Chapter 11
Georgiana had not been out in society for very long before marrying, but she had known enough house parties to be aware that unpleasant company could make such an event very miserable indeed, even in a house so large as Pemberley. And if it could be so at Pemberley, it could have been far worse, on a frigate. Thankfully, she had found thus far that save Lieutenant Holmes, who had not deviated from his usual, hard-faced self, all the other men she lived in company with ranged from reasonable to very pleasant indeed, which made her role in presiding over the great cabin a relatively easy one. She passed her time there conversing with them, if any were so inclined, and if they were not, with embroidering her cushions, reading, and practicing the pianoforte, which she was often encouraged to do, there being several aficionados of music within the embassy.
On this morning, she was at the pianoforte, and finished her song to find that in addition to those who had been listening when she had begun, Lord Amherst and his son were added to their number. She rose, greeted them, and inquired as to whether they wished for any tea or coffee, there being relatively fresh pots of both on the great table in the middle of the room. Her offer was accepted, but they bade her to continue playing; they would much rather listen and pour their own refreshments. Thus Georgiana continued through a few more of her favourite sonatas and was embarrassed to find herself applauded when finally she rose from the bench.
"I did not realise we were to be so terribly spoiled on board this ship," said Mr. Ellis. "I shall begin to consider it a requirement that every embassy is given passage on board a ship wherein the captain has a very musical wife, travelling with him."
"Thank you, Mr. Ellis," Georgiana said, blushing.
"I do hope you shall take some time to go on deck, however, Lady Stanton," Lord Amherst said. "We were just there and it is a fine day – please do not feel as though you must stay to entertain us all morning."
"I shall go up in a little while," Georgiana said. As they neared the equator, the weather had continued to improve, and Georgiana now spent much more of her time on deck, enjoying the warmth and the fine, fresh breeze. She was eager to go up now, but did not wish to slight Lord Amherst or his son. She remained there with them for some time, therefore, partaking in the sort of light conversation that came from a party that had already become well-acquainted over the course of many breakfasts and dinners, with nothing new except that which had occurred on board the ship recently – which was little of note – to speak on.
It was Hawke that interrupted them, in a less genteel way than a butler of land would do, summoning Georgiana to the door to speak with him. "Bowden an' I caught a prodigious great tunny, milady," he said. "Since which, I wondered what we should leave the mutton for another dinner, with the fish to serve instead."
"Very well done, Hawke, and indeed we should," Georgiana said. She had become accustomed to dealing with the ship's limited supply of grocery – even with all that had come on at Chatham and the additional supplies they had taken on at Gibraltar, there was always a feeling that everything should be carefully rationed, so they did not run out before they reached the Cape. That Hawke and Bowden had caught a large tunny meant one of the sheep should receive a stay of execution until a future dinner, and those that had been invited to dine in the great cabin that evening would be treated to a fine, fresh fish.
Georgiana would have announced the promise of the tunny for dinner, but two of the men currently occupying the great cabin had not been invited to dine on that evening. This had nothing to do with their manners or anything like, and was merely because the great cabin could only hold so many to dine at one time. Thus while Georgiana had been keeping a household account of the grocery that had been ordered, her more important account was of who had dined on which evenings in the great cabin, among the men of the embassy and the officers of the ship. It was this she brought to her conferences with Matthew, to determine who should be invited on a given evening. Of all of those who could be invited, only Lord Amherst, on account of his rank and position, was assured of an invitation on any evening in which a dinner was held in the great cabin, generally three to four times a week. On the other evenings, Lord Amherst and his son dined themselves in their cabin, and the rest of the embassy dined in the space that had become their own, forward of the wardroom. Georgiana and Matthew also generally dined themselves in the sleeping cabin, although usually once a week they were invited to dine by the wardroom, and on these occasions Georgiana was glad both for the respite in planning and the company of Mrs. Travis in addition to the officers.
Already near the door when she had finished her conference with Hawke, Georgiana took this as her opportunity to take her leave of those in the great cabin and take the air on deck. Most of the party would have been required to use the little hallway Mr. Randle had created to do so, but Georgiana instead cut through the sleeping-cabin, where she found Matthew writing in the ship's log.
"You sounded very well in there," Matthew said, looking up from the little secretaire at which he was seated.
Georgiana felt badly for him, for in other times this would certainly have been something he would have done within the great cabin, when he had command of that space as his own and the light of the great stern window to aid in his work. He did not seem overly upset by it, however, and she thanked him and kissed him before she would continue.
Her path took her through the more public part of the main deck, and while there she heard the sound of Moll's tremendous laugh and sighed, looking down the deck to where her maid was conversing with Bowden and Taylor, in too friendly a fashion. Moll had improved greatly in manners towards her employer, but when she was not on duty, Georgiana had come to realise she was a terrible flirt. Georgiana had attempted to speak to her of it already, but Moll's response had been that she had not been flirting, and the difficulty of it was that Moll did not believe what she did was flirting – it was merely her own natural reaction to life as it came to her on the ship. Georgiana's only consolation was that the men Moll messed with were sober, reliable men such as Hawke, Bowden, McClare, and Taylor, and that Mrs. McClare provided some manner of additional female presence, so that Moll was not such an anomaly.
Bowden, upon noticing Georgiana, came aft to assist her up the companion-ladder, and Georgiana had not the heart to tell him that she only required such assistance when she was with child, which she was not and would not be, while she and Matthew were taking an intentional break from marital relations to allow her womb time to heal. She quietly accepted his assistance and complimented him on having caught the tunny, therefore – pleased he had found occupation on board the ship, for it must have been strange for him to return to an environment in which he had previously held the elevated status of coxswain, but was now to act as a servant.
On deck it was a very fine day, and Georgiana felt herself enveloped by the pleasure that could only come from experiencing such a day in such a place, with the great downy sails above her head filled with the wind, and the unending blue expanse of ocean on every side of the ship. There was something very beautiful and pure about it, something that could not but prompt happiness in anyone who was to witness it. Georgiana sighted Mrs. Travis standing by the rail, and made her way over to her friend, to comment on the fineness of the day.
How long Georgiana stood in that place enjoying both weather and conversation she could not tell, but she was eventually removed from her enjoyment by loud voices near the ship's wheel, where Lieutenant Holmes and Midshipman Grant were engaged in what seemed an argument, of which it seemed Lieutenant Holmes won, in shouting, "We shall tack when I damned well say we shall tack!"
Lieutenant Holmes followed this by grasping the wheel, pulling it violently towards him. Georgiana noticed what seemed a panicked bit of running about by the seamen on deck, to pull on the sheets associated with the sails, which seemed at first causeless. Gradually, however, something came to feel very wrong about the ship's movement, as though the Caroline was losing all her forward momentum. When this first happened, Holmes seemed to show no remorse, but poor Grant stared ashen-faced about him for some moments, until he seemed to rally and ordered some of the men to lower one of the ship's boats.
Into all of this, and with his ship drifting to a near halt, came Matthew, as furious as Georgiana had ever seen him, shouting, "Loose jibs!"
This command, which it appeared some of the other men had been awaiting, prompted them to let out the sails on the bowsprit as much as they could be loosened. Despite the amount of expectant staring by much of the ship's company at the bowsprit, the sails there did not fill with wind, and it was left to the men in the boat to take a rope passed from the ship and then to tow her head around, pulling hard on their oars until, coinciding with a great degree of sail trim that had been ordered by Matthew, the Caroline once again saw her sails fill with wind, and she drifted back into motion, eventually reaching her previous pace.
Georgiana knew enough of this nautical world to piece together that what she had just witnessed was the ship missing stays, that most egregious of errors that should never have been committed by a ship such as the Caroline. The men clearly knew it, as well, for they exhibited a disproportionate degree of zeal in assisting the boat back into its place on deck, and then in glowering at Lieutenant Holmes. Still, Georgiana was unprepared when Matthew, upon looking about him and seeing that his ship was once again in order, and commanding Lieutenant Rigby to take over the watch, looked over to her and said, "Lady Stanton, will you accompany me below?"
This request was so incongruous after all she had witnessed that Georgiana very nearly protested she had not had anything to do with the ship's missing stays, but then thought that clearly Matthew knew this and had other reasons for wishing for her presence there. Perhaps he wished to speak of dinner, although it seemed an odd time to do so. She therefore met him near the companion-ladder and went down with him.
It was only when they were in the sleeping-cabin that he sighed and said, "Men detest the notion of an informer, so much so that those such as Grant, whose life might very well be bettered and would in no way be harmed by telling me of what happened just now, will not do so, even if I ask him directly. Even when the ship struck ice last winter, I could get nothing but the most vague recollections of what had happened, immediately after the event. So I realise I put you in an awkward position when I ask if you saw what happened, that led to the ship missing stays."
"I do not see it as awkward at all," Georgiana said. "Surely no one could think I have greater allegiance to anyone on board this ship above you."
She proceeded to tell him of all she had seen, and of precisely what Lieutenant Holmes had said, to confirm when he asked that she had not heard any of the preparations that even she, a newcomer to this nautical world, knew were involved in tacking the ship. When she had done so, he shook his head and said, "Were Holmes merely obstinate, or merely incompetent, I might be able to deal with him. But he is both, and he puts all of our lives at risk because of it. Thank God this did not happen on a lee shore or in battle, although I suppose in those instances, I would have been on deck and able to prevent such a thing."
"I believe Grant did all he could," Georgiana said. "He was very upset over what happened."
"Grant would make twice the officer Holmes is. It was him who ordered the boat lowered, was it not?"
Georgiana confirmed that it was, and Matthew promised he would speak to the young man, so as to praise his actions in a difficult situation. First, however, he must speak to Holmes, and it was clear by his countenance that this was not a conference he was eager to have.
"I wish to use the great cabin for this," he said. "It would not be nearly the same to speak to him here. I shall invite the men of the embassy to go on deck and have a glass of sillery, with the weather so fine. Will you help me if any of them are reluctant?"
Georgiana promised that she would, and after Hawke had been summoned to bring up the sillery and have it ready on deck, Matthew entered the great cabin and made his invitation. There were no reluctant men, however; even the greatest landlubbers among them could tell something out of the ordinary had happened, and must have understood that Matthew presently needed all those trappings of power that came with his position on the ship. With a great deal of cheer – perhaps false, perhaps not, for Matthew had acquired some very fine sillery in Gibraltar – they left the cabin to make their way on deck. Georgiana followed them, after a sympathetic look to her husband for what he must do.
Matthew had managed to get the men out of his cabin, but this did not equate to privacy – there was hardly such a thing to be had on a ship of this size. Therefore, although everyone genteel on deck attempted to ignore that it was happening (the seamen had no such qualms) it was quite difficult to ignore the sound of raised voices – mostly Matthew's, although Lieutenant Holmes was obstinate enough for a few interjections – coming from the great cabin.
The men of the embassy, therefore, made a great deal of cheerful remarks regarding the weather and the sillery, until the voices within the great cabin quieted, and Mr. Grant's presence was requested there. Georgiana watched him go and wondered how it would wear on poor Matthew, to go halfway around the world with such a man as Holmes as his second lieutenant.