My current plan is to post at least once a week.
Edward was worried about both Frederick and Miss Anne when neither of them took him up on his offer to facilitate their communications. However Edward thought, falsely it turned out, that Frederick was simply waiting to earn prize money to improve his consequence. Then when he read Frederick's letter about the capture of the French frigate, Edward thought Frederick was merely waiting to gain a worthy ship before enlisting his help. When Edward read Frederick's account about gaining command of the Laconia, he thought this latest achievement should have been more than enough to give Frederick the confidence to seek to renew whatever understanding he had with Miss Anne before. But this latest letter yet again did not even mention her.
Edward could not understand why his brother did not act. Edward was not sure what the exact status of what his brother's relationship with Miss Anne was before it ended, but he was certain from many signs both obvious and subtle that Frederick had been in love and fallen quite hard. Frederick's unwillingness to speak about it only showed how deeply his heart was engaged.
Edward remembered similar signs in his sister Sophia regarding Captain Croft sooner after they met. She had a special smile that graced her face and her tone of voice was somehow softened when she spoke of him.
Sophia was introduced to Captain Croft in the year 1799 by their father, Captain Thomas Wentworth, when both men were ashore while repairs were made to their ships. Their mother had taken their family to visit their father (minus Frederick who at sixteen was a midshipman on a frigate); Edward remembered knowing his father more from his letters than from his infrequent visits home. Through his letters, which their mother read aloud over and over, they had become familiar with many of his naval friends. They first heard of Captain Croft when he was Lieutenant Croft, serving under their father. Apparently at the same time, their father was telling him about his family, including his pretty daughter.
Sophia, like Frederick, at the age of three and twenty, pursued what she wanted with a single-minded determination. Thus, having noted that Captain Croft's fine character was united with a handsome visage and keen mind, she made plain her desire to know him better and it was not long before she garnered Captain Croft's attention, affection and love. However she never spoke of her hopes until Captain Croft proposed (which occurred only about twenty days after they first met) and they had set a date for their wedding. It was perhaps a form of superstition to not speak directly about the thing most desired until its fulfillment was certain.
While Edward could not see Frederick's face to see how he now fared, Edward fancied that Frederick's letters since leaving were entirely too cheerful. While Edward knew that Frederick was not a man to whine or complain, the cheer he expressed felt false. While Edward knew that Frederick could not help but be pleased to gain an initial command, gain prize money and to now be captaining such a fine vessel, his brother typically had a rather calm tone in his letter writing and was usually the sort whose happiness was understated in his written word and facial expressions, though Edward had seen rather fierce and happy expressions on his face on occasion. Fierce when he declared his plan to depart from Monkford in the morning and happy in the days before whenever he mentioned Anne Elliot.
In the same time period in which Frederick and Edward were exchanging letters while Edward was still a curate in Monkford, Miss Anne and Edward had formed a sort of friendship for which Miss Anne was the instigator. It seemed that she could not help but seek Edward out and then make little inquiries that sooner or later would lead back to Frederick. And so Edward found himself sharing news of Frederick and his triumphs with her. He could tell based on comment she made, that she had a naval list and was keeping track as well as she could of all of Frederick's movements.
On one occasion, when they met while Anne was out walking, Anne asked about his sister saying, "I have heard your sister accompanies her husband aboard his ship. What sort of life is that for your sister?"
Edward knew perfectly well that Miss Anne could only have heard such a thing from Frederick. He wondered, beyond opposition from her father, whether worries about what a naval wife might experience had dissuaded her. Thus Edward did his best to express exactly what his sister had written to him about her experiences (which was rather different from what his own mother had experienced as a naval wife).
Anne seemed to drink in every detail, her eyes growing bright the more he explained. She inquired, "Was Mrs. Croft indeed aboard Captain Croft's ship during battle?"
"Yes," Edward explained, "but not when Captain Croft thought battle likely. If he knew before a voyage that such was anticipated or their mission, my sister lived ashore. However for missions more associated with trade and general protection of the empire, she was always aboard. That did not mean battles did not occur on occasion, however."
"What did she do when aboard if a battle took place?"
Edward laughed, visualizing quite vividly how such had occurred from his sister's letters and her and her husband's accounts in person. "The first time a conflict with another ship was anticipated, Captain Croft ordered her to go below to their cabin. Apparently she complied with his order against her will, however with every volley, cry and crash became more perturbed with her location below."
"Perturbed that she might be harmed?" She questioned. "Was that location not fairly safe?"
"Perturbed that she was entirely useless below. She was as safe as the captain's cabin could be made, with special reinforcements Captain Croft had added to it. Finally Sophia recalled that there might be injured crew members and set about converting some cloth she planned to make into a dress into strips for bandages. Then once the fighting ceased, Sophia was back above aiding by bandaging the men. They may not have liked wearing calico, but they could not object to the manner of care they received from their captain's wife."
Edward grinned, both from visualizing burly sailors with calico bandages with delicate flower prints and anticipating the next part of the story. He could not help but also see how Miss Anne waited impatiently for him to continue.
"The next time, in anticipation of a confrontation with two French vessels, when Captain Croft ordered her below she refused. While he growled about insubordination and his fears for her well being in seeing all the cruel realities of battle, she was determined that she should stay above where she might be of some use. While naval battle is in a way cleaner as your enemies are not hacking away at you directly with a saber at close range, seeing injuries as they are inflicted and fearing that they may occur to you as well is not what many ladies can rightly face. However, my sister is not an ordinary woman but rather a most reasonable and rational one. Once it was clear to Captain Croft that he could not dissuade Sophy, he let her be and focused on organizing the men for the confrontation. She kept herself low as the ships exchanged volleys, but was quick to spring into action to help in any way she could. I heard tell from Captain Croft (though he did not see it himself) that she actually dragged a man from a section of the ship that caught on fire and used her skirts to smother the flames that were still licking at his clothes and received for her trouble a few burns herself."
"How terrifying, but how brave, too," Miss Anne remarked.
"She said she never had any idea she was in danger aboard any of his ships, but felt the danger to her husband most keenly when she wintered by herself at Deal while Captain Croft was in the North Seas. She said she suffered perpetual fright for his well being."
That was to be the last conversation of any depth that Edward exchanged with Miss Anne as two days later the vicar suddenly sickened and died, and Edward had to find a new position in short order. Fortunately he found one in Shropshire but unfortunately that put to an end any chance of facilitation a reunion between Frederick and Miss Anne.
Stymied about what to do, Edward resolved that once he was settled in his new situation, he would write to Sophy about Frederick's and Miss Anne's situation. Although she had never observed Frederick's demeanor regarding Miss Anne, as while Frederick was staying with Edward she and Captain Croft were out of England on a foreign station, surely she might have a good perspective as to what if anything ought to be done.
Meanwhile, after each new crumb of information about Frederick had been gleaned, Anne recorded it in her journal along with questions. After learning about his posting to the Laconia she wrote, "Year 8, Frederick is now captain of the Laconia and I am one and twenty. I see nothing now that stands between us but his failure to renew his intentions with me. I am given to understand that he had some time ashore before he took this post. It is not right that as a woman I am required to live at home, quiet and confined, with no profession (such as Frederick has to take him back to the world) to distract me from my feelings. My love is as strong as it was when I accepted your offer, stronger even for learning more about you through your brother. Frederick, I await you, I always await you. How must longer must I wait? I grow weary of it all."
After learning that Edward was departing, she wrote, "Now that your brother will be gone, how can I go on? I have lived upon those slight bits of your life I have learned about through your brother. All that remains is the navy lists. All that remains are my feelings that I wrap around me like a blanket. Why must I go on waiting? Will I wait my whole life?"