to his possession of that same beast as undeserved and unsuitable. There was a particularly strong understanding amongst aviators which held in contempt any sort of intrusion into the relationship between captain and beast, but as Laurence himself had known, this understanding might become flexible when the captain was not considered properly an aviator himself.
He remembered with distaste the coarse effort which had been made to separate him from Temeraire early in their relationship and prefer a proven lieutenant into his place, wholly disregarding all that the aviators had known of Temeraire's likely feelings on the subject, and even resorting to outright falsehood. Laurence himself had been too uninformed to object, at the time; he was now not so, but had no standing to speak even when he heard men muttering enviously and, past convincing themselves that it might be permissible to interfere, well on the way to embracing the idea as a duty.
Demane's temper was not one which would lightly brook such an insult, either, and he had also the means by which to resent it: though Laurence thought he was not yet fifteen, and a little short perhaps from the inadequacy of his childhood diet, he was filling out rapidly; and he had taken to sword and pistol and rifle with bloodthirsty appetite.
"I will not tell you to swallow it," Laurence said, "but I do tell you that any gesture, any act, which should demonstrate an uncontrolled temper, or a disdain for the rules of the Corps, can only create a worse prejudice against you, and make all the more unlikely that an official recognition will come; it will not come quickly, that much is certain."
"They none of them wanted him before," Demane said, glittering-eyed and angry. "They would have knocked his brains out, and left him to rot, or taken his food - "
"That is quite enough, Demane; they did their duty as they saw it," Laurence said; while perfectly accurate, Demane's resentment needed none of the encouragement of approval. "They misjudged, and you did not; that satisfaction ought to hold you against the natural murmurs of regret which any man might feel on seeing a boy advanced so greatly ahead of his years, and with so few opportunities as remain to them."
"They would not mind so if it were Widener," Demane muttered, meaning Rankin's hapless young signal-ensign, but subsided when Laurence regarded him sternly.
"Widener is a lump, so of course they would," Roland added to Demane scornfully, after he had slumped back sitting next to her in the shade. "Stop being so ungodly prickly. Of course they are all jealous now; they will get over it when you have been in a proper action."
"It is easy for you to say," he flared. "No one would ever say you are not an aviator, and talk of sending you back to Africa."
"And I suppose you have had to knock a lieutenant over for putting his hand in your shirt, then," Roland said, which brought Laurence's head up sharply, appalled. "No, I don't mean to say who," she added to Demane's immediate demand, before Laurence had even made an attempt, "he was drunk, and sorry after: really sorry, I mean, not just being a weasel. A weasel would have been afraid to try, I expect, now Mother is a lord admiral. Anyway," she went on, too candidly, "I don't know if I should have minded, if he had not been so drunk."
Much to Laurence's dismay, however, Demane showed as alarming and visible a predisposition to resent this, as the other; the whole business of which gave Laurence fresh cause for concern: he had been neglectful of his duty by Roland. She might not officially be under his command any longer, but certainly she was still his responsibility, and he had left her without sufficient evidence of protection. He had allowed her to run wild with the other ensigns and runners, though they were plainly reaching an age to make that inadvisable; it suggested a lack of care which could only encourage improper advances.
As there was not a single other female in their company, however, he would be hard-pressed to manage a chaperone at present; and he rather dismally felt Roland would not take with much kindness to supervision, in any case.
"What for?" Granby said, with that perfect disregard for reputation which Laurence could no longer be surprised by, and yet sigh for. "If she does decide to fancy Demane, or anybody else, it would be just as well if