Page 66 of Unlikely Heroes
“However we word it, that is what I would like,” he replied, and kissed her shoulder. “I know there is going to be a battle soon. I can feel it in my bones.”
“Not Mary Carmichael?” she asked, when he changed his grip to a caress, understanding her unspoken terror.
“From what you have told me of Carmichael, I think Munro would be best,” he said. Mary Munro. It trips off the tongue so lightly.” He patted her belly. “In a few more months I can call you Mrs. Six and a half. And eventually Mrs. Six point seven five.”
It may have been midnight silliness, but she felt his tension. How did any woman welcome a man home from war? Did he want her to know what he had seen? Would he rather not discuss the matter? She decided she did want to know. “How was the voyage?” she asked. Surely that was innocuous enough.
“Fast and hectic,” he said. “Sir B’sMercurycontinues to be everything he could have hoped for us. I wish he could see us skimming along with Smitty at the wheel, Witticombe taking turns and singing something outrageous, Tots fishing, and Davey usually below deck studying. Avon March created a fish stew that I would have sworn had real cream in it.”
She could see this, and wished herself along on a voyage. She also knew he was telling her only what was pleasant. “Will you ever tell me what happens really?”
She felt his sigh. “I do not know if I could, Meri. Maybe someday.” He sat up. “This will interest you. We met up with thePicklemid-voyage as we often do, thePicklegoing one way, and we the other. She was having some trouble with the rigging and we stopped to assist.”
“I know the Channel is not the Atlantic Ocean, but is it hard to find each other like that?”
“Not generally. We messengers make a point to stay the course to the same degrees of latitude and longitude, on the chance that we do need to hail each other.” He lay down and pulled her on top of him. “You have a pretty face, Mrs. Six and a fourth. I have such a weakness for a woman who treats me tenderly and only snores a little.”
She thumped him. “You’re a pleasant sight, too, Master Six. Did you fix thePickle?”
“We gave lots of unnecessary advice and I sent Avon aloft to help them.”
“He’s so little!”
“He needs to know what it’s like to climb. Make yourself comfortable, Meri.”
She did. That was easy, even if she did snore a little.
“It was Captain Lapenotiere’s idea, but once thePicklewas shipshape again, he challenged us to a race. The wind was right; no other vessels in sight. Perfect time to race. I wish you could have seen it: two beautiful ships and a whole channel to frolic in.”
She relaxed her body on his, tucking her arms around his back. “I wish I could sail with you once. Able, you are so comfortable.”
“We can arrange that some day when we’re in port and it’s summer. Why, thank you. We bested thePickledecisively. I have no doubt theMercuryis the fasted ship in the fleet. We Gunwharf Rats could drop off dispatches at Admiralty House and stroll about London before thePickleby a day or two.” He kissed her cheek, and politely spilled her off his body. “You’re going to sleep, Meri. See you topside in a few hours, my love.”
“I hope Mrs. Munro does not want this. I can’t surrender it to her.”
Able thumbed through his mother’s prayer book as they walked to Jasper Street, Meri’s arm through his. He wanted to walk, and she knew the exercise was good for her. He had told her earlier in their marriage that confinement to a quarterdeck for long periods made walking more than twenty feet forward and back a true luxury and not to be wasted.
“Surely Mrs. Munro won’t ask for it,” Meridee said. “I believe your mother left it with you on purpose.”
“That’s what I have told myself through the years.”
What else have you told yourself through the years?she asked herself, kind enough to let him keep his private thoughts private. She needn’t know everything. But she wanted to know. She wanted to know everything. She tugged on the arm she already held and stopped him.
“Aye, miss?” he asked in his teasing way. She had never seen kinder eyes.
What could she say here on the street, with people around? “I don’t know.” She leaned her forehead against his arm, speaking softly in this public place. “I feel so much love for you. I…I wish I could know everything you know. Even more than that, I wish…I don’t know what I wish, but it fills me.”
He moved them closer to the noisy ropewalk they were passing, wanting a quiet place, too, but seeing none. He seemed to know what she wanted to say. “Dear Meri, you’ll never know everything I know. You wouldn’t want to, believe me. Here’s what you do know: you know my heart. The rest is fluff.”
He enveloped her in his arms, putting his cloak around her, too, turning her face into his uniform. “Woman of mine, how I love you,” he said. “I don’t mind telling you that these past weeks have been nearly overwhelming, meeting my father, and soon my grandmama.” He loosened his grip. “Can you breathe? Am I holding you too tight?”
“I am finer than frog’s hair, as I heard Nick say once,” she said, which made him laugh and accuse her of adopting schoolboy cant. He kept her cocooned with him in his cape another minute, then gave her a little pat. “If we don’t move along, a constable will come by and ask me my business. This is sinful Portsmouth, after all.”
They held hands the rest of the way to Jasper Street. “I would like to dream that you and theMercurywill be in port now for a few weeks, but I am not that feeble-minded,” she said as they stood in front of Mrs. Munro’s house.
“This is for your ears only, but I doubt that will happen,” he said, his arm around her now. “Captain Lapenotiere and I compared notes at that mid-Channel meeting. He transports agents in and out of Cádiz, too. His sources indicate a stiffly-worded ultimatum from Boney to Villeneuve, ordering him to lead out the Combined Fleet and go on the attack. It’s coming, Meri, and soon.”
“I don’t mind telling you that war is a confounded nuisance and cuts up my peace,” Meridee said, which made him laugh and assure her, “Mine, too.” He looked up at the house. “I don’t know what to say to her.”
