Crozier's Operation

The groove was filling with water as he made the line deeper. It was... fascinating. "I walked into our berth, and ... I don't know. It was all wrong. I couldn't understand it... Even later, I didn't want to believe it." Peter screwed his eyes shut. "I wouldn't have told anyone about them, though. But they could be hanged, couldn't they?" His glance flickered towards Dr Crozier. That ... He would recover and he would be able to say. It wasn't for Peter to say that. What he did know was bad enough, and then he added quickly, for the sake of Dan, and Chandos and - dear God, little Simon: "It wasn't any of the midshipmen you know."

"Two of the midshipmen?" asked Stephen, understanding the situation immediately. "Or one of the sailors? Or" - God forbid - "an officer?" No wonder the boy had been so worried.

Peter shook his head, appalled at the thought of one of the officers ... "It was a Marine... I mean, why would he ... " He looked up at the doctor. "So I can't tell anyone. And I have to see them every day, and they look at me, and know I can't tell anyone."

"One of the Marines was raping one of the midshipmen?" Stephen asked to confirm.

"No! I would have said something...." Peter remembered opening the door. "They were on the bunk together, embracing. They stopped when I went in, to get my cloak ..." He scowled at the doctor. "They go off together, down into the hold. I know that."

Several pieces slotted together at once. "Is it Thompson and De Guarde?"

The sea ... Peter felt as cold as he had that first moment in the midshipmen's berth. "I ... Yes," he breathed. "He was - they disrated him for viciousness towards the men - he had Cob Chase flogged." He motioned with his head towards the sailors under the awning. Why did they need that when it was so cold...

Stephen caught the boy as he swayed, and lowered him onto the sand. "Put you head down between your knees, now. Good lad, well done."

Peter kept his eyes closed, the doctor's hand supporting him while the sea rushed in and out, the ripples on the sand flickering and flashing, while the birds danced out of the way of the incoming waves. "It's the sun," he murmured. "I ... I didn't mean to say who, just ..."

"It is prodigiously hot. You did not, my dear boy, worry not - I would have known if you had not said a word," said Stephen, seeking to comfort. "Such things are all part of a doctor's training: 'Have you taken your medicine?', 'Well, how many servings did you have?', 'Did I not tell you that you were to have no dessert?' The answering silence speaks volumes. Do you want some water?"

"Thank you. I should get up... " Peter put a hand down on the sand and lifted his head. The sea sparked and fizzed, and he sank back. "In a minute."

"Stay there, and keep your head between your knees. That is an order, Mister Yates," said Stephen, getting up.

He walked back to the shade and picked up one of the canteens - bending briefly to check Crozier's breathing and pulse, and ask M'Clure whether there had been any change - then walked back, handing it to the midshipman. "Drink a mouthful of that."

"Thank you, Sir." Peter took the canteen, and swallowed some water, fighting the giddiness that even that movement caused. "I don't usually... How is Dr Crozier?" He folded one arm across his upraised knees and let his head rest on that.

"No change, but his breathing is fine, and his pulse is strong." Stephen thought it wise not to revisit the subject until the midshipman could raise his head without looking like he was about to throw up or pass out. "Rest easy for a few moments. We are hardly in a rush at all."

"What's amiss with Mister Yates?" Spencer asked. A couple of the seamen turned around to look.

"Nothin.' Him and the doctor are lookin' at a mouse. Did you see that gull?" Billy cried with a laugh, pointing in the opposite direction. "It caught a fish and flew up from the water, and another gull tried to grab it mid-air!"

"I seen it, Billy!" Preddie boasted. "Big brown gull, weren't it?"

"Aye!"

"Where, where away? That one?" and everyone's head turned in that direction, away from the midshipman sitting on the sand.

"A lad'd think ya'd never seen sea-birds afore, way yer all carryin' on," Chase grumbled, albeit good-naturedly. He sat up and pushed his hat back up onto his head. "Be nice if 'e'd share 'is fish!"

"I feel very foolish," Peter said, his chin on his arm, but his voice rather more steady. "All the time we were in Lisbon, I thought I can tell the Captain I'm leaving, and go home, and just thinking that made me feel I could stand it. And there was work to be done - the Terpsichore had taken quite a beating, even though we won. And then we got orders to go north, and I realised that if I said I didn't want to go, they'd think I was scared of tackling the French again..."

"Is your worry about Thompson and De Guarde the only reason you wish to be away from the Terpsichore?" said Stephen. "Because it is eminently possible that they do not have a sexual relationship at all."

"It's so small," Peter said. "You can see for miles, like the moors, but you can't go there, not without taking the whole ship with you. And everyone on it." He lifted his chin off his and linked hands between his knees. "They said it was a happy ship - but the Captain ordered a man flogged for no reason ... It can't be right, and if I stay in the Navy I could have to serve ..." There was no humour in the half-laugh he gave. "When they reinstate de Guarde he will be senior to me. I couldn't stand that."

"I hate the floggings, but tradition reigns supreme in the Navy. Even so, floggings do not immediately mean that a ship is not happy." A strange picture was being painted of the last few weeks on the Terpsichore. "Are you so confident they will reinstate him?

Peter looked at him, and felt ... He turned to look at the sea, and the other side of the bay, wavering in the heat. "No. No one has said - except at the beginning - but they wouldn't say, would they, not to me." He swallowed. "I can't be confident that they won't, you see. Or that we won't get another as bad."

"I think that if you go to school, or join the army or any profession you will find spiteful and selfish creatures. What did he do?"

Ruined everything... Peter sighed. "He came aboard - transferred from another ship - and I ... they asked me to show him round. I've been bullied before, but this was - I thought it was pointless and vicious, and he kept changing, asking me questions, smiling and then ... He wanted my rum: I don't like the stuff, and I often give it to someone anyway.... " He nodded to himself. "Then he decided to show how a ship should be run, and ... just picked on Cob Chase, and accused him of idling and - ordered him flogged. And the Captain didn't want to countermand him... So Chase was flogged."

"Is that the only reason the flogging took place? Did any of the officers speak for Chase, or against him?"

"Mr Leat may have done, Sir. I didn't see it. But it went on, after that. Nagging at everyone, even when the men were doing their best, so ... My father would have been so angry with any of us if we'd spoken to any one like that - even Mumping Joe, who used to come round asking for a bite to eat, and a penny..." He hesitated, his eyes filling. His father would be very understanding about his coming home, and at least it was better than if he had carried on running.