Cunningham pursed his lips and nodded slowly. “Of course, Your Majesty.”
Annalise held his eye for a moment, until he looked away to poll the others.
“So, if we’re agreed, then, some liner far away from the possibility of further —”
“There’ll be a knighthood, of course,” Annalise said, popping her last bit of pastry into her mouth.
The assembled Lords of Admiralty turned to watch the Queen chew and swallow.
“It’s only to be expected,” Annalise said. “It was discussed after Giron, but some were concerned at how the announcement would be taken in the Fringe Worlds. In fact —” Annalise furrowed her brow and touched fingers to her lips. “— I seem to recall the news in the Fringe, even the Naval Gazette, made no mention of the girl’s first name at all. Something about rendering honors to a woman offending colonial sensibilities?” She waved her hand dismissively. “Of course, there’ll be no risk of that with news of a knighthood — it being a capital offense to alter a Royal Proclamation in any way.” She smiled at Cunningham. “You’ll remind your captains to make that point to those worlds when the packet’s dropped off, won’t you, Lord Cunningham?”
“Of course, Your Majesty.”
Annalise smiled at the man, then turned her gaze to Larcbost, who was barely bothering to hide her own grin. That wouldn’t do at all.
“About that song, Portia …”
Larcbost’s face sobered and she watched her sovereign as a wily cow might eye the Judas goat’s approach.
“Majesty?”
“As it mentions me, with the Royal Navy’s full love and respect, I’m certain, I do long to hear it.”
“Majesty, I’m not entirely sure that would be —”
“When next we have tea, perhaps? You do have such a lovely singing voice.” The Queen quickly ran her eyes over the others at the table and pressed her hands together, eyes wide and disingenuous. “Or at Court, when next you all attend! Lord Narfolk’s baritone would be such a compliment to your soprano — a proper shanty might be just the thing to liven things up. It would be such fun!”
Narfolk looked decidedly uncomfortable and Falkirk grimaced outright.
Larcbost cocked her head and took a deep breath. “It’s a rather … rough tune, Your Majesty, spacers being what they are.”
Annalise let her face fall in disappointment. “Is it? Oh.” She sighed. “Well, perhaps not then …” She paused just long enough for her admirals to feel a sense of relief, then, “But do, please, all of you be prepared just in case? Perhaps when the fuddier members of the Court have gone off to something else.”
She rose, sending them scrambling to their feet as she strode out of the room.
“Well, I’ll leave you to your deliberations. I see that you have things well in-hand, and trust you’ll find the perfect spot for this lieutenant — suitable to her accomplishments and new status.”
The Queen paused on the landing pad to look back at Admiralty, then out over the forest of other buildings to the city beyond.
She thought she’d struck just the right note with their lordships, insisting they keep the girl active in the Service, while ensuring they knew they’d be the ones on the hook should she be less than successful in the future. Rewarding this Carew would also further endear the Queen to the common spacers and reinforce the idea that sending Carew after them had been a Royal idea in the first place, but without saying so outright, which would cause a diplomatic breach with Hanover in these quite delicate times.
Annalise smiled and resumed her walk to her aircar.
Balancing it all was at times rather like trying to dance atop the landing pad’s railing — a thin surface of safety, with doom to one side, and a static field trying to push one away. Still, it was satisfying when things went well.
It would be interesting to see what the girl got up to next, as she was an absolute magnet for trouble. More interesting would be what the Foreign Office fellow, Eades, found to put her up to.
Annalise had been dubious when the man’d proposed sending someone so young into the heart of the Barbary, but she did have to admit he’d been right … again. The girl had done far more than bring back word of the missing spacers, after all.
And then, of course, was the impact she was having on the Fringe Fleet and the Fringe Worlds. Just the knighthood would positively throw a fox into the henhouse of the Fringe’s regressive ideas, forcing them to acknowledge the girl’s accomplishments through their desire to see one of their own do well.
All in all, both she and the kingdom had come out far ahead in the deal. And should the girl ever failed in one of her mad attempts … well, that’s what lieutenants and junior captains were for, wasn’t it? One could always disavow their actions without consequence.
Queen Annalise slipped into her aircar, idly singing a snatch of the new tune she’d learned. She had to admit it was quite catchy.
“Alexis, Annalise did send,
To find Her errant spacers,
Little did She know they'd end
Up in the Randy Whistler.”
Author’s Note
Thank you for reading The Queen’s Pardon, book six in the Alexis Carew series.
I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it, and if you did like it and would like to further support the series, please consider leaving a review on the purchase site or a review/rating on Goodreads. Reviews are the lifeblood of independent authors and let other readers know if a book might be to their liking.
You might also consider joining my mailing list (http://www.jasutherlandbooks.com/list), if you’d like to be kept aware of the progress of new releases. I send no more than one or two updates a month, and subscribers will receive a free ebook copy of the novella Planetfall (a prequel to the series) and the short-story Wronged (the first bits of the Spacer, Smuggler, Pirate, Spy series), both set in the Alexis Carew universe, as well as other short works in the series as they come about.
Why would a privateer — and such a manly one as Malcomson — sail on a ship named Bachelor’s Delight?
Well, the name of that ship was a real privateer, captained by Edward Davies in the late 17th century (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Davis_(buccaneer))
To the best of my knowledge, though, no one ever called Davis’ ship the Catamite (and lived, at least).
The pardon Alexis offers the pirates is similar to one issued by King George in 1715, the text of which can be found in:
A General History of the Pyrates From Their firft RISE and SETTLEMENT in the Ifland of Providence, to the prefent Time. With the remarkable Actions and Adventures of the two Female Pyrates Mary Read and Anne Bonny
by Daniel Dafoe (1724)
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/40580/40580-h/40580-h.htm
I do, sometimes, envy authors of past times their liberality of title … then I compare my laptop to a hand-cut quill and think, “It’s a fair trade.”
The privateers, other than Alexis (when she’s doing it), in both Privateer and The Queen’s Pardon aren’t the most noble of creatures when you get right down to it. Not even Malcomson, charming though he might be. Well, this is the reality of privateering — they were not some noble creature, but were one step above pirates themselves. Many of them were, in fact, pirates, enlisted by the Crown to attack enemies instead of friends under the color of authority — much the same as today’s civil forfeiture laws, if you’ll pardon a single step into the political realm.
Their goal was to make money, and they did it in the same way that pirates did — by targeting merchantmen and weaker foes. When faced with an equal force, there was no profit in a confrontation, so they’d not engage. This isn’t, necessarily, a cowardly act, as they were not warships with a sworn duty to the Crown — they were independent businessmen, out for profit.
As Alexis says, “They are what they are,” — though Malcomson, at least, admits he owes her a debt which she might collect one day.
Who was Kaycie? Why
would Presgraves like that her head, at least, was around for a fusion plant explosion? What did Avrel Dansby do to so terrify the pirates of the Barbary?
As he says, those are his stories to tell — or mine to tell for him, rather, which is done in the Spacer, Smuggler, Pirate, Spy series. Check it out.
J.A. Sutherland
Orlando, FL
October 1, 2018
Also by J.A. Sutherland
To be notified when new releases are available, follow J.A. Sutherland on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/jasutherlandbooks/), Twitter (https://twitter.com/JASutherlandBks), or subscribe to the author’s newsletter (http://www.alexiscarew.com/list).
Alexis Carew
Into the Dark
Mutineer
The Little Ships
HMS Nightingale
Privateer
The Queen’s Pardon
Planetfall (prequel)
Dark Artifice
(Writing as Richard Grantham)
Of Dubious Intent
Spacer, Smuggler, Pirate, Spy
Spacer
Smuggler (coming 2019)
Trade Runs
Running Start (coming 2019)
Running Scared (coming 2019)
Running on Empty (coming 2019)
About the Author
J.A. Sutherland spends his time sailing the Bahamas on a 43' 1925 John G. Alden sailboat called Little Bit ...
Yeah ... no. In his dreams.
Reality is a townhouse in Orlando with a 90 pound huskie-wolf mix who won't let him take naps.
When not reading or writing, he spends his time on roadtrips around the Southeast US searching for good barbeque.
Mailing List: http://www.alexiscarew.com/list
To contact the author:
www.alexiscarew.com
[email protected]
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Epilogue
Author’s Note
Also by J.A. Sutherland
About the Author
The Queen's Pardon (Alexis Carew Book 6) Page 42