Any Approaching Enemy: A Novel of the Napoleonic Wars (30 page)

Charles looked forward to see that the Frenchmen around the hatch had surrendered; his men were herding them toward the rail. He didn’t see Talmage anywhere, although he did hear the report of a pistol from somewhere forward.
Someone else can deal with it,
he thought.
Pylades
’s crew members were pouring up and across the deck, onto the frigate to participate in what, to Charles’s ears, sounded like the tail end of the struggle for control. He felt a weariness come over him. With a final effort, he crossed the deck to where Bevan lay and lowered himself to sit cross-legged beside him.

“I’m sorry,” Charles said. “There was nothing I could do. I would have tried anything in my power to save her.”

Bevan pushed himself to a sitting position, his injured leg held stiffly out in front. “It’s nothing to do with you, Charlie,” he choked. “She decided it herself. She must have known what the result could be.” He looked across at Molly’s form at rest, and added, “I wish to God she hadn’t.”

Charles felt Penny kneel beside him. She set Claudette on the deck. There was worry on the little girl’s face, so he grinned and reached out his arm to wiggle his fingers. Claudette smiled uncertainly but clasped her sides to protect her middle. Charles stroked her hair instead.

“Charlie, what hast thou done to thyself ?” Penny said, pulling back the left side of his coat.

He looked down to see a ragged tear in his shirt, a large area soaked with blood that had run down as far as his knee. The entirety of his struggle to cross the French frigate’s deck and along the
Pylades
began to run together in his mind. He couldn’t remember when he had received the injury.

“Sorry,” he said stupidly as she stripped off the coat, then began to undo the buttons of his shirt.

“I am not pleased with thee,” she said through clenched teeth. “Thy warfare has taken my friend.”

Talmage appeared from the direction of the hatchway, walking with some difficulty and still wiping at the blood seeping down the side of his face. Charles noted a second stain of red on Talmage’s shirt, partly hidden by his coat. He patted the boards beside him. “Sit,” he said. The lieutenant sank down, dropping his sword loudly on the deck.

“Ouch!” Charles said as his wife’s fingers probed the gash along his ribs. Another seaman arrived from the frigate.

“Lieutenant Winchester’s respects, sir,” he said, touching his knuckles to his forehead. “He asks if you require any assistance.”

Charles opened his mouth, but Penny spoke first. “I require thee to bring me a pail of clear, fresh water,” she said. “Stephen Winchester may inquire later, when I have more time.”

The messenger looked to Charles, who nodded and said, “Get the water, please.” As soon as the man turned away, she raised the hem of her dress and tore off a strip from one of her petticoats.

“Hold this here,” she said, pressing the cloth against his side. She spoke tersely, tight-lipped and strained. Charles saw tears running down her cheeks. She turned to examine Talmage, now lying full-length on the deck. “Oh, dear God, no,” she exclaimed.

“What?” Charles said, turning to look more carefully at his lieutenant. He saw that Talmage’s face and lips had gone a ghostly white, and a growing pool of red was spreading beneath him. “Jacob,” he said. “Jacob!”

Talmage’s eyes flickered open. His mouth moved as if to speak, but only a trickle of red liquid bubbled out. The eyes rolled up in their sockets and went dim.

The water arrived, followed closely by
Pylades
’s surgeon with his case of unguents and dressings. “Please, help this man,” Penny pleaded. She was holding Talmage’s hand, rubbing furiously at his wrist.

The surgeon knelt down to examine Talmage. After the briefest look, he straightened. “He’s gone, missus. I couldn’t have helped him anyway. He’s been shot through the lung.”

She lay Talmage’s hand gently on the deck. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered. In a firmer voice to the surgeon, she said, “Please, wilt thou attend to my husband.”

A heavy bandage was being wound around Charles’s ribs when Winchester came across himself. He looked at Molly and Talmage, and the two men sitting on the deck, then removed his hat out of respect. His own uniform coat and breeches were flecked with drying blood, but he had no obvious injury.

“The frigate is carried?” Charles asked.

“The last surrendered a quarter of an hour ago. We’ve just finished disarming them.”

“The butcher’s bill?”

“Don’t know yet. Not too bad, I think. There are a lot of cuts and scrapes; Lincoln and his mate are looking after them now. How are things here?”

“Things here? How are things here?” Penny interrupted, her voice rising. She set Claudette on the deck next to Charles and stared ashen-faced at the hapless Winchester.

“
Things here
are terrible,” she said, rising to her feet and advancing on him. “Terrible, terrible, bloody, bloody, horrible. Thou, Stephen Winchester, are whole. Molly has died, her life stolen away. Poor Jacob Talmage has passed, drowned in his own blood. Those men”—she pointed toward the bodies of some Frenchmen by the hatchway—“those men are dead or soon to die.”

Winchester took a step backward. Penny followed him closely, enraged, her voice risen to a scream. “Men speak of a butcher’s bill as if it were sheep flesh. By this thou means the human beings killed and grievously injured. But even that is not the true bill. Each of them is a son and a brother, a father, a husband. They are gone. The many who nurtured and loved them remain. They are the ones who must pay thy precious butcher’s bill for all these dead, for this war, for all wars.”

Winchester’s backside bumped against the brig’s wheel, and he could retreat no farther. “I am most sincerely sorry if I sounded callous or uncaring,” he said. “I assure you that I did not mean to be. I beg your forgiveness.”

Penny’s bloodstained hands covered her face, and her shoulders heaved.

Charles pushed himself painfully to his feet. Holding the child by her hand, he moved to stand behind his wife and put his arm around her shoulders. “Penny,” he said.

“Don’t thou touch me,” she choked. “I have agreed to abide thy profession. Here, see the fruits of it. In truth, thou hast a very sad career.” She turned away from him, picked up Claudette, who had started crying, and walked to the taffrail. There she sank to the deck with the child in her arms and sobbed.

Charles followed and carefully lowered himself beside her but did not speak. Penny turned her face against his shoulder, her tears running down his arm. “Molly was so brave. She tried too hard to become something better than fate made her. No person should have to struggle that hard in all their life. Jacob Talmage once confided to me that all he wanted was to please thee, which he could never do. Now both are gone.”

Charles could not hold her because she was on his left side. The pain around his ribs had grown into a fiery ball as severe as any he had ever experienced. The slightest movement brought stabs of almost unendurable agony. Instead, he contented himself with patting her knee with his right hand and stroking Claudette’s back. After a time, when Penny had calmed, he said, “You should speak with Daniel.”

“Yes,” Penny said, rubbing her palm across her eyes, “he will be heartbroken.” She rose, picking up the child. “Thou should come also.”

“I can’t,” Charles said. “I don’t believe I can stand.”

She called two crewmen, who lifted Charles under his arms until he came to his feet. Even so, the movement left him breathless. From an upright position, he saw that
Pylades
’s decks had been cleared of the dead and wounded. Bevan, he learned, had been taken below, the surviving French returned to their frigate under guard. Molly, Talmage, and the other English dead had been carried below to be sewn into hammocks with round shot at their feet. Charles’s sword was found, wiped clean, and returned to him.

“I will see thee back to thy cabin and into thy bed,” Penny said.

Penny, Claudette, and Charles walked to the side, where he stared at the rail of the French frigate, six feet above. A ladder had been rigged for the crew to pass back and forth, but he knew that he could not climb it. Penny summoned a seaman, who went across to arrange for assistance. Soon a handful of men rove one whip to hoist them on board the ship and then another to get him over to
Louisa
’s decks. Charles saw topmen aloft working to disentangle his ship’s bowsprit from the Frenchman’s mizzen rigging. Neither ship looked to be so badly damaged that she would be unable to make sail before long.

In his cabin, Charles stood while Attwater helped him into a fresh shirt, then he sank cautiously and gratefully into a chair at the table. The pain along his side was just manageable so long as he made no attempt to change his position and was careful not to breathe too deeply. Penny busied herself tending to Claudette. When the child was settled, she spoke with Attwater about having hot soup prepared for Charles, and making sure her husband stayed in his chair and did not exert himself.

Charles was not worried about exerting himself. He didn’t think he would be capable of rising if he wanted to.

“Thou art comfortable?” Penny said when they were alone.

“I don’t know if I would say ‘comfortable,’ ” Charles answered. “I do know that I’m not moving.”

She sat in the chair on his right side and took his hand in hers. “I am sorry that I spoke harshly with thee before,” she said. “It was shameful of me. I want thee to know that I appreciate thou rescuing us. I only wish it were not necessary.”

“You’d better apologize to Stephen,” Charles said with a chuckle that he instantly suppressed. “I think you frightened him more than the French ever would.”

“I was angered,” she said. “Stephen Winchester was not responsible. I shall speak with him and ask his forgiveness.”

“I’m sorry about Molly,” Charles said. “For all the world, I would have prevented it were it in my power. I admired her also.”

“And Jacob Talmage?” she said.

“And Talmage,” Charles answered.

She rose from her chair. “If thou can manage, I will visit with Daniel Bevan to see if I can comfort him. I will put thee to bed on my return.”

“What about Claudette?” Charles said, eyeing the girl dubiously, thinking he might be called on to tickle her.

“Timothy Attwater will attend to her when he returns. Please be sure that she has something to eat.”

“On your way, would you ask Winchester to call on me at his earliest convenience?” Charles said. “Tell him I would appreciate a report on the condition of our little flotilla.”

“YOU’RE NOT SERIOUS,” Charles said.

“I’m decided, Charlie,” Bevan answered. “I’ve given it a lot of thought. I don’t like being a ship’s commander. I’m resigning my commission; in fact, I have already written the letter to send on to Gibraltar.”

Charles and Bevan sat at the table in Charles’s cabin, Bevan’s crutch leaning against its edge. Penny had withdrawn to put Claudette down for the night. Charles listened to his friend’s words, but he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. It was heresy of the highest order. Commanding one’s own ship and making post were the whole point.

“Daniel,” he said, “I know you’re upset. Losing Molly is a blow to us all. But don’t throw away your whole career because of it.”

“It’s not because of Molly,” Bevan said patiently. “At least not in the way you think. I’ve never liked being a ship’s commander. I told you this before, when we were at the rendezvous waiting for Nelson. Don’t you remember?”

Charles nodded. “I remember. You were daft then, and you’re daft now.”

“No, I’m not, Charlie. I’m not good at it. I worry about every little detail, so much that I can’t sleep. Molly and I had talked about this. I was going to quit anyway and find a place where we could be together.”

“Jesus, Daniel,” Charles said. “What will you do? Where are you going to go?”

“There’s not much point in buying a farm now,” Bevan said. “However, I recall that I slept quite well as the first lieutenant on
Louisa.
”

Charles stared uncomprehending at his friend. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that you should send Winchester to Gibraltar with
Pylades
and the prize. You could even give him leave so that he can see Penny safely home and visit with his own wife and child. I’ve already spoken with him. He’s agreeable if you are.”

“Then who would be my first?”

Bevan smiled. “You could enter me as a volunteer for the time being,” he said.

Penny came out from the sleeping cabin. “Shhh,” she said. “Speak softly, Claudette is asleep.”

“Did you know that Daniel has decided to resign his commission?” Charles said.

“Yes, I know,” she said. “What a very good idea. Others should follow his example.”

“PLEASE CONVEY MY fondest congratulations to Ellie,” Charles said, standing on the recently tidied quarterdeck of the former Republican national frigate
Embuscade.
The afternoon before, the French wounded had been carried below, where they were looked after by
Pylades
’s surgeon and confined along with the rest of the crew. The Union flag of Great Britain had been hoisted above the French tricolor on the mizzen, signifying that she was a captured prize.

After Charles’s discussions with Bevan, he had agreed to send the crippled
Pylades
and the frigate to Gibraltar under Winchester’s command, carrying Penny and Nelson’s dispatches with them. There was no time for him to see to the repair of the brig’s masts if he was to overhaul his admiral before the squadron reached Egypt. The solution he had settled on was to transfer most of
Pylades
’s crew to
Embuscade
and have the frigate tow the brig. He took off a few of Bevan’s former crew to bring
Louisa
up to her complement. In exchange, he sent Sergeant Cooley and all but a corporal and a half dozen of his marines over to keep order among the French prisoners.

With nothing else to say, he reluctantly moved to stand in front of Penny. Finding the right words was difficult. “I’m going to miss you,” he offered. He knew from her expression that she was unhappy. He also knew that it wasn’t only because they were about to separate. After Bevan had left, they’d spoken of little else the night before.