Chapter 27
Georgiana had been ashore at so many ports that she knew to expect the shock of new smells, a sharp contrast to those of sea and ship. The predominant scent of Halifax, unfortunately, was that of fish, which the little shore party from the Caroline smelled as they walked along the harbour.
The shore party consisted of the Ramseys, Mrs. Travis, Georgiana, Caroline, and little William, and of them all, Georgiana's children had been most and least indifferent as to the prospect of going ashore. Caroline, as could be expected, saw it as a grand new adventure after her time confined to the frigate, while William cared little for whether he was wrapped tightly in sailcloth against his mother's chest on board a ship or on land.
Despite her apparent enthusiasm, there was little to interest Caroline – she certainly cared not for the Commissioner's House, the grandest building in the naval dockyard – until they ventured out of the dockyard and into the source of the smell: the array of fishing boats tied up along the shore, their catch long since distributed at this hour of the day. What interested Caroline here was what interested nearly all children of her age: a dog – a great, black furry mountain of a dog – sitting next to a fisherman on the dock before his boat. Immediately upon espying this creature, Caroline was running off to greet it, and with her heart in her throat, Georgiana called out:
"Caroline, stop! You must be careful with strange dogs!" The child froze, and looked to her mother in sudden confusion and trepidation as Georgiana came up to her and said, "Most dogs are nice and good, but some are not, and those dogs bite. It would hurt very much if a dog bit you with its sharp teeth, do you understand?"
Caroline nodded, and seemed on the verge of tears until the fisherman said, "Aww, she won't bite. Gentle's the day is long. The little lady kin pet 'er, so long as you don't mind, m'lady."
Georgiana thanked the fisherman and laid her hand on Caroline's shoulder, saying, "There, now we know the dog is a good dog, so you may go and pet her if you wish."
Caroline needed no further invitation to scamper up to the dog, placing her little hand on the fur of its cheek in an endeavour to stroke it. She was interrupted, however, by the dog's immediately commencing upon a very thorough licking of Caroline's face, which the child found so hilarious as to put her in hysterical giggles. While this was happening, a portion of the dog's bulk stirred and rose sleepily, proving itself to be an older puppy, one which followed after its mother in accosting the child with its tongue.
"New'fun'lun's, from t'north," said the fisherman. "Best fishin' dogs. The lil' bitch is t'runt 'a t'litter."
He paused, letting these facts settle as the dogs ceased licking Caroline's face and gazed at her appreciatively as she attempted to pet both of them, one with each hand. The puppy, though, now awakened, was more desirous of affection, and it was not long before Caroline was giving the animal her sole attention and the puppy was rolling onto her back, happily inviting her new friend to pet her belly.
"Sell t'pup t'ye fer three guineas," murmured the fisherman.
Georgiana watched the scene before her, contemplating. Poor Caroline had been through much change during her young life; Georgiana liked the thought of giving her one friend who could be a constant, and raised understanding the cost of hunting dogs, she found the price to be a bargain. Yet even if the dog was a runt, if it approached even three-quarters of its mother's size it would be nearly as large as a small pony. She was glad that while Caroline continued petting the puppy's belly, she did not seem to understand the transaction her mother was considering. Finally, Georgiana turned to Captain Ramsey and asked,
"Do you think it would be an issue, to get her such a dog to live on board a ship? When we return home to Stanton Hall I am sure it could be managed, but I have not known a dog aboard a naval ship in my experience."
"No issue at all, so far as that is concerned," stated Captain Ramsey. "Captain Otley had one of those Newfoundland dogs, when I was a lieutenant under him. Good ship dog. If this one is anything like his beast, it can be trained to make its waste in the straw of the manger with the other animals, and then it's hardly any effort at all to keep it, aside from giving it a ration of meat."
"We shall take the puppy, then," said Georgiana to the fisherman, searching her reticule to find the necessary coins. The man accepted them, thanked her, and then disappeared into the little cabin of his boat, eventually reappearing with a length of rope in his hand. This was tied about the neck of the puppy, the opposite end given over into Caroline's hand, at which point she glanced around frantically until she saw her mother.
"The puppy is yours now, Caroline," said Georgiana, and then, after the child had emitted a few shrieks of glee, "Take the rope and bring her to us."
Georgiana did not have a great degree of confidence that this operation was to be successful. Yet when Caroline came walking back towards her mother with the rope clasped in her hand, the puppy followed willingly after its new friend, with but a little glance back towards its mother. It was months past the age of weaning, which was fortunate, Georgiana thought, but still, she would not have expected such a degree of trusting obedience.
Thus the little shore-going party walked back towards the Caroline with its canine addendum, and as they re-entered the naval dockyard, Captain Ramsey asked Caroline, "So, Caroline, what shall you call your new puppy?"
"Dog," replied Caroline. "His name is Dog."
"Caroline, dearest, she is a dog, but would you not like to name her something else?" asked Georgiana. Unfortunately, she came from a family that had named a long line of horses after birds, and this puppy looked nearer a small bear than a bird. Therefore no ready alternative came to her, and the child responded,
"No, his name is Dog."
"But Caroline, she is a girl, like you," replied Georgiana. "So what would you like her name to be?"
"Dog!" exclaimed Caroline. "Her name is Dog!"
There was a certain cast to Caroline's countenance that indicated to her mother that if Caroline was required to say her preference for the animal's name again it would be done in a two-year-old's screech, which is the loudest screech possible. As the creature had been purchased for the little girl, Georgiana decided to forgo the battle and at least be grateful that Caroline now understood its gender. HMS Caroline was tied against the quay, and the puppy walked readily on board and past Matthew, who looked to the dog and then his wife with a bemused countenance.
"There was a fisherman with a mother and puppy," said Georgiana. "The puppy was only three guineas and they were both ever so gentle with Caroline. I thought she could use a companion – they do get rather large, though, if the mother is any indication."
By now the puppy was sitting upon the deck, and Caroline was whispering in its ear, which perhaps justified the acquisition better than anything Georgiana could have said.
"I am familiar with the breed – they are good ship dogs," said Matthew. "What is your puppy's name, Caroline?"
"Dog. Her name is Dog."
"Well, I suppose that will prove useful in the future, lest anyone confuse her with a bear," said Matthew drily.
Throughout the remainder of the day, Dog stayed close to her new friend, except when the man who kept the cattle was enlisted to take her to the manger. The creature proved even gentler with little William, laying its paws on his cradle after Georgiana placed the baby within, and giving him just the slightest little lick on his cheek. But it was Caroline to whom the puppy was most thoroughly attached, and Caroline who took it upon herself to speak on its behalf the next day.
Georgiana had asked her daughter earlier that morning if she wished to go ashore, and she had said no. It had appeared that the shore no longer held any appeal for her, when Dog was on board the ship. Not an hour later, however, Caroline could be heard whimpering in her little cabin, and Georgiana rose from her place in the great cabin and opened the door.
"Dog want'sa go shore," she said, looking daggers at both her mother and Mrs. McClare, who had presumably already told her this could not be done.
"Sweetling, Aunt Catherine and Uncle Andrew have already gone ashore, and I gave Bowden shore leave when you said you did not want to leave the ship," replied her mother. Matthew had warned her of the dangers of walking ashore in a foreign port without a male companion, and while Halifax was far more British than the ports he had warned her of, it was still a colonial port.
"I may walk with you and Caroline, if you wish," said Lord Stretford, entering the great cabin from the other side.
"Thank you, Uncle William. I did not realise you had returned," said Georgiana, for she had thought him still off calling upon the governor.
"I am just back, but I do not mind another walk," said he. "I am not such a marine creature as your papa, Caroline."
"What's a mawine cwe-tir?" was the child's reply, and they endeavoured to explain this to her as Mrs. McClare put her little boots on. Then the rope was tied about Dog's neck and the party set out. As they walked, Georgiana inquired as to how Lord Stretford's call on the governor had gone, and asked whether they would be dining with him, for this was the ritual she had become accustomed to at British ports. He responded that the call had gone well, but said there would be no dinner at the governor's house. This was not to be laid on the governor, however, who had offered the invitation.
"You see, Georgiana," Lord Stretford continued, "I am not a particularly – official – embassador, as you knew with Lord Amherst's mission to China. I said I was going to pay a call on Mr. Adams, and that is truly what it is. There will be no dinners, no formal reception of my presence, and no salutes by the frigate's guns, which has quite discomfited your husband. We thought a more quiet endeavour to influence matters was the better way to go about things."
"It seems an awfully long way to go just to pay a call, and for nothing more than some territory in the Pacific."
"Were it merely that, I would agree with you," Lord Stretford said. "However you must know that did not most of my motivation in volunteering to do so. And – you must not speak of this to anyone other than Matthew, who does know – the Pacific territories are not my priority here. The Americans will likely treat with Spain, and we will not recognise it as a valid treaty. What I am truly here for is the new states they intend to add."
"The new what?"
"States. They are rather like our counties," he said, and then seeing Georgiana was still confused, he added, "It is difficult to fathom the amount of land on this continent, Georgiana, when you have grown up on our island. There is land for the taking, in the American west, and as people move there and settle, eventually there are enough of them there to require administration and representation in the Congress, which is their equivalent to Parliament."
The idea of unsettled land for the taking, of these new states simply being given representatives in government, was exceedingly incongruous to Georgiana, raised in a country where land was limited and equated to power, where people like Lord Stretford could buy a village to put a borough in his pocket. With a furrowed brow, she nodded to him to continue.
"They are adding new states at present, and there is a question of whether the states will permit slavery or not," he said.
"How could they possibly be wishing to expand slavery?" cried Georgiana. "I know men would cite financial implications, in trying to end the trade where it already exists, but I should think any reasonable man would agree it should not be expanded beyond what it is now."
"It comes down to that representation I spoke of. We have a House of Commons and a House of Lords, they have a House of Representatives and a Senate. Each state provides two men for the Senate regardless of how many people live within it, and if all of the new states do not have interests of slave owners, the slave owners will find themselves in an increasingly small minority."
"And do you truly think you can have influence over this?"
"I doubt it," said he, "but I feel a moral compulsion to make the attempt."
They walked on in silence except for Caroline, who had been chattering away to Dog over everything she saw of interest during Georgiana's conversation with Lord Stretford, and continued on when the adults had ceased speaking. They passed Lieutenant Osborne, who bowed to them, and when they had walked out of earshot Georgiana sighed and said,
"It is perhaps not good of me, for he did what was best for his family, but I wish we had sailed before Viscount Huntston had received that letter. I had wanted Matthew to have a journey with no – difficult people."
Lord Stretford nodded, and they walked some strides before he said, "Matthew's trouble is he does not understand weakness, nor cowardice. Where there is any little seed of bravery in a man, he will find it and rouse it out, and that is why he has had such successes as the Polonaise and the action on the Pearl River."
"Not just in men," replied Georgiana, contemplative. "When I gave birth to Caroline, I was so exhausted and in so much pain, and I asked Matthew to bury me on land, if I did not survive. I thought he would coddle me, reassure me, but instead he spoke so firmly, like I was one of his men. He accused me of wanting to give up. It recalled me to my resolve to see my baby into the world, and I did. I do not know if I would have made it through, if he had not rallied me in that moment."
"Such things would not have rallied every woman," said Lord Stretford. "If I would have spoken to Charlotte in such a manner, I am sure she would have fallen apart. Yet it is as I said – where there is courage and it has been lost, buried under exhaustion or fear, Matthew is the very man to find it. But his trouble is, he expects it is there in every man – and perhaps even every woman – and it is not always there."
"Do you truly think Lieutenant Osborne and Lieutenant Coombs to be cowards? I think them more bullies, than anything else. Lieutenant Osborne may not be capable of the same savagery, but he adds a measure of incompetence, instead."
"Bullies generally attempt to strike fear in others as a defence against their own fears. It is their castle walls. And in Lieutenant Osborne's case, there must be something of significance lacking – I did not know of him particularly, but it is not usual for an Osborne to remain a lieutenant all his life."
Georgiana thought back to another troublesome lieutenant, Holmes, who had served under her husband for the first part of that trip to China, and thought she saw the rightness of what Lord Stretford said. Lieutenant Osborne had started poor Mills, but he was not so bad as either Holmes or Coombs – perhaps he might be worked upon by someone who understood him better – and she asked, "Have you ever spoken to Matthew of this?"
"Nay. It was not my place to do so."
"It is your place now that he knows you are his father. Please speak to him and share these observations. I believe he will see more improvement out of this last journey if he is able to shape Osborne into a better officer."
Lord Stretford promised that he would, and they walked on.
True to Lord Stretford's indication that his presence in North America was meant to be unofficial, the Caroline stayed in Halifax only long enough to deposit the coin she had been carrying and take on fresh victuals, and then she set sail on a course for Baltimore. Georgiana was eager that Lord Stretford talk to Matthew, and the first time she found it was just the three of them sitting in the great cabin, she gave Lord Stretford a look of significance and said she was going to take a turn up on the deck.
Matthew never mentioned the conversation to her, but it became clear it had taken place in his behaviour towards Osborne. He held more frequent conferences with the lieutenant in the great cabin, but they were not usually ones for which the rest of the party needed to vacate that space. They spoke of sail trim, of navigation, of how gunnery practise had gone, and Matthew's tone was one of sympathy, of encouragement; it was the tone he used with his midshipmen. Despite the difference in their ages, Osborne seemed quite receptive to this more paternalistic approach.
Aside from this, they all passed the journey to Baltimore much as they had the crossing of the Atlantic, save Caroline and Dog, who were constantly in each others' company, often playing fetch with the little sailcloth balls that Caroline's admirers had now realised were the best gifts for her. Catherine occupied herself either by playing fetch with Caroline and Dog, or with her sketch book. Captain Ramsey and Matthew continued sparring with swords, and Matthew finally began to seem pleased with the return of his capabilities. He and Georgiana played together, as well, and while his skill on the cello seemed to return more slowly, Georgiana did not care. They were together, making music, and in the absence of other marital intimacies, at least she had this to give her pleasure.