‘You are the only other person on the ship who keeps a log?’
‘I am, sir.’
‘Well, I want to go to Leghorn and drop off my lady and I don’t intend to write up my course to there and back to Corsica. It is no great distance and the stores consumed will not tell anyone I have gone astray.’
‘And you wish me to do the same?’
‘I can ask, but you know you have no obligation to comply.’
‘Makes no odds to me, sir, if it is discovered they will break you and I will say you threatened me with a loaded pistol.’
Having said that with a grave countenance, and seeing Pearce react in a like manner, Dorling suddenly grinned. ‘I believe I had you there, sir?’
‘I believe you did.’
There were a mass of British vessels in Leghorn, a few navy, but mostly privateers, for this was the base for the wolves of the Mediterranean Sea who went out only for profit and justified their activities as aiding the war effort as Letters of Marque by their interdiction of trade. Through a shore-based naval officer they found a house where Emily could stay and to which Pearce promised to be back in a few days. Having been together and so close for weeks their parting was difficult and all the old anxieties, put aside for the voyage, resurfaced for Emily Barclay, for if they had talked much they had tended to avoid the most serious subject.
‘I will not be long and let us think to talk when I come back, and instead of doing that which we have – skirt round it – let us move on from speculation to a proper plan for our future.’
Pearce was not the only sad face when they sailed for San Fiorenzo, where Lord Hood was anchored. Emily had grown on the whole crew – even those superstitious coves who had predicted disaster if they took a woman on board were sad that she was no longer with them, for she had been kind to all, with a ready smile and a willing ear for a tale of a life too hard to bear, or a wife and bairns back home who lived on the meagre pay the navy allowed.
Sighting HMS Victory lifted Pearce’s spirits; all he had to do was deliver his letter, then up anchor for Leghorn again, to collect Emily and set off on what would be a less than speedy voyage back home. Life was at that moment as sweet as it could be.
About the Author
DAVID DONACHIE was born in Edinburgh in 1944. He has always had an abiding interest in the naval history of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as well as the Roman Republic, and, under the pen-name of Jack Ludlow, has published a number of historical adventure novels. David lives in Deal with his partner, the novelist Sarah Grazebrook.
By David Donachie
THE JOHN PEARCE SERIES
By the Mast Divided
A Shot Rolling Ship
An Awkward Commission
A Flag of Truce
The Admirals’ Game
An Ill Wind
Blown Off Course
Enemies at Every Turn
A Sea of Troubles
Written as Jack Ludlow
THE REPUBLIC SERIES
The Pillars of Rome
The Sword of Revenge
The Gods of War
THE CONQUEST SERIES
Mercenaries
Warriors
Conquest
THE ROADS TO WAR SERIES
The Burning Sky
A Broken Land
A Bitter Field
THE CRUSADES SERIES
Son of Blood
Soldier of Crusade
Copyright
Allison & Busby Limited
12 Fitzroy Mews
London W1T 6DW
www.allisonandbusby.com
First published in Great Britain by Allison & Busby in 2012.
This ebook edition published by Allison & Busby in 2012.
Copyright © 2012 by DAVID DONACHIE
The moral right of the author is hereby asserted
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All characters and events in this publication other than those clearly in the public domain are fictitious and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent buyer.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978–0–7490–1255–7
A Sea of Troubles Page 26