*Chapter Six - Aftermath*
The hours that followed were not very pleasant. Obviously my immediate captors did not know I was on their side. However, well on into the afternoon I was taken from the hold of HMS Tonnant, where many of the prisoners had been herded, and escorted to the Admiral's cabin to make my report.
Admiral Pellew listened, read the papers I was still carrying, and confirmed that it had given him all he needed to prove Hammond's treachery to the Admiralty - and get them to investigate all his contacts. It was he who told me that both Hammond and his nephew were dead and that Wolfe had escaped in the confusion. Before I could ask any more he added that he had just received a report from another officer, who he had asked to wait on board. Of course it was Horatio.
I remember his embracing me, for the second time in our lives. I remember both of us trying to talk at once. I remember that we forgot all about Pellew, not even realising he had slipped out of the room. I remember we were impatient with questions, and barely clear in answers.
"Did you know about my involvement?" I asked him.
"Not until just now. The Commodore - Admiral - told me in Kingston he would make arrangements for your future, but he wouldn't say what they were. I didn't even know he had a man on shore."
He told me about their escape and what followed. Then he told me of the decision not to make Hammond's treachery public.
The world rocked. All this time, somewhere deep in my soul had been the promise that, if I succeeded, I could go back.
"It's all right!" I must have swayed, for he grabbed my arm. "Archie, I hadn't forgotten you! Listen to me." The world was still swaying, I had to sit down. "Listen. You can still be reinstated. All that's needed is for the Admiralty to claim the trial in Kingston was a staged affair through and through, arranged so that you could go under cover in France. No need to say why that was so necessary, no-one will ask. It's a small enough price to pay for not letting it be known that they were fooled by Hammond. I've discussed this with the Admiral, he agrees. Archie, I give you my word, it's all right."
"I believe you." Relief was making me even more giddy than shock had done. "You just gave me a jolt."
"Did you really think I'd forget you?"
"No. Not forget." Ask for self-sacrifice rather. He's a creature of the Navy too. "It's ... been a strain."
"It's over now," he told me. I was beginning to believe it.
We both had a few more words with Pellew before the fleet set sail. I had some questions for him.
"Did you send the message that was supposedly from the Duc, sir?"
"Yes," he admitted. "I could not take your reports to the Admiralty. It was the only way to get that stretch of coast explored." From Horatio's expression I could tell that that was news to him, but he said nothing.
"What about Wolfe and Hammond's nephew, sir? Did you know about them?"
"I did not know about Wolfe at first, only when your reports reached me after Hotspur's initial voyage. I was suspicious of Hammond requesting that his nephew should be posted to Hotspur, but I knew nothing against him for certain."
"Jack Hammond was a traitor?" Horatio's surprise was patent. "He killed one of the enemy, on the beach."
"To keep up the pretence," I said, unhesitatingly. It was something I might have done if really pushed, or panicked....
"Sir-" Horatio hesitated a moment, then went on, "Why did you not tell me, sir?"
"Perhaps I was overcautious," Pellew acknowledged, "But I simply could not risk alerting Hammond. I did not think it likely that you would let something slip, but the only way to be quite sure was not to tell you."
"Sir," I said, "Was there a particular reason why you chose Mr. - Commander Hornblower for this mission?"
"You mean apart from his being the best of my young commanders?" Horatio looked typically embarrassed by that. "I must admit there was. Hammond did appear to have something of a personal dislike of you, commander. I believe it may have stemmed from the fire-ship affair, which you emerged from with more credit than he did. It was hardly all-encompassing, but was exacerbated by your survival in Kingston and still further inflamed after your game of whist." Whist? This was the first I'd heard of that. I made a mental note to ask Horatio about it later. "I did, in fact, arrange that game in the hope you would give him further cause to dislike you. I believed that appointing you to this mission might cause him to get careless, to make mistakes in his eagerness to bring you down. And I believe he did."
I had one other question. "What will happen to the captured men, sir? Will they all be executed?"
"I do not think that likely. Probably only the ringleaders would have been given death sentences in any event, but the need to hush up the involvement of Captain Hammond will almost certainly result in all the men being granted their lives in return for their silence. I expect prison sentences of various lengths."
That was a relief, although I'd not have shed tears for Hare.
It was Pellew himself who suggested I should sail back on Hotspur. For some old faces this was the first they knew of my survival, and I'll swear that there were tears in Matthews' eyes. Having always thought of him as Horatio's man, I was deeply touched.
Naturally Horatio and I had a good deal more talking to do, in fact we talked through almost the whole of the night. He seemed surprisingly hard hit by the revelation about Hammond's nephew.
"I thought he was struggling to adapt to the Navy, but I suppose that was all an act. He was attempting to cause as many problems as possible - and he cold-bloodedly gave Matthews a false order to withdraw."
"I imagine so," I said. "I don't know details."
"And I told him at the end that he had lived up to his family!"
"Well so he had," I said. "He caused trouble for the British."
But it was Kingston he was most eager to discuss.
"When you gave your testimony, was that all arranged with Pellew? Did you know he meant to fake your death?"
"Oh no. I thought it was all real. And Pellew wasn't expecting my intervention, either. He never intended to fake *my*death. He intended to fake *yours*."
"Mine?"
"Of course! Come now, Horatio. If Pellew had to pick one of us for a highly responsible mission, which do you think he'd choose?" I'm not sure Pellew was right in thinking Horatio suited to espionage, but if the Admiral was asked to recommend a man who could walk on water he'd probably give Horatio's name. "Pellew was aiming to get you convicted so you could go under cover and catch Hammond for him. He had it all arranged with this doctor friend of his, a man with knowledge of a drug that paralyses and makes the vital signs almost imperceptible. Don't ask me for more details, when it's *your* vital signs in question.... well let's just say I didn't want to know more." Especially as I'd been given to understand that using the method on a man in my condition had been a very risky thing and I almost hadn't come round. "Pellew was planning to visit you after the conviction, and arrange for you to apparently commit suicide. I got quite a lecture for messing up his plans."
A bit unfair that, seeing as I hadn't known he had any plans to mess up. And a bit unfair to Horatio, too. Pellew had told me that asking for his consent beforehand simply had not been possible, he couldn't risk Hammond sensing anything off-key in Horatio's court room conduct. He'd also said that Horatio would never have refused the mission anyway, he would feel it his duty to accept. And that was true.
"That explains one thing that puzzled me very much," Horatio said. "At one point it seemed he was trying to make Buckland the scrapegoat, but he never did point out that he was present when Sawyer was relieved of command. In theory the senior officer on the scene is responsible for any action taken by his juniors. Apart from our hold meeting it was the only thing that could convict Buckland of mutiny, but he never mentioned it. He must have known harrassing Buckland over events at the fort wouldn't convict him of anything worse than incompetence. I suppose he never wanted to make him out a mutineer."
"I'm sure he didn't. Can you imagine Buckland doing spy-work?" I had to laugh at that.
Horatio had something else on his mind. "Did he ever speak to you about Captain Sawyer's fall?"
"No. He never did. Why?"
"When I first told him the story, I was sure he thought I'd pushed him. Then, later, we had a talk in Kingston, before he told me the truth about you, and he said something about you doing what you saw as your duty. I thought then he believed you'd done it." He was silent for a long moment, face tautly closed. "I didn't push him, Archie."
"Well, of course you didn't. I know that."
"You know? But in Kingston you asked me -"
"What you were going to say. I know you, Horatio. Are you telling me you weren't about to confess to a crime you hadn't committed to get the rest of us out of trouble?" He was silent. "Well, of course you were! I saw what happened, remember? You *couldn't* have pushed him, not from where you were. And you'd never assault your captain, no matter how mad he was. Not your style at all." I wasn't sure whether to add one more thing, but in the end I did. "And if, for any reason, you *did* decide to push a man down a hatch, there would have been no witnesses and you'd have made very sure he wouldn't wake up again. I never thought for a second you'd done it."
He was very still, and when he answered me his voice shook a little. "I- hadn't realised I needed to hear someone say that. Everyone else... everyone...."
"I'm sorry. I wish I could tell you Pellew doesn't believe it, but I just don't know. Why don't you speak to him about it? I'm sure he'd listen. Oh, and for the record, Horatio, I didn't push him either."
"I know," he said. "You'd have told me, wouldn't you? Maybe not straight away, but at the last... you'd have told me if what you'd said to the court was true."
"Yes, I would. Mind you, I might have pushed him if I'd remembered the hatch was there... though not if I'd known you and Wellard were on the scene. I'm not as honourable as you are." We were silent for a moment. "Pellew does care about you, Horatio," I told him. "Very much, I think. But he's a naval officer before all else." As you are.
He didn't answer, but seemed to me still troubled. I knew he'd always thought of Pellew as more than a superior, or even a mentor. Plainly some of the recent revelations disturbed him, but I thought he'd work his way to understanding in time. In many ways he and Pellew are very much alike.
That's pretty much the end of the story. Pellew was right about none of the prisoners being executed. He also told me, some time afterwards, that a list of men who had been approached by Hammond or other traitors had been obtained from Hammond's papers. Under the circumstances prosecution was impossible, but the officers were forced to leave the service. Nothing much could be done to the civilians, except make sure they did not hold office, but they would be remembered and watched. Wolfe was killed a few months later, Horatio wrote me the details, but I never did learn what happened to O'Donnell . And I did get reinstated.
There's one more conversation with Horatio that sticks in my memory. This was not long before Hotspur reached harbour.
"Bush tells me you've been seeing a girl in Portsmouth."
"She's just a friend, Archie," he managed to pronounce that old excuse with an air of originality.
"You should marry, Horatio, make yourself a family."
All right, that wasn't one of my brighter moments. I knew he was lonely, with no family ashore, but I overlooked the fact that a man like Horatio is unlikely to make any woman a good husband.
"So should you," he retorted.
"Not on a lieutenant's salary."
"I don't think you'll be a lieutenant much longer. The Admiral's very pleased with you."
He did seem pleased. That was a new feeling, but one I thought I could get used to.
"I'm sure he'll find you a good posting, anyway," Horatio said. "I'm sorry we can't serve together."
"I'll miss you," I told him. "But it may be just as well. A captain and first officer shouldn't be too close." He nodded, and I thought he understood. Close friendships can easily become a liability in war. Another cruelty of the service, the very dearness of our friendship meant we had to separate.
I suspect Pellew agreed with that one, for the posting he found me was to the Mediterranean, and it was some years before I saw Horatio again. There's always a price in the Navy, a price for friendship, a price for success. All we can do is pay. But again, I shouldn't be too cynical. It was the service that gave us that friendship in the first place, a bond strong enough to withstand any amount of separation. When we meet now it's always as though we'd been no time at all apart.
It's all a long time ago now, an untold story that few ever heard the truth of and fewer still recall. Perhaps some future historian will uncover it from the papers of the Admiralty or Sir Edward Pellew. Then again perhaps not. Sometimes I wonder how many secrets of the wars of old were never told. I could never have fought the shadow war for long. But since that time I've had much respect for those who do.
And the naval life? It is a strange and harsh one, yet I've seldom been so glad of anything as of the chance to get back to it. If the costs are great, the rewards are great also. The Navy moulds us ruthlessly, but some of the men it's shaped are the best that anyone could hope to know. And they are accepted. It was believing that the best qualities received the worst punishment that so embittered me in Kingston .... if that had been real, but it wasn't real, it was a trap to catch a traitor and we did. At the day's end, I'd not chose any other life. The stormiest voyage can bring the most fulfilment.
*The End*
**********************
Author's Endnotes: The explanation given in Chapter Four seems to me by far the most logical way of reconciling Hammond's 'Retribution' conduct with his unmasking in 'Loyalty' as a secret Irish nationalist in in league with the French. Since I never did think that court martial was really in the best interests of the service, the idea that he never intended it to be made sense to me. However in that case Pellew in 'Retribution' was either a half-witted dupe or playing a game of his own. I always found Pellew's conduct inexplicable if taken at face value anyway, so the idea that he was one step ahead of Hammond, instead of two steps behind, is attractive.
Whilst it's not necessary to assume a fifth columnist amongst Wolfe's men in 'Loyalty' it does make quite a lot of sense, not least in explaining how Hornblower and his men came to be locked in a room with a useful way out. Surely there must have been some storerooms available without a privy in them! The notion that the message from the Duc was a set up is not necessary either, but has the advantage of tying up a loose end. And it seemed a bit odd that Pellew, having been given evidence there was a leak, should have included the number one suspect in the second mission. Unless he knew who the traitor really was, but needed hard evidence....
Hare and O'Donnell are my creations. Hare was a plot necessity, but O'Donnell was invented because I thought there should be *one* Irish nationalist who wasn't totally unsympathetic.
Apologies to any Jack Hammond fans! I know the episode implied that he was not in on his uncle's plot, but it was not fully conclusive. Once I tried out the idea that he was it worked so well, especially in explaining why he was posted to Hotspur (of all ships) in the first place, that I couldn't resist including it.
This was a difficult story to write because so much of it was plugging gaps. I'm not wholly happy with how it came out, but I badly wanted to fill in some background on the Hammond storyline, and at the same time answer some of the questions which loomed when viewing 'Loyalty' (How did Wolfe get himself aboard Hotspur? Why was he even in England?) I hope at least that it wasn't too incomprehensible to those who haven't yet seen 'Loyalty' - assuming that any of such decided to read this story!
Thanks to all who reviewed both this and my previous stories. I do appreciate it.
The hours that followed were not very pleasant. Obviously my immediate captors did not know I was on their side. However, well on into the afternoon I was taken from the hold of HMS Tonnant, where many of the prisoners had been herded, and escorted to the Admiral's cabin to make my report.
Admiral Pellew listened, read the papers I was still carrying, and confirmed that it had given him all he needed to prove Hammond's treachery to the Admiralty - and get them to investigate all his contacts. It was he who told me that both Hammond and his nephew were dead and that Wolfe had escaped in the confusion. Before I could ask any more he added that he had just received a report from another officer, who he had asked to wait on board. Of course it was Horatio.
I remember his embracing me, for the second time in our lives. I remember both of us trying to talk at once. I remember that we forgot all about Pellew, not even realising he had slipped out of the room. I remember we were impatient with questions, and barely clear in answers.
"Did you know about my involvement?" I asked him.
"Not until just now. The Commodore - Admiral - told me in Kingston he would make arrangements for your future, but he wouldn't say what they were. I didn't even know he had a man on shore."
He told me about their escape and what followed. Then he told me of the decision not to make Hammond's treachery public.
The world rocked. All this time, somewhere deep in my soul had been the promise that, if I succeeded, I could go back.
"It's all right!" I must have swayed, for he grabbed my arm. "Archie, I hadn't forgotten you! Listen to me." The world was still swaying, I had to sit down. "Listen. You can still be reinstated. All that's needed is for the Admiralty to claim the trial in Kingston was a staged affair through and through, arranged so that you could go under cover in France. No need to say why that was so necessary, no-one will ask. It's a small enough price to pay for not letting it be known that they were fooled by Hammond. I've discussed this with the Admiral, he agrees. Archie, I give you my word, it's all right."
"I believe you." Relief was making me even more giddy than shock had done. "You just gave me a jolt."
"Did you really think I'd forget you?"
"No. Not forget." Ask for self-sacrifice rather. He's a creature of the Navy too. "It's ... been a strain."
"It's over now," he told me. I was beginning to believe it.
We both had a few more words with Pellew before the fleet set sail. I had some questions for him.
"Did you send the message that was supposedly from the Duc, sir?"
"Yes," he admitted. "I could not take your reports to the Admiralty. It was the only way to get that stretch of coast explored." From Horatio's expression I could tell that that was news to him, but he said nothing.
"What about Wolfe and Hammond's nephew, sir? Did you know about them?"
"I did not know about Wolfe at first, only when your reports reached me after Hotspur's initial voyage. I was suspicious of Hammond requesting that his nephew should be posted to Hotspur, but I knew nothing against him for certain."
"Jack Hammond was a traitor?" Horatio's surprise was patent. "He killed one of the enemy, on the beach."
"To keep up the pretence," I said, unhesitatingly. It was something I might have done if really pushed, or panicked....
"Sir-" Horatio hesitated a moment, then went on, "Why did you not tell me, sir?"
"Perhaps I was overcautious," Pellew acknowledged, "But I simply could not risk alerting Hammond. I did not think it likely that you would let something slip, but the only way to be quite sure was not to tell you."
"Sir," I said, "Was there a particular reason why you chose Mr. - Commander Hornblower for this mission?"
"You mean apart from his being the best of my young commanders?" Horatio looked typically embarrassed by that. "I must admit there was. Hammond did appear to have something of a personal dislike of you, commander. I believe it may have stemmed from the fire-ship affair, which you emerged from with more credit than he did. It was hardly all-encompassing, but was exacerbated by your survival in Kingston and still further inflamed after your game of whist." Whist? This was the first I'd heard of that. I made a mental note to ask Horatio about it later. "I did, in fact, arrange that game in the hope you would give him further cause to dislike you. I believed that appointing you to this mission might cause him to get careless, to make mistakes in his eagerness to bring you down. And I believe he did."
I had one other question. "What will happen to the captured men, sir? Will they all be executed?"
"I do not think that likely. Probably only the ringleaders would have been given death sentences in any event, but the need to hush up the involvement of Captain Hammond will almost certainly result in all the men being granted their lives in return for their silence. I expect prison sentences of various lengths."
That was a relief, although I'd not have shed tears for Hare.
It was Pellew himself who suggested I should sail back on Hotspur. For some old faces this was the first they knew of my survival, and I'll swear that there were tears in Matthews' eyes. Having always thought of him as Horatio's man, I was deeply touched.
Naturally Horatio and I had a good deal more talking to do, in fact we talked through almost the whole of the night. He seemed surprisingly hard hit by the revelation about Hammond's nephew.
"I thought he was struggling to adapt to the Navy, but I suppose that was all an act. He was attempting to cause as many problems as possible - and he cold-bloodedly gave Matthews a false order to withdraw."
"I imagine so," I said. "I don't know details."
"And I told him at the end that he had lived up to his family!"
"Well so he had," I said. "He caused trouble for the British."
But it was Kingston he was most eager to discuss.
"When you gave your testimony, was that all arranged with Pellew? Did you know he meant to fake your death?"
"Oh no. I thought it was all real. And Pellew wasn't expecting my intervention, either. He never intended to fake *my*death. He intended to fake *yours*."
"Mine?"
"Of course! Come now, Horatio. If Pellew had to pick one of us for a highly responsible mission, which do you think he'd choose?" I'm not sure Pellew was right in thinking Horatio suited to espionage, but if the Admiral was asked to recommend a man who could walk on water he'd probably give Horatio's name. "Pellew was aiming to get you convicted so you could go under cover and catch Hammond for him. He had it all arranged with this doctor friend of his, a man with knowledge of a drug that paralyses and makes the vital signs almost imperceptible. Don't ask me for more details, when it's *your* vital signs in question.... well let's just say I didn't want to know more." Especially as I'd been given to understand that using the method on a man in my condition had been a very risky thing and I almost hadn't come round. "Pellew was planning to visit you after the conviction, and arrange for you to apparently commit suicide. I got quite a lecture for messing up his plans."
A bit unfair that, seeing as I hadn't known he had any plans to mess up. And a bit unfair to Horatio, too. Pellew had told me that asking for his consent beforehand simply had not been possible, he couldn't risk Hammond sensing anything off-key in Horatio's court room conduct. He'd also said that Horatio would never have refused the mission anyway, he would feel it his duty to accept. And that was true.
"That explains one thing that puzzled me very much," Horatio said. "At one point it seemed he was trying to make Buckland the scrapegoat, but he never did point out that he was present when Sawyer was relieved of command. In theory the senior officer on the scene is responsible for any action taken by his juniors. Apart from our hold meeting it was the only thing that could convict Buckland of mutiny, but he never mentioned it. He must have known harrassing Buckland over events at the fort wouldn't convict him of anything worse than incompetence. I suppose he never wanted to make him out a mutineer."
"I'm sure he didn't. Can you imagine Buckland doing spy-work?" I had to laugh at that.
Horatio had something else on his mind. "Did he ever speak to you about Captain Sawyer's fall?"
"No. He never did. Why?"
"When I first told him the story, I was sure he thought I'd pushed him. Then, later, we had a talk in Kingston, before he told me the truth about you, and he said something about you doing what you saw as your duty. I thought then he believed you'd done it." He was silent for a long moment, face tautly closed. "I didn't push him, Archie."
"Well, of course you didn't. I know that."
"You know? But in Kingston you asked me -"
"What you were going to say. I know you, Horatio. Are you telling me you weren't about to confess to a crime you hadn't committed to get the rest of us out of trouble?" He was silent. "Well, of course you were! I saw what happened, remember? You *couldn't* have pushed him, not from where you were. And you'd never assault your captain, no matter how mad he was. Not your style at all." I wasn't sure whether to add one more thing, but in the end I did. "And if, for any reason, you *did* decide to push a man down a hatch, there would have been no witnesses and you'd have made very sure he wouldn't wake up again. I never thought for a second you'd done it."
He was very still, and when he answered me his voice shook a little. "I- hadn't realised I needed to hear someone say that. Everyone else... everyone...."
"I'm sorry. I wish I could tell you Pellew doesn't believe it, but I just don't know. Why don't you speak to him about it? I'm sure he'd listen. Oh, and for the record, Horatio, I didn't push him either."
"I know," he said. "You'd have told me, wouldn't you? Maybe not straight away, but at the last... you'd have told me if what you'd said to the court was true."
"Yes, I would. Mind you, I might have pushed him if I'd remembered the hatch was there... though not if I'd known you and Wellard were on the scene. I'm not as honourable as you are." We were silent for a moment. "Pellew does care about you, Horatio," I told him. "Very much, I think. But he's a naval officer before all else." As you are.
He didn't answer, but seemed to me still troubled. I knew he'd always thought of Pellew as more than a superior, or even a mentor. Plainly some of the recent revelations disturbed him, but I thought he'd work his way to understanding in time. In many ways he and Pellew are very much alike.
That's pretty much the end of the story. Pellew was right about none of the prisoners being executed. He also told me, some time afterwards, that a list of men who had been approached by Hammond or other traitors had been obtained from Hammond's papers. Under the circumstances prosecution was impossible, but the officers were forced to leave the service. Nothing much could be done to the civilians, except make sure they did not hold office, but they would be remembered and watched. Wolfe was killed a few months later, Horatio wrote me the details, but I never did learn what happened to O'Donnell . And I did get reinstated.
There's one more conversation with Horatio that sticks in my memory. This was not long before Hotspur reached harbour.
"Bush tells me you've been seeing a girl in Portsmouth."
"She's just a friend, Archie," he managed to pronounce that old excuse with an air of originality.
"You should marry, Horatio, make yourself a family."
All right, that wasn't one of my brighter moments. I knew he was lonely, with no family ashore, but I overlooked the fact that a man like Horatio is unlikely to make any woman a good husband.
"So should you," he retorted.
"Not on a lieutenant's salary."
"I don't think you'll be a lieutenant much longer. The Admiral's very pleased with you."
He did seem pleased. That was a new feeling, but one I thought I could get used to.
"I'm sure he'll find you a good posting, anyway," Horatio said. "I'm sorry we can't serve together."
"I'll miss you," I told him. "But it may be just as well. A captain and first officer shouldn't be too close." He nodded, and I thought he understood. Close friendships can easily become a liability in war. Another cruelty of the service, the very dearness of our friendship meant we had to separate.
I suspect Pellew agreed with that one, for the posting he found me was to the Mediterranean, and it was some years before I saw Horatio again. There's always a price in the Navy, a price for friendship, a price for success. All we can do is pay. But again, I shouldn't be too cynical. It was the service that gave us that friendship in the first place, a bond strong enough to withstand any amount of separation. When we meet now it's always as though we'd been no time at all apart.
It's all a long time ago now, an untold story that few ever heard the truth of and fewer still recall. Perhaps some future historian will uncover it from the papers of the Admiralty or Sir Edward Pellew. Then again perhaps not. Sometimes I wonder how many secrets of the wars of old were never told. I could never have fought the shadow war for long. But since that time I've had much respect for those who do.
And the naval life? It is a strange and harsh one, yet I've seldom been so glad of anything as of the chance to get back to it. If the costs are great, the rewards are great also. The Navy moulds us ruthlessly, but some of the men it's shaped are the best that anyone could hope to know. And they are accepted. It was believing that the best qualities received the worst punishment that so embittered me in Kingston .... if that had been real, but it wasn't real, it was a trap to catch a traitor and we did. At the day's end, I'd not chose any other life. The stormiest voyage can bring the most fulfilment.
*The End*
**********************
Author's Endnotes: The explanation given in Chapter Four seems to me by far the most logical way of reconciling Hammond's 'Retribution' conduct with his unmasking in 'Loyalty' as a secret Irish nationalist in in league with the French. Since I never did think that court martial was really in the best interests of the service, the idea that he never intended it to be made sense to me. However in that case Pellew in 'Retribution' was either a half-witted dupe or playing a game of his own. I always found Pellew's conduct inexplicable if taken at face value anyway, so the idea that he was one step ahead of Hammond, instead of two steps behind, is attractive.
Whilst it's not necessary to assume a fifth columnist amongst Wolfe's men in 'Loyalty' it does make quite a lot of sense, not least in explaining how Hornblower and his men came to be locked in a room with a useful way out. Surely there must have been some storerooms available without a privy in them! The notion that the message from the Duc was a set up is not necessary either, but has the advantage of tying up a loose end. And it seemed a bit odd that Pellew, having been given evidence there was a leak, should have included the number one suspect in the second mission. Unless he knew who the traitor really was, but needed hard evidence....
Hare and O'Donnell are my creations. Hare was a plot necessity, but O'Donnell was invented because I thought there should be *one* Irish nationalist who wasn't totally unsympathetic.
Apologies to any Jack Hammond fans! I know the episode implied that he was not in on his uncle's plot, but it was not fully conclusive. Once I tried out the idea that he was it worked so well, especially in explaining why he was posted to Hotspur (of all ships) in the first place, that I couldn't resist including it.
This was a difficult story to write because so much of it was plugging gaps. I'm not wholly happy with how it came out, but I badly wanted to fill in some background on the Hammond storyline, and at the same time answer some of the questions which loomed when viewing 'Loyalty' (How did Wolfe get himself aboard Hotspur? Why was he even in England?) I hope at least that it wasn't too incomprehensible to those who haven't yet seen 'Loyalty' - assuming that any of such decided to read this story!
Thanks to all who reviewed both this and my previous stories. I do appreciate it.