Burning Bright (40 page)

Elinor shook her head, feeling that warm joy fill her chest again. “I am assigned to
Athena
, Captain,” she said.

Ramsay closed his eyes and gave an exaggerated sigh of relief. “I’m glad to hear it, because I told Dolph to set you a place at the table, and you know how I hate to look foolish.”

After her midday meal, where she related her conversations with Crawford and with Durrant and caused Ramsay nearly to choke on his mutton with laughter, Stratford took her into Hamilton for another shopping trip. She had chosen a gown and a nightdress before realizing she did not have sufficient funds to pay for them. Humiliated, she was about to hand them back to the shopkeeper when Stratford dipped into a little purse and put down a few coins. “Stratford!” she exclaimed. “I cannot accept! You ought not to spend your money on me.”

Stratford shook his head. “It’s your pay.”

“It is not. You are making things up so I will accept your charity.”

“It’s not charity either. Captain said, she should have drawn her pay weeks ago, probably doesn’t know she’s due it, don’t let her drink it all away.”

“
Stratford!”

“Thought that would draw you out. I made that last bit up, but the rest is true. I just forgot to give you it before.” He slapped the purse into her palm.

“I—but this seems too much.”

“I wouldn’t know, except I hear they pay Extraordinaries very well.”

“But I…made other arrangements for my remuneration.”

Stratford shrugged. “I wouldn’t know about that.”

Elinor felt the purse again. She was certain the Admiralty considered her eventual fifteen-thousand-pound payment in lieu of her salary as well as her prize money. This “pay” had come directly from Ramsay’s pocket.

Face burning, she watched the shopkeeper wrap her purchases in brown paper. She should not accept. More gratitude, making a barrier between them. What must he think of her, that she was so helpless? And yet there would be no point to confronting him; he would insist, with that infuriating calmness, that it was her pay, that she owed him nothing but a thank-you for having procured what was due her. She reached out to accept the parcel and had it taken from her by Stratford, who mock-scowled at her for not allowing him to be chivalrous and then returned them to
Athena
before she could object.

She folded the gown into her new trunk, looked at it for a little while, then closed the lid and stood there with her hand on it. She could not understand why this disturbed her so much. If the situation were reversed…she pictured herself paying for Ramsay’s uniform and smiled despite herself. It simply felt so…intimate, as if he had stood in the shop and paid for the gown himself. She simply could not accept; it was improper for her to accept such a gift even from her friend.

The alternative is that you continue to wear this shabby brown dress that no doubt makes you look like a streak of dirt, with those sun-browned hands and face,
she told herself
. How mean-spirited, to reject his friendship over something so insignificant.
She opened the trunk, removed the new gown and changed her clothes. If he could lie about the money, she could pretend she believed the lie. She refused to consider her disquiet more deeply.

She spent the rest of the afternoon reacquainting herself with
Athena
, cheerfully greeting the seamen who hailed her, spending half an hour watching Bolton and his mate repair damage from their last battle (“Would’ha gone quicker w’ you here, missie”), pretending pleasure at Selkirk’s effusive welcome. She avoided Livingston, though his expression disturbed her, made her reach for a memory she could not quite identify. Hays was quietly pleased to see her again and had stories of his travels in the hills of Jamaica, searching for
Nesopsar nigerrimus
and
Euphonia jamaica
.

She sat down to supper with Ramsay, Beaumont, Livingston, and Sampson Brown, the sailing master, and enjoyed even Livingston’s company, though he smirked unpleasantly when he caught her eye. She still had the feeling she was forgetting something when she looked at him. She was still thinking about it when Ramsay pushed back from the table and said, “Dolph, clear this away, and Mr. Beaumont, if you’d be so good as to bring out the big map.”

Elinor stood to move out of Dolph’s way and bumped into Livingston. “I beg your pardon,” she said, just as he said, “I beg your pardon” and stepped to one side, an unpleasant smile on his lips. Elinor pretended not to notice. He had the look of a man with a nasty secret who was waiting for someone to pay him not to reveal it. Well, whatever secrets he had were nothing to her.

Lord Copley himself took great pleasure in telling me where you were,
her father said in her memory.
Lord Copley wants great things for his son,
Ramsey had said.

The memories echoed so loudly that she was startled when the Ramsay of the present said, “Miss Pembroke, won’t you join us?” She nodded, too stunned to speak, and took her seat and leaned forward to examine the map of the Caribbean now spread on the table.

“This is the island where you discovered the pirates, Miss Pembroke,” Ramsay said, tapping the map near the eastern coast of Jamaica. “Admiral Durrant is correct that Evans will not have left anything that could be used to See his location, doubly so because he is himself an Extraordinary Seer. Arthur?”

Beaumont was sitting with his head tilted slightly back and his eyes wide open but sightless, indicating he was Speaking to someone. They all waited, Elinor somewhat impatiently, until Beaumont lowered his head and said, “That was Harris at Montego Bay. No unknown ships have passed in the last twenty-four hours. If Evans is going that way, they’d have seen him before now.”

“He might not have sailed within sight of land,” Livingston said.

“Also possible, Mr. Livingston,” Ramsay said, “which is why I’m not discounting the possibility that the pirates headed for Cartagena or Maracaibo. What’s important is that Evans had to leave in a hurry, and that should make him careless.

“So there are two ways we can track him. It is possible all the Brethren left in convoy, which means we’d be looking for four or five ships traveling together instead of a single ship, and that will make them much more visible. Unfortunately for us, Evans is clever, and it’s more likely he told his men to make their own way to wherever the new hiding place is.”

“Which makes him virtually impossible to find,” Livingston said with a sneer.

“But thanks to Miss Pembroke,” Ramsay said, “we know something about the Brethren’s ships, namely, that one of Evans’ fellow Brethren has a captured Navy ship, one of our fifth-rates like
Athena
. The Fleet of the Americas isn’t large, and our ship movements are known to the Speaker reticulum to facilitate their information gathering. Which means our second method of tracking Evans, and the more likely method, is to look for Navy ships in places where no Navy ship should be.”

“I thought Admiral Durrant was going to do this,” Elinor said.

“He is. He’s also not going about it quickly.” Ramsay pushed his hair back from his face. “Admiral Durrant is an excellent tactician, and despite our disagreements I have always respected his successes in this war. However, he can be overly cautious, and he doesn’t like innovation. He’ll send word to the Speaker reticulum to keep their eyes open for unknown ships, and if they turn up anything, he’ll act on it, but he won’t put any more effort into it than that. If we can locate Evans’ new stronghold, however we manage it, he’ll put up a token resistance and then act on it as if it was his own idea.”

“You hope. Sir,” Livingston said.

“I am certain of it, Lieutenant,” Ramsay said, his voice going cool. Elinor, watching Livingston closely, saw his lip curl briefly before he nodded his acknowledgement of Ramsay’s authority.

Beaumont threw his head back again, and Ramsay and Livingston went silent, waiting. Elinor kept her eyes on Livingston, her hands clenched in her lap under the table. He dared—

“Durham at Santiago de Cuba,” Beaumont said, and he was smiling. “An unscheduled Navy frigate passed the observation point, traveling east, yesterday evening exactly at sunset.”

Ramsay jabbed his finger at the map. “Right there, going east. Gentlemen, any predictions?”

They all leaned over the map. Elinor peered beneath their arms, slightly annoyed.

“Could be anywhere along the coast of Cuba,” Beaumont said. “Any Spanish port would give the pirates shelter.”

“That would make them impossible to find,” said Livingston.

“Let’s assume for now that this is not impossible,” Ramsay said. He traced a line along the map. “Most of Saint-Domingue is still in turmoil; Evans could take advantage of that. There are any number of coves along that coast.”

“Could they have reached Port-au-Prince?” said Livingston. “Based on how fast they were traveling…yes,” he said, answering his own question.

“No one’s seen them there, but as the captain said, they’re—excuse me,” Beaumont said, and tilted his head back again.

“I still say we should be looking at the Cuban coast,” Livingston said. “Isn’t there someone at Ymia?”

“I don’t believe Mr. Beaumont knows that Speaker, unfortunately,” said Ramsay. “If his other contacts know nothing, I will have to visit Admiralty House in the morning and see what I can discover. Still, Mr. Livingston, we have eliminated the west as their possible destination, and I call that success.”

“Mole Saint Nicolas, Captain,” said Beaumont, “and they saw an unknown frigate pass going eastward at seven a.m. today.”

Ramsay and Livingston exchanged glances, their mutual animosity forgotten for the moment. “Saint-Domingue?” Livingston said.

“They’re traveling fast,” Ramsay said. “They might be going as far as Puerto Rico.”

“We’re never going to find them. The Speaker reticulum doesn’t extend all the way eastward along the northern coast of Saint-Domingue.”

“Don’t lose hope yet, Mr. Livingston. Arthur, what about Port de Paix?”

“Westin’s not responding, Miles. I think he has the late watch and he won’t be awake for another hour.”

“I see. I suppose this means we will wait. Mr. Livingston, would you mind taking over for Mr. Fitzgerald on the quarterdeck? We’ll call you when there’s news.”

Livingston’s lip curled, just enough to be a sneer without being insubordinate, but he nodded and left the room. When he had left the room, Ramsay closed his eyes and said, “If I were a swearing man, which I am not, I think I could blister the paint off the wall right now.”

Elinor giggled. He looked down at her, raised his eyebrows and said, “Should I bring you a tankard of grog, Miss Pembroke?”

“It is not as if you actually swore in front of me, Captain. I hardly think my amusement makes me indelicate.”

“Miles, you will have to do something about him,” Beaumont said. “The men have started to notice and it’s hurting morale. They’re going to think you’re weak.”

“If you have a suggestion, I’d like to hear it.”

Beaumont shook his head. “Send him before the mast. Strip him of rank for a few weeks. Or months. Confine him to quarters. Have him flogged.”

“There are political problems with all of those suggestions.”

Elinor pushed back from the table. “Please excuse me, gentlemen, I think I will take a short walk if we are to wait an hour for further information.”

She went up on deck and stood for a moment, breathing the night air mixed with
Athena
’s distinctive scent of canvas and tar and something indefinable she had never smelled anywhere else. It seemed the day had one more confrontation in it.

She moved past the wheel and the mizzenmast to join Livingston where he stood near the rail. “Mr. Livingston, good evening,” she said.

Livingston continued to gaze out over the rail. “I suppose you’re ecstatic to be back on this hulk.”

“I would take issue with two of those words, but I feel so much gratitude toward you, I cannot find it in me to argue semantics.”

He looked down at her, confused. “Gratitude?”

“Yes. Have you not heard? My father came to Admiralty House this morning. Someone had told him where I was, and he came to take me back to London.”

Livingston smiled at her, nastily. “Did he now? I’m sure that was distressing.”

“Oh, for a moment only. You see, I have never been able to stand up to my father. Not until today. It’s liberating, not being afraid anymore.”

The nasty smile disappeared. “I don’t see why you owe me gratitude,” he said.

Elinor put a confiding hand on his arm. “It was something my father said,” she told him. “About how Lord Copley was so very obliging as to tell him where I was. And I thought, why would the Viscount care about me at all? Then I remembered—he is your father, is he not? So, of course,
you
must have told him.”

Livingston pulled his arm from her grasp. “I think you are confused,” he said.

“And
I
think you are not a fool,” Elinor said. “You dislike me. You thought to ruin me by telling the world where I was. You succeeded, Mr. Livingston. My reputation is shattered beyond repair. When I return to England, as I eventually must, it will be to near-universal disapprobation. So you may congratulate yourself on having succeeded at your goal.”