Invasion

Feeling surged. But did that mean he was turning his back on Guildford, the place of his birth, that until now he had called home? No. He would put this world gently but firmly to one side. It was just that it was no longer the centre of his universe.

He hurried along the last few yards to the school-house gate, lightness of spirit urging him onward. 'Good mornin', Ma,' he said happily. 'Y' say Mrs. Bawkins is entertainin' this afternoon?'

Teazer was delayed in her refit. A humble brig-sloop had no claim to priority in a dockyard that was at full stretch keeping the vital blockading ships-of-the-line at sea and she was left for long periods in forlorn disarray, her crew in receiving hulks and her officers bored.

Kydd lost no time in taking rooms ashore. Not for him the noisy intimacy of the Blue Posts at Portsmouth Point, he could now afford to stay where officers of rank were to be found, at the George in Penny Street. And there he began the process of refinement.

It was vexing that Renzi was in London, out of reach for advice, but on the other hand this was Kydd's own initiative and he would see it through. He went first to the largest bookshop; the assistant had been studiously blank-faced as he asked for suggestions as to what primers gentlemen found most answered in a classical education.

He left with a clutch of books and hurried back. The Greek grammar was hopelessly obtuse and required him to learn by rote the squiggly characters of the alphabet before ever he could start. It could wait for later. The other looked more promising; an interlinear copy of Caesar's commentaries on the campaign in Gaul, the Latin on one line, English on another. At least it was about the manly pursuit of war, not the fantastical monsters and gods of antique Greece.

'Omnia Gallia in tres partes divisa est. . .' Did he really have to get his head round all this? Or could he learn some of the more pithy sayings and casually drop them into the dinner-table conversation to the pleased surprise of all? That sounded much the better idea.

In the matter of polite discourse there could be no hesitation. He would be damned as of the lower orders by his own words just as soon as he opened his mouth in company. Since the days of Cecilia's patient efforts on his speech, he had slipped back into his comfortable old ways.

No, this required an all-out effort—and he must apply himself to it this time. Resolved, he gave it careful thought. This was not to be learned casually with others or from books, he needed professional assistance. In the Portsmouth Commercial Directory he found what he was looking for.

'Mr. Augustus DeLisle?' he asked politely, at the door of a smart Portsea terrace house.

'It is, sir, at your service,' the rather austere gentleman answered with a slight bow, appraising Kydd's appearance, then bestowing on him a professional smile.

'Th' language coach as can be engaged t' fit a gentleman for converse even at the Court o' St. James?' Kydd persisted.

'The same,' the man said with a sniff. 'You should know that I count most of the noble houses of Hampshire among my satisfied clients and—' 'Are ye available for immediate engagement, sir?' Kydd asked abruptly.

'Why, at such notice—'

'I've ten guineas to lay in y'r hand as says it'll fadge.'

'Er, very well—but be aware, sir, I cannot abide the fugitive aspirate, still less the cruelly truncated participle! You shall bring along your child and he will—'

'Not a younker, sir, it's t' be me.'

'I—I don't quite understand you, sir,' the man said uncertainly.

'M' name's Kydd, and I want t' speak wi' the best of 'em. Ye've got me half a day, every day until I can stand up an' be taken for a lord.'

'Every day?' he spluttered. 'My young masters usually attend but twice a week and—'

'M' time is limited, sir,' Kydd said impatiently. 'I'd be thinkin' ye a rare 'un if I sees ye refuse half a year's fee for a few weeks' work.'

The refit ground forward in the dockyard but the day came not so many weeks later when Teazer was released and became inhabited once more by her rightful denizens. She stored, watered and took in an overseas allowance of powder and shot, the Downs Squadron being considered so active a station as to warrant a maximum loading.

There was no time to be lost: Admiral Keith needed every vessel that swam in his crucial command, and Kydd was determined for Teazer to play her part.

'Er, I have to report, ship ready for sea, sir,' Hallum said awkwardly.

Kydd grunted. It was now common knowledge about the ship that their clerk was still at large, adrift from leave. A letter of recall had been sent to him, which had been acknowledged, but he had not appeared and it now seemed that the ship would sail without him.

It was no use. They could not delay. Kydd sighed heavily and went on deck, searching vainly for a hurrying figure on the dockside. 'Single up!' he ordered. All lines that tethered them alongside were let go save two. Away from the wharf, dockyard work-boats attended for the sloop to warp out, and in Teazer there was the age-old thrill of the outward bound.

Sail bent on, men expectantly at their posts, Kydd reluctantly gave the command. 'Take us out, Mr. Dowse.'

Ropes splashed into the murky water and Teazer was ready to spread her wings. Colour appeared at the signal tower. 'Our pennant, 'proceed,' sir,' squeaked their brand new midshipman, Tawse, wielding the big telescope importantly.

'Acknowledge,' Kydd said heavily. With the ebb tide Teazer loosed sail and left to meet her destiny.

The narrow entrance was difficult and needed concentration. They passed the rickety jollity of Portsmouth Point close abeam, then King Henry's tower on one side with Haslar and Fort Blockhouse only a couple of hundred yards to the other, and they were through.