Free The Victory by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles Page B

Brest, to keep an eye on the invasion fleet which was being constructed there as in other French ports. War on France was at last declared on the 18th, and on the same day five ships of the line under Admiral Cornwallis sailed for Brest to join the frigates and begin the blockade.
    Lucy remained at the Golden Lion; while Weston was only just across the Channel, there was always the chance that she might see him, if only for a few hours. She had Jeffrey for company, for Weston would not condemn him to the damp chill of the Brest station, even in summer.
    She was badly in need of distraction, and was happy to take an interest in Haworth's girls, or more strictly in Africa, who missed her father and was bored and restless. Farleigh obviously found her more tiring to care for than Polly, and was grateful when Lucy took her away and amused her. A sort of friendship grew up between aunt and niece, each of whom approved of the other as being far more sensible and having more intelligible interests than the majority of the female sex. Lucy drove Africa out in her curricle, and once or twice, when the sea was calm, she hired a little boat to take them out on the water.
    It was not until the beginning of June that Captain Haworth returned to Portsmouth, and called on Lucy with the news that the Africa was being taken out of commission.
    ‘ She's being towed up to dry-dock this moment, poor thing,' he told her. 'She's making water so fast even the Navy Board can't go on pretending she's fit for active service. I thought at one point they were going to make me go on sail ing her round and round until she sank under me.’
    Lucy commiserated with him. 'I remember when you first got her, she was a new ship. I came down here with you to look her over.'
    ‘ Yes, I remember. It was the new timbers that caused the trouble, of course. Your old ships are often more reliable than new ones. There's hardly a decent ship in the service less than thirty years old, and some of 'em are fifty and more.'
    ‘ And what will happen to the Africa now? Will she be broken up?’
    don't know for , certain. I've heard a rumour that they'll cut her down, and rebuild her using only the old timbers. They might make a sixty-four of her. At all events, she and I have parted company for good.'
    ‘ What a shame! Africa will be very upset. But what of you? Will they give you another ship?'
    ‘ Yes, I'm lucky. There's a squadron due in from the West Indies any day, and I'm to take over the Cetus. She's a seventy-four, which is all I know about her. And you'll have your brother William's company for a while. The port admiral told me that the Argus is among them.'
    ‘ Oh, William! He's no company,' Lucy said disparagingly. 'Little Africa's got more conversation.’
    Her expectations of pleasure from the arrival of the West India squadron were abruptly increased when Mrs Tully came toiling up to her rooms early one morning to say that the ships had been sighted entering Portsmouth Sound, and that the Nemesis was with them. That afternoon at dinner Lucy entertained not only her brother William and his wife, and Captain Haworth, but Captain Weston, too.
    ‘ What were you doing with the squadron?' Haworth wanted to know.
    ‘ The merest chance,' Weston said. 'I caught up with them just as they were rounding St Catherine's Point. I lost a spar in that last blow we had, so I've been sent home with the despatches. I suppose I'll be going back as soon as the repair's finished. How did your trials go?’
    Haworth told him about the Africa, and about his new command.
    ‘ The Cetus?' Weston exclaimed at once. 'I served in her back in '95. I went there from the dear old Diamond as third lieutenant, and we had a terrible cruise to the Baltic. God, how I hate northern waters! The cold and the damp were dreadful. I shall never forget them.'
    ‘What a play-actor you are,' Haworth laughed.
    ‘ You don't believe me? But when I tell you that both the first and second lieutenants