It was another beautiful day: the sun hot and bright, sea and sky the usual startling blue, and Ramage and his officers were rowed over to the Earl of Dodsworth in the Calypso's launch to find the John Company ship's deck splendidly cool. More awnings had been stretched so that no sun touched the deck between the mainmast and the taffrail, and more canvas had been laid on the quarterdeck like a huge carpet. Many chairs were scattered about and two large tables bore decanters, jugs and glasses.
Ramage was met at the gangway by Hungerford, who turned to greet Aitken while the Marquis of Rockley stepped forward.
'Ah, Ramage, it's good to see you well again. I've been receiving daily reports from my wife and daughter, but nothing beats seeing you with my own eyes.'
'I've been a trouble to a number of people,' Ramage said apologetically. 'The leg business was particularly annoying. Getting slashed across the arm by a cutlass is one thing, but being blown across one's own quarterdeck in an armchair seems almost like carelessness!'
The Marquis laughed and, taking Ramage's arm, led him towards the other passengers waiting on the quarterdeck. 'To tell you the truth,' he murmured, 'the two women have loved every minute of your convalescence. They've never had their very own wounded hero to fuss and worry over!'
Those Army uniforms: their owner had never been wounded, nor did he rate the description of a hero! Who the devil was he?
Ramage kissed the Marchioness's hand and answered her inquiries about his health. He turned to Sarah and, knowing every passenger was watching, kissed her hand with the expected politeness, and then turned to accompany the Marquis and walk round, talking to the other passengers, all of whom he had met the day before he'd swum to the Heliotrope, and all of whom now wanted to hear from his own lips every detail of everything that had happened since.
Was his Lordship sure that the wicked leaders of the pirates had been killed when the Lynx exploded? Was he certain that none could have escaped and swum ashore? Was there the slightest chance of them meeting another pirate ship on the voyage home? Would the privateersmen imprisoned in the Calypso be hanged when they reached England?
One woman, and Ramage recalled she was a Mrs Donaldson, proclaimed loudly that the pirates held in the Calypso should be tried before the ship sailed from Trinidade. and hanged from gibbets erected along the small beach, their bodies left hanging in chains as a warning to any more pirates who might visit the island after the Calypso had gone.
Several of the passengers - Mrs Donaldson among them, Ramage noticed - were happily drinking and keeping the stewards busy fetching fresh glasses. Soon Aitken, Kenton, Martin, Southwick and Paolo were mingling with the passengers, and quite naturally Ramage and the Rockley family became separated as the new faces attracted attention among a group of people who had been together for many weeks, from the time the Earl of Dodsworth had left Calcutta, making her way down the muddy Hooghly river to the sea.
The Marquis was anxious to hear more details from Ramage about the recent treaty with Bonaparte, and again expressed his doubts. The French, he declared, were determined to have India, and Bonaparte was prepared to play a waiting game. However, once he heard that his own views were shared by Ramage and that many powerful figures in London, including the Earl of Blazey and most other admirals in the Navy List except St Vincent, felt the same, he let the subject drop.
The Marchioness said, out of the blue: 'I've been telling Sarah that she must make more use of her parasoclass="underline" her face is getting quite brown; quite unbecoming, in my view.'
Sarah smiled impishly at Ramage. 'Well, let us hear your view, Captain.'
Ramage felt his own face turning red beneath the suntan because he had been encouraging Sarah to lose the cream colour on her cheeks, and let the skin turn golden in the sun. Indeed, most nights he had gone to sleep imagining her whole body a golden brown, and he suspected that Sarah had guessed.
He looked up to find the Marquis chuckling. 'You poor fellow, you are in a fix! Do you upset the mother or the daughter - the problem most young men face sooner or later! Well, I'll add my pennorth by saying I think she looks beautiful whether peaches and cream or golden, and I see that Captain Hungerford wants us to lead the way down to the saloon!'
He was thankful for the Marquis's intervention, and then saw that the Marchioness was smiling and as she passed close she whispered: 'Don't think you'll always escape as easily: I am a golden dragon, the highest rank of the species!' Ramage was surprised and pleased to see Wilkins among the guests. He was very well dressed and obviously quite at home among the passengers.
Hungerford led the way down the companionway and directed the Calypsos to their seats. The master of the Earl of Dodsworth sat at the centre of his table, his back to the sternlights, with the Marquis on his right and the Marchioness to his left. Aitken was on the Marquis's right, Southwick at the Marchioness's left, with a woman passenger separating Martin from Aitken and Orsini from Southwick. Strictly speaking, Southwick as a warrant officer was junior to Martin, but Southwick clearly was one of the Marchioness's favourites.
Ramage found himself seated exactly opposite Captain Hungerford, with Sarah on his right and Bowen beyond her. On his left was another woman passenger who, had Sarah and her mother remained in India, would have been the most beautiful woman on board the Earl of Dodsworth, and she seemed to accept her secondary role with good grace, seating herself as Ramage slid her chair with an ease that most women would envy and a softly breathed warning to Ramage not to hurt his arm.
As soon as everyone was seated, Hungerford rose and took a deep breath. 'My lords, ladies and gentlemen: I have three tasks before we begin this dinner. First, for the benefit of our guests, our bill of fare. Pease soup, as you who have voyaged with us so far know very well, is a speciality of this ship and I dare claim it as unique. We have legs of mutton, and can only apologize that it isn't lamb, but our ewes proved barren. There are fowls for those who like white meat, hogs' puddings, hams, duck, pork and mutton pies -' he paused to consult a list '- corned round of beef, mutton chops and potatoes, removed by plum pudding. And port wine, sherry, gin, rum and of course porter and spruce beer..
Ramage glanced at his officers. Martin and Orsini were glassy-eyed with the prospect and Aitken was obviously hearing John Knox inveighing against gluttony and preparing to ignore him. Southwick had that comfortable smile one associated with Friar Tuck, and was surreptitiously undoing a button of his coat.
Captain Hungerford continued: 'So much for what is to be placed before us. I now welcome our guests, only three of whom are known to the majority of you.' With the skill of a man who for years had known that one of the most important tasks of a John Company master was to make the passengers feel comfortable, he then introduced the Calypsos, starting with Ramage and ending with a confident Orsini.
'These are the men to whom we owe first our lives and second our freedom. I believe Captain Ramage (incidentally he does not use his title, so I am being neither familiar nor disrespectful), first boarded this ship in a rather unusual way, and the second time was very very unorthodox -' he paused while the passengers laughed and then cheered and clapped '- so it is my pleasure on behalf of all who voyage in the Earl of Dodsworth, to give you our thanks.'
Ramage was aware of some scraping and scuffling behind him, particularly puzzling because some of the passengers were deliberately not looking in that direction while four or five others' curiosity was winning. Aitken, Southwick and his other officers facing into the saloon were openly staring.