The Captain's Table
The captain was in the habit of having the officers dine with him every week, and so when he passed the invitation to Pullings, he also had Mrs. Stirling informed, for he knew that ladies liked extra time to prepare themselves for such things. Late morning, Stephen startled him by mentioning that he had best not seat Mrs. Stirling close by Captain Howard because the lady could not abide him. This news shocked him at first, for he found it incredible that such an easy-going woman could take such a strong dislike to an honorable gentleman. Then he considered Howard's arrogance and occasional insufferable boorishness. A gentleman of high birth, Howard had a habit of speaking in a condescending manner that set his teeth on edge.
As was usual, the officers turned up in their dress uniforms, all combed, brushed, and polished and wearing medals earned in action. They stood about waiting for the lady. The captain was to sit at the head of the table with Mrs. Stirling on his right, then Doctor Maturin and the unfortunate Captain Howard. On the captain's left would be Mr. Pullings, Mr. Allen, and Mr. Mowett. The table was set with his best damask cloth and silver, and he poured out glasses of claret while they waited for their final guest.
"Should be a fast passage and a fair wind for the Caribbean," Mowett was saying to Captain Howard, and then there was a falling of silence, for Mrs. Stirling stood in the doorway. For the formal dinner, the lady had changed from her woolen day gown into an evening gown of deep blue silk with her mass of red hair arranged more formally. The décolletage was modest by the current fashion, but they were accustomed to seeing her in her widow's frock. For a long moment, Jack's eyes feasted on the charming lady. In a ballroom or an opera house, Mrs. Stirling would be one woman among many pretty girls in their daring frocks. Here in the Great Cabin on the Surprise, however, the lady held their attention easily.
Stephen did not see it quite that way. At first, he too was distracted by the curved bosom revealed by the gown. He quickly recovered and evaluated her dispassionately. She could not be called beautiful, for she had a strong jaw and prominent chin, which was said to denote stubbornness. There was one thing about her, though, one subtle thing that he had not fully noticed until now. Her wide eyes, uncertain expression, soft white throat… She looked at them with aching, painful vulnerability that roused all that was potent and male in them, not least of which was natural protectiveness.
In that moment, with diamond clarity, he saw that she had the power to drive them apart, to set them against one another, to conquer each man by means of his instincts. He knew that there was no more dangerous creature on earth than a pretty, young, vulnerable woman – why had he not realized it before now?
Gallant and gentlemanly, they all greeted her politely and with smiles to make her feel more welcome. Jack rattled on amiably as he showed her to her seat and saw that she had some wine to sip. Very shortly, the soup course was served and she looked more comfortable and at ease.
"Mrs. Stirling, may I ask how you like sailing aboard the Surprise?" Mowett asked her with his unaffected charm. "Now that you have had a chance to settle into the life."
"I like it very well, thank you, Mr. Mowett. In fact, I have not had the opportunity of sailing upon a warship before. Mr. Allen, I expect you would be the best man to compare a civilian ship to one of his majesty's, being a master mariner before taking up active service."
"Indeed, I was taken up and given a warrant after twenty years at sea, mostly in the Pacific," he replied, his heavy, florid face flushed both with wine as well as with embarrassment at having been singled out.
"What would you say, then, is the biggest, the most dramatic difference between the two?"
"I must say it is the discipline, ma'am. Unlike the merchant navy, which you are familiar with, whalers receive no wages, only a share of the profit. It is a rare man upon a whaling ship who does not break his back with effort, but the hierarchy is vastly different. In that way, you may see there is a great similarity between a merchant and a whaler – the captain and his mates have no higher authority, no orders to follow from the admiralty."
The others added in comments and opinions on Allen's remarks, and Mrs. Stirling's next question was something specific and complicated about the ship itself – something Stephen did not understand at all – but had something to do with the distribution of what supplies the Surprise carried in her hold and the adjustment of her back stays.
There was unusual quiet among the others that Stephen did not, at first understand. Mowett turned to look at the lady with his brows raised, and Allen regarded her with round eyed surprise, his mouth slightly ajar. Jack, he noticed, kept a neutral expression with a slight flicker of a frown, and Pullings seemed more amused that anything else. Then, very enthusiastically, Allen began to explain, and a long-winded and tedious quarter-hour passed as he talked. His speech was peppered liberally with coarse language and epithets that the lady ignored, and she listened in silence but with great attention to everything that he said.
The others occasionally interrupted him to add commentary, and Mrs. Stirling asked something further, encouraging the sailing master to speak freely and at length. He spoke as he would to one of the men. Stephen knew that Mr. Allen had no other common topic to talk about with their guest, and she had known exactly what to say to put him at ease in her presence. Yet, she did it so artlessly! Ladies often made it a game to see how many conquests they could make, how many admirers they could gather, but certainly, there was nothing to be gained in engaging the affections of a fat, ill-spoken, middle-aged warrant officer. It seemed, even to Stephen's practiced and jaded eye, that she had a sincere interest in what he had to say.
During Mr. Allen's monologue, his mind had wandered, but he became attentive again when he heard Captain Howard address himself to Mrs. Stirling. "I have not had the pleasure of knowing your brother-in-law, ma'am, but I am slightly acquainted with your sister-in-law." He had to lean slightly forward to see the lady around Stephen. "For, is she not Mrs. Pitt? Mrs. Colonel Jeremy Pitt?"
"She is, sir." The expression on her face had changed in an instant and she was wary, guarded. Stephen watched her carefully, for his instincts were piqued.
"Capital fellow, Colonel Pitt. He is now with the Governor in the Bahamas as Captain at Arms, of course. I dined with him once or twice before that posting and had the opportunity to meet Mrs. Pitt. Perhaps you are going to visit them in Nassau?"
Mrs. Stirling had grown a little pale and she looked down at the tabletop, searching for words. "I do not know, sir. That is, I do not mean to visit them, though it may be that our paths will cross." She looked at Captain Howard then, with pain apparent in her expression. "I do not have contact with that part of the family."
Glancing at the head of the table, Stephen saw both Jack and Pullings frowning, though the captain recovered mastery a second later. "My dear, allow me to recharge your glass. Bottle, Mr. Pullings, for Mrs. Stirling's glass is empty." All attention turned to him as he made a great show of pouring more wine for her. "Now, I am told that you have two lads gone to sea. I would hazard a guess that they are currently serving as midshipmen."
"You are perfectly correct, sir," she said, though she did not adjust to the rapid segue for another second. "The elder sailed with the Coventry, and the younger is with Capten Hawkes on the Gallant."
"And are the young Stirlings competent seamen?" he asked with a grin. "It would be a fine thing to have aboard some boys who are of some bloody use rather than the idle wastrels we usually get amidships."
"For certain, sir, and they are both far more able than most others and would not have been permitted to go had they not been, for they are under the usual age."
"Well, we shall keep a weather eye out for the Gallant to see if we can have the lad transferred over. The Coventry has gone into the Pacific at present, but I suppose one able midshipman is better than none at all!"
"May I ask how old the boys are?" asked Pullings politely.
"Silvester is just ten and Christopher is eight," she told them. "But they are tall and pretty-behaved lads."
"Eight!" exclaimed Mowett. "I would think that no child under twelve would be taken as a midshipman."
"No doubt they are far superior seamen to their messmates," said Jack with a telling glance at the second lieutenant. "One seamanlike reefer is worth a dozen raw hands, upon my honor. In my own recollection, at that age, I was little better than any of the lads we have now and a fair sight worse." He laughed at himself and began to share an anecdote about the beginning of his career and the company was diverted from the earlier uncomfortable atmosphere.
It also gave Stephen a chance to mull over what he had heard. First, there was some fierce bad blood between Mrs. Stirling and her in-laws, if not something worse. Second, her sons had been compelled to go to sea, whether by force or not, several years younger than was usually permitted. Finally, and most importantly, whereas she had the ability to twist men effortlessly about her little finger, she had little skill for disguising her strong emotions.
After the meal, Jack requested that Killick bring them their coffee above and asked the lady to take a turn about the deck. The others trailed after them, and Stephen, the ideas now banished to mill about only in his subconscious, fell in step with Pullings as he lit himself a cigar. Over the years, he had developed a fondness for Jack's favorite subordinate, and as the only man on the ship other than he and Jack who knew of Mrs. Stirling's past, he made a particularly interesting companion at the moment.
"Well, Tom, what can you say of Mrs. Stirling's two lads taken into service so young?" he asked in a quiet voice so as not to be overheard.
The lieutenant's ingenuous face was unusually grave. "It is obvious that she has been ill-used by her brother-in-law. What sort of man would prey upon a helpless widow? And what monstrous dilemma forced her to send those little children away at such a tender age?"
The idea was a new one to Stephen, and the ferocity with which the words were spoken was unwonted from the agreeable Pullings. "You think the fate of her sons is directly tied to some nefarious behavior on the part of Colonel Pitt?"
Pullings looked at him aghast. "Of course. Was it not obvious?"
Stephen drew slowly on the cigar. The theory made perfect sense, but there was too little that he knew and too much that he did not know to make even an educated guess; yet, the lady did not dissemble. The very real anger and pity that Pullings was expressing was a result of witnessing the very real distress that Mrs. Stirling had been unable to hide. When he took some coffee and looked at where Jack was telling her something to make her laugh, Stephen knew that he did not have nearly enough information to theorize. More observation and collection of data was necessary before he could do so.