“And what change was that, captain?”
“Well, it’s never a good idea to put a woman aboard a warship in the first place, is it? Takes the men’s minds off their work. And Carew, well, she seemed unnaturally close to the men from the start. Especially those in her division.”
“Captain, are you suggesting—”
“I have no proof of anything, of course. If I had, I would’ve put her off the ship at once.” He straightened. “But in retrospect, there were signs. She always was touching them, you see. A hand on their arm or a pat on the back. Encouraging those thoughts, I think. And she went quite easy on them — rarely enforced discipline or drove the men to excel. Quite lax. Garnering their favor, if you see it.”
“And the mutiny, captain?”
“Yes, of course. The day before, you see, we’d had two men overboard and lost. Men of Carew’s division, I point out. They were lax with their lines coming down the mast — likely due to Carew’s allowing such dangerous behavior — and by the time it was reported to the quarterdeck they were so far behind that it was pointless to try and recover them. Again, I fault Carew for the delay as well. She slipped onto the quarterdeck and stood there with her mouth gaping like some fresh-caught fish before she reported the men had gone over.”
Neals poured himself a glass of water from a pitcher nearby and took a long drink.
“Well, the men were understandably distraught — all of them, but especially those of her division — but Carew didn’t take them in hand. She let them fester and fret about it until they spoke out in such a way that I simply couldn’t ignore. Crowded almost onto the quarterdeck itself and were close to mutiny right then and there, in my opinion. Since Carew was clearly incapable of controlling her men, I took a direct hand and settled things down. Had to flog the worst offenders — no choice — but the rest settled down right enough.
“The next day I did what I should have done earlier, I admit. I took a direct hand in that division, as Carew simply wasn’t up to it. Worked them hard and gave them no chance to dwell on things. There was a great deal of improvement, I might add. Cut a full three minutes from their time to step the mainmast and rig all plain sail just in that one day’s work. Shows how lax Carew was with them, that they’d been lazing about all that time under her.
“Well, even with the improvement, they were still a lax lot and I found some minor issue — an unfastened gasket — in my inspection of their work. Asked Carew for the man’s name so that I could give him a talking to — set his mind right about his work, you understand — and Carew … well, she outright refused to give me the name. Defied my order in front of the entire crew.”
Neals looked down at the floor for a moment and then at the judges. “Gentlemen, I wish that I could communicate to you the depths of my disappointment in myself. I’m sure you agree that it is a captain’s responsibility to mold and teach his young officers. My own captains, when I was a midshipman, were instrumental in forging my ability to command and my career itself. Vice-Admiral Beesley, for instance, and Admirals Waithe and Hearst. Even old Lord Daigrepont, though he left the service to join the House of Lords before rising to flag rank himself. Good men all, and instrumental, critical I tell you, in making me the man I am today. I remember serving with them all fondly and am grateful to call them friends to this day.” He sighed. “I had hoped, gentleman, to do justice to the good they did me by doing the same for my young officers.
“But with Carew … I failed. And for her to disobey, to refuse a direct order … gentlemen, such a thing cannot be let stand. It cannot be tolerated or all discipline will break down. I had no choice. And so, with great regret, I ordered her disrated. I should have dismissed her from the service entirely,” he continued quickly, “but think of my position. We were on patrol, with limited provisions. Should I have kept her aboard and set men to guard her? No, I thought, perhaps, that some little time before the mast might make an improvement in her. And, if it did not, better to have her working and contributing to the ship, than taking up time and resources during a war.”
He turned his gaze on Alexis and her hands clenched again. She met his eyes and it was all she could do not to speak out or, worse, rush forward and strike him for the lying bastard he was.
“Still she defied me, gentlemen,” Neals continued. “I felt I had no choice, you understand. It was a difficult decision, but I ordered her flogged.”
“Order!” one of the captains called as the watching crowd became louder.
“As I would have any man amongst the crew who so defied a direct order!” Neals raised his voice to be heard. “Yes, gentlemen,” he continued when order had been restored. He met the eyes of the judges and then looked out in the crowded courtroom gallery. “Yes, I can well understand your shock. I would be shocked too, if I had not directly experienced the arrogance and defiance of that girl. Had I but known what Carew’s next actions would be, I can assure you I would have ordered far more than a mere flogging!”
“And what actions were those, captain?” Lieutenant Lonsdale asked.
“Carew, in conjunction with the men of her division, conspired to incite the crew to mutiny that very night!” Neals paused and took a long drink. “Your pardon for my outburst, gentlemen, the events of that night are quite distressing still.”
“I understand, Captain Neals,” Lonsdale said. “Do you require a brief recess, perhaps?”
Neals drew a deep breath. “No. No, ‘twere best done quickly, yes?” He smiled at the judges. “That evening I had dinner with my senior officers and retired early. It was late, perhaps six or seven bells of the Middle Watch, when I was awakened by a gunshot. I rose and went to my arms cupboard, but it was too late. Some eight or a dozen men overpowered the marine sentry and stormed into my cabin.” He took another drink. “They roughly bound me and dragged me out onto the mess deck, where I found several of my officers in similar condition.
“The crew was quite excited and loud, but then … then she—” He pointed steadily at Alexis. “—came up the companionway and they quieted. In an instant two hundred and more men went silent. It was uncanny, the power she had over them somehow, and I cannot understand how I did not see her machinations before this. She came up to us … they had us kneeling, you must understand, like supplicants … and then she began talking to the crew about whether they would kill us all!”
“Order!” Crandall yelled.
“Said they’d bathe in our blood!” Neals yelled to be heard over the shouts of the crowd.
“Order!” Crandall was standing now, but the crowd’s outrage was too great for them to obey.
“Taunted young Ledyard there that he’d be strangled!” Neals shouted, pointing Ledyard out for them.
“Order, damn you all, or I’ll have this room cleared!” Captain Crandall shouted. He waited while the watchers took their seats and quieted.
Lonsdale consulted his tablet for a moment.
“Captain Neals, please do continue. The events that followed this?”
“Yes, well, cooler heads than Carew’s prevailed, as you can see from our presence here.” He smiled at the brief laughter from the crowd. “We, my officers and I, were confined to my quarters and under guard. Carew herself entertained to remain in that compartment, as well. I presume to keep watch over us. During this time we had no real knowledge of what was happening to the ship, though I did note many of the mutineers seemed to consult with Carew. Given her presence amongst us, of course, we were unable to even discuss retaking the ship. Though had I known their plans for it, I would have acted regardless.”
“And what were those plans, Captain Neals?”
“After some days of sailing, we found ourselves in the hands of the Hanoverese. Not through capture, mind you, but due to the mutineers sailing Hermione, bold as brass, straight into an enemy system and handing her over!”
The shouts from the gallery behind her were the loudest yet and as the presiding captains again shouted for order and decorum. Something
struck the back of Alexis’ head and she turned. It was the first time she’d really looked at the crowded gallery behind her and she gasped in shock. The watching officers were on their feet, shouting and glaring at her. A dress beret lay on the floor behind her chair and as she looked back up, two more flew from the crowd to strike her in the face.
“Order!” Crandall stood and glared at the crowd. “I will tolerate no further outbursts, no matter the provocation, or this courtroom will be cleared! Decorum, gentlemen, no matter the provocation! Continue, please, Captain Neals.”
Neals cleared his throat. “Well, sirs, it was at this point that I began to suspect that these events were not just happenstance. After being removed from Hermione, we were taken to meet with a Hanoverese commodore and at the end of this meeting, Carew remained behind and met with the foreign officer in private. Now I ask you, gentlemen, what commodore would have the time to meet privately with a very junior midshipman? Not even a midshipman, really, for she’d been disrated at this time. And not just once, for I became aware of many meetings between this commodore and Carew during our captivity. More, in fact, than I myself, the senior officer of the prisoners, was granted.”
“What is it you suspected, captain?”
“I came to believe, and still believe to this day, that Carew was in league with the Hanoverese from the start, that she colluded with them to foment dissatisfaction amongst Hermione’s crew, and that the loss of my ship was not a spontaneous act of mutiny, but the deliberate, planned actions of a foreign agent!”
Twenty-Two
“He can just do that?” Alexis demanded. She threw herself onto the cot in her small cell and glared at Lieutenant Humphry. After the reaction to Captain Neals’ testimony, Captain Crandall had ordered a recess for the day and sent Alexis back to her cell. “Just spout lies and those … vile insinuations of his? And there’s naught you can do to stop him?”
“I will have an opportunity to question Captain Neals, certainly, when it comes time to present your defense. Should I find it advisable to do so.” Humphry had stopped near the door to the cell where he could see the marine sentry stationed outside. “But, as I’ve warned you, the court will give great credence to the testimony of a full Post Captain. Without something to refute him —”
“He’s a bloody liar!”
“Ah, well, I’ll go with that tomorrow, shall I? ‘Captain Neals, isn’t it true that you are a bloody liar?’ ‘No.’ ‘There you have it, gentlemen of the Court, Carew is free to go and let’s all be off to an early pint, yes?’”
“He—”
“As may be, Carew, but can you prove it? It’s your word against his and he has the greater status. Did you not hear the gentlemen he named as friends? Lords and admirals. ”
“You said the statements from the men support me!”
“They do.” Humphry nodded. “But, again, the words of a captain carry more weight. Captain Neals and the other officers will face their own courts martial for the loss of Hermione, but that will come after yours. And yours is pivotal to their own. If you’re convicted of mutiny and sedition, Captain Neals will likely be acquitted of Hermione’s loss.”
“More than seventy spacers and marines came out with us, lieutenant. How can one man’s words carry more weight than all of them?”
“All of those men will be facing their own courts martial for mutiny, Carew. Captain Neals’ contention is that they were all, every one of them, involved in the mutiny and came back with you to work further mischief within the Service. The statements of the other officers support Captain Neals’ version of events … at best, and it is a poor best, is that of Lieutenant Williard who insists on saying—” He consulted his tablet. “— ‘I do not recall this, but, perhaps, Captain Neals’ recollection is the sharper.’” He shrugged. “I do wish you would take my advice, it is the only way you might save yourself.”
“I will not.” She picked up the pillow from the cot and hugged it tightly to her chest. “You’re supposed to be defending me! How can you even suggest such a thing?”
“This is not a civilian court, Carew, with a bought and paid for defense such as your Mister Grandy. My oath, as with all the officers of the court, is to seek justice and the best interests of Her Majesty’s Navy. As I see it, this can best be served by hoping for some mercy from the court and being done with it.” There was a knock at the hatchway and he looked out. “Ah, speak of the devil, indeed. Your Mister Grandy is here.” He laid a hand on the latch to slide the hatch open, but paused. “Explain to the court that you are were simply an impressionable young woman, caught up in events that you did not fully comprehend the consequences of — this, I believe, is your only chance to avoid the noose.”
“You want me to admit to everything that bastard’s accused me of and then beg them not to kill me because I’m just a silly little girl! I’ll not do it.” She threw the pillow across the room. “And if I did, you’d then have me turn on the men and say they were guilty as well? What of them, then?”
“They’ll likely hang in any case, Carew. Testify against them, before they do so against you. The Navy must show swift action and put this mess behind us!”
“They did nothing, damn you! You have the men’s statements. ‘To a man,’ you said — to a man they’ve said the same as me!”
There was another knock at the door. “A moment!” Humphry yelled. “Yes, Carew, ‘to a man’. Each was offered leniency to testify against you and rejected it. Over seventy of them? That in itself’s suspicious enough. It makes Captain Neals’ contention that you exerted some … unnatural hold over the crew all the more believable.”
“Good lord! What is wrong with you people? I feel like I’m through the bloody looking glass!”
“In my experience, Carew, to find no man in such a group who will act to save himself? Very odd indeed.”
“It must be quite sad for you, Lieutenant Humphry.”
“Sad?”
“To be in a Service that speaks so much of loyalty, and yet cannot recognize the same within its very midst.” She closed her eyes. “Do, please, leave, lieutenant. I have no more stomach for your counsel today.”
Humphry slid the hatch open and left without another word.
Grandy entered, paused, and slid the hatch shut with a nod to the marine outside then a raised eyebrow for Alexis. His short mustache twitched as he made a place to sit on the edge of the cot. He couldn’t represent either Alexis or Isom in the court martial, as he wasn’t in the Navy, but he’d been offering what advice he could.
“I take it things did not go well?”
“One could say that, Mister Grandy.” She stood to retrieve her pillow, then returned to the cot. She put her back to the compartment’s corner and drew her legs up, cradling the pillow between her legs and chest. “I do believe they’re going to hang me.”
Grandy sighed and crossed one leg over the other. “So it seems. You and more than a few of the crew, as well.”
Alexis choked on a laugh that turned into a sob. “You do not comfort me, sir.”
“Not my place to comfort you, girl. Just to give you my legal opinion.” He shook his head. “From what I was told of Neals’ testimony …” He shook his head again. “You need one of the officers to turn and denounce Neals. That’s the only thing the captains will listen to. Some proof, other than a common spacer’s word.” He paused. “Look, then, is there any of them that might come around and change their story? If there is, I’ll try to speak to him before he’s called to testify tomorrow and see what I can do — it’s certain-sure that Humphry won’t bother.”
Alexis snorted. “He seems worse than useless. I don’t at all understand how he intends to defend me.”
“He doesn’t,” Grandy said, then continued at her shocked look. “The man’s more concerned for his own position, I wager. He’ll lose no prestige or patronage if you hang, but will if he’s seen to attack a Post Captain with Neals’ sort of friends.”
Alexis was silent for a mo
ment. “Then why …” She sighed. “Why would they assign him to defend me?”
Grandy shrugged. “His name was next on the list for defense, I’d suppose. But you can’t rely on him, clearly, and dwelling on the why will do you no good either. Is there any of the officers who might be convinced to go against Neals? Even one of the midshipmen, though they’re not commissioned — a friend, perhaps?”
Alexis laughed. “No, most certainly not one of the midshipmen.” She considered the question for a time. “Lieutenant Williard, perhaps.”
“Lord Atworth?”
She nodded, a little surprised that Grandy knew of Williard’s title. “He’s no fan of Neals. Not like the others.”
“I’ll speak to him, then. Perhaps I can convince him to break ranks with the others.”
“Will they let you in to see him?”
“In?” Grandy frowned. “Likely just ask to speak to him at the club over dinner.”
“The club? Dorchester’s?” Alexis felt her breath catch. “Do you mean to say he’s out?” If Neals and the others were to face their own courts martial, how could Williard be out and about? She saw the look on Grandy’s face and knew the truth. “Well, then, they all are, aren’t they? Of course. I don’t know why I expected differently … Neals, Williard, all the way down to that little shite Ledyard, yes? Walking around free while the lads and I are locked up. Through the looking glass, indeed.” She laughed. “Do make room, Mister Grandy. There’ll be a damned great rabbit joining us any moment. Fur like snow, he’ll have.”
“Did Mister Grandy speak to you about Lieutenant Williard, Lieutenant Humphry?” Alexis whispered. They were back in court for a new day of testimony. The captains had not yet arrived, but the gallery was full, including Neals and the rest of Hermione’s officers and she didn’t want them to overhear.
“Lieutenant Williard? Why would Grandy speak to me about him? Why, for that matter, should I speak to Grandy at all?” Humphry snorted. “You would do well to ignore your Grandy, Carew, and listen to me instead. He is not Navy.”
Alexis Carew: Books 1, 2, and 3 Page 54