China Flyer
Page 17
Jingee’s devotion to Horne increased a hundredfold.
* * *
Lothar Schiller escaped from a clutch of English clerks and their wives. Wiping the perspiration from his forehead, he looked round the parlour for an escape route. He wanted to leave Rose Cottage and go back to the Huma where he was sleeping at present. Tomorrow promised to be a big day for Schiller. He was due to give a report to Commodore Watson at Bombay Castle.
Horne had assured Schiller that he should not be nervous about the coming meeting. The report Schiller had given to Governor Pigot at Fort St George had been the important one, and the Governor had praised him for surrendering the China Flyer to the Bombay Marine at Kam-Sing-Moon. In recognition of his written testimony against George Fanshaw, Pigot had cleared Schiller of any criminal charges for his part in the commandeering of the Company frigate. As far as Fanshaw’s future was concerned, nobody expected the Chinese to release him in the near future from Canton’s Dragon Prison. Pigot had received notification from the Manchu that they were detaining Fanshaw in connection with illegal trading in China.
What is my future? Schiller wondered as he stood lost in the crowd of guests. Will Horne persuade Commodore Watson to accept me as a Bombay Marine?
The excitement he felt about the prospect of joining Horne’s unit was only matched by the exhilaration he had felt twelve years ago when, at the age of thirteen, he signed to fight with Maurice de Saxe.
Maybe his career would prosper more as a Bombay Marine than it had on the battlefields of Europe. He hoped so. Horne was a decent man. Schiller looked across the parlour, smiling to himself when he saw that Horne was also a man with more than duty in his mind.
* * *
‘I do not intend to bore you with my history, Miss Harkness.’
‘Would you rather hear about the piano recitals I have attended in Bombay during the last two months, Captain Horne? My teas with the Catchpole sisters? The marketplace where Elvira Schoenbrauer suggested I might find artist’s charcoal?’
‘Your voyage out must have been adventurous.’
‘My only adventure was trying to avoid the companionship of a perfectly dreadful young officer, Lieutenant Tree.’
‘Tree?’ The name was familiar to Horne. ‘Do you know if his name was Simon Tree?’
‘Oh, dear!’ Emily Harkness blushed prettily. ‘Lieutenant Tree’s a friend of yours, Captain Horne.’
Horne laughed. ‘I wouldn’t call him a friend, Miss Harkness. We both sailed aboard the merchantman, the Unity, last year. The captain had been wounded and his first lieutenant taken ill. Tree was responsible for—’
Horne stopped, realising that the attractive young lady had relaxed him enough to do something he seldom did, divulge details of past voyages.
Bending his head, he said, ‘It was nothing, Miss Harkness. Your marketplace stories are far more interesting, I’m sure.’
‘No, don’t stop, Captain Horne. Pray continue your story.’
Horne regretted he had divulged as much as he had. ‘It was nothing, Miss Harkness.’
Emily Harkness angled her head, asking with a twinkle in her pale blue eyes, ‘Why do men’s secrets seem darker than women’s?’
‘If such a thing is true, it is not necessarily an asset.’
Emily Harkness smiled, dimples forming on her sun-bronzed complexion. ‘Excuse any boldness, Captain Horne, but for a military men you are refreshingly … modest.’
‘Perhaps modesty is no more than a form of boldness, Miss Harkness.’
‘Is the reverse true, Captain Horne? Can boldness be interpreted as disguised modesty?’
‘Forgive me, Miss Harkness. My mind’s gone slow in the company of men at sea. You’re too sharp for me.’
‘I think I should like a life at sea, Captain Horne. But certainly not in His Majesty’s Navy or the Company’s Maritime Service. No, I’m certain I would suffocate in all those heavy uniforms, not to mention being obedient to endless regulations and rules.’
Horne smiled, thinking of accusations levelled at the Bombay Marine.
Emily Harkness appraised Horne’s gold-encrusted frock-coat. ‘Your uniform is indeed splendid, Captain Horne, but must you wear it every day?’
‘Seldom ever, Miss Harkness. Only in Bombay and on official calls of duty. There’s a rumour that a Bombay Marine looks no better than a wild buccaneer.’
‘How wonderful! I approve!’ Her laugh was crystalline. ‘I shall have to speak to my uncle. Inquire if he can enlist me as a Bombay … Buccaneer.’
The pejorative term did not sound offensive coming from her pretty lips. Horne laughed at himself for being forgiving with someone so attractive as this spirited young lady standing in front of him.
She asked, ‘Do you ever recruit new Marines to this exciting life you lead, Captain Horne?’
Deciding to let her interpret his answer however she chose, he replied, ‘I’m seriously considering someone at this very moment, Miss Harkness.’
The instant blush encouraged Horne to believe that Emily Harkness understood his feelings for her.
GLOSSARY
Brahmin — The highest Hindu caste
Chapati — Flat, disc-shaped Indian bread
Dhoolie — A covered litter
Dhoti — Loin-cloth
Dubash — Literally ‘Two languages’, hence an interpreter or secretary
Dungri — Blue Indian cotton cloth
Feringhi — Foreigner
Kshatriya — The second highest and Hindu warrior caste
Pankration — Ancient manner of Greek combat, forerunner of Japanese Karate
Panchama — Literally, ‘the fifth’, people outside the four Indian castes.
Punkah — Overhead fan operated by rope
Sudra — People below the Hindu high castes
Topiwallah — Literally, men with hats; hence, foreigners
Vaisya — The third Hindu caste, the powerful merchant class
Other Bombay Marine Adventures by Porter Hill
THE BOMBAY MARINES
THE WAR CHEST
Copyright
First published in Great Britain in 1986 by Souvenir Press, 43 Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3PD
This ebook edition first published in 2013
All rights reserved © Souvenir Press Ltd
The right of Porter Hill to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly
ISBN 9780285642133
The Adam Horne trilogy
If you have enjoyed this Adam Horne adventure the other titles in this trilogy are available.
The Bombay Marines
In this, the first part of the Adam Horne trilogy, it is 1761 and Pondicherry, the last stronghold of the French in India, has fallen to the British. Captain Horne is given a secret mission: to capture the defeated French commander, Thomas Lally, from the prison of Fort St. George on Madras – if he fails his unit will be disbanded.
When most of the Bombay Marines are deployed on the east coast of India Horne finds his unit is left undermanned and he is left with only one choice: to take his pick of the motley collection of thieves, rapists and murderers held in the prisons of Bombay Castle and train them for what will be the most closely guarded campaign of the Seven Years’ War.
From the colourful waterfront of Bombay to the sadistic penal colony of Bull Island and the cataclysmic denouement within the walls of Fort St. George Adam Horne, and his ex-convicts, must be prepa
red for the exotic dangers of India.
China Flyer
Concluding the Adam Horne trilogy, following The Bombay Marines and The War Chest, Captain Horne is ordered to follow a trail into the perilous waters of the China Seas in pursuit of George Fanshawe, who has disappeared under mysterious circumstances with gold from the East India Company’s coffers and valuable charts detailing the trading routes for the burgeoning trade with China. Horne is given the order, find Fanshaw, and soon!
Horne sails eastward in search of the elusive merchant through seas infested with pirates and the hostile Chinese.