They were over halfway through their supplies. Another two weeks of patrol and they would have to go back to Antigua to resupply, and Alan had absolutely no idea if he would be retained, or chucked out for incompetence. Alan was sure Lilycrop would wait until the last moment after they dropped anchor to tell him he was out, and the uncertainty was enough to make him want to scream.
Finally, on a fine day while the hands were enjoying their rum ration, he stirred up his courage and accosted Lilycrop on the quarterdeck, perversely wanting to know his fate, though dreading it.
"Dine with me tonight, then," Lilycrop said, ending his stroll about the deck and going below, still wearing that enigmatic twinkle.
"Aye, sir," Alan replied, trying to sound cheerful for the invitation, the first of its kind since he had come aboard. Probably tell me with the port, so I can weep in private, he quailed sadly.
But he showed up halfway through the second dog-watch, turned out in his best kit, and let the Marine sentry announce him and pass him aft into the great cabin to hear his fate.
"Ah, right on time, I see." Lilycrop beamed at him, waving him to a chair. "Gooch, get the first lieutenant a glass of whatever strikes his fancy." Lilycrop had tricked himself out in his best uniform as well, and the white coat lapels, shirt, waist-coat and breeches gleamed in the candle and lantern light.
Dressed for my execution, Alan cringed to himself.
Alan got a glass of poor Black Strap-Lilycrop's purse did not run to claret or Bordeaux-Lilycrop was already slurping away at a mug of brandy, and from the harsh reek of the fumes that Alan could smell all the way across the cabin, it was no better than captured French ratafia, the raw stuff they issued their wretched sailors.
"We're havin' a joint of pork tonight, Mister Lewrie," Lilycrop told him genially. "One of the shoats escaped the manger and took his death dive down the forrud hatchway. Thought pigs'd survive a fall such as that. 'Tis kitties that land on their feet, ain't it, Samson? But I don't tell you nothin' you don't already know, do I, Mister Lewrie?"
"No, sir," Alan agreed, having seen the accident, and having heard the uproarious cheer from the hands when it was known that the pig had succumbed and would be fresh supper for all. There was a rumor on the rounds that the pig had been "pushed," and how he had escaped the foredeck manger was still a mystery. "Perhaps it was Pitt killed him, sir," Lewrie japed, hoping he could cajole Lilycrop into leniency.
"Wouldn't put it past the young bugger, indeed I would not." Lilycrop laughed heartily at Alan's small attempt at humor. "A clever little paw on the latch peg, a scratch on the arse, some judicious herdin'… he'll get his share, same as the others. I do believe that cats are smarter than most people give 'em credit. Gooch, how long now?"
"Not half a glass, sir," Gooch answered from the pantry by the small dining alcove. The table had already been set with a somewhat clean cloth, wide-bottomed bottles to anchor it down after it had been dampened to cling to the wood, and plates and utensils already laid out. Shrike was on an easy point under reduced sail, so they would not have to fight the table for each morsel that reached their mouths; she wasn't heeled over ten degrees from upright and her motion was easy tonight. Cooling sunset breezes blew down the open skylight and through the quarter-gallery windows.
They chatted ship's business for a few minutes, interrupted often by the antics of the various cats or kittens that shared the captain's quarters, until Gooch announced that supper was ready.
There was a soup of indeterminate ancestry, most likely "portable soup" reconstituted from its boiled-dry essence. The biscuits were the usual weevily lumber that took much rapping to startle out the occupants and some soaking in the soup so they could be chewed. But the leg of young pork arrived to save the day, crackling with fat and running with juices their bodies craved after weeks of salt-meat boiled to ruin in the steep-tubs. There was pease pudding, too, and a small loaf of fresh bread they sliced thin as toast so it would last, something the cook had whipped up for the captain alone.
"The sweetlin's gettin' theirs, too, Gooch?" Lilycrop demanded.
"Um, aye, sir," Gooch tried to say through a mouthful of pork from the pantry, taking his pleasure with some slices that had been intended for the platoon of felines, who were crowding around his feet and yowling for their tucker.
"Damn yer blood, Gooch, stop stuffin' yer ugly phyz an' feed those cats their rightful share before I come in there an' hurt you," Lilycrop bellowed, turning to wink at Lewrie as though it was a huge joke. "They'll be cracklin's enough for the likes of you later!"
"Aye, sir," Gooch sighed.
There were still cats enough who jumped up on the table to take what they thought was their "rightful share," who refused to stay shooed. And between gentle remonstrances to their gluttony, and his reminiscing about his career, Lilycrop carried the conversation, while Alan guarded his plate with both elbows and nodded or grunted in agreement all during supper.
Then the dishes were removed, the table cloth snatched away and the cheese and port set out. Lilycrop poured himself a liberal measure and passed the decanter down, then patted his thinning hair and looked at Alan carefully, as he poured his own glass.
"Now, young sir," Lilycrop said after they had both lowered the levels in their glasses.
Here it is, Alan sighed, going stone cold inside.
"Tomorrow, we shall alter course. We've been out over two months, an' need to put into port for fresh supplies," Lilycrop said.
"Aye, sir," Alan nodded, nose deep in his glass again.
"Do it at first light, just after standin' down from dawn Quarters-no sense waitin' for sun sights, we know pretty well where we are, an' no hazards this far offshore."
"Aye, sir, I'll see to it," Alan replied, steeling himself for the blow. "Sir, I suppose… well, I have been doing a lot better in the last few weeks. Whatever you decide, I am grateful I had the chance to be a first officer, if only for a little while."
"What's this, you resignin'?"
"If you think that best, sir," Alan whispered. God, he thought, Lilycrop don't just want to chuck me, he wants me out of the Navy altogether!
"Don't know why you'd want to do a thing like that," Lilycrop told him, cocking his head to one side. "Thought you wanted to get on in the Navy. Can't do it if you cash in your chips on your first commission. Is it you're unhappy in Shrike?"
"I thought you wanted me to, sir," Alan stammered.
"Now why would I want a thing like that?"
"Because I'm bloody awful!"
"You are?" Lilycrop gaped. "Couldn't tell it by me."
"But… the way you've treated me the past two months, I never knew how I stood with you, sir, and…" Alan fumbled, feeling relief flush him like a quick rain-shower, and the beginnings of an anger that Lilycrop would string him along in this manner. "Damme, sir, you've had a good laugh at my every effort, and I've been on tenter-hooks all this time, waiting to let my guard slip and make some mistake, and…"