The Hawk (4 page)

'Exact! That is why – ' Rennie cut him off with a sharply
raised hand.

'A great deal of money!' A breath sucked in, and he shook
his head. 'Their Lordships are not fools, you know, James.
They know what killing copper would mean. It would mean
loss. Pernicious, ruinous, terrible loss for a great many
interested parties, and great trouble. Their view – and I
cannot say that I do not understand it – their view must surely
be, why seek out such trouble . . . where none exists?'

'So our paint is to be condemned out of hand? Even when
it answers the question of worm and corruption infinitely
better than copper?' Furiously.

'Damnation, James, you force me to condemn your own
blockhead stupidity! Will you argue and dispute with Sir
Charles Middleton, Navy Controller, the man behind
coppering? Will you fight him, that has himself fought tooth
and nail to sheath the whole fleet? You, a junior sea officer,
against all his power, all the power and might of the Navy
Board, that in turn has the full confidence of Their
Lordships? Do you want to fight the Royal Navy entire, you
bloody fool!'

'Then – then – what
am
I to do?'

'Do! Go to London, without the loss of a moment! Accept
your commission, and your first command, with open arms
and a glad heart!'

'
How can I
?' burst out James in an agony of frustration.

'How can I accept anything from these men, that have ruined
and humiliated me? Hey!'

Rennie laughed, throwing back his head in mirthless
disbelief. 'By God, you cannot see, you will not see.'

'See?' Pacing, shaking his head. 'See
what
?'

'You disappoint me, James. For a well-educated, levelheaded,
perceptive fellow, you're as dull as an ox. They are
saying to you – here is your reward.'

'My
reward
?'

'Aye, aye, you fool! They are saying – we could not accept
your bloody paint, even had we wished it. However, we know
ye've strove at it, and believed in it, and so we will like to
compensate you for your trouble. Here is a ship. Here is a
commission. Take it, with our blessing.'

James stopped pacing. 'You think that . . . ? Oh, but I could
not. No, I cannot.' Setting his mouth in a firm line.

'Christ Jesu. Why
not
?'

'It is bribery.'

'Ahh. That is your objection.'

'It is an honourable one.'

'James, you came to see me here at Norfolk to ask for my
advice, did y'not? What did you hope for? What did you hope
that I would tell you?'

'Well, sir – '

'Did you hope that I would aid you in your dispute with
Their Lordships? Take up your case, like some damned
lawyer? – I beg your pardon, your brother is a lawyer, I had
forgot.'

'I do not know quite what I had hoped for, to say the truth.
I was in a muddle. I wished – I wished to talk to a fellow sea
officer, and discover another opinion, I suppose.' He
shrugged, and sighed, and looked at Captain Rennie. 'I see
now that I must make my own way in this. I had no right to
expect – '

'Oh, now, what's this?' Gravely, kindly, changing tack.
'You may not ask anything of an old friend? Pish pish, James.
That is nonsense.' He turned away a moment to the window,
then:

'How much is the debt?'

'Eh?'

'You said that you had put up five thousand. Was all of it
your own capital – or did you borrow against future profit?
You spoke of a debt.'

'I borrowed two thousand pound.'

'And the interest on that amount, for one year?'

'Two hundred, I think. Why do you ask?'

'I will let you have it.'

'Good heaven, that is quite out of the question! I could not
possibly accept! I did not come here to beg, and I could not
possibly accept!' Agitated, very red in the face.

'I will let you have it, on one condition. That you go at
once to London, accept your commission, then take the mail
coach to Portsmouth direct, and assume command of your
cutter.'

James drew a breath, and was about to speak, but instead
held the breath in, and strode away down the room. Angrily
strode, and stood with his hands clasped behind. Captain
Rennie waited, perfectly at his ease. At last:

'I will pay you back. I will pay back every penny, with
interest.' James, returning. 'I wish it to be absolutely understood
between us.'

'In course, James.' Rennie, mildly. 'It is understood.' He
shook James's hand, smiled, and:

'Jenny! Jenny! My guest is in a hurry to be away! Pack his
valise and bring it down, then tell the boy to bring his horse!
Lively now! He has not a moment to lose!'

'Captain Rennie!'

'Good God – Sir Robert.' Rennie stopped in his tracks.

'You are surprised? You had not expected to see me?' Sir
Robert Greer brushed the grass with the ferrule of his ebony
cane.

'I – I am surprised, I confess.' Rennie looked round for a
carriage, and could not see it.

'In course I had never meant to catch you inadvertent. I
had never meant to startle nor disconcert you. Nay, my
purpose in coming here was merely to reacquaint myself with
Norfolk, a county I have found charming on earlier
occasions.'

'You know this part of the county?'

'You may imagine my surprise when I discovered that you
had taken a house in this very district. I could scarce contain
my curiosity to see it.'

'Indeed?'

'A handsome house.' Nodding at it, then: 'I have been
unwell. You may have heard something about it?'

'I had not, Sir Robert.'

'Ah. Had you not? I was, though. I was very ill for a time.
But now I am quite recovered.'

'I – I am glad.' Politely, his hat off and a little bow.

'Not nearly so glad as am I, I assure you. Yes, I was much
cast down, for a time.'

'Indeed?'
'Yes, I had a stone.' A black, menacing stare. 'It had to be
cut out of me.'

'Very painful, I should think.'

'The surgeon was quick, very quick. Sir Wakefield
Bennett, a most remarkable man, the King's own physician.'

'I have heard the name.'

'So swift was his incision, so quick his removal of the stone,
that I scarce felt anything. In course I was given paregoric
before, and after too. Within a day or two I was a new man,
and now I am strong.' Another black stare. 'Very strong,
now.'

'I am glad.' Again politely.

'Are you? I wonder if you are, Captain Rennie. I think that
you cannot be glad, altogether. Hey?'

'I do not take your meaning, Sir Robert.' Stiffly.

'Do not you? Ah.' The bloodless lids masked the eyes a
moment, then slid back. 'You will discover my meaning
before long, I think.' The black stare seemed to penetrate
Rennie's skin. 'Since I am staying hereabouts, we may very
probably meet again.' He made to turn and depart, then as if
on an afterthought: 'In truth, you would aid me in my
enquiries by granting me an interview – very soon.'

'If you mean, Sir Robert, that you wish to pursue me in the
offence of treason, of which you had wrongly accused me – '

'You had not forgot, then?' Over him, then a glance at
Rennie's house. 'Perhaps, however, you had persuaded
yourself that I would forget. Yes?' The black eyes returned to
Rennie.

'I had not thought anything about it, Sir Robert, until this
moment. Living quiet here in Norfolk as I do, my thoughts
in usual are bent on gentler things, rural and bucolic things.'

'Had persuaded yourself', continued Sir Robert, 'that I
would forget, when I was took ill. Yes, I think that is likely so.'

'Sir Robert, I did not know you was ill. How could I,
therefore, have persuaded myself of anything of the kind?'
With an effort of will Rennie kept his tone conversational,
and mild.

'Ah, yes, yes. You did say that you had heard nothing of my
affliction, yes. Hm. I do not like to doubt the word of an
officer' – he did not say gentleman – 'but again I ask myself,
can this be quite true?'

Rennie sniffed in a deep breath. 'Sir Robert, I am in course
duty-bound to talk to you at any time that is convenient,
except the present. I am to dine nearby, and I will not like to
keep my host waiting.' Briskly putting on his hat.

'Dine? Ah, then I must not keep you. – You do not ride
there, to your host's house?'

'I am going to walk there.'

'Is it far?'

'Middingham.'

'The village? Why, that is where I am staying, myself. Let
us walk there together.'

'Sir Robert, I have no wish to be rude, but you oblige me
to be blunt. Months since, you accused me of treason,
wrongly accused me, and made clear your object – to see me
hanged. And yet you propose that we walk amiable across the
fields, as if we was bosom friends?'

'If not quite that, then civilized men, in least. Conversable
men.'

'You think it a matter for jest? To threaten a man with
execution, and then to pretend – '

'Jesting was the furthest thing from my mind, Captain
Rennie.' Over him, and his gaze again grew menacing. He
tapped the ground twice with the ferrule of his cane, and:
'Will tomorrow suit? In the forenoon?'

'As you wish, Sir Robert.' Icily polite.

'Very good. Pray come to me at Middingham Court. You
know it?'

'I know the house.'

'Eleven o'clock.' Sir Robert turned away without another
word, lifted his cane, and a sociable and pair emerged from
behind trees in the middle distance, driven forward by a man
in livery.

On the morrow Rennie did go to Middingham Court, even
though he had decided in the night to defy Sir Robert – and
then abandoned the idea when he rose at first light, having
lain sleepless from midnight when he returned from Mr
Rountree's dinner.

To reach Middingham Court he was obliged to walk
through the village. He made his way along the main street,
known as Borrow Walk, a narrow thoroughfare of uneven
cobbles winding between little flint-and-brick dwellings and
half-timbered houses with leaded windows, and two inns.
One of these inns, the Plough, was known to Rennie as an
hostelry where uncommonly good cooking could be had, and
well-kept ale, for a few pennies. He did not think of that
cooking now as he passed the inn, nor did he answer the good
morning of the innkeeper, who stood in his leather apron in
the square arched gateway to the stable yard. Rennie did not
see him. He did not hear him. His mind and senses were
closed to all things except what lay ahead at the great house.

Today Rennie was wearing his dress coat and hat, and his
tasselled dress sword. Jenny the maid had brushed and
polished and pressed, and Rennie was confident that he
looked his best. He would be damned if he would allow Sir
Robert Greer to humiliate him. He would remind Sir Robert
that in accusing him he accused a sea officer serving His
Majesty, a senior post captain with an entirely honourable
record of service. He would not be pompous, nor arrogant,
nor harsh and strident in his assertion of these things, but by
God he would be forthright and firm. He would remind Sir
Robert, the bloody fellow, that the Royal Navy was a plainspeaking
service, and that all officers were obliged to . . . but
was this verging on pomposity?

'I will not allow him the satisfaction of finding me
ridiculous. I must be brief in my objections, brief and clear,
and leave it at that.'

He came to the house, which stood back from the road
behind a red-brick wall and a tall iron gate with arms
embossed on an iron shield above. The house was of red
brick, with a steep gabled roof and two mansard windows set
in the tiles. A central chimney boasted five narrow pots.
There were six windows on the upper storey, and five below,
and a door with a stone architrave. The rear bay of the house
lay in the shadows of spreading elms. The drive curved
gracefully away from the gate round a central lawn planted
with low bushy shrubs and trees. It was a handsome, solidbuilt
old house, grave in its demeanour, composed and
dignified in its setting. Had not he been coming here under
such difficulty Rennie would have admired the house
unreservedly. As things were he felt there was an ominous
atmosphere, a gloomy air about the place, hanging in the
earthy smell of leaves and shrubs, and he could not like it. In
spite of his determination to be forthright and straight-
backed, his heart shrivelled within his breast, and his guts
were chilled. He stepped through the gate and along the
drive, his shoes crunching the gravel. Went up the single
stone step to the door, and knocked.

Presently he was shown into the library, a wide blue room,
and left alone. He did not sit down, but paced the room, his
hat under his arm. Tall shelves housed hundreds of goldimpressed,
leather-bound books. The quiet of the room was
made almost sombre by the slow, subdued tick of a longcase
clock at the far end. A side window there was tinged green by
shrubbery pushing against the glass, as if to break through it.
Another window, on the opposite side, overlooked an inner
paved court. The day was sunny and mild, but in here the air
was chill, and Rennie wished that a fire had been lit. He paced
the room, and paused in front of a whole-length portrait of a
full-figured, imposing man in the clothes of half a century ago
– wide-cut, wide-sleeved plum coat, long, elaborately
decorated, green silk waistcoat, white silk stock with jewelled
pin, shoulder-touching wig – and with the steady gaze of one
entirely aware of his position in the world, and the fullness of
his purse. Away down the room the clock whirred, and struck
eleven. As the chimes died:

'Captain Rennie, you are punctual.'

Startled, Rennie turned. He had not heard Sir Robert
come into the room. The fellow had a way of appearing
abruptly in a place as if by some sinister magic.

'Good morning, Sir Robert.'

'Not only punctual, neither – but dressed in your finery.'