The Victory (7 page)

Before Haworth could reply, the door opened and Hicks
announced Admiral Collingwood. He was preceded into the
room by his little white terrier, Bounce, who rushed forward
to greet Lucy with such enthusiasm that Jeffrey, who had
drawn himself up warily at the first sight of him, jumped
from Weston's lap in affront and made a rapid ascent to the
top of the nearest bookcase.

Collingwood bowed over Lucy's hand and received the
cordial greetings of the other two officers. He was a slender,
handsome man, with finely-chiselled features and gravely
beautiful eyes which a woman might have envied. He had
been at sea since he was eleven, and out of the last forty-two
years had spent no more than six or seven on shore. He was a
consummate seaman, a superb tactician, and from having
spent most of his life fighting the French one way and
another, he had developed an almost uncanny way of know
ing what they were about to do next. He was also one of the
few captains who could keep order entirely without the use of
the cat; it was said a look of censure from him hurt his jacks a
great deal more than the lash.

‘
What was it you were discussing when I came in?' Colling
wood asked Lucy as he took the seat opposite her. 'I thought I
heard you mention the education of females? It's of all
subjects the dearest to my heart.'

‘
I was enjoining Captain Haworth to make sure that both
his girls were properly taught,' Lucy said. 'Too many men
seem to think that education doesn't matter for girls, and let them scramble into whatever learning they can get for them
selves without troubling anyone. But that's not our way —
not the Morland way.'

‘
Dear Lucy, don't you think Haworth knows that?' Weston
laughed. 'Didn't he marry your sister Mary?'

‘
I was taught Latin, Greek, mathematics, astronomy,
history, and the natural sciences,' Lucy went on, 'and I am
determined my girls will learn them too. Not,' she added
frankly, 'that Flaminia shews much promise in anything but
drawing. But that isn't the point.'

‘
I do so agree with you,' Collingwood said. 'It is quite a
hobby-horse of mine. I am at pains to have my own dear girls
learn the same subjects as are taught to boys. I wish I could be
more often at home to supervise their education,' he added
sadly, 'but I have been so little ashore since they were
born ...'

‘
Well, sir, you will find no contrary argument in this room,'
Weston said, 'but I think the majority of people would claim
that too much education for females does not conduce to a
proper delicacy of mind.'

‘
And I would say to them,' the admiral rejoined firmly,
‘that ignorance can never be conducive to delicacy. How can
you instruct a girl to love God, when you give her no means
of understanding the astonishing miracle of His creation?’

Weston bowed. 'As I said, sir, none of us would disagree
with you. Haworth and I have both had the honour of loving
educated women.'

‘
Morland women,' Haworth added with a smile. 'There's
something special about them. If my daughters grow up like their mother, I shall have nothing to regret except, like you,
Admiral, that I have not been able to spend more time with
them.'

‘
You have your ship, I understand, Captain Haworth?'
Collingwood said.

‘
I have, sir, though I don't know for how long. But if she
doesn't sink under me, I can look forward to a leisurely cruise
off Brest this summer.’

Everyone smiled at this reference to the most treacherous stretch of water in Europe, and Collingwood said, 'We shall
all have our work cut out, soon enough. It's no secret that
Buonaparte has sworn to invade England, and only by
continuous vigilance will we be able to hold him. Blockade
duty is hard and tedious, but essential.’

Haworth nodded gravely, having done his share of it before
the peace, and Collingwood looked enquiringly at Weston and
went on, 'But you, Captain? I understand you're still waiting
for your commission.'

‘
Their Lordships haven't found a use for me yet, sir,'
Weston assented.

‘
I suppose a dashing young officer like yourself must be longing for a frigate,' Collingwood said with a smile and a
glance at Lucy, who lifted her hands in an involuntary
gesture which did not escape the admiral's eye. 'But I don't
think there's any harm in telling you that there's some doubt
in Admiralty circles as to what is best to be done with you.'

‘Sir?' said Weston, a little anxiously.

‘
Intelligent officers are always needed at the Admiralty
itself. I understand you had a shore appointment during the
late conflict, and acquitted yourself very creditably.’

Weston and Lucy both stared at him, straining their senses
to understand. Was he saying, then, that it was not moral
disapproval which had kept Weston from being given a ship,
but a doubt as to whether he might not be better employed on
the Admiralty staff? And if that were so, could he, ought he to
resist? It was a great honour to be considered in that special
capacity; and to be on shore was to be with Lucy. But for a
sailor the first longing is always to be at sea. Weston was torn,
and his face shewed it.

‘
I am Their Lordships' to command,' he said at last in as
neutral a tone as he could manage. 'Wherever I will be most
useful —'

‘
Of course,' Collingwood said, but he was looking at Lucy,
and his soft Northumberland burr was softer than ever as he
said, 'but every young officer wants a frigate, doesn't he?’

Lucy, still fondling Bounce's ridiculous ears, met the
admiral's eyes in a moment of complete sympathy; and then
the door was opened again to admit Hicks and a new influx of
visitors, whose arrival must change the subject.

‘Major Wiske, my lady, and Mr Brummell.’

*

The following morning Lucy was seated in the breakfast
parlour, a smaller, sunny apartment which was very pleasant
early in the day, when the door opened and her husband, the
earl, walked in.

‘
Pardon me for not having myself announced,' was the first
thing he said, and Lucy frowned a little.

‘
Don't be silly,' she said, but awkwardly. The status of an
estranged husband in his own house was a delicate one.
‘Hicks would have a fit if you asked him to.’

The earl fixed his eye on Jeffrey, curled up on the window-
seat, and then looked pointedly at Lucy and raised an
eyebrow enquiringly.

‘
No, he's not here,' she said. 'He's down at the Admiralty. I
wanted to see you alone.'

‘
So I gathered from your note. You see with what prompt
ness I hurried round here,' he said. 'I inferred it must be
something urgent, for you to have gone to so much trouble.’

Lucy grew impatient. 'Oh, do sit down, Chetwyn, and stop talking nonsense.' He obeyed her with a faint smile, taking a chair on the other side of the table at which she sat, and fold
ing his hands with an air of composure. His eye, however, was
wary, and the muscles of his jaw were tense.

A silence ensued which Lucy found hard to break. 'I
wanted to see you,' she began at last, hesitantly. The earl
looked at her blankly, giving her no help. ‘There is something I have to tell you.' She bit her lip, but there was no help for it,
no way to say it, but simply to say it. 'I am with child again.’

As soon as the words were out, she knew that she should
not have said 'again'. Chetwyn said nothing at first. She
hardly knew what she had expected from him — shock,
perhaps; anger certainly — but what she saw was something she had not bargained for. His face seemed to grow suddenly
older, and set into its lines in a grey and exhausted way that
filled her with fear. He
minds,
she thought in sudden be
wilderment. She waited, her mouth dry.

‘Does he know?' was what he said at last.

‘I haven't told him.’

He raised an eyebrow, 'Why such restraint?' he asked
cynically.

‘
He — I didn't want to say anything until he has his
commission. There's some question of a shore appointment. I
didn't want to influence his decision.’

A wry and bitter smile touched Chetwyn's lips. 'Dear Lucy,
you do like to play fair, don't you?' he said ironically.

Fear and guilt stung her. 'I wanted to tell you first, in any
case,' she said quickly, putting up her chin. 'It's only right.'
Chetwyn shrugged, a lazy gesture which imperfectly
concealed the brittleness of his shoulders. 'It has nothing
whatever to do with me,' he said.

Lucy paled a little. 'Why — what do you mean?' she stam
mered. 'You mean — you won't —?’

Now the anger came. 'Oh no, Lucy, not again. What do
you take me for?' He stood up abruptly and walked a few
steps away and back. 'For God's sake, the whole world knows
we have been living apart these eighteen months! You have taken your
lover' —
his lips curled bitterly over the word —
’to live with you in the most public way, and made yourself a talking point all over London. I said nothing. I left you alone —'

‘
Because you didn't care one way or the other!' she cried
out. 'It suited you to live as a bachelor.’

He stopped, and looked surprised. 'Is that what you
thought? No, even you could not be such a fool. To have
protested about what you were doing would only have made
me ridiculous, so I pretended you had my blessing. What else
could I do? But now you ask me to acknowledge his child,
which no-one,
no-one,
could believe for an instant is mine! Oh
no, Lucy, I won't do it.
Damn
you,' he said with sudden
venom, 'I won't do it.’

She looked at him in silence, filled with all manner of
unhappy speculations. Her hands crept for comfort over her
belly, a gesture not lost on her husband. 'What, then, is to
become of me?' she asked at last in a small voice.

‘
I really have not the slightest interest,' he said, turning
away and walking to the window at the other end of the room. Her heart contracted at the words; but he did not
leave, and after a while she tried again.