Post Captain Horatio Hornblower stood on the dock of Portsmouth and stared at his new ship as his crew worked around him. He never thought he'd command his first ship. He'd been placed in command of the Indefatigable; the first ship he'd served on.

"Takes some getting used to, doesn't it?" his friend second lieutenant Archie Kennedy said stopping beside him.

Hornblower laughed. "Indeed. Big ship, big mission."

"You're a post captain now. Comes with the territory." Kennedy smiled encouragingly.

"Captain?" first lieutenant William Bush pointed out a woman standing behind them.

She was very tall and wearing a red dress and long red velvet hooded cloak. She had red hair too, and bright beautiful blue eyes. Around her neck hung a little gold locket with a beautiful H engraved on it. A small sturdy trunk with HH studded on it was on the ground beside her and a violin case rested against it. And she looked like Captain Hornblower.

Hornblower and Kennedy turned round to look at her. She blushed a little and her naturally red lips smiled shyly.

"Helena?"

"Do you know this woman Horatio?" Archie asked.

"She's my little sister."

"You told me you didn't have any blood family left."

"We presumed her dead." Hornblower reached forwards and pulled her into a hug. "What happened to you?"

"You know me, I survive." Helena laughed and kissed him on the cheek. "Well are you going to show me your ship?"

Hornblower laughed and gave an order to Mathews to prepare a boat. "William you finish up here."

"Aye sir."

Ten minutes later Hornblower led Helena into the captain's cabin of the Indy. She looked around and glanced at the maps on the table.

"She's a fine ship."

"And from what I hear, you're a fine captain."

"How is it you suddenly turn up after ten years?"

Helena looked shifty. "It took me that long to find you after he died."

"The rake who stole you?"

"Yes. After a few years I had to kill him." she said casually.

"You what?"

"I had to. He refused to marry me, didn't work, gambled away what little money we had, got me pregnant and hit me."

"He got you pregnant?"

"Twins. Stillborn boy and a girl who died a few days later. A year later I'd had enough of him. I wanted to shoot him, but you know me I'm subtle. I poisoned him. Sold the house and took what little money we had. I went back home but found that father had died and the house was sold. Then I tried to find you."

"Father died shortly after I left for sea at seventeen. Caught a disease from one of his patients."

"Sorry to hear it. That's one of the downfalls to eloping; you lose touch with your family. I earned my way playing Irish jigs in taverns and acting a bit on the stage. Eventually I heard some midshipmen gossiping about the antics of a certain lieutenant Hornblower. They were saying they wanted to serve with him. I flirted the information out of them and left London the next day for Portsmouth."

"I guess I have a reputation."

"I'll say. They filled me in. I liked the Gibraltar fire ship story, it was very you. Why must you be such a hero?"

"Lord knows. I have to do what's right. No matter what."

"Horatio, I was wondering if you'd take me along with you. Please? I don't have anyone else, and I'd make myself useful. I can cook, and I can keep the crew entertained. I see things that men don't. I speak French and Spanish. I'm quite a good judge of character."

"What about the rake? I wouldn't exactly call that a good judgement."

"He made me fall in love and charmed me into believing he was someone else. I've learnt my lesson since then, and now I can read people. I can take care of myself, I've had to learn to, so if it comes to a battle, I needn't be protected. I'm used to roughing it, and I can make myself useful. Sometimes persuasion can help glean information. Please take me with you."

"Of course I will, if you do help out. As I remember it you had a good sense of geography and strategy. You certainly wouldn't let me win at chess. You could prove very useful."

"I'm a useful woman. Where are you going to put me?"

"In with me probably. You know I really missed you, firebrand."

"I know. When I ran off with that bastard I kept imagining the disappointed look on your face. I tried to run back to you a dozen times but he wouldn't let me. All those ten years I tried to think like you; asking myself What Would Horatio Do? And the answer was simple: find a way out."

"We always were an odd pair; similar but very different. Me the mathematician and classicist, you the musician and bookworm. I was always sensible and you were too passionate for your own good."

"Yes, I follow my heart and you follow your head. I think we can agree which is best."

"Which?"

"The head. I followed my heart and look where it got me. You followed your head and look where it's got you." she gestured round the cabin.

"I follow my heart and my head. I do what's right, do my duty, follow my honour, and let my courage run away with me."

"I don't see that as a bad thing. That was one of the things we had in common; our remarkable bravery."

"Indeed firebrand. Do you know that you've changed?"

"You last saw me when I was fifteen, brother dearest. And I was not finished. I had to change, I had no choice."

"I know. It seems we've swapped a bit. I've started listening to my heart and you recognise your head."

"It didn't take me long to fall out of love with the rake. And asking myself what you'd do was really me gaining common sense. A bit late I might add."

Her brother chuckled and she giggled.