An Officer's Honour by Vivienne Cox

Author:Vivienne Cox
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Independent
Published: 2020-01-14T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

He sleepwalked through his duties that week, unable to sleep for twitching at every movement, thinking perhaps that Cruise had returned. He wasn’t sure if it was an idea he hoped for or dreaded.

What he had been thinking was beyond him, he was an Admiral of the King’s Navy for God’s sake: he did not offer comfort to pirates. He was aware that he had cleaned said pirate’s wounds and held him upright to piss on a number of occasions, but this had been different. It seemed that it didn’t matter where James drew the line in the sand to say, ‘I will do this for this man, but no more’, he fell further into misconduct each time they came into contact. He would do well to remember that easy was the descent into corruption, and that the task and burden lay in retracing one’s steps into the light.

Captain James Thomas was a man of duty and honour and when he bent his mind to a goal it was done. He did not consciously think of Alexander Cruise again.

* * *

James was reading in bed. He was so tired that the letters swam before his eyes. He had been back on shore for nearly a fortnight, but it took him that long to stop jerking awake thinking he had missed the first bells or sure that the reason he could not feel the rocking of the sea was that he had died in his sleep.

He had not had time to visit the baker beyond the initial welcome home supper they had hosted, where James had nearly fallen asleep in his soup. He was determined to finish this damn book before the next visit, so he could be sure that it was clear how much he appreciated the gift.

He was on the verge of giving up tonight anyhow, as it was late enough that servants had gone for the evening. He leant over to snuff out the lamp by his bed, and if it hadn’t been for the dent in the brass handle of the door, he might not have noticed it turning this way and that. James blinked, sure it was a trick of the light, but the door handle moved again and adrenaline had him up, across the room and wrenching it open in a second.

Alexander Cruise kneeled before him, lockpick in hand.

The pirate grinned and bounced up from the floor. “Apologies for the lateness, James, I wasn’t sure if you would be getting your beauty sleep or not. Not that you need any, of course.” He flicked his eyes to James’ naked chest as he sauntered into the room.

James wondered if this were perhaps a hallucination brought on by extreme tiredness.

“Cruise,” He began, casting around for his damned robe, “You cannot be here.”

“And yet, here I be.” He flung both his arms out to the side as if to illustrate the point.

“There are nearly 600 men stationed at Port Merrian, three 60 gunners, a Medway , a Bristol and veritable menagerie of sloops.

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