"The beautiful Marchesa whom you rescued?" she asked softly.
"Yes, la bella marchesa. But I finally met my wife a quarter of a world away."
Yorke said: "I'm flattered at the attention of two such experienced marriage-brokers, but when are you going to tell us what happened yesterday, Nicholas?"
"Yes," Alexis said. "What did you do to make that poor frigate fire at you?"
"That 'poor frigate' should not have fired at us," Ramage said mildly, "so have a care where you scatter your sympathy!"
For several moments both Yorkes were silent: both knew enough of ships and the sea to know that something had gone dreadfully wrong.
"From here it seemed that she fired her starboard broadside at you," Yorke said. "We saw the smoke between you."
"The frigate is the Jason. The smoke you saw was from her starboard broadside: she suddenly cut across our bow and raked us. Fortunately without doing much harm."
"But why?" Alexis exclaimed. "She's British, and you must have been flying all the right flags."
"We were, but I don't know why she did it." Ramage stopped talking while the steward came into the cabin and set down the glasses, putting the jug and sugar bowl in front of Alexis. "Shall I pour, madam?" Alexis shook her head, obviously preoccupied with what Ramage had just said, and the steward left the cabin.
"Sidney always tells me I mustn't interfere in men's business - but can you tell us any more? It is most intriguing. No, alarming. I have visions of a British frigate suddenly sailing across our bow and raking us. Surely, if one rakes you, then another might attack us?"
Ramage gave what he hoped was a reassuring smile. "I have a hundred questions of my own, but no answers. In fact," he admitted, "I'm here as a refugee. I've discussed it so much on board the Calypso that my brain is overflowing. I was hoping you two might have some fresh ideas."
"It is sweet of you to include me," Alexis said, "but what can a woman know about naval matters?"
"This doesn't concern naval matters," Ramage said grimly, sipping his lemonade. "It concerns a madman, and I think we all know as much as each other about madmen. This one seems to be straight out of Bedlam, although who unlocked the door and gave him the King's commission I don't know."
"It's the captain, is it?" Yorke asked.
Ramage nodded. "This is what happened," he began, and finished half an hour later, during which time Sidney Yorke and Alexis listened with all the concentration of children hearing a thrilling fairy story, asking only an occasional question.
At the end of it Yorke said promptly: "I don't know for sure about this man Shirley, but I'm certain you are crazy!"
Alexis, now white-faced and almost in tears, looked at her brother as though he had suddenly hit Ramage, and instinctively reached out to touch his wrist, as if wanting to reassure him.
"You're crazy because you've, got yourself involved. The Jason was bound for England. Very well, her captain is mad and opens fire on you - but without doing much damage and not killing or wounding anyone. If you had any sense you'd have sheered off, left her alone to carry on to England. All right, you didn't know she was bound for England, but she obviously wasn't coming to reinforce you. At that point you'd have been simply (in lay terms) the injured party, and when you got to England you'd have reported to the Admiralty all you knew - that the Jason had raked you without cause and then sailed off over the horizon.
"That is what a sensible man would have done. But what did you do? Since you obviously haven't noticed yet, I'll tell you what you've done - and remember I speak as a layman: I know nothing of Admiralty rules and regulations. You have in effect captured one of the King's ships, removed the captain from his command and put one of your officers in his place, and discovered that not a man on board the Jason will back up your story that she opened fire on you - oh yes, yes, I believe you, but I am trying to see it through the eyes of the president of the court of inquiry, or court-martial, or whatever it is.
"The masters in the convoy would back you if they knew what had happened. Both Alexis and I will - if our word matters a damn. But why did you get involved with the damned ship?"
Alexis, now in tears and trembling from her brother's harsh words, stood up and without realizing what she was doing put her hands on Ramage's shoulders in a gesture partly to protect, partly to comfort him.
"Sidney's wrong, oh so wrong," she said, the words tumbling over each other, tripped by sobs. "You had to take command, otherwise who knows what other mischief that madman will do. He's terrified his officers. He's a mad dog!" she exclaimed, turning to her brother. "Don't you realize that? You shoot mad dogs, you don't let them run off to attack the neighbour's children!"
Yorke held out both hands despairingly. "I'm sorry, Nicholas, you seem to have run into more trouble on board the Emerald than you had in the Calypso."
Ramage reached up and held Alexis's hands. "No, I wanted to hear what both of you thought. You've put your finger on it, Sidney: you've seen the choice I had, and you think I made the wrong one. You, Alexis, think I made the right one. But so far you're the only people who see clearly that there were only two choices. The rest of them - Aitken, Southwick and probably Bowen, although I haven't seen his report yet - are too close to the problem and," he gave a grim laugh, "too loyal to me to consider that I might be wrong."
Yorke held up a warning hand. "No, both you and Alexis have misunderstood me. I say you made the wrong choice in getting involved. I repeat, you made the wrong choice. But knowing you and considering what's at stake, the choice you made is the only honourable one for a naval officer. It's just not the sensible one. But if I'd been in your place I hope I'd have done the same thing, although I'm a coward and doubt it. But it frightens me to think of the trouble this man Shirley could cause you in England if he can convince people he is sane."
"I'm not so much bothered by that as wondering what patronage he has," Ramage said. "His patrons can cause the trouble. A court of inquiry might clear him and then pressure on the Admiralty from his patrons could get me brought to trial on some trumped-up charge."
"Why don't you send him off to England?" Alexis said impetuously. "Let him go on and say nothing more about it. Don't report to the Admiralty or anything. Just act as though it never happened."
"There are about two hundred men on board the Calypso and two hundred more in the Jason. All of them know what happened, even if Shirley has cast a spell on his men. There are seventy or so ships in the convoy and two other frigates, L'Espoir and La Robuste. Up to a couple of thousand men, in other words, who will gossip. Oh yes, I'm sure if I asked them the Calypsos would keep their mouths shut, but is it a thing that a captain should - or can - ask of his men? No. Apart from anything Shirley might do, there will be gossip and rumour and speculation and exaggeration ... the story will be around Plymouth within hours of our arrival; the Admiralty will soon know about it."
Yorke poured himself more lemonade with sufficient deliberation to make Ramage watch him.
"When you chased after the Jason and went alongside her," Yorke asked, "you had guns run out, and all that sort of thing?"
"Yes, in fact we boarded her. Just managed to stop the men firing in time. As I told you, we thought she had been captured by the French."