Bolitho 27 - Relentless Pursuit by Alexander Kent

Author:Alexander Kent [Kent, Alexander]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction:Historical
Publisher: Arrow
Published: 2011-06-19T15:59:42+00:00

11 HOME FROM THE SEA

AI).A,N1 BoI.ITIIO winced as his elbow slipped from the window rest and he was tossed against the carriage side. lie was astonished that he could have fallen asleep, when every bone in his body ached from the lurching motion. The roads were dry, the ruts left by the last rainfall iron-hard, a match for even an expert driver like Young Matthew. He looked out at the passing countryside, the contrasting greens, the rugged stone walls, which were so familiar. And so alien.

It was hard to recall Unrizvalled's return to Plymouth, or even set each event in its true order.

Plymouth, in contrast to their last departure, was no longer full of ships laid up in ordinary, or stripped and forlorn, awaiting the ignominy of being hulked or broken up. It was alive with men-of-war, from towering liners to seventy-fours, and support craft of every shape and size. But not many frigates, he noticed. Not a full fleet, but it soon would he, from what he had been told.

He glanced at Yovell, sitting opposite him, filling both scats and fast asleep despite the sickening motion, gold spectacles still on the top of his head.

Yovell had the gift of acceptance. Ile had been neither surprised nor excited by the prospect of their return. As if it was ordained.

He heard the boy Napier's voice above the clatter of wheels and harness, and the steady thud of hooves on the narrow road. I le had wondered about the impulse, if that was what it had been, which had compelled him to tell Napier he was coming with him to Falmouth. Not any longer. He could hear Young Matthew, the Bolitho coachman, answering his many questions, laughing at some of them, but enjoying his new companion.

Young Matthew: even that was part of the story which went with the old grey house. His grandfather had been Old Matthew, the head coachman for many years. The boy's father had been lost at sea in one of the famous Falmouth packet ships, so it had seemed only natural that the name should remain, even though he must be over forty by now.

Strange that they should have sighted a homeward-bound packet while they had been beating up the Channel to Plymouth. Long enough to close with the other vessel, and pass a message to her master.

Ferguson would have seen to the rest. Young Matthew had been in Plymouth waiting for him when he had left Unrivalled. For ten days ... He had never been absent from his ship for any such length of time. He had wanted it more than he had realised. Needed it. But his other self had forcibly opposed it.

He thought now of Vice-Admiral Keen. When you were at sea only the ship mattered; it had to be so, for any captain. You tended to believe that everything else would remain the same in your absence, like a familiar landfall, or the face of a friend.

He had realised what was happening as soon

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