barely. It was more a hunched-shoulder diffidence or wariness, Lewrie thought, noting how the fellow appeared on the lookout for a cuff, or a touch-up from the Bosun's starter.

'You wished to see me, Captain sir?' Pettus said, looking fearful of committing some wrong without knowing.

'That'll be all for a little while, Georges,' Lewrie told his new clerk. 'Get some air on the gangway 'til I send for you again.'

'Aye, sir.'

'Flog the bugger!' the parrot squawked. 'Trice him up!'

'I do not have a steward, Pettus,' Lewrie said, rising from the desk in the day-cabin. 'I came away at short notice, and your former captain's man is ashore with him, and I'm loath to call him back aboard, as long as Captain Speaks is so ill and in need of him. Mister Ballard suggested your name.'

'Aye, sir?' Pettus said with a note of hope to his voice. He'd made an attempt to be as presentable as he would be at Sunday Divisions. His face was shaved, his thick thatch of light brown hair was combed, and his slop- trousers were mostly free of slush and tar smuts. He wore a chequered blue shirt, a printed red calico neckerchief, and a short sailor's taped jacket that was a bit too short in the sleeves, and with some brass buttons replaced with plain black horn ones. His flat, tarred hat was in his hands before his waist, being turned round about in involuntary nervousness. Pettus looked lean and spry enough to make a topman, yet…

'You've served a gentleman before, I'm told?' Lewrie asked.

'I have, sir, aye!' Pettus eagerly replied, breaking out in an open grin. 'In Brighton, sir, I was a footman to the diocese's bishop, him and his family. Not his personal man, sir, but I was with them for six years… since I was fourteen, and first got my position. I did for his younger son, for a year or so, as well as waiting at-table… There was a lot of entertaining, sir, so I know my way about. It was a grand place, sir.'

'Wardrobe? Laundry? Keep track of plates, and utensils and all that?'

'There were others who did that, sir,' Pettus admitted, seeming as if his hopes were suddenly dashed, then quickly spoke up once more. 'I did keep the son's wardrobe, sir, so he'd always have clean linen and pressed stocks, that everything was fresh and presentable, from the laundry maid. Blacked and buffed shoes, polished silver and such, for all the suppers, too! And, helped the scullery maids with the dishes, sir, before and after.'

'Read and write?' Lewrie asked, sitting on the edge of his desk.

'Yes, sir!' Pettus said, 'I mean… aye, sir. My dad taught at a local school, 'til he died, and I had to find a position. Higher mathematics I never mastered, but I can keep a running account book, as good as anything. I've a little Latin, a dab of French, sir.'

'Why did you lose your position, then, Pettus?' Lewrie queried. 'And, how the Devil did the Press get you?'

'Well, uhm, sir…' Pettus deflated, going all cutty-eyed as a bag of nails. ' 'Twas a proper house, the bishop's manse, sir. Run on very moral lines, as I expect you can imagine. Even did the son that I did for have a secret wild streak.'

'Most vicars' sons do, as I remember,' Lewrie said, thinking of several boys from Church families at his several public schools. Wild was a mild word for 'em, he thought with a private grin; And God bless a vicar's daughter, too!

'He was mad for drink, sir, and someone had to go along to keep an eye on him, keep him out of trouble when he got cup-shot,' Pettus explained, the tarred hat going round and round more agitatedly. 'And then there was a new maid-of-all-work that was hired on one summer for the season. I was… well, she was pretty as a bunch of flowers, sir, and she and I… struck up a liking. A strong liking. Just sixteen, she was, sir, and I'd a mind that, did I put enough aside, after a few years, the both of us might marry, sir, but…'

Oh dear, Lewrie thought; You poor, deluded young bastard.

'Well, sir… she and I went a bit ahead of ourselves, on our days off,' Pettus mournfully related. 'If you get my meaning, sir? We ah… found some private places a good walk from town, or the glebe, and, ah… made love, sir, like we were already married. The son… found out about us. Saw us, when he went riding near where we… and the next time I had to go along to guard his drinking bouts, he japed me something awful about her. And it didn't stop outside the house, sir. He started abusing me at home, too, making the worst slurs against Nan… the girl, sir, 'til I couldn't take it any more. One last insult, the middle of the day, at table before his family, and I…

'I dumped the soup tureen on him, sir,' Pettus confessed in a meek voice, shrugging and looking down at his shoes. 'Creamy pea soup, enough for twelve,' he added with a rueful laugh.

'I'm a saucy rascal!' the parrot commented.

'Well, that's one way t'make an exit,' Lewrie said, picturing that scene with some relish. It would have been the sort of thing he would have done.

'The only problem, though, sir, was that he blabbed all about the girl, too, and got us both sacked,' Pettus said, returning to his misery. 'Bishop's wife said she wouldn't stand for fornication in her house, and swore no respectable place would have either of us, not if we depended on her for a recommendation. Nan… she had to leave the parish, and try her luck in Chichester, and I haven't gotten one word from her since.'

'And the Impress Service?' Lewrie asked.

'I had a little money laid by, so I could take cheap lodgings whilst I looked for new work, sir,' Pettus said. 'I do think I got it in my head to go looking for Mister Edw-… the son, sir, and give him a proper thrashing for what he'd done, but… I was never much of a man for drink, sir, but I knew taverns and public houses would be where I could find him, and… I got as drunk as a lord by the time I'd made all the rounds, sir. It was a warm night, so I'd taken off my coat and hat somewhere, and on the way to one of the really low taverns, I ran into the Press party, and… in trousers and waist-coat, with no neck-stock, either, they took my garb for 'short clothing,' cried that I was a sailor, and jumped me. Woke up in the Press tender on the way to Portsmouth… into the receiving ship, and then aboard Thermopylae, sir.'

'Just damned bad luck, all round, Pettus,' Lewrie decided aloud. 'Do you still drink? Steal?'

'Never stole anything in my life, sir!' Pettus declared, almost angrily at the suggestion. 'As for drink, well…,' he simmered down. 'After being pressed, the rum issue is welcome. 'Tis all I can do to choke it down, sir, and give 'sippers' and 'gulpers' to the other lads, most of the time. That way, they don't… bully me quite so badly. I admit it makes life aboard ship more bearable, sir, but I'm not a sot. Your spirits would be safe with me, if that's what you're wondering.'

'You understand that, serving me here in the cabins, you would hear things discussed that should not be blabbed to the other sailors,' Lewrie went on. 'Mum's the word about where we're going, what the officers and I talk about.'

'Mum's the word, sir, aye,' Pettus solemnly assured him.

'My last man, I allowed to berth in his pantry, yonder,' Lewrie said, pointing his chin towards the dog's-box of a stores cabin that he had had the Carpenter, Mr. Lumsden, erect from spare partitions, in addition to the captain's store room below on the orlop, and the lazarette stowage beneath the padded transom settee, right aft. 'You would be responsible for the safekeeping of all my goods, strictly under lock and key 'til I need something. Feel like 'striking' as my steward and 'man,' Pettus?'

'I would, sir!' Pettus exclaimed, all but wagging his tail like a puppy in eagerness. 'You'll see, sir. I won't let you down.'

'You'll have to tolerate the cats,' Lewrie said with a smile as he decided to give Pettus a try. 'Toulon, there, he's the black-and-white'un. Chalky's the other.'

'And, er… Captain Speaks's parrot, too, sir?' Pettus asked.

'Bloody nuisance!' the bird chose to squawk.

'I may be fattenin' him up for supper,' Lewrie said, scowling in the bird's direction. 'Shift your dunnage, once you've eat, and as soon as you do, my Cox'n, Desmond, will show you where my coffee beans and grinder are. And the pot.'

'Uhm, sir,' Pettus shyly said. 'None of my business, sir, but… Mister Perry, Captain Speaks's Cox'n, ah…'

'I'll deal with that, but thankee for mentioning it to me,' he said. 'Close to the Captain, is he, Pettus?'

'Been with him as long as the parrot, I heard tell, sir,' Pettus replied.

'Maybe he could take the beast,' Lewrie said with a snort. 'Or, wish t'go ashore to tend to Captain Speaks. That'll be all, for now, Pettus. Report back by Two Bells of the next Watch.'

'Aye-aye, sir!'

Вы читаете The Baltic Gambit
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