Finally the lanterns were on the beach, with no indication of a hue and cry, so perhaps the others had got clear. The crunch as the Excise men came down the beach was like the knell of doom, for Pearce knew he could look forward to a life of misery from now on. Then he put his hand in the pocket of his blue broadcloth coat again, to touch that tin of earth from Paris, which had travelled with him. What would old Adam Pearce say about his son now, and would he ever get those bones out of their Parisian resting place?
‘You there, don’t move,’ called a voice, and John Pearce burst out laughing, wondering as he did so if they would go below and fetch for him his ditty bag, and most of all, his shoes.
EPILOGUE
A week in the Sandwich gaol was not unpleasant, given he had enough money left to pay the warder for food and comfort as well as a medical man to tend to his now-healing foot, though it would not yet take a shoe. More troubling were his own thoughts, for, hardly surprisingly, he could not get out of his mind what had just happened, and every reprise of recent events made him feel more of an idiot than the last. With hindsight he could see so many flaws in the way he had been deceived that it beggared belief he had fallen for them in the first place.
Still, he would soon have more to worry about: a letter to Davidson, pen and paper provided by the warder for a fee, had established his affairs were still up in the air, nothing was resolved, so the fine he was expecting of one hundred pounds, standard for smuggling as he had been informed, he could not pay. So it was either hard labour or transportation he was facing, and he was up before the Justice of the Peace in an hour.
He had written to Emily Barclay too, but that letter, to his mind unfinished, was yet to be sent. Time to put the last touches to a missive that would tell her that, while he loved her deeply, the notion of their being together was one she would have to put aside, if indeed she had ever truly harboured it.
I have instructed Davidson to provide for you as best he can, and said that any prize money should go to you unless it can be used to secure my release, not that I think that a likely event once sentence has been passed. Please be assured once more of my deep love for you and my wish that if you can find happiness you should do so. It would probably be best to forget you ever knew a man called John Pearce.
With that he signed it.
‘Lieutenant John Pearce?’ asked the clerk of the court.
All he could do to that was nod and reply yes; he had used his naval rank in the hope it might ameliorate what was coming. The court was crowded with the usual set of ghouls, many hoping for a hanging, no doubt, but there was a commotion at the back as three men elbowed their way to the front, and that made Pearce curse. What the hell were his Pelicans doing here? The charges were read out and he entered a plea of guilty, all the while glaring at the body of the court, where his friends now sat, a look that was returned with bland indifference.
‘The fine for evading the excise duty is set by statute at one hundred pounds. Do you have that sum to pay to the court?’
‘No.’
The Justice was about to speak when Charlie Taverner stood up and cried out, ‘May it please, Your Honour.’ That got him a jaundiced look over the magistrate’s half-glasses. ‘Is it not the case, that if a fellow convicted of smuggling can provide two men for His Majesty’s Navy, who have the skills of the sea, the fine is waived?’
‘That is so.’
‘Then can I say that my mate here and I,’ Rufus stood up, looking far from confident, ‘were approached by this here Lieutenant Pearce to join up for the bounty, which we will happily put aside in his favour.’ Charlie held up his piece of parchment. ‘Even having this.’
A sharp instruction was given and the clerk of the court took from the pair their protections, which were handed up to, and closely examined by, the Justice of the Peace, before he looked back out to the well of the court.
‘You are volunteering for the navy?’
‘That’s right, Your Honour.’
That set the court a-buzzing: if it was not expected for men to condemn themselves out of their own mouths as smugglers, that was what this pair were doing, for only a fool would believe their connection to the man in the dock was other than that. The navy was not much given to taking criminals – in truth they were dead against it – but smugglers were the exception, given they were bound to be at home on a ship and thus highly valued.
‘You are competent seamen?’
‘We are,’ Charlie replied.
‘Both of you?’
‘Yes.’
The magistrate paused for a moment to consider his response, but when he did speak it was with firm purpose. ‘Sergeant of the Court, take these men into custody to be handed over to the receiving officer of the Impress Service at Dover. You, Lieutenant Pearce, have satisfied the needs of justice and you are thus free to go.’
‘I protest.’
The words he was about to utter, that he would not accept the verdict, died in his throat: Michael O’Hagan was shaking his head, and in truth, any intervention he could make was too late. Charlie and Rufus were already on their way. Minutes later, a free man, he hobbled out of the courthouse to join the Irishman.
‘That was madness!’
‘Was it, John-boy? We talked long, this last week, while we hid out in Deal to see what became of you.’
‘Where I must go to look for those who near did for us all.’
‘You’d be wasting your time, they would be unlikely to show and if they did, what can we two do against so many? Charlie and Rufus had no mind to go back to the Liberties, as I have not myself, but I will wait to find what risk I am under, since you say my name is not known. It was plain we all owed our freedom to you …’
‘They did not have to go back,’ Pearce protested.
He knew, even as he said the words, they were false. Charlie and Rufus with writs against their name could not just wander the land in safety: if it was not the Liberties, it was more likely to be the same kind of risk Pearce felt he had faced before going into the court.
‘Take it for what it is, John-boy, two men who consider you a friend, doing what they thought best and that included for themselves. They have no love of sea service, but even that is better than what they had afore. At sea they are safe from the law.’
‘And what of us, Michael?’
The Irishman just smiled; if he was aware of the turmoil in the mind of John Pearce he said nothing. Just abandoning Charlie and Rufus he could not do and live with himself, while he was at a stand to know what to do with his life, Emily Barclay notwithstanding. It was the same dilemma he had laboured under ever since coming back from Paris, the lack of a clear path to a decent future, for he was not fitted for much. Those prizes might pay out, and then again they might not, and even then the sums were not great enough to provide security, which, if it engendered a painful reminder of how foolish he had been in going to Gravelines, also harked him back to the reason. The solution was obvious, if not entirely pleasant: he needed security for both himself and the woman he loved, he needed to help his friends and there was only one place that could be achieved.
‘You must see I have to find a way to repay them, or at the very least ease their lives.’ Michael nodded and gave a look that told Pearce he understood what that meant. ‘How do you feel about being servant to a naval lieutenant?’
‘Sure, I would be a cack-handed one.’
‘Not as cack-handed, or -headed for that matter, as the man you will be obliged to see to.’
‘So, John-boy, where to now?’
‘First back to the town jail to retrieve a letter I wrote, then we must go to Dover and see what we can do for Charlie and Rufus.’
‘And then?’
‘Then, Michael, I am going to beard the First Lord of the Treasury, whom you might know as William Pitt, as well as a companion of his called Henry Dundas. They made me certain promises and I intend they should keep them.’
If you enjoyed Blown Off Course, read on
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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
Writing 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
Copyright
Allison & Busby Limited
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www.allisonandbusby.com
Hardback published in Great Britain in 2010.
Paperback published in 2011.
This ebook edition first published in 2011.
Copyright © 2010 by DAVID DONACHIE
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
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 978–0–7490–4032–1
ENEMIES AT EVERY TURN
Having been caught on smuggling charges, Lieutenant John Pearce escaped incarceration when two of his Pelicans ‘volunteered’ for service in his Majesty’s Navy; now, Pearce is determined to get them back. Aided by fellow Pelican Michael O’Hagan, Pearce heads to Dover to attempt a rescue, but not everything goes quite as planned. They are trailed across Kent by a gang of thugs who want revenge on Pearce for stealing their goods.
Having fled to London, Pearce and O’Hagan discover that their friends have already shipped out, under the command of the Lieutenant’s old adversary, Ralph Barclay. Convinced that his old nemesis would never willingly let his two friends go, Pearce and O’Hagan fear that all hope is lost - until the offer from First Minister Pitt himself seems to turn their luck around. The chance of a ship and crew might be just what Pearce needs to escape his pursuers, rescue the Pelicans and earn himself a small fortune … so long as his past doesn’t catch up with him first.
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