O'Brian Patrick - Aub-Mat 05 - Desolation Island

Desolation Island by Patrick O'Brian

CHAPTER ONE

The breakfast-parlour was the most cheerful room in Ashgrove Cottage, and although the

builders had ruined the garden with heaps of sand and unslaked lime and bricks, and

although the damp walls of the new wing in which this parlour stood still smelt of plaster,

the sun poured in, blazing on the covered silver dishes and lighting the face of Sophie

Aubrey as she sat there waiting for her husband. A singularly lovely face, with the lines

that their earlier poverty had marked upon it quite smoothed away; but it had a somewhat

anxious look. She was a sailor's wife, and although the Admiralty in the goodness of its

heart had allowed her the company of her husband for a surprising length of time,

appointing him (much against his will) to the command of the. local Sea-Fencibles in

recognition of his services in the Indian Ocean, she knew that this period was coming to

an end.

The anxiety changed to unmixed pleasure as she heard his step: the door opened; a ray

of sun fell on Captain Aubrey's beaming face, a ruddy face with bright blue eyes; and she

knew as certainly as though it had been written on his forehead that he had bought the

horse he coveted. 'There you are, sweetheart,' he cried, kissing her and lowering himself

into a chair by her side, a broad elbow-chair that creaked beneath his weight.

'Captain Aubrey,' she said, 'I am afraid your bacon will be cold.'

'A cup of coffee first,' said he, 'and then all the bacon in the world - Lord, Sophie -, lifting

the covers with his free hand - 'here's Fiddler's Green - eggs, bacon, chops, kippered

herrings, kidneys, soft tack . . . How is the tooth?' Here he was referring to his son

George, whose howls had made the household uneasy for some time past.

'It is through!' cried Mrs Aubrey. 'He cut it in the night, and now he is as good as gold, poor

lamb. You shall see him after breakfast, Jack.'

Jack laughed with pleasure; but after a pause, and in a slightly conscious tone, he said, 'I

rode over to Horridge's this morning to stir them up. Horridge was not in the way, hut his

foreman said they had no notion of coming to us this month - the lime ain't thoroughly

slaked, it appears -and even then they will be at a stand, with their carpenter laid up, and

the pipes not yet delivered.'

'What nonsense,' said Sophie. 'There was a whole gang of them laying pipes at Admiral

Hare's only yesterday. Mama saw them as she was driving by; and she would have

spoken to Horridge, but he dodged behind a tree. Builders are strange, unaccountable

creatures. I am afraid you were very disappointed, my dear?'

'Why, I was a little put out, I must confess: and on an empty belly, too. But, however,

seeing I was there, I stepped into Carroll's yard, and bought the filly. I bated him forty

guineas of her, too; and, do you see, quite apart from the foals she will bring, it will be a

remarkable saving, since she will train with Hautboy and Whiskers -with her to bring out

their metal, I will lay fifty to one on placing Hautboy in the Worral Stakes.'

'I long to see her,' said Sophie, with a sinking heart: she disliked most horses, except

those of the very gentle kind, and she particularly disliked these running horses, even

though they descended, through Old Bald Peg, from Flying Childers and the Darley

Arabian himself. She disliked them for many reasons, but she was better at disguising her

feelings than her husband, and with a happy, eager look he ran on unchecked, 'She will

be up some time in the forenoon: the only thing I am not quite pleased about, is the new

stable floor. If only we could have had some sun, and a good brisk north-easter, it would

have dried out completely. . . nothing so bad for a horse's

hoofs as remaining damp. I low is your mama this morning?'

'She seems quite well, I thank you, Jack: a little remaining headache, but she ate a couple

of eggs and a bowl of gruel, and she will come down with the children. She is quite excited

about seeing the doctors, and she has dressed earlier than usual.'

'What can he keeping Bonden?' said Jack, glancing at the stern regulator, his

astronomical clock.

'Perhaps he fell off again,' said Sophie.

'Killick was there to prop him up: no, no, 'tis ten to one they arc prating about their

horsemanship in the Brown Bear tap, the infernal lubbers.' Bonden was Captain Aubrey's

coxswain, Killick his steward; and whenever it could be managed they moved with him

from one command to the next: both had been bred to the sea from their earliest years -

Bonden, indeed, had been born between two of the Indefatigable's lower-deck guns - and

while both were prime man-of-war's men, neither was a great hand with a horse. Yet it

was clear to all that in common decency the mail addressed to the Commanding Officer of

the Sea-Fencibles had to be fetched by a mounted man; and daily the two traversed the

Downs on a powerful, thickset cob, conveniently low to the ground.

A powerful, thickset woman, Mrs Williams, Captain Aubrey's mother-in-law, walked in,

followed by a nurse with the baby and a one-legged seaman shepherding the two little

girls. Most of the servants in Ashgrove Cottage were sailors, partly because of the

extreme difficulty of inducing maids to stay within reach of Mrs Williams's tongue: upon

seamen, however, long inured to the admonition of the bosun and his mates, its lash fell

unregarded; and in any case its virulence was much diminished, since they were men,

and since in fact they kept the place as trim as a royal yacht. The rigid lines of the garden

and shrubbery might not be to everyone's taste, nor the white-painted stones that

bordered every path; but

no housekeeper could fail to be impressed by the gleaming floors, sanded, swabbed, and

flogged dry every day before sunrise, nor by the blaze of copper in the spotless kitchen,

the gleaming windowpanes, the paint perpetually renewed.

'Good morning to you ma'am,' said Jack, rising. 'I trust I see you well?'

'Good morning, Commodore - that is to say Captain -you know I never complain. But I

have a list here -, waving a paper with her symptoms written upon it - 'that will make the

doctors stare. Will the hairdresser be here before them, I wonder? We are not to be talking

about me, however: here is your son, Commodore, that is to say Captain. He has cut his

first tooth.' She led the nurse forward by the elbow, and Jack gazed into the little pink,

jolly, surprisingly human face among all the wool. George smiled at him, chuckled, and

displayed his tooth: Jack thrust his forefinger into the wrapping and said, 'How are you

coming along, eh? Prime, I dare say. Capital, ha, ha.' The baby looked startled, even

stunned - the nurse backed away - Mrs Williams said, 'How can you call out so loud, Mr

Aubrey?' with a reproachful look, and Sophie took the child into her arms, whispering,

'There, there, my precious Iamb.' The women gathered round young George, telling one

another that babies had sensitive ears - a thunder-clap might throw them into fits - little

boys far more delicate than girls.

Jack felt a momentary and quite ignoble pang of jealousy at the sight of the women -

particularly Sophie -concentrating their idiot love and devotion upon the little creature, but

he had barely time to be ashamed of it, he had barely time to reflect 'I have been Queen of

the May too long', before Amos Dray, formerly bosun's mate in HMS Surprise and, in the

line of duty, the most conscientious, impartial flogger in the fleet before he lost his leg,

shaded his mouth with his hand and in a deep rumble whispered, 'Toe the line, my dears.'

The two little pudding-faced twin girls in clean pinafores stepped forward to a particular

mark on the carpet, and together, piping high and shrill, they cried, 'Good morning, sir.'

'Good morning, Charlotte. Good morning, Fanny,' said their father, bending down until his

breeches creaked to kiss them. 'Why, Fanny, you have a lump on your forehead.'

'I'm not Fanny,' said Charlotte, scowling. 'I'm Charlotte.'

'But you are wearing a blue pinafore,' said Jack.

'Because Fanny put on mine; and she fetched me a swipe with her slipper, the - swab,'

said Charlotte, with barely contained passion.

Jack cast an apprehensive look at Mrs Williams and Sophie, but they were still cooing

over the baby, and almost at the same moment Bonden brought in the post. He put it

down, a leather bag with Ashgrove Cottage engraved on its brass plate; and the children,

their grandmother and their attendants leaving the room at this point, he begged pardon

for being late: the fact of the matter was, it was market-day down there. Horses and cattle.

'Crowded, I dare say?'

'Uncommon, sir. But I found Mr Meiklejohn and told him you was not attending at the office

till Saturday.' Bonden hesitated: Jack gave him a questioning look, and he went on, 'The

fact of the matter is, Killick made a purchase, a legal purchase. Which he asked me to tell

you first, your honour.'

'Aye?' said Jack, unlocking the bag. 'A nag, I suppose:

well, I wish him joy of it. He may put it in the old byre.'

'Not exactly a nag, sir, though it was in a halter: two legs and a skirt, if I may say so. A

wife, sir.'

'What in God's name does he want with a wife?' cried Jack, staring.

'Why, sir,' said Bonden, blushing and looking quickly away from Sophie, 'I can't rightly say.

But he bought one,

legal. It seems her husband and she did not agree, so he brought her to market in a

halter; and Killick, he bought her, legal - laid down the pewter in sight of one and all, and

shook hands on it. There was three to choose on.'

'But you cannot possibly sell your wife - treat women like cattle,' cried Sophie. 'Oh fie,

Jack; it is perfectly barbarous.'

'It does seem a little strange, but it is the custom, you know, a very old custom.'

'Surely you will never countenance such a wicked thing, Captain Aubrey?'

'Why, as to that, I should not like to go against custom:

common law too, for all I know. Not unless there was any constraint - undue influence, as

they say. Where would the Navy be without we followed our customs? Let him come in.'

'Well, Killick,' he said, when the pair stood before him, his steward an ugly slab-sided

middle-aged man rendered more awkward than usual by his present bashfulness, the

young woman a snapping black-eyed piece, a perfect sailor's delight. 'Well, Killick, I trust

you are not rushing into matrimony without due consideration? Matrimony is a very

serious thing.'

'Oh no, sir. I considered of it: I considered of it, why, the best part of twenty minutes. There

was three to choose on, and this here - ' looking fondly at his purchase - 'was the pick of

the bunch.'

'But, Killick, now I come to think of it, you had a wife in Mahon. She washed my shirts. You

must not commit bigamy you know: it is against the law. You certainly had a wife in

Mahon.'

'Which I had two, your honour, t'other in Wapping Dock; but they was more in the roving,

uncertificated line, if you follow me, sir, not bought legal, the halter put into my hand.'

'Well,' said Jack, 'so I suppose you want to add her to the establishment. You will have to

go in front of the

parson first, however: cut along to the Rectory.'

'Aye aye, sir,' said Killick. 'Rectory it is.'

'Lord, Sophie,' said Jack when they were alone once more. 'What a coil!' He opened the

bag. 'One from the Admiralty, another from the Sick and Hurt Board, and one that looks as

though it must be from Charles Yorke -yes, that is his seal - for me; and two for Stephen,

care of you.'

'I wish I could take care of him, poor dear,' said Sophie, looking at them. 'These are from

Diana, too.' She laid them on a side table, to wait with another, addressed in the same

bold determined hand to Stephen Maturin, Esqr., MD, and gazed at them in silence.

Diana Villiers was Sophie's cousin, a slightly younger woman, one with a far more dashing

style and a black-haired, dark-blue-eyed beauty that some preferred to Mrs Aubrey's: at a

time when Sophie and Jack had been separated, long before their marriage, both Jack

and Stephen Maturin had done all they could to win Diana's favours; and in the result Jack

very nearly wrecked both his career and his marriage, while Stephen, who had supposed

she would marry him at last, had been most cruelly wounded by her departure for America

under the protection of a Mr Johnson - so wounded that he had lost much of his taste for

life. He had supposed she would marry him, for although his reason told him that a woman

of her connections, beauty, pride and ambition could not be an equal match for the

illegitimate son of an Irish officer in the service of His Most Catholic Majesty and a Catalan

lady, a short, disagreeably plain man whose ostensible status was that of a naval surgeon,

no more, his heart was entirely lost to her, and to his infinite cost it had overruled his head.

'Even before we heard she was in England, I knew that

something was working on his mind, poor dear Stephen,'

said Sophie. She would have added her ludicrous proof - a

new wig, new coats, a dozen of the finest cambric shirts -

hut since she loved Stephen as few brothers arc ever loved, she could not bear any

ridicule to touch him. She said, 'Jack, why do you not find him a decent servant? At the

worst of times Killick would never have allowed you to go out in a shirt a fortnight old, odd

stockings, and that dreadful old coat. Why has he never had a steady, reliable man?'

Jack knew very well why Stephen had never kept a servant for any length of time, never a

man who could grow used to his ways, but had contented himself with casual and

preferably illiterate Marines or ship's boys or a half -witted member of the after-guard: for

Dr Maturin, as well as being a naval surgeon, was one of the Admiralty's most highly-

valued intelligence agents, and secrecy was essential to the preservation of his life and

the lives of his many contacts in the vast area controlled by Buonaparte, to say nothing of

the prosecution of his work. This had necessarily come to Jack's knowledge in the course

of their service together, but he did not intend to pass it on, even to Sophie, and now he

made a reply to the effect that whereas by steady application you might hope to persuade

a parcel of pig-headed mules, nothing, no not purchase-upon-purchase, would ever shift

Stephen from his chosen path.

'Diana could, by waving her fan,' said Sophie: her face was not well-suited for crossness,

but now it expressed a variety of cross emotions - indignation for Stephen, displeasure at

this renewed complication, and something of the disapproval or even jealousy of a woman

with a very modest sexual impulse for one in whom it was quite the reverse - the whole

tempered by an unwillingness to think or speak unkindly.

'I dare say she could,' said Jack. 'And if she could make him happy again by doing so, I

should bless the day. There was a time, you know,' he went on, staring out of the window,

'when I thought it was my duty as a friend -when I thought I was doing the right thing by

him to keep

them apart. I thought that she was just plain wicked -devilish - wholly destructive - and that

she would be the end of him. But now I don't know: perhaps you should never interfere in

such things: too delicate. Yet if you see a fellow walking blindfold into a pit. . . I acted for

the best, according to my lights; but it may be that my lights were not of the very brightest

kind.'

'I am sure you were right,' said Sophie, touching his shoulder to comfort him. 'After all, she

had shown herself to be - well, to be, what shall I say? - a light woman.'

'Why, as to that,' said Jack, 'the older I grow, the less I think of capers of that kind. People

differ so, even if they are women. There may be women for whom these things are much

as they might be for a man - women for whom going to bed to a man doesn't necessarily

signify, don't affect them in the essence, as I might say, and don't make whores of 'em. I

beg your pardon, my dear, for using such a word.'

'Do you mean,' asked his wife, taking no notice of his last remark, 'that there are men to

whom breaking the commandment does not signify?'

'I am got on to dangerous ground, I find,' said Jack 'What I mean is . . . I know very well

what I mean, but I am not clever at putting it into words. Stephen could explain it far better

- could make it clear.'

'I hope that neither Stephen nor any other man could make it clear to me that breaking

marriage vows did not signify.'

At this juncture a terrible animal appeared among the builders' rubble, a low dull-blue

creature that might have been a pony if it had had any ears; it earned a small man on its

back and a large square box. 'Here is the hairdresser,' cried Jack. 'He is hellfire - he is

extremely late. Your mother will have to be frizzed after the consultation: the doctors are

due in ten minutes, and Sir James is as regular as a clock.'

'The house on fire would not induce Mama to appear

with her head undressed,' said Sophie. 'They will have to be shown the garden; and in any

case Stephen will certainly be late.'

'She could put on a cap,' said Jack.

'Of course she will put on a cap,' said Sophie, with a pitying look. 'How could she possibly

receive strange gentlemen without a cap? But her hair must be dressed under it.'

The consultation for which these gentlemen were converging upon Ashgrove Cottage had

to do with Mrs Williams's health. At an earlier period she had undergone an operation for

the removal of a benign tumour with a fortitude that astonished Dr Maturin, accustomed

though he was to the uncomplaining courage of his seamen; but since then her spirits had

been much oppressed by vapours, and it was hoped that the high authority of these

eminent physicians would persuade her to take the waters at Bath, at Matlock Wells, or

even farther north.

Sir James had travelled in Dr Lettsome's chariot: they arrived together, and together they

absolutely declined Captain Aubrey's suggestion of viewing the garden; so Jack, called

away to receive the horse-coper and his new filly, left them with the decanter.

The physicians had taken note of the new wings being added to Ashgrove Cottage, of the

double coach-house, the long line of stables, the gleaming observatory-dome on its tower

at a distance: now their practised eyes assessed the evident wealth of the morning-room,

its new and massive furniture, the pictures of ships and naval engagements by Pocock

and other eminent hands, of Captain Aubrey himself by Beechey in the full-dress uniform

of a senior post-captain, with the red ribbon of the Bath across his broad chest, looking

cheerfully at a bursting mortarshell in which were to be seen the Aubrey arms with the

honourable augmentation of two Moors' heads, proper -Jack had recently added Mauritius

and La Reunion to his grateful sovereign's crown, and although the Heralds'

College had but a hazy notion of these possessions, they had felt that Moors would suit

the case. The physicians looked about them as they sipped their wine, and with a visible

satisfaction they gauged their fees.

'Allow me to pour you another glass, my dear colleague,' said Sir James.

'You are very good,' said Dr Lettsome. 'It really is a most capital Madeira. The Captain has

been fortunate in the article of prize-money, I believe?'

'They tell me that he recaptured two or three of our Indiamen at La Reunion.'

'Where is La Reunion?'

'Why, it is what they used to call the lie Bourbon - in the neighbourhood of the Mauritius,

you know.'

'Ah? Indeed?' said Dr Lettsome; and they turned to the subject of their patient. The tonic

effects of steel commended; the surprising side-effects of colchicum, when exhibited in

heroic doses; valerian quite exploded; the great value of a pregnancy in these and indeed

in almost all other cases; leeches behind the ears always worth a trial; lenitives

considered, and their effect upon the spleen; hop-pillows; cold-sponging, with a pint of

water on an empty stomach; low diet, black draughts; and Dr Lettsome mentioned his

success with opium in certain not dissimilar cases. 'The poppy,' he said, 'can make a rose

of a termagant.' He was pleased with his expression: in a louder, rounder voice he said,

'Of a termagant, the poppy can make a rose.' But Sir James's face clouded over, and he

replied, 'Your poppy is very well, in its proper place; but when I consider its abuse, the

danger of habituation, the risk of the patient's becoming a mere slave, I am sometimes

inclined to think that its proper place is the garden plot. I know a very able man who did so

abuse it, in the form of the tincture of laudanum, that he accustomed himself to a dose of

no less than eighteen thousand drops a day - a decanter half the size of this. He broke

himself of the habit; but in a recent crisis of his affairs he had

recourse to his balm once more, and although he was never as who should say opium-

drunk, I am credibly informed that he was not sober either, not for a fortnight on cud, and

that - Oh, Dr Maturin, how do you do?' he cried as the door opened. 'You know our

colleague Lettsome, I believe?'

'Your servant, gentlemen,' said Stephen. 'I trust you have not been waiting on me?'

Not at all, they said; their patient was not yet ready for them; might they tempt Dr Maturin

to a glass of this capital Madeira? They might, said Dr Maturin, and as he drank he

observed that it was shocking how corpses had risen: he had been cheapening one that

very morning, and the villains had had the face to ask him four guineas - the London price

for a provincial cadaver! He had represented to them that their greed must stifle science,

and with it their own trade, but in vain: four guineas he had had to pay. In fact he was

quite pleased with it: one of the few female corpses he had seen with that curious quasi-

calcification of the palmar aponeuroses - fresh, too - but since it was only the hands that

interested him at the moment, would either of his colleagues choose to go snacks?

'I am always happy to have a good fresh liver for my young men,' said Sir James. 'We will

stuff it into the boot.' With this he rose, for the door had opened, and Mrs Williams came

in, together with a strong smell of singed hair.

The consultation ran its weary course, and Stephen, sitting a little apart, felt that the grave

attentive physicians were earning their fee, however exorbitant it might prove. They both

had a natural gift for the histrionic side of medicine, which he did not possess to any

degree: he also wondered at the skill with which they managed the lady's flow. He

wondered, too, that Mrs Williams should tell such lies, he being in the room: 'she was a

homeless widow, and since her son-in-law's degradation she had

been unwilling to appear in public.' She was not homeless. The mortgage on Mapes, her

large and spreading house, had been paid off with the spoils of Mauritius; but she

preferred letting it. Her son-in-law, when in command of a squadron in the Indian Ocean,

had held the temporary post of commodore, and as soon as the campaign was over, as

soon as the squadron was dispersed, he had in the natural course of events reverted to

the rank of captain:

there was no degradation. This had been explained to Mrs Williams time and again; she

had certainly understood the simple facts; and it was no doubt a measure of the strong,

stupid, domineering woman's craving for pity, if not approval, that she could now bring it all

out again in his presence, knowing that he knew the falsity of her words.

Yet in time even Mrs Williams's voice grew hoarse and Sir James's manner more

authoritative; the imminence of dinner became unmistakable; Sophie popped in and out;

and at last the consultation came to an end.

Stephen went out to fetch Jack from the stables, and they met half way, among the

steaming heaps of lime. 'Stephen! How very glad I am to see you,' cried Jack, clapping

both hands on Stephen's shoulders and looking down into his face with great affection.

'How do you do?'

'We have brought it off,' said Stephen. 'Sir James is absolute: Scarborough, or we cannot

answer for the consequences; and the patient is to travel under the care of an attendant

belonging to Dr Lettsome.'

'Well, I am happy the old lady is to be looked after so well,' said Jack, chuckling. 'Come

and look at my latest purchase.'

'She is a fine creature, to be sure,' said Stephen, as they watched the filly being led up

and down. A fine creature, perhaps a shine too fine, even flashy; slightly ewe-hocked; and

surely that want of barrel would denote a lack of bottom? An evil-tempered ear and eye.

'Will I get on her back?' he asked.

'There will never be time,' said Jack, looking at his

O'Brian Patrick - Aub-Mat 05 - Desolation Island

相关推荐

开通VIP享超值会员特权

作者详情

相关内容

热门标签

举报选择: