Free Darkening Sea by Alexander Kent

maid. I’ve watched you often.”
    â€œSometimes she reminds me of myself at her age.” She looked away. “I would not want her to endure such a life as that!”
    Bolitho waited. Like Adam, she would tell him one day.
    Sophie appeared at the top of the steps. “A letter, me lady.” She glanced at Bolitho. “For Sir Richard.”
    He tried to imagine Catherine at sixteen, as Sophie had been when she had been taken into the household. Like Jenour she seemed to have matured suddenly after the open boat and their experiences at the hands of the mutineers.
    She gave the square envelope to Bolitho. “Nice young officer it was, me lady. From the Admiralty.”
    Catherine recognised the card in Bolitho’s sunburned hands. It was a beautifully etched invitation, with a crest at the top.
    â€œFrom Hamett-Parker. A reception to mark his appointment. His Majesty will be in attendance, apparently.” He felt the anger mounting inside him, and when she took the card from his hand she understood why. She was not invited.
    She knelt down by him. “What do you expect, Richard? Whatever we think or do, others will believe it improper.”
    â€œI’ll not go. I’ll see them all damned!”
    She watched his face and saw something of Adam there, and the others in the portraits at Falmouth. “You must go. To refuse would be an insult to the King himself. Have you thought of that?”
    He sighed. “I’ll lay odds that somebody else has.”
    She looked at the address on the card. “St James’s Square. A very noble establishment, I believe.”
    Bolitho barely heard. So it was beginning all over again. A chance to isolate one from the other, or to eagerly condemn them if Bolitho chose to take her with him.
    â€œI wonder if Sillitoe will be there?”
    â€œProbably. He seems to have many irons in the fire.”
    â€œBut you quite like him.”
    He thought she was teasing him to take his mind off the invitation; but she was not.
    â€œI am not sure, Kate.”
    She laid her head on his lap and said softly, “Then we shall wait and see. But be sure of one thing, dearest of men. He is no rival—nobody could be that.”
    He kissed her bare shoulder and felt her shiver. “Oh, Kate, what should I be without you?”
    â€œYou are a man. My man.” She looked up at him, her eyes very bright. “And I am your woman.” Her mouth puckered and she exclaimed, “And that’s no error!” Then she relented. “Poor Allday, what must he have thought?”
    She recovered her roses and added evenly, “They may try to discredit me through you, or the other way round. It is a game I know quite well.” She touched her shoulder where he had kissed it and her expression was calm again, faraway. “I shall accept Zenoria’s invitation to visit Hampshire.” She saw the sudden cloud cross his face. “Only for that day. It will be a wise precaution. Trust me.”
    They went into the house, where they heard Sophie talking with the cook in the kitchen.
    She looked at him, smiling faintly when she said, “I think I strained my back.” She saw his understanding and added, “Perhaps you could be the navigator again and explore it?”
    Later as she lay in his arms she whispered, “Sometimes, dearest of men, you have to be reminded of what is important . . .” She arched her back as he touched her again.
    â€œAnd what is not . . .” The rest was lost in their embrace.

4 S TRATEGY
    C APTAIN Adam Bolitho reined the big grey to a halt and stared across a flint wall towards the great house. The wall was new, probably one of the many being built by French prisoners of war, he thought. He stroked the horse’s mane while he gazed at the rolling Hampshire countryside with its air of timeless peace, so different from his home county where the sea was rarely out of sight.
    People had glanced