“Fresh-trained and sent off from their regiments’ home barracks I believe, Sir Hew,” Hughes said, with a superior smirk. “Newlies.”
“Two companies from the 77th, hey? Hmm,” Dalrymple mused, and drummed his fingers on his desk. “Had their regiment suffered a great many casualties on campaign, I would have thought that their Colonel would have requested more from their home battalion. Perhaps whoever he is, he can soldier on without them, then. Full complement of officers with them, Hughes?”
“Two Captains, two Lieutenants, and two Ensigns, sir,” Hughes rapidly ticked off. “I do not know of their experience or abilities.”
“And have I made you conversant with any plans for offensive, seaborne raids along the coasts, Hughes?” Sir Hew asked further.
“I do believe that I might have come across some mention here and there in the course of sorting your correspondence, Sir Hew,” Hughes hesitantly said, cocking his large head over to one side.
“Allow me to name to you, sir, Captain Sir Alan Lewrie, Baronet, and Mister Thomas Mountjoy, of the, ah … Foreign Office. Sirs, my aide, Captain Daniel Hughes, seconded from the 53rd Foot,” Dalrymple said, rising to summon them together for the requisite handshakes. “And what did you make of such plans, Captain Hughes, given your scant familiarity with them?” Dalrymple asked him.
“They sound simply capital, Sir Hew,” Hughes replied eagerly. “A topping-fine venture!”
“Good, good, then,” Dalrymple said, beaming. “Glad to hear you find them so. Captain Lewrie has managed to arrange all the necessities with which to put the plans afoot, but for the troops. His complement of Marines aboard his ship will be a part of any landings alongside those two companies of the 77th.”
“How many men in all would that be, Captain Hughes?” Lewrie asked him, sure that he was the sort who would have the numbers.
“Including officers, sergeants, and corporals, that would be one hundred and twelve, Captain Lewrie,” Hughes quickly supplied.
“Just about right,” Lewrie told him. “About as many as the transport can manage. Them, plus my fifty-six…”
“Under a Captain of Marines, sir?” Hughes asked, with a bit of a scowl, as if imagining that Dalrymple might place him in command of the landing party. Hughes looked most eager for a fight.
“A First Leftenant, sir,” Lewrie told him.
“Hughes, as welcome as are your skills as my aide,” Dalrymple said, “still I have felt your desire to command troops again. For this task, I believe I will appoint you to take charge of those two companies of the 77th, and Captain Lewrie’s Marines when sent ashore on any of the raids.”
“I would be delighted to serve, sir!” Hughes loudly declared, puffing up his thick chest in pride. “Let us be at ’em, what? Yoicks, and tally ho!”
“And, for this duty, I think advancing you to a Brevet-Majority would not go amiss, either, Hughes,” Dalrymple added.
“You do me too much honour, sir!” Hughes exclaimed. “But thank you for it, all the same!”
“Agreed then, gentlemen?” Dalrymple asked them all.
“Quite,” Mountjoy assured him. “My thanks to you, Sir Hew.”
“With the troops, and Major Hughes’s experience, I am confident we’ll raise chaos and all the mayhem one could ask for,” Lewrie added. “We must fill the Major in on what we intend, and begin the training for the troops as soon as we can.”
“Mind, though, Captain Lewrie,” Hughes cautioned, “one mustn’t expect too much of men straight from the parade ground and the firing butts, ha ha! Takes months on campaign to make proper soldiers.”
“Well, then they’ll have less to un-learn,” Lewrie told him in good humour. “We’ll get them their sea legs, first, and their ‘duck feet,’ second. Where t’practice, though. Can’t do it here in the harbour for all the Spanish spies and watchers over in Algeciras t’see. Perpaps down by Europa Point, or a bay on the Eastern side of the Rock.”
“Bring those companies’ officers in to explain what’s needing, too,” Mountjoy suggested. “They won’t be happy with the new task.”
“I’ll see to turning them eager,” Hughes boasted.
“‘Growl they may, but go they must’, is it, sir?” Lewrie asked Hughes. “Just so they come t’see it as an adventure, not an onerous chore. Let us depart and leave Sir Hew be. He’s done us handsomely, and I’m sure he has many other pressing matters on his plate. Thank you, again, Sir Hew. We will keep you apprised of our progress, and of our first choice of objective.”
“And, it will be up to you, Sir Hew, to approve or object to our choices,” Mountjoy added to mollify the fellow.
* * *
“Is there a spare office where we can read you in, as it were, Major Hughes?” Lewrie asked the newly-promoted officer.
“I’m sure we can find one,” Hughes said, pulling an expensive-looking pocket watch from a breeches pocket. “Though, hmm. Do you wish to begin at once, this very hour, or might I attend to some other business first, sirs?”
“It is near Noon, aye,” Lewrie said, consulting his own watch. “Let’s say we meet back here in the Convent at one thirty?”
“Capital!” Hughes boomed. “Just topping-tine! I’ve a dinner companion, d’ye see, and can’t wait to give her the news.”
“You’re married, sir?” Mountjoy asked, wondering why a sensible man would bring a wife overseas.
“Not so’s you’d notice, no sir,” Hughes imparted, with a wink and a smirk.
“Don’t share too much,” Lewrie cautioned. “Ye never know who’s listening. Mum’s the word with civilians.”
Hughes gave him a quick scowl as if to say “will you teach my granny how to suck eggs?”, but Lewrie had seen him in action once, and was none too sure that Hughes could contain himself from bragging over his brevet promotion, his new command, and how he would sail off to win the war all by himself … as he’d boasted that day at Pescadore’s.
“One thirty, then, sirs,” Hughes agreed, putting away his watch. “I will meet you here at the appointed time. Good day!”
Hughes sailed back into his anteroom office to fetch his hat, a black beaver fore-and-aft bicorne with heavy gilt tassels to either end, adorned with swept-back egret feathers, and so arced that the tips fell almost level with his nose and his shoulder blades.
“Impressive,” Mountjoy said after he had departed.
“What, the man, or the hat?” Lewrie joshed.
“Well…” Mountjoy replied, puzzled.
“I’d not be one t’look a gift horse in the mouth, Mountjoy, but I’ve seen him before,” Lewrie explained as they made their own way out of the headquarters building to the street, and their own dinner. “Here on Gibraltar, the other day,” he went on, describing his meal at the seafood house, and Hughes’s demeanour with his girl.
“Was she fetching, sir?” Mountjoy asked, looking a tad askance.
“Aye, she definitely was,” Lewrie confessed.
“Perhaps her being with him has prejudiced you against him,” Mountjoy suggested. “A bit of jealousy, what?”
“I’ll allow that that plays a part, but only a wee’un,” Lewrie shrugged off. “Remember the old adage, ‘great talkers do the least, we see’? He’s a grand talker, is Brevet-Major Hughes. Why, I wonder, is he seconded to staff work, and not with his regiment?”
“Surplus to requirements?” Mountjoy pondered.
“Tosh!” Lewrie dismissed. “He bought himself a commission for life in the 53rd, and once in, an officer is always a member of that regiment ’til he’s too old t’serve and he sells his rank out to the highest bidder, gets crippled or dies, or gets cashiered for conduct un-becoming, or plain stupidity. Most-like, after a few years, the others in his mess couldn’t stand the bastard, and when Dalrymple was castin’ about for an aide-de-camp, they saw their chance t’be shot of him!”
“Or, he makes General,” Mountjoy pointed out. “Maybe Captain … Major Hughes, rather … has better connexions than most, and his posting is a way to give him a leg up to a substantive Majority, not a brevet rank. From his uniform and his kit, I’d imagine that he’s a fellow from a wealthy family, eager for his advancement. Money, and ‘interest’, go hand in hand, after all.”