson?' he called, walking down to the pier-front, to remake his acquaintance.

'Ah, Commander Lewrie!' the little minnikin of a post-captain cried jovially, once he'd gotten his 'seat.' 'Saw your Jester lying at anchor, on my way out to Victory. Just come in. And with such a wondrous packet of news, too, about Admiral Howe's splendid victory! How I wish I'd but been there to take part, but… And how do you do, sir?'

'Main-well, and thank you for recalling me, sir,' Lewrie said, doffing his hat. 'And thank you again for the permanent loan of men off your Agamemnon. They eased our passage home wondrous well. Form the very backbone of my new crew. I can't express how indebted I am to you for your generosity, short- handed though you were at the time.'

God, what a complete toadying wretch you are, Lewrie, he chided himself; must be instinctive! Nelson's just another captain, not an admiral whose back you have to 'piss down' for favors!

'And you are well yourself, sir?' Alan asked, as a party of seamen trudged by in a dust-raising shamble, loaded down with sacks like so many draught animals.

'In splendid fettle, sir,' Nelson assured him. 'Been on shore service, over toward Calvi, d'ye see. As long as the French Navy is blockaded, there's the seat of the action. There's the very cockpit! A chance for action, great doings!'

Capt. Horatio Nelson was such a thin and nervous whippet of a fellow, so lean and wee to begin with, well… Lewrie thought his duty ashore had sweated him down. He didn't look in splendid fettle, really. Haggard as a dog's dinner, in point of fact.

'Why, were I half sunk with the flux, the opportunity for action against our foes would revive me from my very