original Greek?”
“I hate to admit it.” He kissed his son’s head. “The Greek.”
“Lord help us.”
He laughed softly at the memory. When he told Sir B last week, his mentor and friend Sir B had laughed, too. Grace told him later it was the final time he laughed.
Able took off his shoes and unbuttoned his trousers, but crawled into bed otherwise as-is, knowing the night had more sorrow ahead. Meri moved into his warmth and he pulled her close.
He woke three hours and ten minutes later in the Middle Watch. No one knocked on the door, but in his mind he heard the St. Anthony carriage coming down Saints Way.
He got up quietly, buttoned his trousers and pulled on his shoes. He was almost to the door when he noticed Meri beside him, knotting her robe, her slippers already on.
“You weren’t trying to sneak out without me?” she asked in her sweet way. It was no accusation, but very near. As a dutiful husband, he knew he had lost.
He hurried down the stairs and knocked on Mrs. Perry’s door to tell her that Ben was asleep and they didn’t know when they would return. The carriage pulled up when Meri joined him at the front door, buttoning the last button and smoothing down her dress.
Lamps glowed in the St. Anthony rowhouse, sandwiched between other equally elegant homes belonging to successful captains and admirals who preferred to distance themselves from the bubbling broth of commerce and sin that was Portsmouth.
They hurried up the stairs and into the bedroom, lit with one lamp. Head bowed, Grace looked up. Her relief could have lit the old lighthouse of Alexandria. Able came to her first and rested his hands on her shoulders. He looked down at his dear captain, pleased to see his month-old son nestled in the crook of his arm, asleep.
“He wanted George to be here,” Grace whispered when Able bent down. Her voice went even softer. “I do believe George kept him alive.”
“Aye, Grace,” Able said. His mind went to Euclid, always hovering nearby. You, sir, could you and your strange friends not allow this good man more years? he asked the nosy Greek that Meridee had banished from their bedroom. Euclid chose not to reply, as he seemed to do more and more lately.
Sir B’s eyes fluttered open. He tried to raise his free hand to Able, but the effort eluded him. Able knelt beside the bed and took his hand, holding it close to his chest.
“Captain…” What could he say? Able rested his head against his captain’s arm instead.
“And you, Meridee?” Sir B asked. His voice was clear enough, but it had a dreamy quality. “You should be resting.”
“I’ll keep,” Meri said. “Look here. I brought you a rout cake, one with the sugary sides that you always accused me of eating to excess, along with the lemony ones.”
Sir B shook his head. “Can’t swallow,” he managed.
Meri knelt beside Able. “Doesn’t matter. Let me touch it to your lips. I know you like the sugar.”
She touched his lips gently with the little delicacy. Sir B licked it and smiled. “Capitol, my dear. Able, what did you ever do to deserve her?”
“I have no idea, sir,” he said, nearly overcome.
Meri pressed close to him, then put her hand on Sir B’s arm, too. “I’ll take good care of him, Sir B,” she said. “I promise. You told me I was his keeper.”
“That’s all I ask.” He turned his head an inch or two toward them. “Able, you can do one thing for me.”
“Anything, sir.”
Able felt twelve years old again, when he had first come to Sir B’s – Captain St. Anthony’s – attention. It was in the southern Pacific near Otaiheite. The captain had caught him correcting the numbers on the blackboard on deck where Sailing Master Ferrier and midshipmen had been wrangling over an algebraic equation then left it, lesson over.
He had turned around to see the captain regarding him with something close to awe. Certain he was about to be flogged for some infraction or other, Able had stood there with his head bowed. “I’m sorry, sir,” he said.
“For what? For getting the equation right?” Captain St. Anthony had asked. “Master Ferrier told me about you.” Right there on the deck by the main mast the captain erased the board and wrote a whole string of equations. He left out salient details, then ordered Able to fill them in. It had been the work of mere minutes for Ordinary