Free The Hawk by Peter Smalley Page A

Mr Soames, to advise me – should
I need advice?'
    'My dear Lieutenant Hayter, I cannot possibly advise you.
I do not decide, I am not party to decision, nor direction. I am
a servant of Their Lordships.'
    'I wonder . . .'
    'Yes?'
    'I wonder if I might be permitted to call on the – the
assistance of another officer?'
    'Another officer? D'y'mean, in the same role as the late
Captain Marles?'
    'I do. I had thought – '
    'You do not mean . . . you cannot mean . . . Captain
Rennie?' Mr Soames had lost his air of detachment.
    'He has been my commanding officer in three commissions,
and he would – '
    'No!' Mr Soames half-stood, then as if collecting himself
sat down again, and: 'Such a suggestion is wholly without
merit – it simply don't bear examination.' The handkerchief
again to his nose. 'It cannot be considered at all.'
    'But why not?'
    'Why not ? Why not ?' All of Mr Soames's detached
decorum, his aloof, cologne-scented calm, had vanished on
the stale air. 'Captain Rennie is an officer that has a question
beside his name. In course, he has been exonerated of any
charges against him, all charges was dissolved and dispensed
with, but there remains in association with his name a very
distinct question.'
    'What is the nature of this "question"? If Sir Robert
Greer – '
    'No. No.' Very firmly, raising a hand. 'I am not at liberty
to discuss it.'
    'Then why – forgive me, Mr Soames – but why bring this
into the conversation? I have the highest regard for Captain
Rennie, and any question raised by Sir Robert, or anyone – '
    'Young man ! – Lieutenant Hayter.' The handkerchief.
'Hm. I did not mean to raise my voice.' The handkerchief
again pressed to his nose, then returned to his sleeve. 'If I was
you, I should collect my papers from the clerk tomorrow,
proceed to Portsmouth, and there take up my duties. I should
put entirely from my mind all other things . And now, if you
will forgive me, there is many pressing matters in need of my
attention. I trust that you will have a pleasant journey. Good
day.'
    And so on the morrow, carrying his new papers, James
returned to Portsmouth – his head alive with questions, and
puzzles, and vexatious troubling doubts.

TWO
    Captain Rennie, to his surprise, had heard nothing more
from Sir Robert Greer, and nothing more of him. Rennie did
not enquire at Middingham Court. He did not know the
family, had never met them; they were called Rushton. It was
the maid Jenny – who was in effect Rennie's housekeeper, so
completely had she assumed control of his domestic
arrangements – who informed him of Sir Robert's departure.
    'I heard from one of them at the Court that the grand gent
has took himself off, and not a moment too soon, she said,
very demanding he was of all the staff there, and not a shilling
by way of a thank-you, neither, when he left.'
    Rennie had never met the family, but he knew that Sir
Henry Rushton had six daughters, all of them still on his
hands. The innkeeper at the Plough, Silas Wright, who knew
everything in the village, about everybody:
    'Old Sir Henry is in despair that he ain't produced a heir,
and has not got none of his daughters off his hands neither,
and the youngest already seventeen. His eldest girl is twentyfive.
If she ain't wed at twenty-five, who will have her now, in
Norfolk? Lasses here is wed by sixteen, look. I do not say
gentry does, mind, but girls is girls, whichever their rank, and
young men do not want old maids, they do not.'
    'What about old men, hey?' Rennie had asked in jest.
'Perhaps I should try my luck, Mr Wright.'
    'I should not do that, sir.' Tapping his nose. 'If you don't
mind a word to the wise.'
    'Oh?'
    'Ain't a bonny one among 'em.'
    'Plain fillies, hey?'
    'Fillies?' Lowering his voice. 'Moos is the word, I b'lieve.
Bovine critchers, Captain Rennie. Steer clear, I should.'
    Rennie had not been arrested nor in any way inconvenienced
by Sir Robert, but he determined that it would be
as well, however, not to sit waiting at home