The Victory (41 page)

‘I understand, sir,' said Weston.

‘
I should like to take the opportunity of penning a few lines
to my wife,' Collingwood went on. Will you both excuse me?
I shall not detain you long. Smith, a glass of madeira for these gentlemen while they wait.’

Weston and Blackwood withdrew to the other side of the
great cabin, and Collingwood's servant brought the decanter
and glasses. 'What price glory, eh?' Blackwood murmured. 'I
give you a toast, Weston — to the crushing of the Combined
— but not until after we've got back!'

‘
How will the old man keep 'em in until reinforcements
arrive?' Weston pondered.

‘
The usual trick, I suppose,' said Blackwood. 'Signalling to
an imaginary fleet over the horizon. It may do to keep the
timid French in harbour for a few days.'

‘
They will need to refit, anyway, after so long at sea,'
Weston said, 'and there being no supplies will delay them.’

Blackwood nodded. 'All the same, those Spanish captains
are as proud as Lucifer. They'll want to fight, and if Ville
neuve don't overrule 'em, Old Cuddy may have to thrash 'em single-handed.’

Weston glanced across at his admiral's white head, bent over the letter he was scribbling to his wife and daughters
unimaginably far away amongst the ancient swards and trees
of his estate in green-and-grey Northumberland.

‘Well, he's the man to do it,' he said affectionately.

 
Lucy and Captain Haworth were strolling along the ramparts
at Portsmouth on the afternoon of 2 September, while Polly and Africa ran on ahead, the light sea-breeze tugging at the ribbons of their bonnets. The girls, after an initial period of
reserve, had become as friendly as their very different natures
would allow, and in lieu of any better pursuit they were quite
willing to talk and play with each other.

Lucy had remained in Portsmouth to enjoy Haworth's
company, rather than return to Plymouth to fret in solitude.
She found her brother-in-law a very soothing companion,
sensible, easy to talk to, understanding. She had always liked
him, from the first time Hannibal Harvey had introduced
him to Mary and her in Bath, and over the past ten days she
had come to feel very comfortable with him.

A woman in a bonnet and shawl coming towards them
smiled at the children, and then gave a sympathetic nod to
Lucy and Haworth as they strolled by arm-in-arm.

‘
She thinks we're all one family,' Lucy said when she had
passed. 'I wonder how many other people see us together and
think you and I are wed?'

‘
You've been all the mother Polly has ever had,' Haworth
observed, 'and done wonderfully well with her, too. I'm grate
ful to you. She is very much a lady, even at so young an age.’

Lucy shrugged. 'There's nothing to thank me for. Trotton looks after her manners and her education. In any case, she
doesn't need much teaching. She was always like that, even as
a baby. Chetwyn used to call her the Infant Alderman,
because she was always so solemn and proper.' She sighed. 'I
don't think I should make a very good mother if I had to
bring up my children myself.’

Haworth eyed her shrewdly. 'Should you like the oppor
tunity?’

For a moment Lucy was tempted to tell him everything
that was in her mind, but it was all too complicated, and she
evaded the intimacy. 'I should not, indeed!' she said quickly,
with a light laugh. 'I've always said sheep and horses had
much more interesting young.’

They paused and turned towards the sea, calm in the warm
afternoon sunshine. 'I shall be sorry when you have to go
back to sea,' she said after a moment.

‘
So shall I,' Haworth said. 'I could quite happily spend the rest of my life like this, walking in the sunshine with you on
my arm, watching my girls running about, healthy and happy.'

‘But don't you long to be back in the thick of it?'

‘
No, not any more. Two years of blockade service have
quite taken away my appetite: I've no relish for another
winter off Ushant. But one must go where duty calls. As long
as the threat to England remains, none of us sailors can rest
easy.’

Lucy looked at him affectionately. There was nothing
heroic or dashing in his appearance, and he spoke so quietly
and matter-of-factly about duty, and yet it was on him, and
others like him, that the safety of the country depended. They
were the real — and the unsung — heroes.

Will you have supper with me tonight at the Golden Lion,
Captain Haworth?' she asked abruptly. ‘I have a fancy to
broach a bottle of champagne, and one cannot drink
champagne alone.’

He smiled at her quizzically. 'Is there something to cele
brate?’

She tucked her hand under his arm and turned him to
walk on after the children. 'Nothing I could tell you about.’

It was while they were lingering over the remains of the
elegant supper Lucy had ordered in his honour, that a
commotion was heard downstairs, and not longer afterwards
there was a knocking on the door. Dipton opened it to reveal
the landlord, Tully, his wife, one of the tapsters, and some
assorted maids, all jostling one another in a state of great
excitement.

‘
News, m'lady, Captain!' Tully cried out. 'Wonderful news!
We just heard it from a post-boy what knows one of our lads,
m'lady, and I came straight up to tell you, knowing you'd
want to be the first to know. The Combined is found! They're
in Cadiz, all right and tight, and our Admiral Collingwood
sitting on 'em like a cork in a bottle to stop 'em coming out
again.'

‘
Cadiz?' cried Lucy, and Haworth caught her eye sympa
thetically.

‘
Praise be to God!' Mrs Tully said fervently. 'Now we can
sleep safe in our beds again!' Everyone began talking at once,
and Lucy had to raise her voice to be heard.

‘Who brought the news from Cadiz? What ship was it?'

‘
The
Euryalus,
m'lady, and Cap'n Blackwood's posted off to London as fast as he can go to tell Their Lordships. Now
they'll have to send Nelson, won't they, m'lady, and he'll
trounce 'em, like what that Calder should have done before,
the villain.'

‘Hanging's too good for that one,' Mrs Tully opined.

‘
It's excellent news, Tully,' Haworth said, seeing that Lucy
could not speak. 'It calls for celebration. Here's a drink for
yourself and your good wife. Confusion to the French!'

‘
Amen to that, sir!' said Tully, pocketing the coin
dextrously.

When they were alone again, Lucy said, 'What does it
mean, Haworth? Will this be an end to it?’

Haworth frowned. 'It's hard to say. Of course, it is wonder
ful news that the combined fleet has been found at last, and no doubt Barham will order ships there at once to reinforce
the blockade. But whether they will come out and fight is
another matter. They've never shewn themselves particularly
courageous before, and in this case, they may well just stay
put and try to outlast us. The blockade costs us dear, and
another winter of it may stretch our resources too thin.'

‘
That's how it seemed to me,' Lucy said. 'I suppose this
means you will be ordered back to sea very soon?'

‘
As soon as
Cetus
is out of dock, I imagine. Well, at least I
shall have the advantage this time of knowing where I'm
likely to be sent.'

‘
I can't think why Collingwood didn't send
Nemesis
with
the news,' she complained. 'She's the faster frigate.'

‘
I expect he had other urgent despatches,' Haworth said
comfortingly. 'Cheer up, Lucy! Let's drink a toast to the good
news, at any rate, and hope that the French are fools enough to come out again and give us battle.’

The thoughts of battle, however, seemed to bring Lucy
little comfort.

*

The
Nemesis made
Portsmouth only a week after
Euryalus,
by which time the First Lord, making use of the new system
of telegraphs along the south coast, had ordered the port
admirals of both Portsmouth and Plymouth to make ready all
the ships they could to send to Cadiz. Weston was told to
renew his ship's stores, and to hold himself in readiness to sail whenever his orders should arrive.

He had expected to have to send word to Plymouth for
Lucy, but an idler met him outside the port admiral's office to
tell him that her la'ship was waiting for him at the dockyard
gates. Weston patted his pockets for a shilling.

‘
Go back to her ladyship and give her my compliments.
Say that I must attend first to my ship, but that I hope to dine
with her. Have you got that?'

‘
Aye aye, Cap'n,' the man grinned, pocketing the shilling,
where it nestled against the half-crown Lucy had given him to
take her message and bring back the captain or a reply. 'Her
la'ship's staying at the Golden Lion, Cap'n,' he offered,
feeling a certain obligation to give value for money.

Dinner was not uppermost in Weston's mind when at last
he took Lucy in his arms in the familiar parlour at the Golden
Lion.

‘
How did you know I was coming?' he asked as soon as he
could speak.

‘
Blackwood told me,' Lucy said breathlessly. Her arms
were round his neck, and her fingers were hooked over his
coat-collar as if to ensure he was not snatched away from her
again. 'When he came back from London, he called on me to
tell me that you would be bringing the letters in from the
fleet.'

‘
Obliging of him. And how did you come to be here and not
in Plymouth?’

Lucy told him about Haworth and the girls.

‘
So I've a rival now, have I?' he said, kissing her eyes and
nose and revelling in the sweet smell of her which owed nothing to salt or tar.

‘Don't be silly,' Lucy said. 'How long can you stay?'

‘
How I wish that need not always be the first question! A
few days, at least, while we revictual. I have to hold myself
ready to sail, but I don't know when my orders will arrive. It's
possible they may keep me here until the new squadron is
ready to sail, or they may send me on ahead.'