Surprise Attack! by Anthony Barton

Author:Anthony Barton [Barton, Anthony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bulmer Press
Published: 2019-02-07T05:00:00+00:00

AFTER a while, they held one another at arm’s length, still at loggerheads yet calmer and more self-possessed.

Her mother looked her over.

She said ‘You were never my little girl. I see something in your eyes. You have killed someone, I think?’

‘I was trying to kill someone when I fell ill. Then the whole world began to spin and then went dark. The ice and the moon vanished.’

‘The Invulnerable’s surgeon tells me you were poisoned. The fool wanted to bleed you, but I told him to leave you alone.’

‘Thank you. It is true. I was poisoned by Troude’s lady, Catherine-Désirée Tascher de La Pagerie. She is important, Mama. She is sister to Joséphine de Beauharnais.’

Her mother gave Corrie’s shoulders a squeeze and then let go.

‘So now you’re a politician as well as a captain.’

Corrie waited.

For a moment her mother the admiral stared right through her.

‘Your brother mentioned this Catherine-Désirée to me too. Was she sent here to rule New France?’

‘I suspect so. I found an imposing portrait of her in a coaster we burned.’

The admiral puffed up her cheeks and then let out her breath out slowly. ‘Well, if that is the case, then her plan has failed. We have retaken Fort Royal, so now the whole idea of reviving New France is passé. I think I shall have a word or two with this Catherine-Désirée. It might be politic to send her back to France under a white flag. You might even transport her yourself in the Swift. What shape is your frigate in?’

‘We have provisions for two months. We were unable to refill all of our water casks. We have two tiers of shot left. We lack fresh vegetables, fruit, and we have no ship’s compass.’

‘I have a spare compass I can give you, and I can supply whatever foodstuffs you may need from my own stores. I won’t write this into your orders, but if I send the Swift to the Mediterranean and I put you in command, and if I confirm you in your rank of lieutenant and then appoint your brother as your first lieutenant…’

Her mother looked long and hard at Corrie.

She left her words hanging.

Corrie eyes filled with tears. It was probably some lingering effect of the poison. Her thoughts raced. She shook her head, trying to clear her vision.

My horrible mother is going to give me the Swift and dispatch me to France on a secret mission?

Tom will be thrilled. So will my brother Jim.

My brother is to be a real lieutenant, and I am to be a real captain? How is that for patronage?

‘I’ll find him,’ she said, rashly, speaking of her father. ‘I know what you are asking.’

‘I shall pray that you do,’ her mother replied evenly, ‘for I miss Archibald very much. I should never have dared to wear this uniform I am wearing now had he not encouraged me to do so, and I have owed your father my life on more than one occasion. So please do find him, if you can, Corrie, and, if he lives, and if the admiralty allows, try to bring him back to me.

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