“Orders? From Mr Grenville?”
“Yes,” Kydd said heavily.
“Very well,” he responded, with a sniff. “I’ll inform him of your presence.”
“Thank you,” Kydd replied, trying to keep back the sarcasm.
He settled in his chair in a black mood. If he was not ushered into the presence within the hour he’d make damn sure that-
At the top of the steps a genial aristocratic-faced man burst into view. “Ah! Captain Kydd! So pleased you could come.” It was the first lord himself.
Naval officers shot to their feet, confused and deferential. Several bowed low.
He hurried down the steps and came to greet Kydd with outstretched hand. “We’ve been expecting you this age. So good of you to, ahem, ‘clap on all canvas’ to be with us.”
Shaking Kydd’s hand vigorously, he ushered him up the steps in the shocked silence.
In the hallowed office Grenville threw at his assistant, “Not to be disturbed,” and sat Kydd down.
“Now, what can I offer in refreshment? Sherry? No, too early, of course. So sorry to keep you waiting-that villainous clerk will hear from me, you can be assured of it.”
“Sir-you wished me here at the earliest … ?” Kydd began.
If this was the preamble to disciplinary proceedings he was at a loss to know where it was leading.
“Yes, yes! You’re the last of the Curacao captains come to town. And now we’re all complete. My, I’ve never known the public to be in such a taking! Raving about your gallantry and so forth. It’s done the government no end of good, coming as it does in these dog days after Trafalgar.”
Kydd smiled tightly. So the whims of popular opinion had decided they were heroes not of the ordinary sort. If they only knew it had been an attempt to uncover a deeper plot against British interests in the Caribbean that had, in fact, failed in its object.
“Pardon me, sir. Am I to understand that this is why I’ve been recalled?”
Grenville blinked. “Why, if I had not, the people would have howled for my head.”
“Ah. Sir, I had thought it was possibly in connection with the forthcoming court-martial of Commodore Popham,” he said carefully, shifting in his seat.
“Oh, that. Not at all, dear fellow. I can’t see it happening for a good while yet. In any case, as I read it, the merchantry love him because he opened up the river Plate trade to our goods as can’t find a market after Boney’s decree, and would never stand to see him pilloried. And it’s nothing to do with you, a Curacao idol.”
As it sank in, the tension slowly drained from Kydd.
“The Curacao captains-there’s to be a public procession or some such?” If there was, this was an odd reason to recall a valuable frigate and her crew from across the ocean.
“Naturally. And-well, you’re going to have to move speedily, I’m persuaded. The occasion is set for very soon-we didn’t know when you’d arrive.”
“Move speedily, sir?”
“Yes. Know that your recall was never my doing. My dear Kydd, it came from the palace-His Majesty wishes in person cordially to felicitate the principals in the affair. By his royal command I’m to direct you to attend on him the instant you land.”
“The King!” Kydd stuttered.
“Indeed. In view of the imminence of arrangements I would have thought it not too precipitate to seek an audience this very afternoon. Does this suit?”
He gulped. “Y-yes, sir.”
“Very well, I’ll set it in train. His Nibs’s business will be concluded by three, so shall we say four? I’ll send my carriage-to Windsor is tiresome in this weather.”
“That’s very kind in you, sir.”
“Oh, and you’ll find it more convenient should you choose to return here afterwards, you still in full fig and such. There’s a reception to be hosted by the prime minister for the heroes of the hour but it shouldn’t go on too long, he having pressing business in the Commons.”
It had happened! It was every naval officer’s ardent desire to gain distinction, to rise above the common herd-to gain notice from on high. And there was no greater such in the land than the King of England. He had arrived-it was breathtaking! It was marvellous!
Kydd took extreme care with his full dress uniform, the snowy neck-cloth and fine linen shirt that he had thought would last be worn before a hostile Board of Admiralty. His sword was in impeccable order, the scabbard rubbed with horn and blacking to a lustrous gleam by his loyal valet, Tysoe, his gold lace glittering after careful application of potato juice, and his court shoes in a discreet shimmer of polish and gold buckle.
In a fever of tension and exhilaration, it seemed for ever before there was an excited knock at the door. It was a near-swooning innkeeper who wrung his hands in emotion.
“Y-your carriage is-is here, Captain,” he stammered.
When he reached the door he saw the reason for the man’s excitement-it was the first lord of the Admiralty’s personal carriage: spacious, gleaming black with scarlet and gold trim, his cipher blazoned on the side, built for the express purpose of public display of the occupant. Four white horses and two footmen in blue and gold-and in front matching black steeds of an escort of four of the King’s Troop, with sabre and cuirass, looking stolidly to the front with a further two bringing up the rear.
A liveried footman was standing at attention by the coach steps, the other perched aloof behind.
A crowd quickly gathered, thrilled to be so close to what must be a very important personage, and as Kydd appeared, there was a ripple of excitement and muffled cheers. He doffed his cocked hat to them and couldn’t resist calling loudly to the innkeeper, “I’m off to attend on His Majesty, my man-I shall not be dining tonight.”
It brought gratifying gasps and chatter as he allowed himself to be handed up, to sit in lonely splendour as the resplendent sergeant on the lead horse barked orders to set them smartly on their way.
Fortunately, although the sky was dull and grey, the rain was holding off. The cavalcade had no difficulty with the notorious London traffic and they bowled along westwards at a steady clip, the massed clatter of hoofs drawing admiring attention as people stopped to gape. Kydd kept a stony expression, looking only to the front, ignoring cheers and catcalls from urchins but deigning to lift his hat to gentlemen who troubled to remove theirs as he passed.
The King’s residence, Windsor Castle, hove into view, all stern battlements and round towers, and Kydd’s heart thumped. In a twist of irony he remembered it was not the first time he had been directly addressed by his sovereign. That had been long ago when he was a young seaman in Artemis, a man-of-war the same size as L’Aurore in which he had fought in the first big frigate action of the Revolutionary War. He recalled a kindly face, bemused blue eyes and a comment about Surrey Cross sheep. Would he … ?
In a practised show they swung about to clatter in through the ancient archways, proceeding to the solemn entrance the other side of the vast courtyard. Kydd glimpsed the mast above the great round tower. It did not fly the Union flag of Great Britain: instead the lions and leopards of the Royal Standard of King George III floated there imperiously. The sovereign was at home.
As Kydd rose to alight, he looked around. It was so unreal, so impossible, that this day Tom Kydd of Guildford was about to be received by the monarch that his vision dissolved into a series of dazed impressions.
Here he was, standing in a castle first occupied by William the Conqueror after 1066, and witness to the stately panoply of the centuries since that was England’s past-and which he had first learned about in dame school. If crabby Miss Bowling could only see him now …
An equerry and royal footmen in blue and gold edged with red emerged to greet him. It seemed he was expected, and that His Majesty had expressed a desire that he should be presented at once.
He was ushered inside to a quiet magnificence, passing through majestic rooms hung with vast ancestral portraits, then across a hall of blinding splendour before reaching the state apartments, set about with lordly bewigged footmen.