HMS Hibernia
Tor Bay
Dear Captain Hornblower,
If you can be tempted out of your ship at three o’clock this afternoon to dine in the flagship it would give great pleasure to
Your ob’t servant,
Wm. Cornwallis, Vice Ad.
P.S. – An affirmative signal hung out in the Hotspur is all the acknowledgement necessary.
Hornblower went out on to the quarter-deck.
“Mr Foreman. Signal ‘Hotspur to Flag. Affirmative’.”
“Just affirmative, sir?”
“You heard me.”
An invitation from the Commander in Chief was as much a royal command as if it had been signed George R. – even if the postcript did not dictate the reply.
Then there was the powder to be put on board, with all the care and precautions that operation demanded; Hotspur had fired away one ton of the five tons of gunpowder that her magazine could hold. The operation was completed when Prowse brought up one of the hands who manned the powder-barge.
“This fellow says he has a message for you, sir.”
This was a swarthy gypsy-faced fellow who met Hornblower’s eye boldly with all the assurance to be expected of a man who carried in his pocket a protection against impressment.
“What is it?”
“Message for you from a lady, sir, and I was to have a shilling for delivering it to you.”
Hornblower looked him over keenly. There was only one lady who could be sending a message.
“Nonsense. That lady promised sixpence. Now didn’t she?”
Hornblower knew that much about Maria despite his brief married life.
“Well, yes, sir.”
“Here’s the shilling. What’s the message?”
“The lady said look for her on Brixham Pier, sir.”
“Very well.”
Hornblower took the glass from its becket and walked forward. Busy though the ship was, there were nevertheless a few idlers round the knightheads who shrank away in panic at the remarkable sight of their captain here. He trained the glass; Brixham Pier, as might be expected, was crowded with people, and he searched for a long time without result, training the glass first on one woman and then on another. Was that Maria? She was the only woman wearing a bonnet and not a shawl. Of course it was Maria; momentarily he had forgotten that this was the end of the seventh month. She stood in the front row of the crowd; as Hornblower watched she raised an arm and fluttered a scarf. She could not see him, or at least she certainly could not recognize him at that distance without a telescope. She must have heard, along with the rest of Plymouth, of the arrival of Hotspur in Tor Bay; presumably she had made her way here via Totnes in the carrier’s cart – a long and tedious journey.
She fluttered her scarf again, in the pathetic hope that he was looking at her. In that part of his mind which never ceased attending to the ship Hornblower became conscious of the pipes of the bos’n’s mate – the pipes had been shrilling one call or another all day long.
“Quarter-boat away-ay-ay!”
Hornblower had never been so conscious of the slavery of the King’s service. Here he was due to leave the ship to dine with the Commander-in-Chief, and the Navy had a tradition of punctuality that he could not flout. And there was Foreman, breathless from his run forward.
“Message from Mr Bush, sir. The boat’s waiting.”
What was he to do? Ask Bush to write Maria a note and send it by a shore boat? No, he would have to risk being late – Maria could not bear to receive second hand messages at this time of all times. A hurried scribble with the left-handed quill.
My own darling,
So much pleasure in seeing you, but not a moment to spare yet. I will write to you at length.
Your devoted husband,
H.
He used that initial in all his letters to her; he did not like his first name and he could not bring himself to sign ‘Harry’. Damn it all, here was the half-finished letter, interrupted earlier that day and never completed. He thrust it aside and struggled to apply a wafer to the finished note. Seven months at sea had destroyed every vestige of gum and the wafer would not adhere. Doughty was hovering over him with sword and hat and cloak – Doughty was just as aware of the necessity for punctuality as he was. Hornblower gave the open note to Bush.