“Delay? I thought I was talking to the fearless hero of San Domingo, sir.”
Duckworth smouldered. “It is not your career that is in jeopardy, Mr Arbuthnot, it is mine. To lose a fleet to the Turk would damn me for ever.”
“You are forgetting something, Admiral.”
“What is that, sir?” Duckworth said stiffly.
“Your orders, sir,” Arbuthnot replied silkily. “Which place my wishes to the fore. And these are that we waste no time in responding to our shameful ejection by the Ottomans by appearing before Constantinople at once. At once, sir!”
“I must first await the arrival of reinforcements from the Russian Navy under Admiral Senyavin before ever I can proceed, sir.”
“Admiral. I write my dispatches at the outset of this expedition tonight. Should you wish me to include the fact that we are lying idle at anchor indefinitely here while our high admiral waits for things to turn more in his favour?”
“I take note of your opinion, Mr Ambassador. Know that I also shall be writing dispatches-to lay before my commander-in-chief the grave professional difficulties we are under.”
“Do so, Admiral. As long as we’re on our way. The triumph will be yours too, never fear.”
“Very well. We get under way tomorrow.”
Smith, who had been listening to the exchange with a lazy smile and with his hands folded behind his head, declared confidently, “I rather think not.”
“What the devil do you mean, sir?”
“Has no one noticed? The wind’s in the north and veering. We’ll be headed by a dead foul wind in the morning-we’re going nowhere.”
As the captains waited for their boats on the spacious quarterdeck of the battleship, Blackwood came up to Kydd. “A pleasure to see you again, old fellow-oh, I do beg your pardon, Sir Thomas.”
“The pleasure is mine also, sir.”
“A trying time, this afternoon. Would you wish to take dinner with me tonight, at all? I’ve some capital lamb cutlets just come aboard that I’d like your opinion of-and perhaps we’ll remember the more uplifting times we’ve had together.”
It was just what he needed to raise his spirits.
Ajax was an old friend. He had seen her first in Alexandria, setting ashore Abercromby’s army that had finished the French in Egypt while he had been a junior commander in Teazer. And then it was Trafalgar-from the deck of his frigate he had seen her take on the bigger French flagship Bucentaure and then the even bigger Santissima Trinidad in an epic fight, nearly invisible in the boiling gun-smoke of the cannonading going on all around her.
Now for the first time he trod her decks-and as a guest.
“Welcome to my ship, Sir Thomas.” Blackwood greeted him warmly, shaking his hand in pleasure. “Shall we go below?”
The evening was settling in, the last dog-watchmen on deck, lanthorns being rigged.
Blackwood’s cabin was as austere as the man: a single polished table set squarely in the middle of the deck, a lamp on gimbals at either side and a candelabrum at the geometric centre. There were few domestic touches, a chaste, almost puritanical feel about it reflecting the personality of the man Kydd remembered.
“I so deplore it when our leaders fall out,” Blackwood murmured, over sherry. “I remember not so long ago the elevated spirit in every heart when Lord Nelson was still with us, every captain burning to do his utmost for the man and his country.”
“When orders were hardly necessary, each knowing his duty and the greater plan,” agreed Kydd.
Blackwood nodded sadly. “Just between you and me, Kydd, I have the gravest reservations about this mission. It’s one as is ill conceived by an interfering Admiralty acting under political pressure and not knowing the facts of the matter.”
These were near treasonable sentiments and Kydd knew that only the worst fears would have driven the loyal Blackwood to utter them.
“Here we have Admiral Duckworth arriving afire for action, and in a day backing and filling with caution when he should be boldly standing on. You know what this implies?”
“That Duckworth is not confiding in his subordinates-he’s had weeks to consult Sir Sidney Smith, who knows these waters and could have warned him of conditions?”
“Just so. I rather think we have an ambitious man overreaching himself, who now sees that, far from a glorious opportunity for fame and distinction, this is threatening to descend into failure and ignominy. Hardly a leader to inspire.”
“And his orders are to defer to the ambassador in both strategy and tactics-a divided command, I believe.”
“Yes, indeed. I’m particularly exercised in how he’ll rein in Sir Sidney. Our Swedish knight is not known for either his tact or strict obedience to orders.”
“His courage is undoubted.”
“As will be tested when we attempt the Dardanelles, of course, but this is not the prime requisite in our case. We shall see.”
More sherry was poured. “You’ve done well, indeed, Sir Thomas,” Blackwood said respectfully. “Since first shipping your swab, Trafalgar within a few months in a new frigate command and then … what was it next? The Cape?”
The dinner passed agreeably, the lamb cutlets superbly cooked and accompanied by a very passable claret.
“Do you miss Euryalus?” Kydd asked.
Blackwood’s frigate had played a central role in Trafalgar even after the battle, acting as flagship for Collingwood, towing the Royal Sovereign to safety in the great storm that followed, and under a flag of truce going into Cadiz to parley for prisoners.
“To be frank, I do. She was only a year or two old and I had her set to rights just as I wanted her. But a frigate … Well, they’re a young man’s command and a ship-of-the-line is a next step to one’s flag, so as of last year, here I have Ajax.”
“A fine command, even so,” Kydd said, with sincere admiration. “I saw her in action at Trafalgar.”
“Of course you did. And did you know it was Lieutenant Pinfold, her first lieutenant, who commanded? Lechmere was called away to a court-martial and the young fellow found himself pitched in without warning.”
“And served nobly, as what I witnessed.”
“I heard he was made post directly and given a frigate command.”
The two men sat back reflectively. It was not so long ago but already it seemed another age, a time for heroes, fighting for survival against fearful odds and the end always in doubt. Now it was the slow but sure acquisition of empire and-
There was a muffled crash that seemed to come from under their feet, perhaps in the wardroom or midshipman’s berth.
Blackwood frowned.
Another. Then the thump of running feet.
Blackwood jumped up, lunging to open the door. He was met by the heart-stopping sight of billowing dark smoke and the stink of burning.
A tearing cry of “Fire!” was taken up, urgently spreading forward and an unseen stampede began.
“If I can do anything …”
But Blackwood was off into the roiling murk, fighting to reach his quarterdeck.
Kydd had a primitive fear of fire and his heart pounded as he thrust after him. In seconds he was staggering in the choking darkness, nearly knocked off his feet by running figures. Bellowed orders and cries of panic rang out.
How had the ’tween decks filled with smoke so fast?
Kydd dimly saw it was puffing up the main-hatch out into the gun-deck-which suggested it had taken hold below first.
It was near impossible to see to manoeuvre a fire-engine in the darkness or even get some idea of where the core of the blaze was. And to get water down to the bowels of the vessel in quantity meant a long and near useless bucket chain, or opening the bilge cocks and risking the ship sinking with no guarantee that the water flooding in could be diverted for fire-fighting.
He hesitated-his every fibre screamed at him to get out of the claustrophobia to the open air; this was not his ship, or the men his to command, and he had no reason to get in the way of those who were trying to stem the rampaging advance of the fire. He heard a lieutenant’s hoarse urging-and stumbled guiltily, eyes streaming, to the ladder and the blessedly clear night air.