Page 21 of Unlikely Heroes
“Maybe,” Smitty said. “Sir.”
“Sir B didn’t know of your existence until his brother finally blurted it out.”
“He could have acted once he knew!”
“He could have. Let us acknowledge, as Lady St. Anthony said, that Sir B was human.”
Smitty considered the matter. “I will if you will, sir,” he said in a low voice. “Suppose if you actually meet your father?”
“The possibility is remote,” Able hedged, then acknowledged the obvious. “You are asking why you should be forgiving and I should not?”
“Aye, sir.”
“That’s fair, Smitty,” he said, even though he didn’t want to. It didn’t help that his cranial spectators seemed to be applauding Smitty. “You win. We can both agree that we had mothers who cared. Yours fed you when she had nothing for herself. Mine could have left me in the back alley to die with her.”
Smitty understood. “Still, how could men treat women so?” He turned away, trying to isolate himself in the small space of a post chaise.
“As long aswenever treat them ill, lad, we have victory of sorts.” Able touched Smitty’s shoulder and met with no resistance. Wordless, Able put his arm around Smitty. They sat close together as the horses ate up the miles toward London.
“I have never regretted my own odd name,” Able said, continuing where he had left off, as if the two of them had not shown themselves to be human and vulnerable like the other Gunwharf Rats. “Choose another name besides St. Anthony. Something tells me you will go far in the fleet. You need two names. What’ll it be, lad?”
“I’ve been Smitty a long while and I like it, master.”
“It suits you,” Able agreed. “How about this? Brendan for our school, and Smith for your surname? Smitty is a logical nickname.”
Smitty considered the matter and nodded, serious as ever. “I like it.”
“We’ll enter that name with the Navy Board,” Able said. “Remember to say Brendan to yourself now and then, you know, so you don’t forget.”
The boy grinned. “Or better yet, how about Gunwharf? Or would the Board prefer Rat?”
Delighted at finding quick wit where he had not expected it, Able laughed. Smitty joined in. It was the first time Able had ever heard the boy laugh with such ease and it warmed his heart. “Stick with Brendan, you Rat,” he said when he could talk, which only set Smitty off again.
Able considered one thing more. “When we get to Trinity House, I have something to show you.” He wondered briefly at his own trepidation, him, a grown man. “It’s a portrait that has given me food for thought.”
“I would think you have plenty of food for thought already,” Smitty said, with a small, lurking smile that told Able something had happened between the two of them. He sensed their relationship changing from teacher and student, to colleagues.
“I have ample food for thought, and it’s a burden at times. I’d rather be like everyone else, truth be told,” he said.
“Thank’ee, sir,” Smitty said. “We know you are a genius, all of us Gunwharf Rats, but we wouldn’t be here without your particular burden. Thank’ee from all of us.”
Able leaned back, at ease with Smitty, probably for the first time. “D’ye mind my putting you on the spot as my sailing master, when I am relegated to captain of the…theMercury? I know it is what Sir B stipulated in his will, but if you’d rather not…”
“I can do it,” was Smitty’s quiet reply. “Could it be Sir B’s way of making amends with me, now that I think of it?”
“I doubt it not.”
The sun was moving deep across the afternoon sky when the post chaise pulled up in front of Trinity House. Sutton, the one-legged doorman, must have been alerted to watch for them. Able remembered earlier visits to Trinity House, when Sutton was of all men most suspicious.
There was no mistaking the disappointment on the doorman’s face. Able thought he understood; he felt the same way. “Sutton, are you languishing because my better half – certainly the prettier one – did not make the journey?” Able asked, by way of greeting.
Sutton was made of stronger stuff. “Nay, Master Six, nay,” he said, then reconsidered. “Well, a little. Even a one-legged tar gets the dismals seeing mostly wind-scoured faces and squinty eyes. Your lady is a welcome antidote.”
Wind-scoured faces and squinty eyes, the Royal Navy badge of office. Trust a former deep-water seaman to notice. “Aye, she can cure most ills, but sometimes duty calls at home.”
The doorman sighed as he held out his hands for boat cloaks and lids. “I’ll take ye to Captain Rose.”
Trinity’s newest warden waited for them at the top of the elegant branching staircase. Able glanced at Smitty, amused to see the look of wonder on his face, as if he could not fathom why a workhouse boy stood in such a place. He leaned closer to Smitty. “Until quite recently, I had the same look on my face, lad. Let’s go upstairs and see what the good man has for us.”
