"What has Felicity made of him, would be a fairer question! " He took her arm. "Come-the cliff walk. I never tire of it. You can tell me about your plans for the estate as we go."
Allday closed the door as they walked out into the garden and down towards the small gate.
He tried not to think about the girl at the inn. What had he expected? How could he have hoped to marry her and still serve Bolitho at sea? The questions were still unanswered when he found Ozzard making his way to the kitchen, where he sometimes helped Mrs Ferguson with her duties.
"Did you see the lad who came about joining the service?"
Ozzard frowned. "He's a dark one, I shouldn't wonder. Why did he quit the East India Company-that's what I'd like to know before I gave him any authority! "
Allday sighed. It had been good to see Bolitho and his lady walking together, but it only added to his own sense of being unwanted, with nothing useful to do until the next orders came. Even that prospect gave him no satisfaction.
He said half to himself, "If only she'd waited."
Ozzard turned on him with unexpected fury. "Wait? They never bloody well wait, any of 'em, and the sooner you get that through your skull the better- matey! "
Allday stared after him with astonishment. Usually there was none milder. So he wasn't the only one with troubles after all.
It was, many proclaimed, one of the best summers anyone could remember. The crops, like the lambing, had done well, and even the coastal fishermen were not heard to complain. But for the absence of young men around the farms and in the streets of Falmouth, they might have been at peace.
The news of the war was sparse and, apart from some reports of French men-of-war being sighted near Biscay and then only in small numbers, it was as if the whole enemy fleet had been swallowed up. Bolitho sometimes thought of the French frigate which had been sheltering at Good Hope, or the coded letters they had found aboard the slaver Albacora. Was it part of an over-all plan, or were these ship movements and occasional attempts to breach the tightly-stretched English blockade merely at the whim of their local commanders?
He had spoken infrequently of his thoughts to Catherine because she was preparing herself in her own way for the inevitable. When it came on the last day of August she said quietly, "It is a part of your life which I cannot share; no woman can. But whatever it is, Richard, wherever duty takes you, I shall be with you."
They had been riding along the cliffs and unlike other times they had said very little, had been content with each other's nearness. They had found the little cove again, where they had made love so passionately and had cast all inhibitions to the sea-breezes. This time they had dismounted but remained on the cliff, holding the
horses' heads, then touching hands in silence. It was as if they had both known. As Catherine had sensed the nearness of his ship when it had sailed on to Portsmouth.
When they had entered the stable-yard Bolitho had seen Allday waiting by the door.
Allday looked first at Catherine, then at him. "Th' courier's been an' gone, Sir Richard."
Perhaps he too had been expecting it. He might even have been willing it to come. To be at sea again, serving the one who meant more to him than any other living soul. Doing what he had given his life to.
Now, with the late afternoon sunshine casting almost horizontal beams across the big room, the house seemed strangely silent as Bolitho slit open the heavy, red-sealed envelope with the Admiralty fouled anchor in its corner.
She stood with her back to him, her straw hat dangling from her hand, watching the garden, trying to remain calm perhaps, with the taste of the salt air on her lips. Like dried tears.
He laid down the letter and said, "Apparently I am being given a squadron." He watched her turn towards him as he added, "Eventually. Also a new flagship."
She crossed the room in quick strides, her hat falling unheeded to the floor. "Does that mean we are not to be parted yet?" She waited for him to hold her. "Just tell me that is so! "
Bolitho smiled. "I must go to London." He tightened his hold, feeling the warmth of her body against his own. "We shall go together, if that is what you want."
She nodded. "I understand what you mean. What to expect from some quarters." She saw the pain in his grey eyes and touched his face. "I knew your thoughts just now about your next flagship. She will not be your old Hyperion. But she is safe from those who would dishonour her by turning her into a hulk after all her years of
service."
He stroked her hair. "You read me like a book, Kate. I was thinking that. The new ship is named Black Prince and is completing fitting-out at the Royal Dockyard, Chatham. I will take you there, too… I don't want to lose you for a moment! "
She seated herself near the great fireplace, now empty but with the dark stains of countless winter evenings on the stonework. While Bolitho moved about the room she watched him, saying nothing which might distract him or interrupt his thoughts. This was the other man whom she cherished so dearly so possessively Once, he paused in his restless pacing and looked at her, but she knew he had not seen her.
He said suddenly, "I shall ask for a good flag captain. I will insist."
She smiled sadly. "You are thinking of Valentine Keen?"
He walked over to her and took her hands. "Once more, you are right. He is not yet called into service again; and it is not like Val not to have announced the day chosen for their marriage. Strange, too, that Zenoria has not written to you." He shook his head, his mind made up. "No, I would not request that he continues as my flag captain. Neither of them would thank me for that! " He squeezed her hands. "Like me, Val was late in finding the right woman with whom to share his life."
She looked up at him, seeing the light in his eyes. "When we are in London will you promise to see that surgeon? For me, if for no other reason."
He smiled. It was what he had asked of Tyacke. "If time allows." He let out a sigh. "We have to leave for London in two days. How I loathe that journey… the only one in the world which gets longer every time! "
She stood up and looked around the quiet room. "Such memories. Without these past weeks I do not think I could have faced this news. But now it is home to me. It will always be waiting." She faced him and added, "And do not fret over Val and his Zenoria. It is not long since they came together. They will want time to arrange matters, and then they will tell us."
She dragged him to the window and exclaimed, "And if time allows-" She saw him grin as she attempted to mimic his words, "I shall show you some different sights in London so that you will not feel so gloomy each time you visit the Lords of Admiralty."
They walked out into the garden and to the wall where the small gate opened on the path to the stile and the cliff. Where she had come to meet him on that first night.
She said eventually, "And you must not worry about me while you are gone. I would never stand between you and your ships. You are mine, so I am part of them too."
Ozzard watched them from an upstairs window where he had been polishing some pewter dishes for Mrs Ferguson. He did not turn as Allday entered the room but remarked, "We're off again then?"
Allday nodded and massaged his chest as the old ache returned. "Aye. 'Tis London first though." He chuckled. "Just happened to hear it."
Ozzard began to polish a dish he had already shone to perfection. He looked troubled, but Allday knew better than to disturb his thoughts. Instead he said, "She's the Black Prince, brand-new second-rate of ninety-four guns. Bit larger than we've got used to, eh? Like a palace, an' that's no error! "