Burning Bright (37 page)

Ramsay shrugged. “Stores, supplies. Checking the purser’s log, double checking the watch list. Occasionally they all have to be done at once. It’s not important.” He pushed the paper aside and leaned back in his chair. His eyes looked tired, as if he’d spent the last three days without much sleep.

“How did the Seer find me, Captain? You said he needed something to focus on.”

He chuckled. “I had your parasol. Then I harassed the admiral’s Extraordinary Seer until he had a useful Vision of your location. Though I suppose the most useful Vision was the first one, the one that proved you weren’t dead and I wasn’t wasting everyone’s time. It felt as if it took half a lifetime.”

“I felt the same. It was a long three nights, and—oh, Captain, I found the pirate stronghold!” She had come close to forgetting in her anxiety about getting home, and now it was the only thing she could think of.

Ramsay looked at her with narrowed eyes. “What pirate stronghold?”

“The place where Rhys Evans and the Brethren of the Coast make their plans and send out their orders. I found it, Captain. It is right there under Admiral Durrant’s eye, and it would take hardly any effort to destroy them! Did not Captain Horace tell the admiral?”

“The pirate stronghold.” Ramsay ran his hands through his hair. “Miss Pembroke, are you sure your ordeal hasn’t…”

“You believed I was not dead and you cannot now credit what I have learned? Shabby behavior, Captain.”

“I…no, you’re correct.” He stood and paced to where Beaumont had been standing. “Crawford was awfully insistent that you were dead, you know,” he said as if this were the conversation they’d been having. “It was extremely satisfying to prove him wrong, but I did wonder at his certainty, and then his look of fear when he learned the truth.”

“That is because Captain Crawford is a…a rat bastard who left me to die on his sinking ship,” Elinor said. The memory made her furious all over again.

Ramsay spun to face her, eyes blazing, and said, “He did
what
?”

“He spoke to me, looked me in the eye as his Bounder took him away, and did not send the man back even though he knew I was alive and not mortally injured. I am certain that is against some Article of War or other, is it not? Because I would quite cheerfully see him hanged, for that and for…other things.”

Ramsay came back and took Elinor by the shoulders, rather roughly. “Did he offer you insult?”

“No, Captain, it was merely that we disliked each other, and that grew into hatred, and he said things I could not abide. And then he left me to die.”

Ramsay released her and said, “I apologize, I should not have handled you like that, but I—You know I have no love for Crawford, but I had assumed he would not take advantage of you.”

“No, he did not. I think it is unfortunate he did not die when
Glorious
sank, and now I feel rather guilty for having such bloodthirsty thoughts.”

“Then we’re both guilty of that.” Ramsay turned back to the window, then brought his hands down hard on the sill. “Miss Pembroke,” he said, “there is no way we can bring this accusation against him.”

Elinor leaped to her feet, knocking her chair over. “
What
? But…is he not to bear responsibility for what he did? I am perfectly willing to testify to the truth.”

Ramsay turned to face her, reclining against the windowsill with his arms crossed over his chest. “It’s your word against his, and he still has his uncle’s favor.”

Elinor kicked her chair hard with the sole of her shoe, making it slide an inch or two toward the door. “And yet he is to face court-martial for losing his ship. I would think I am at least as valuable a weapon as
Glorious
was.”

“
You are not a weapon
,” Ramsay said. “Though Admiral Durrant might actually respond to that argument, much as it pains me to admit it.”

“Then that is the argument we will make.”

“Miss Pembroke, I don’t think I’m explaining this very well. If you accuse Crawford of attempted murder—which is what this is—he’ll deny it, of course, and the admiral will take his side, even if he knows the truth of what happened. Covering something like that up—both Admiral Durrant and Crawford would face a civilian trial for complicity in the attempted murder of an Extraordinary. What all that means is if you or I try to press the issue, we might encounter some fatal accidents to prevent us giving away the secret. So there’s no way to see Crawford receives justice for what he did to you.”

“I cannot believe he will not—will the court-martial at least prove he was negligent in the battle?”

Ramsay shook his head. “Possibly. He should have known
Olympia
had been captured by pirates; every one of our ships that goes missing is reported to the fleet. Other than that, I couldn’t say. I haven’t heard any whispers about negligence.”

“But he…he ignored their lack of signals! He allowed them to come right—”

“Nothing, Miss Pembroke. Not one word. I take comfort in the fact that Admiral Durrant doesn’t have a ship to give him.”

“But I will testify at his court-martial, will I not? I saw the whole thing, Captain!”

Ramsay rubbed his eyes as if they ached. “Your status in the Navy is ambiguous. The Admiralty may rule you’re ineligible to testify, either because you’re not an officer or because you’re not a man. The First Lord might even think he’s doing you a favor by keeping your existence a secret, not that that matters now.”

She felt a chill pass through her. “What do you mean?”

“I’m afraid it’s my fault. Rescuing you meant more people had to know your identity and why it was so important we retrieve you. Captain Horace, the Extraordinary and the other two Seers at Admiralty House… it’s not many, but you know how hard it is to keep a secret once more people know it.”

Now she felt sick as well as cold. So she was a weapon, after all. “I suppose I am valuable enough that compromising my identity was worth the cost,” she said.

“That’s how Admiral Durrant thought. I assure you, your rescue was personal for… for every man on this ship.”

She remembered the welcome the sailors had given her, the smile with which he’d greeted her, and felt better immediately. “I missed you all so very much,” she said, and bent to right her chair and sit down, twining her fingers in her lap. “Captain Ramsay,” she said, looking down at her hands, “why did you not have me returned here?”

Ramsay was quiet for so long she wondered if perhaps she had not spoken loudly enough. She glanced up to see he had turned to face the window again, his head bowed. “I tried, Miss Pembroke,” he said quietly, “God knows I tried. I argued the point with everyone I knew inside the Admiralty. I argued the point with the First Lord himself. Lord Melville was extremely sympathetic, but refused to countermand Admiral Durrant on the grounds of…I don’t remember, some nonsense or other about jurisdiction which I am certain the First Lord has disregarded any number of times when it suited him.”

“Then—”

“What it came down to was that the First Lord assigned you to
Athena
because I was convenient, not because she was a superior ship best fitted to your abilities or anything else he said that day. You were an interchangeable piece as much as any of us are, and I should never have encouraged you to believe otherwise.”

Elinor clenched her hands together so tightly they felt numb. “I understand I am under orders to serve where the Admiralty dictates,” she said, “but I am not a thing, and I do not believe I am interchangeable. This ship
is
where my abilities will always be most effectively used. Had it been
Athena
and not
Glorious
that encountered that pirate ship, even had we had no other Scorchers but myself, that battle would have ended with that pirate at the bottom of the sea, because I know and trust you and everyone aboard this ship, and I would not have been scrambling to cover the deficiencies of my comrades. And
you
would not have been deceived by such a simple ruse. Crawford is a fool, and he deserves to have no ship, though I cannot wish it to be at that cost.” She went to where Ramsay stood and put her hand on his shoulder. “I will not allow the admiral to remove me from
Athena
again,” she said.

He turned his head slightly, enough that his eyes could meet hers. “And what makes you believe you have that power?”

“Because I think he is afraid of me, and I think I can use that. Because I will make him see reason. I survived three days on that island, Captain. I was chased by pirates and slept in a crack in the rock while they hunted me. Admiral Durrant is
nothing
beside that.”

Ramsay had turned away when she said the word “pirates,” and now he let out a long sigh that sounded as if it came from the deepest recesses of his soul. “I would like to hear that story,” he said, “one day in the far future when we can both laugh about how close you came to death, but right now I think you should see Hays, and then we should talk about this pirate stronghold you’ve discovered, and
then
we can decide how you should speak to the admiral.”

In which Elinor beards the admiral in his den

linor felt the deficiencies of her wardrobe the moment she stepped out of Admiralty House’s Bounding chamber. Many of the servants and slaves passing through the hallway, stepping around her with heads lowered, wore dresses or skirts made of the same brown cotton as her hastily purchased clothing. Her hair was arranged loosely on her head with only those few pins she had been able to scavenge from her bedchamber on
Athena
. Embarrassing, to be so grateful for her carelessness, but without them she would have been forced to braid her hair as if dressing for bed, or leave it hanging around her shoulders like a child, and she wanted—needed—Admiral Durrant to take her seriously.

“But—you
must
accompany me!” she had exclaimed to Ramsay.

“I haven’t been summoned. And I am not your commanding officer, not as far as the Admiralty is concerned.”

“I—” In all her imaginings, when she faced Durrant, Ramsay stood with her. Now all her proud words about standing up to the admiral flew out the window with the salt breeze.

Ramsay had taken her by the shoulders, firmly, his blue eyes intent on her face, his hands like an anchor. “Miss Pembroke, you are more than his equal, and what’s more, you have right on your side, and that always seems to give you confidence. This cannot be worse than walking into the Board Room at the Admiralty in London and telling Lord Melville you want to serve in the Navy, can it?”

She laughed. “No, I suppose not. But if Crawford is there, it will be hard not to spit in his face.”

He released her and smiled that tiny, wry smile. “If you do, I’ll deeply regret having missed it.”

Now she led the way, Stratford trailing behind her, toward the entrance hall, her footsteps slow and quiet. Brave words aside, she was not looking forward to this encounter. If she could not convince Durrant of the need to attack the pirates, of the vital importance of returning her to
Athena
…she would simply have to convince him, that was all.

“I’m taking you back to
Athena
whatever the admiral says,” Stratford murmured.