Chapter Text
A week later, Jack called in at Cádiz for his rendezvous with Admiral Linois. No one questioned why he was stopping in at the harbour, which he was very grateful for. The convoy ships didn’t care much about any other business he had, and he was blessed to have Gabriel Martin and Alexandra West along as secondaries for the journey across the Atlantic to Brazil. He hadn’t asked for either of them, but the Huntley had come down with the Mirage, and he was glad to have them.
Per the agreement he had made with Linois and Washington, Jack threw out a specific signal to shore. He was watching from the foremast with Slade for the responding signal he had been promised.
‘There, Captain!’ Slade called down from his perch on the fore to’gallant crosstrees above Jack’s head, pointing to the docks, ‘I see it! Just like you said, sir!’
‘Good eye, Slade!’ He had just seen the signal himself, ‘Well done, sir!’
‘Yes, sir.’ He saw the salute, the satisfied smile.
‘Stay your post, Mister Slade, I have business ashore!’ He returned the salute and began his climb down.
‘Tom!’ He called out to Tom Pullings at the bottom of the mast.
‘Yes, Captain?’ The boy came running, having been waiting nearby for him to come down.
‘Go find Doctor Maturin for me, will you?’
‘Aye, sir!’ The lad saluted and hurried off again, disappearing below-decks at the closest hatch. Stephen would be down in sickbay, no doubt.
‘Mister Peterson, rally up a boat-crew, sir.’
‘Aye, Captain!’ David Peterson grinned and saluted before he turned and gave an order to Mister Hollar.
‘Where are you going, sir?’ McKellan asked curiously.
‘I have business with Captain Washington, lads. You two look after the Surprise for us while we’re gone.’
‘Yes, sir.’ God bless ‘em, his lieutenants didn’t even flinch. He could have said he had to speak to God and they probably wouldn’t have had more to say about it than “Yes, sir.”
He really had gotten lucky with them, hadn’t he? Jack suspected it didn’t hurt any that he’d known the two since they were just midshipmen under Ralph Miller in the Theseus and before in different commissions. And now, they were his lieutenants.
‘Captain, boat’s ready.’ Amos Hollar said at his elbow.
‘Thank you, Mister Hollar.’ Jack nodded to the capable man, ‘Send down Mister Pullings and Doctor Maturin when they come up, I’ll be in the boat.’
‘Aye, sir.’ The bosun touched his hat and watched Jack climb down to the waiting boat.
‘Thank you, Bonden.’ He dropped into the boat, kept steady by the young coxswain.
‘Sir.’ Barrett Bonden grinned at him and looked up to the rail.
‘How old are you, Mister Bonden?’
‘Sixteen, sir.’
‘Jesus.’ He chuckled, ‘You’ve got to be the youngest man in the Navy who’s got your station! Any family in the Service?’
‘Just my brother, sir, Bob. He’s a sailmaker in the Irresistible, sir.’
‘Good for him.’ So, it was a family service. Part of him was not that surprised, he had seen plenty of it and knew several such families among his crew.
Jack followed Bonden’s focus up to the rail. No sign of his officers yet.
‘Tom!’
‘Here, sir!’ Right as the red hair popped into sight above the rail, ‘Coming down!’
‘Ready for you, lad.’ Jack looked at Bonden, who nodded. Between them, they steadied the boat for Tom.
‘Where’s Stephen?’
‘Coming, sir.’ Tom promised, settling into his usual place.
After a few more minutes, Jack was about to go back up and drag his surgeon out if he had to.
‘What’s the wait?’ One of the men muttered, hushed by his neighbour.
‘Mati!’ He yelled up the side, ‘What’s the wait?’
‘Oh, stop the racket! I said I was coming, and I am! You can wait!’
‘Oh, that’s the wait.’ He chuckled. ‘No wonder it took you this long.’
‘I heard that.’ Sure enough, a disgruntled red tabby hopped into view on the rail and looked down at them.
‘Yes, dear.’ Jack just grinned up at Stephen, ‘Now, how are you planning to get down here from up there?’
Even from this distance, he saw the critical tilt of the eyebrow and swore the cat rolled his eyes at him. Then, showed them how he planned on getting from the rail down into the waiting boat: he hopped from the rail to the gangway, to the ladder onto the chains, scurried down the side of the ship, and dropped into the boat below with a careful leap. Jack caught him as he jumped, of course, and set him on the bottom of the launch between his feet.
‘That is how I plan to get down here from up there.’
‘Well, I guess that’s one way to get down!’ Bonden whispered to Tom, who nodded his agreement.
‘Captain Washington is waiting for us, lads. Let’s get on.’ Jack settled on the bench and set his hat on his lap for the trip.
It was a quiet, untroubled trip across the crowded harbour, Jack kept an eye on the docks while Tom watched the Surprise for as long as he could see her.
‘Can’t see ‘er anymore, sir.’
‘That’s alright, Tom. We know she’s there.’ He said calmly, looking up at the clear sky overhead.
A few minutes later, they reached the docks and Jack looked over his shoulder.
‘Ah, there’s Captain Washington.’ He spotted the senior captain as Bonden ordered the crew to ship their oars. The launch bumped against the dock with a soft crunch and stilled.
‘Just as she promised.’ Tom looked at him, waiting for him to go first.
He got up carefully, picked up Stephen, and set his surgeon on the dock before turning to give Tom a hand up next.
‘Well, Stephen didn’t wait, did he?’
‘No, sir.’ Tom shook his head as they watched Stephen run down the dock, closing the short distance between their threesome and Christian Washington. ‘Look at ‘em.’
‘Never question friends like that, Tom, my boy.’ He said, heading down to catch up with the other two. ‘It’s a special sort of thing when you have someone in your life, you’re that happy to see them even a week after the last time you had anything to do with them.’
Something had changed between Stephen and Christian, but Jack wasn’t sure what it was. And he wasn’t about to ask either of them, it wasn’t his place. It was personal business, and unless they wanted him to know, he’d be happy to maintain his ignorance.
\~/
Christian Washington waited for the boat from the Surprise to reach the docks, wondering just how many of her officers had come ashore this time. This was a prearranged rendezvous between the officers of the Surprise and Admiral Linois. Linois had kept his end of an agreement made a week and a half ago in Gibraltar and done some of his own reconnoitering and intelligence gathering. She had no idea what kind of answers he’d gotten; she refused to take his intelligence without the other two members of their agreement present.
But any thoughts of spies and foreign agents were forgotten, the boat had arrived. Well, most spies were forgotten, except for Christian’s own spy, who wasn’t immediately visible in the boat.
‘Oh, don’t tell me he decided to stay on the Surprise this time!’ She muttered, scuffing at the planks of the dock with her boot, ‘Damn fool. Well, at least Jack showed. Of course, he did. And there’s Tom, dear boy.’
She watched as Jack Aubrey set something on the dock before giving Tom Pullings a hand out of the boat and coming up last. It was alive, whatever it was. A cat? Why on earth would Jack bring a cat ashore? A red tabby with silver Chimera marks on his forehead, that was no mere cat. Oh! There he was!
Christian chuckled as she recognized her absent fiancé.
‘Stephen, I thought you’d stayed aboard.’
‘No, my darling.’ He came at a sprint, ‘Of course I didn’t! My stake is as great as yours or Jack’s, my dear.’
‘Well, did you have any troubles getting down here?’
‘Absolutely none at all.’ He promised as he settled in her arms after making an easy leap from the dock to her arms, ‘And the convoy is using this stop to double-check their own stores and prepare for the next leg of the journey. And we did not come alone.’
‘I can see that.’ She had sighted the Huntley and the Mirage, and wondered how close the other two would tail after the Surprise once they had fulfilled their escort obligations.
‘Shall I have our lookouts keep an eye out for the Huntley and Mirage beyond São Luís?’ Stephen inquired with a knowing tone, ears twitching.
‘If you’d like to. They won’t interfere unless it’s clear you’re in greater danger than you can manage against the Acheron.’ She shrugged and set him down to greet Jack and Tom.
‘Apologies for the delays, Captain.’ Jack offered as he lifted his hat and took her hand, ‘It would have taken longer without the help I’ve gotten.’
‘Oh, don’t apologise for that, son.’ She clapped him on the shoulder and turned, ‘We knew it would take you a while to get up here, what with one, two, three…twelve ships to convey and two on assist duty? You have fourteen ships under your command! Fifteen with the Surprise.’
‘It’s a skill I’ve honed for efficient operation when I’m on convoy duty.’ Jack shrugged as they headed away from the harbour to meet Linois. ‘I run at their pace until I reach our destination.’
‘But when you’ve got distance between each point like São Luís and Cádiz?’
‘I push them harder. The sooner we get there, the better for all of us.’ His eyes hardened, ‘And with the Acheron out there, probably waiting for us for all I know, I can’t risk a leisurely pace like I can here and across the channel.’
‘Charles will have more for us about the Acheron and her last known whereabouts.’
‘You haven’t spoken to him since our meeting in Gib, have you?’
‘No, we all agreed that what one of us is told, all of us will hear. He knows something, but he won’t tell me until you arrived.’
‘Which I have now.’ Jack looked over his shoulder. ‘He’s so good with them.’
‘Hmm?’ Christian raised an eyebrow.
‘Stephen.’ Jack indicated Tom and Stephen, who walked next to each other and talked about some private matter.
Stephen, now safe ashore, had returned to his Human.
‘Oh. His fondness for the youngest of us is remarkable, granted he has none of his own.’
‘He’s expressed an interest, should he ever find the right woman to marry.’
‘God bless that woman. She’s out there, waiting for the question.’
‘Honestly, I always thought he’d ask you, y’know?’
‘Me?’ She raised an eyebrow, ‘What gives you that idea?’
‘The way you two act around each other. Or even when you’re in different places.’ Jack completely missed the expression on Christian’s face. ‘Him, more than you, I think.’
‘Because you spend so much of your time around him.’
‘It’s hard to miss when his mood changes.’
‘Does he know you’re aware of this?’
‘Probably, considering I’ve had to reprimand him twice for conduct.’
‘Oh, no!’ Christian covered her mouth, ‘You have not!’
‘I never took it beyond my quarters, I respect him too much.’ Jack looked at her sidelong, ‘Besides, I can’t entirely say it’s on his shoulders.’
‘How?’
‘The other party was not as innocent as he would have liked to believe. And stupid enough to believe that I would take his word over my surgeon’s.’
‘When we’re done with Charles, I think you and I need to have a drink and catch up.’
‘At your leisure, ma’am.’ Jack touched his hat and held the door of the inn where they had agreed to meet. ‘After you, Captain.’
‘Thank you, sir.’
She and Linois were staying here while they were in Cádiz, so it was a very reasonable place to meet.
Taking the Surprise’s officers, she went up to her apartment on the third floor and let them in.
‘Stay here, I’ll go get Charles.’ She said once everyone was settled.
‘We’re all here for the same business.’ Jack promised.
They didn’t have much time, but this was important. She went around the corner and up to the next floor to fetch Linois, caught between wondering what he had learned since their last meeting in Gib and what Jack thought he knew about Christian and Stephen. Had he seen the rings, perhaps? And guessed from that if he’d done the proper research on what the rings stood for?
~
As soon as the door had closed behind Captain Washington and it was only the three of them, Jack Aubrey turned to his surgeon and friend. Stephen Maturin was more than his friend and, with any luck, would remain more for many, many years.
‘What’s that look for, my boy?’ Stephen asked, well aware of his regard. ‘I’ve caught that look on you a few times more than usual.’
‘I guess I can’t hide much from you, ay?’ He smiled, setting aside his hat and sword, laying his coat atop them, ‘Am I really so easily read by you?’
‘Not always.’ Mismatched eyes narrowed, ‘What is it?’
‘Well, you.’ He sat down, keeping one eye on the door, ‘But, not just you. You and Christian.’
‘I think I know what you’re going to say.’ He saw a familiar distance come to his friend’s eyes. ‘How did you find out?’
‘I…didn’t. It was a guess.’ He leaned forward, resting his hands between his knees, ‘I just…Jesus, Stephen, we’ve been friends for six years! We’ve been more than friends for four of those years!’
‘And I have no plans to change that. With your leave, sir.’
‘No, no. We can’t change a thing.’ He shook his head, ‘It’s too precious, too long-standing.’
‘How did I become so incautious that you noticed?’
‘It’s not incaution, Mati, it’s…human nature.’ Tom piped up, ‘Most all of us have noticed the way you act ‘round Captain Washington and how you get all moody and quiet when you’re away more than a few weeks.’
‘And since most of you know better than to say anything?’
‘And anyone who would gets told off. Usually not politely, neither.’
‘Didn’t know I was raising my own shipboard network of damn spies.’ Stephen chuckled, looking down at Jack, ‘So, what gave me away?’
‘Like Tom said, your behaviour. Also, the last time I saw Chrissy in Gib, I swear I saw a ring. And then today, down at the docks, I looked again.’
‘And you knew it wasn’t a trick of your eyes. You clever thing, you.’
‘What kind of ring is it?’ He took Stephen’s left hand, ‘You wear the same one, don’t you?’
‘I do.’
‘It must be something real special if you wanted to give it to someone like Christian Washington.’ He studied the simple band, ‘I knew way back in ’99, when we were with her family in Virginia. Maybe before, while we were off the coast of the Carolinas.’
‘All this time? Crios, I must have let my guard down awfully for it to have gone that long!’
‘Nah, I just…I know what to look for, brother.’ He grinned, ‘Me and Tom can call it a mile off.’
‘Three miles at sea.’
‘More on a clear day.’ He traced a specific scar, ‘Oh, Stephen.’
‘You always came first, Jack Aubrey.’ Stephen tipped his head back, ‘And I was going to tell you myself. I promise. I couldn’t keep something this important away from you.’
‘When would you have told me? If I hadn’t charged straight in and told you I knew anyway?’
‘I meant to as soon as Christian gave me her ring, but there hasn’t been time since we left Gib.’
‘When did she give you hers, then?’
‘Oh, lord. Two days before we left Gib? Maybe a day?’ A curious, sad shrug, ‘I still haven’t thought to ask where she got it.’
‘Well, it looks like the one you gave her, so she must have found it or gotten it from someone.’ Jack looked at the ring again, just glad Stephen had found someone else he loved so completely.
Some tiny little voice said, “Should’ve been me!” but Jack wasn’t that selfish, nor that foolish. Besides, Stephen still belonged to him at the end of the day. And that was enough.
The door opening was a careful reminder of their true business, and he looked past Stephen as Christian returned with Admiral Linois. She knew something, she had to know but hadn’t told them.
‘Admiral.’ He was quick on his feet, offering the man a proper salute. Enemy or no, he had more respect for the man than to default on a gesture of deference.
‘Captain Aubrey.’ Linois offered a brief smile and returned the salute. ‘Doctor Maturin.’
‘Sir.’ Stephen offered a civilian’s salute, as he held no commissioned rank.
‘Gentlemen, sit.’ Christian gestured to the chairs set around the room, ‘We have talking to be done.’
‘Yes, ma’am.’ Jack looked at Stephen, who shrugged, and sat down again.
‘Tell me, Captain, how did you get away from your ship with only young Mister Pullings?’ Linois asked in a calm, conversational tone as they waited for a chambermaid to bring wine. ‘For you have quite the loyal band of youngsters who don’t seem keen to let you out of sight for long.’
‘Oh, no, sir. I only brought Tom with me this time because I promised him I would. I didn’t ask the others or even bring it up to them. And none of them asked, neither.’
‘That one will make you a stellar lieutenant someday.’ Linois looked at Tom and smiled, ‘How old are you, son?’
‘I’m sixteen, sir.’ Tom offered, ‘On August 24th, as it were.’
‘You have a very good man to follow, Mister Pullings. Stay with him.’ Linois winked at Jack, who blushed, ‘The next time I see you, I would very much like to call you Lieutenant Pullings.’
‘Well, sir, by the time we have anything to do with each other, you might get your wish.’ Tom shrugged, ‘I would like to see you again, sir.’
‘I have no doubt we will, young sir. No doubt.’ Linois shook his head and grew serious. ‘But this business with our privateer…’
‘Oh, sir.’ Tom looked frightened, but Jack didn’t blame him.
‘It’s alright, Tom. Whatever he knows about the Acheron, he’ll tell us.’ Jack promised, ‘And whatever he learns in the future, write to us about it.’
‘Oui, je le ferai, jeune monsieur.’ Linois promised.
A tap at the door was the maid with wine. Christian opened the door to her, took the tray, and dismissed her with a word of thanks. Then, she locked the door. Wine was poured for all five of them, and it was quiet for a moment.
‘What can you tell us, Charles?’ Christian enquired carefully once they were settled.
‘My initial concerns for Lieutenant Lalonde led to a deeper pursuit of her well-being than general news of the Acheron, though I’ve learned quite a good deal on their movements as well.’
‘Tell us everything.’
‘What can you tell us of Lieutenant Lalonde?’ Jack asked.
‘Well, my intelligence informs that she has not yet been put off from the Acheron.’
‘Crios.’ Christian muttered, emptying half her wine in a single go, ‘Are we sure she’s still alive?’
‘As of two days ago, she was.’
‘Jesus.’ Jack’s eyes were nearly black. ‘I’ll ask in at São Luís while we’re there.’
‘That track takes you through the West Indies. If you make a stop at Roadtown, you can ask for her there, as well.’
‘When did the Acheron head for South America? When did she turn south?’ Stephen refilled empty glasses.
‘Two days ago, that’s how I know Lalonde is still alive and counted among the company.’
‘At least she was two days ago. God damn it.’ Jack shook his head and got to his feet, crossing to the window and back in a few frustrated paces.
‘Jack?’ Christian watched the junior captain curiously. ‘Are you alright, son?’
‘Il ne peut pas être un diable si sans cœur.’ He spat, wheeling at the window and coming back, ‘Aucun homme réel ne pourrait être aussi méchant.’
Christian traded a startled look with Stephen and Charles. Jack was taking this almost harder than she was, and his interest in Claudia Lalonde’s safety and well-being was far less personal than her own.
Never mind, he spoke perfectly fluent French! Stephen must have been teaching him; she hadn’t been aware his understanding was that good!
‘Jack?’
‘Captain Washington.’
‘Aye?’
‘How important is Miss Lalonde’s safety to you?’
‘Nearly as important as yours, Stephen’s, or Martin’s. Or Nelson’s, or my sister’s.’ She looked at Charles, who shrugged, ‘Why?’
‘I owe the Acheron’s crew a few scrapes for what they did to us in August.’
‘Why is Claudia suddenly so important to you, Captain Aubrey?’ Charles asked the question they all wanted to know.
‘If there is one thing about me that you should know, Admiral, it’s my sense of honour and the fact that I absolutely cannot and will not stand for an officer my equal or superior to make sport of their underlings.’
‘Harte?’ Stephen whispered.
‘You know what Nelson and Keith did to him for that last stunt of his in April.’ She shrugged, ‘I didn’t know that extended to foreign rivals with the power to make his life extraordinarily difficult, if not kill him.’
‘Well, if Lieutenant Lalonde survives the Acheron’s crossing, we’ll find her.’ Stephen folded his arms, eyes narrow, ‘Jack Aubrey will find her. Find her, recover her, and reunite you two.’
‘I can’t ask him to do that.’
‘You really don’t understand, do you?’ Stephen shook his head, ‘He loves you, Christian. It’s more than respect.’
‘God bless Jack Aubrey, and God help his enemies.’
‘Amen.’
‘I’ll have to tell Gabe to keep an eye on Jack.’ Christian set her glass down, ‘If we give him half a chance at it, he’ll go after the Acheron single-handed and get himself into bigger trouble than he was in August.’
‘We’ll muzzle him until we get to São Luís, Christian.’ Stephen promised. ‘Duty outweighs honour or revenge. I’ll remind him of that if I must.’
‘Bonne chance à vous, Docteur.’ Linois muttered.
‘Merci, Amiral.’ Stephen raised his glass to Linois, ‘Nous aurons tous besoin de chance.'