Read Hostile Shores for Free Online

Captain Meadows, that my little jest was mis-understood. Ah, well.”
    “So, sailing in and flying no colours was a jest, sir?” Lewrie asked with a brow up in sour surprise. “I must tell you, then, sir, that you ruined a day’s fishing for a great many Free Blacks, and put the wind up the residents of Nassau and New Providence. In point of fact, there were one or two merchantmen who fled you, and sailed on Westerly. It was they who first spread the alarm.
    “I’d imagine by now that they’re halfway up the Nor’west Providence Channel, fleein’ to some American port, with the news that a French invasion force has taken Nassau,” Lewrie sternly pointed out, and admittedly took some joy in the doing. “Who knows how long before that news reaches our Ambassador in Washington, or the Admiral commanding the North American station at Halifax … or London?”
    If Lewrie had whipped out a belaying pin and jabbed Grierson in the groin, the fellow could not have looked more stricken!
    “Captain Lewrie,” Grierson intoned after giving that a long thought, and re-gathering his aplomb, “I see that your frigate flies the inferior broad pendant. Did you take it upon yourself to promote yourself in Captain Forrester’s absence?”
    “I already had independent orders from Admiralty to sail for the Bahamas and form a small squadron in shoal-draught ships to hunt French and Spanish privateers along the coast of Spanish Florida and in neutral American waters, sir,” Lewrie patiently explained, resenting Grierson’s tone, and the accusation that he had broken out his broad pendant without authorisation. “By the time we returned to New Providence, after clearing out a nest of privateers up the Saint Mary’s River, Captain Forrester had already departed, leaving me as the senior officer present. There was a promise from Antigua of re-enforcement, but I was not holdin’ my breath waitin’ for them.”
    And when are ye goin’ t’offer me a glass o’ wine, ye top-lofty bastard? Lewrie fumed to himself.
    “ Who made you such an offer?” Grierson demanded.
    “That was the word that Commander Gilpin of the Delight brig brought me, when he and Commander Ritchie and Fulmar returned to the islands from Antigua, sir,” Lewrie told him. “And, might I enquire, what has happened with Captain Forrester?”
    Somethin’ dire, I hope! Lewrie wolfishly thought.
    “An old friend of yours, was he?” Grierson said, simpering.
    “Not particularly, no, sir,” Lewrie baldly admitted, grinning.
    “His court-martial found him acquitted of the charge of endangering his vessel,” Grierson related, “even though un-bending the cables from the anchors and buckling the hawseholes was thought premature.… On the greater charge of abandoning his responsibilities he was found guilty, and has been relieved of his command, with a letter of admonishment. He will be off to England on the next packet.”
    “Oh, poor fellow!” Lewrie exclaimed, his sarcasm so thick that everyone within earshot, familiar with the case, fought sniggers.
    “ Mersey will be in the dockyard at Antigua for months to patch her bottom, Captain Lewrie,” Captain Meadows supplied, “and will then be assigned to another officer.”
    “And, most likely added to the strength of the Antigua Squadron, in place of Athenian, ” Commodore Grierson announced as if it was so.
    “What of the French, then, sir?” Lewrie asked. “We’ve heard but rumours of Missiessy and Villeneuve.”
    “Missiessy had but a small squadron,” Grierson informed him with a smirk, “and may be on his way back to France. There’s been no word of him for weeks. As for Villeneuve and his large fleet, reports say that he made landfall at Martinique and Guadeloupe to land fresh troops for their defence. He’s sailed from there, but has made no sign that he would move upon Jamaica or Antigua, or land a force to re-take the Black rebel colony of Haiti. As far as anyone may determine, his fleet