Midshipman Wormwood: All at Sea (The Wormwood Saga Book 1) by DAVID DONACHIE & David Donachie

Author:DAVID DONACHIE & David Donachie [DONACHIE, DAVID]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2020-06-02T00:00:00+00:00

7.

He was sat in his room, writing by candlelight while, behind him, snoring softly in the bed, was one of the younger girls from the Three Tuns taproom, recruited after a disappointing trawl through the town. A pleasant enough slip of a thing, she’d shown some delight at being invited for once to warm the bed of someone near her own age, though his insistence she be bathed beforehand had apparently caused loud complaint. This did not extend to their coupling, which had not only been brief and pleasant for both, but carried with it the bonus of her being allowed to stay on and sleep in a proper bed in clean sheets instead of on a long used straw mattress.

For her miserable copper fee, she was more often called upon to service elderly rakes, used to the ready availability of pliant young flesh in the capital and reluctant to countenance, when on their travels, even someone of her fourteen years. She would be used, then tossed back downstairs when they’d finished with her. Charles, with his penchant for more experienced creatures, would have liked to write to someone about the difficulty of finding decent female company in a place such as Chatham, but he could hardly write such a letter to his father or Pargiter.

The later particularly would hardly relish a description of the dispiriting brothels and gin shops of a naval port. He would want to shut them all down and, much as they’d been found tedious after the more sophisticated pleasures of the Daredevil Club, Charles had no desire to deprive any of his fellow sailors, ill-bred or not, of the pleasures they provided. So he wrote to his father to relate the events of the day, wondering, in his description of some of the people he’d met, if his parent would recognise himself.

‘After dinner,’ he continued, ‘which was awful, we repaired to a gaming club. Peace must be as hard on a port as it is upon the sailors who use it, as the air of the place was distinctly one of having seen better days. All the pre-eminent men of the town were there, which made it look like Smithfield Market after butchering, so appalling were they in their dress and manners. Indeed, the only thing which raised the tone was the presence of a large number of naval officers. Not that their manners elevated the air of provinciality, yet it must be acknowledged, naval uniforms are handsome when placed alongside the poor reproductions of fashion which grace the local breast.

You would honestly consider yourself on the other side of the world, rather than a mere forty miles from town. Uncle Harry, by now exceedingly drunk, was ordering bumpers of champagne to celebrate his appointment to the sinecure you provided. He was also gambling in a reckless manner, which leads me to suspect the revenues from his new office will soon be dissipated. I take leave to warn you, having once shown him your generosity, he may, in future, become a sore trial upon it.

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