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.Isn’t that just like the lazy French?”Jeannette was glad she’d scrubbed dirt onto her face, for it had left plenty beneath her nails as well.She refrained from making a response to the officer’s demeaning comment while hoping that the others wouldn’t look too closely.The captain waved off the other man.“It takes no calluses to be a bosun’s servant, Mr.Cunnington.Those will come with the job.And a French lad can learn as easily as an English one.”“I didn’t know a frog could do anything quite as well as an Englishman.” Cunnington and another man laughed, but the captain cut them a glare that wiped the smiles from their faces.“Regardless, the bosun needs a lad, and this one will do.”The officer named Cunnington eyed her again.“Actually, I have been in need of a steward for some time now.I could use the boy myself, Captain, if you could see your way clear to indulge me.”A prickle of fear skipped down Jeannette’s spine.She already knew two or three days spent in the company of this man would be too many.Fortunately Treynor spoke up.“Too late, Lieutenant Cunnington.”The captain hesitated, then affirmed his agreement with a nod.“But I hardly think Hawker deserves more consideration than I.” Indignation oozed through Cunnington’s voice and his gaze lingered on Treynor before returning to the captain.Treynor tensed.It was a subtle change in his demeanor but one Jeannette caught right away—along with the gleam of extreme dislike in his eye.“My apologies, Lieutenant Cunnington.Perhaps next time I go ashore I will be lucky enough to find you a good lad, a good English lad, if you can’t manage to do that for yourself.”“You are pleased about this, are you not, Mr.Treynor?” Cunnington said.The captain scowled.“We will have none of that, Mr.Cunnington.I have promised a servant to Mr.Hawker, and he shall have this boy.”Cunnington’s lips thinned and his nostrils flared, but he did not speak again until the captain motioned to the confusion surrounding them.“Get these people off this ship, Mr.Cunnington.”“Aye, aye sir.I am working on it as we speak.”Cruikshank stared at Cunnington for a moment, as if weighing his arrogant tone against his actual words.“That will do.” Motioning to Jeannette, he lumbered toward the quarterdeck where she assumed they’d find his cabin.Grateful for Treynor’s reassuring presence at her side, Jeannette followed.As uncomfortable as the memory of their time together made her, he was the only thing remotely familiar in this strange world.Fleetingly she wondered what the lieutenant would do if he discovered her to be the wench who had left him rolling in agony.With a sideways glance at his tall, muscular frame, she hoped he would never find out.“Mr.Cunnington is first lieutenant and my second-in-command, Mr.Treynor,” the captain said as they walked, with Bull still fighting his rope leash.“I am aware of his rank, sir,” Treynor replied, his hands behind his back.“Then perhaps you have forgotten your own.”“No, sir.”Captain Cruikshank stopped and turned to face him.“Let me be more direct: Mr.Cunnington doesn’t like you.”Treynor’s eyebrows rose.“Does Cunnington like anyone, sir? With his excessive fondness for discipline, I sometimes wonder if we should fear mutiny more than the French.”The captain shook his head.“The two of you are very different.I know that.Do you think I cannot see how the men admire you? You are one of them.You rose to your present rank from a mere cabin boy.They would follow you anywhere.”“Thank you, sir.”“That’s not all.” He glanced in the direction of his first lieutenant.“Devil take him, Cunnington will advance to captain someday because of who his father is, regardless of his record, while you have less chance.That is how the system works, and there isn’t a bloody thing any of us can do about it.”His weathered face lost in concentration, Cruikshank looked at Jeannette, but she could tell he wasn’t really seeing her.He was thinking, selecting his next words carefully.“He is your superior,” he said at last.“I will not intercede again.”A muscle twitched in Treynor’s cheek, the only outward sign of emotion Jeannette could detect.He nodded once.“Yes, sir.I understand.”“Good.Wait here.When my clerk is done you may bring the lad to the bosun.”*Mr.Hawker looked much younger than his wife.Jeannette studied him from beneath her lashes, wondering what it was, exactly, that had drawn the two of them together [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]