"Such things as what?" asked William, although he guessed he knew. Sam did not bother to reply. He touched William lightly on the arm.
"Look, friend, what do you hope to win by it, in any case? So we saw these young women, and we rendered some help to them, and you went all mooncalf over Deb on her looks alone, you booby. And now you've seen her in the natural and so what? Do you intend to marry her, for the sake of Hades? Or merely jam your club in her, like a normal Christian? But Will, she's toothless now! So why go back? Surely you don't want mating with a toothless crone!"
It was so harsh and thoughtless, that William could not reply. He hardly knew himself, to tell the truth, but he was moved, he was truly anxious for Deb's fate, for both the girls'. Anxious? Moved? And still the image of her nakedness burned in his mind, and shamefully he was glad that that transcendent beauty had not been Cecily's but ... oh great heavens, thought Will; I am cracked indeed.
"Look," said Samuel, 'let's go home and think this over, shall we? I'm cold, it's late, we've had our drink and meat and whoring -well, I have, what you've achieved the lord in heaven knows! We can't get in there now without a row, and you've no idea if we did, what we would try to do, have you? Spirit them away? Kidnap them? Take them back to Biter and install them in the captain's cabin? We'll come back tomorrow, if you're mad enough. It boils down to this: if you want her, pay for her. That's the way it works, my friend."
"But she isn't whoring!"
"Bah!"
"Nay, Mistress Margery said she was a virgin, being kept for higher things."
"Aye, gums and all! Will, you are drunk so I forgive you. If Deb was a virgin six months before we first clapped eyes on her, I will kiss your arse and eat your hat. She is here for sale, man, they all are. That is how they earn their bread, I've told you, that is how they live. We pay to use their bodies, or they die. No more, the Biter's miles away and I need sleep. Or a drink, at least. We will drink when we get back on board, to drive this from your mind. This rank insanity."
Will was drunk, and he did get drunker before he slept. Holt too, although not as drunk as he, and they prattled on about love and things for some long time. Sam's angle was heartening in one way, but disheartened him also. No shame should be allowed to taint sex dealings with the fair, he said, because it was natural and inevitable and necessary, females as much as males knew that, and tried to use it for their own ends if they could. But sentiment and strong attachment call it love? was a toy for idle men, or very wealthy, and in any case largely a delusion and a snare. What Will had, he insisted, was a strong dose of new-grown lustiness, like a young bull turned into a field of season heifers after a winter growing up. You have the money in your pocket, he wound up. Buy her, if you have to. If you like suppurating gums!
Will went to sleep in a torment, their dark, partitioned den turning giddily each time he closed his eyes. He believed Sam yet did not, he thought he would buy Deb then could not bear the thought, he could see her lovely body in great clearness, but could recall her face only as being of great beauty, with eyes that had called out to him. And also, Margery had said she was a virgin, not for sale, though Sam had shrieked at that, from great experience. As he slid to sleep he thought he would go back and buy her but, what for? But definitely ... he must.
The short drop downriver to the loading wharf at Woolwich passed off uneventfully, and Lieutenant Kaye by what miracle no one knew was there before them, and had bespoke a berth and loaders, even a launch to help tow and nudge the Biter in, all sail doused beforehand, no need for kedges, all smart and shipshape enough for the greatest stickler in the land. Also miraculous, the balls and powder were to hand, not hidden in a distant magazine by some grumpy clerk, and the loading crews pitched in with a will. For the next few hours the Biter was a veritable hive, which set the men a-grumbling, sure enough. Dame Rumour too; for by early evening it was noised 'for definite' that they sailed that very night. William, when he heard it, was strangely hollowed out. He had avoided thought on the Deb problem all afternoon, but now it seemed he could not seek her, willy-nilly; which doubled his desire and determination.
"Can it be true?" he asked of Sam, as they stood sweating in the waist. The shot and powder was all stowed, and some cable Kaye had had brought in by lighter was being snaked below into the cable tier. "Have you had a hint of it, at all?"
"Not I," Sam replied. "Which means exactly nothing, does it not? We'll have a useful ebb till about the forenoon watch tomorrow, so it makes sense if he has a reason to be out there." Will's face was blank, so he explained his thought. "Sometimes we get intelligence from an agent or a tout. A ship is in the offing full of useful men, perhaps. Kaye gets his fee for each man he takes, and good information's worth a cut of that, d'you see? He must have some sort of network, all the time he spends ashore!"
"But are we ready? We have shot and powder, but I thought we needed food and water."
Sam grinned, but almost sympathetically.
"Hell, man, if we do go we'll be soon back. I've told you, Kaye loves a bed that only moves when he does, not the ship. We can go out half-watered and with naught to give the dogs but tack, because we stay so close to rendezvous. She'll still be there, you know, whenever you turn up." The grin hardened. "And still a virgin, naturally!"
Will, though, was like the people on this score, despite he did not join their muttering. They were paid to sail, were fed and lived on board, but could hardly bear the thought of casting off and going from the shore. He gazed on Woolwich - a bleak, unfriendly aspect, as bleak as man could wish and he wished he were on shore there, or better still, pulling upriver with a handy crew. Deb filled his mind, sometimes naked, sometimes wet and draggled in the rain. Come what may from it, he had to see her, had to test the truth. It was a pro bono act, he told himself, he must find out if she had suffered from some crime again, if she was being held against her will and needed aid or succour. A slight warm glow from that, until he realised he gave no thought at all to Cecily, who was as deeply injured. So clear the mind, and work.
At the end of the first dog watch, Lieutenant Kaye let it be known, with no formality at all, that they would finish all the stowing and the overhauling of all gear that evening, and would slip moorings and away at eight bells in the first midnight's witching hour. The grumbling increased, both from the Navy men and Gunning's crew, both sets as confident that there would be no retribution from their slack captain. There was a certain grudging admiration for his method, though. He had brought them down to hell-on-earth (or Woolwich), too far for most of them to hope to reach their stamping grounds to drink before they sailed. Added to that, enough gear and clutter still about the ship to give them three or four clear hours' work. William felt merely miserable.
A half an hour later, Kaye put the cap on it by disappearing, first to public stairs obscured from the powder wharves, then by four-oar wherry to the heart of London. Most strangely, he vouchsafed the news only to the so-called tutor, Kershaw, who stammered as he passed it on to Holt.
"The man is crazy," Holt said to William. "Kershaw's crazy too, the whole damn lot of them are crazy. Apparently, it is a secret to be kept from Gunning, in case he takes it into his own head to go off drinking, too. Kaye insists he'll be back on board for midnight, no argument. And pigs can dance the Irish jig!"
"So are you on for it?" said William. They were standing by the rail, and dark clouds were moving from the west, high and majestic. "For God's sake, Sam, I'm going to go!"