Chapter Thirty-Six

Emma kept her finger on Archie's page and flipped to Jack Simpson's notes. Apart from his injuries in performance of service, his notes barely filled a page. There were no question marks. Emma's eyes narrowed in suspicion. She'd bet the whole blasted ship that Jack Simpson was behind the question marks that dotted both Archie and her husband's pages. Emma could very well see how on going abuse such as this could stretch the limits of one's tolerance and lead to murderous thoughts. Emma studied the pages of the other crew members. Question marks dotted a few of their pages but no where near as frequently. Yet all these men remained silent. Why?

Emma was awakened a few hours later by a commotion above deck. One of the notebooks slid off her chest as she sat up. She'd had the most bizarre dream.

She'd dreamt that she'd fallen overboard but Archie had saved her but then he wasn't Archie anymore but Jack Simpson instead, who promptly hit her over the head and with Horatio's help, tossed her back into the sea. Emma shook her head to try and clear away the uneasy dream. A soft knock on the door had her reaching for her robe. "Come in." She called out.

Oldroyd stuck his head in slowly. "Cap'n wants you to meet 'im in 'is quarters. They brought back the Frenchy ship." His voice was low and hesitant. Emma felt a heavy weight of unease settle in the middle of her chest. She ignored it. They were back. That was the important thing.

"I'll only be a few minutes." She informed him.

After Emma dressed, she made her way down the corridor. Styles and Oldroyd were standing outside the captain's room looking as if someone had tossed all the rum over the side. "Gentlemen. " Emma said with a nod. They didn't speak to her, merely stepped aside to let her in.

She spotted Simpson first and tried to squash the guilty burst of disappointment that he was still alive. She recognized a few of the other officers but there were two glaring absences that made the weight in her chest make itself known once again. Where was her husband? Where was Archie?

"Mrs. Hornblower." Captain Pellew stood when she entered, as did the other men, none of whom were meeting her eyes. The captain walked over to her slowly. Emma caught a glimmer of something in Jacks Simpson's eyes. Something there in the cold grey depths. Anticipation? No... more like, satisfaction. "I'm afraid I have some unfortunate news." The Captain spoke stiffly. Emma watched Edward Pellew's eyes and it was there that his true emotion betrayed him. There was such sadness there in his soft brown eyes. The weight in her chest turned to icy dread.

"What?" Emma asked warily, the word coming out choked.

"I regret to inform you that Mr. Kennedy and Mr... "He cleared his throat. "Mr. Hornblower have fallen while capturing The Papillion." He explained.

Emma took a step back. "Fallen? I...I don't understand." Her heart was pounding in her ears, her breath coming in short gasps.

"Please, have a seat, Mrs. Hornblower." Captain Pellew urged her into his chair.

"Mr. Simpson informed me that in the midst of the battle with the one of the officers of The Papillion, he spotted Mr. Hornblower above, loosening one of the sails with Mr. Finch when a French soldier fired and cut him down.

"Oh." Emma said quietly. She felt strangely detached from Captain Pellew's words. Lightheaded. Oh, of course, she was still dreaming. Goodness, this one was worse than the one where she'd fallen overboard. Emma hoped she would wake up soon.

"Have a sip, Mrs. Hornblower." Captain Pellew held a glass of brandy beneath her nose.

"Oh, no thank you, Sir. I'm not overly fond of brandy." Emma said hoping he didn't take offense. Maybe she should apologize because he was looking at her very sadly.

"Mrs. Hornblower-"

"Oh, do call me Emma, Sir." She said with a small smile.

"Gentlemen, if you'd give us a moment." The captain ordered. The men rose and began to file out of the room. Again, Simpson gave her that look. Satisfaction. Understanding began to dawn and something snapped inside of Emma. This was not a dream. She was wide awake and her husband was dead.

"Wait!" She called out before Jack passed through the doorway.

"They are both gone and you survived to bring back the news. How lucky for you." Emma said slowly getting to her feet and walking up to Simpson. His grey eyes met hers. I know what you did. Her eyes spoke fiercely to him.

"Indeed." Jack Simpson replied out loud. Prove it. His eyes replied.

"You son of a whore!" Emma snapped, cracking her palm across his smug face.

"Mrs. Hornblower!" Captain Pellew scolded grabbing her arms and holding her back from her attempts to scratch the eyes out of Simpson's head.

"He killed them, Captain!" Emma screamed.

"Mrs. Hornblower, I understand your grief but you cannot take it out on those who had the good fortune to survive." The captain dragged her by the waist when she kept lunging for Simpson.

"Good fortune, my eye! Murderer!" Emma seethed, ignore the tears coursing down her cheeks.

"That'll be all, Mr. Simpson." Captain Pellew insisted pushing Emma back into the chair while Simpson left the room.

"You don't understand, Captain. He's been after them from the beginning! Nobody wanted to tell you but he killed them!" Emma cried trying to struggle out of the captain's grasp.

"Mrs. Hornblower! Get a hold of yourself, woman!" Captain Pellew snapped giving her a firm shake. Emma's face crumpled and she pressed her head against the captain's chest and began sobbing. Captain Pellew stiffened for an awkward moment but stroke the back of Emma's head in sympathy. "There...there. I'm quite sorry for your loss, my child. He was a good man, your husband. They both were good men." Emma heard his words but all she felt was a sadness so intense it threatened to drown her in it's waves.

"I wanna go home!" Emma wailed sobbing. Her heart felt as if it were shattering in slow crackling pieces.

"Yes well, you needn't worry about a thing, child. Tomorrow you'll be meeting the good Doctor Hornblower and he will take very good care of you, I'm sure."

"I don't want Doctor Hornblower! I want my Hornblower." Emma sobbed childishly.

"Alright, now, let's take a moment to compose our selves, shall we? How about that brandy now? It'll do you some good." Captain Pellew offered her the glass. She downed it in one gulp, choking on the fiery liquid as it burned it's way down into the hollow cavity of her chest. Hollow because her heart was now gone.

A.N:

Camreyn: Yep, Emma and Horatio's (and by extension, Archie's) story will follow the timeline of the movies for the most part with maybe some extra adventures that I throw in for them all to postpone getting to that point in Retribution. (sniffles) Thank you for your always great feedback! (huggies you) Hope you enjoyed this one!

Sweet A.K: I don't think Pellew is even conscious of that fact that he's still doing that anymore. (laughs) It'll be this funny gesture that he does that he'll always associate with Emma.

Yeah, Emma is pretty innocent, and Horatio and Archie want to keep her that way! She wouldn't be aware that sodomy even exists at her age. If you thought Emma hated Simpson now...oh just wait 'till she finds out! I will give you that when she does find out what Jack Simpson did to Archie, Simpson will already be dead.

Hmm, without happy dancing Archie, all I can write is sad crying Archie and that's just mean. (laughs) Besides, I'll need my Archie back if we ever want to find him in that Spanish prison. (smiles)

Thankie for your feedback! You rock muchly!