Page 34 of Unlikely Heroes
He got no farther. Capitan de Villavicencio stepped back in surprise. “It cannot be,” he said softly and crossed himself.
“What is the matter?” Able asked.
“It cannot be,” the captain repeated. He shook his head to clear it, as though the events of the afternoon could somehow be dislodged. “Ha…have you relatives in Spain, sir?”
How to answer that? “You recognize me,” he decided on. He felt the constant clamor in his brain go silent, everyone in there listening.
Villavicencio stared. Courteous Spaniard that he was, he apologized and calmed himself. “I do recognize you,” he said finally. Able heard all degrees of amazement in the man’s voice.
“How, sir, if you please?” It was Able’s turn to shake his head. In his surprise he had spoken in French. “I mean,Como, capitan, si por favor.”
“Come with me.”
Capitan Villavicencio walked him to the starboard side of the now-listing vessel, the lee side facing Cape Finisterre in the distance. “My confession, sir,” he began, his voice low. “I was ordered to keep you talking on the port side so a certain Conde de Quintanar could escape in a pinnace back to theArgonauta, flagship of Federico Gravina. If I may be so bold, you resemble the count to a remarkable degree.”
The chatter in Able’s head began again as he saw the portrait that had so intrigued Captain Hector Rose at Trinity House, the portrait that now hung in Able’s sitting room.
What could he say, except, “Damn me, sir. P’raps we’ll meet again, this count and I.”
Chapter Fifteen
Meridee Six discovered, to her chagrin, that Able at sea produced a different feeling in her that she hadn’t experienced with Able across the street at work or Able in London doing Trinity House business. Now she woke in the middle of the night to pat the empty, cold space beside her, and wonder where he was and how he did.
She found herself in the kitchen in the pre-dawn hours, the first time quietly hunting for something to eat, anything to take her mind off the hole in her heart. She hadn’t reckoned on Mrs. Perry possessing such sharp ears, not after her years sailing with her husband and hearing cannon booming. On Meridee’s subsequent trips to the kitchen, Mrs. Perry had a pot of tea and hot bread or biscuits, and even better, companionship.
“I shouldn’t be rummaging around in the pantry and waking you up,” Meridee said the first time food appeared.
Mrs. Perry popped a biscuit in her mouth. “There’s been a Rat or two down here to rummage, now and then.”
“I thought they were beyond that.”
“Some are.” She tilted her head and observed Meridee, as if wondering if she should speak. “Your husband came down here, especially after Ben was born.”
“I didn’t know. P’raps I should have been more attentive.”
“No. Belay that!” Mrs. Perry exclaimed with her usual spirit. “He told me he was quiet because you were exhausted, and your body must heal, and there you were, feeding a little’un. ‘How does she do it?’ he asked me once.”
“What did you tell my curly haired genius?” Meridee asked, her own cares fleeing, as she considered his much bigger burden.
“I told him you wouldn’t want it any other way.” Mrs. Perry laughed, but quietly, because Pegeen, the new scullery maid, slept in her own room close by. “He gave me such a fishy look, and then do you know what he said?”
“I…no, not a clue.”
“’I am the luckiest man who ever walked the earth,’ he told me, and so seriously.”
Meridee felt her heart ease and her whole body relax. “Mrs. Perry, after all we have been through, you could have told me sooner. What a dear thing to say.”
Mrs. Perry kissed her forehead, the first time she had ever done anything so personal. “I thought I would save it for a time like now, when you truly need it.”
Meridee rested her head against Mrs. Perry’s shoulder, closing her eyes with relief and joy when the big African woman, who terrified the entire staff across the street at St. Brendan’s, put her arms around her. She hummed a wonderful tune that had all the sound of the Caribbean, or maybe more distant African shores.
“Mam?”
Meridee turned to see Pegeen standing in the door of her room. “Were we too loud, my dear?” she asked. “Join us.”
Pegeen was the newest addition to the Six household. Spurred on by Betsy’s yearning to take more children from the workhouse, Meridee and Ben, protected by Mrs. Perry, had marched to Portsmouth’s workhouse mere days ago. The beadle had been eager to parade several bewildered young girls past them, extolling their abilities until Meridee felt nothing but suspicion. She had a better idea.
She took a handful of jackstraws from her reticule and handed them to Ben. “Find a nice corner and play,” she told her son. “We won’t be too long.” She turned back to the beadle. “Now, sir, you were saying?”
