24th May, Morning - Deck

"Oh's. all.. that sort o' think comin' from a ..animal ... and a human bein' then?" It did sound rather dirty and awful but, thinking back on what work he had to do, he thought that he could easily have born it and not minded it as much. Sure he would not want to clean it up, but if he was in the passing he could live with it.

Gazing at the figurine he smiled again and nodded approvingly at the carved lips. "That's a good pair o' them there." He murmured indicating them. "Oh.. jus' be careful with that, real careful!" And he turned quiet realising he might as well distract him.

"Mmhmm," was the only thing Thompson said until he'd done the first eye satisfactorily. "It's just summat you get used to. I never really noticed it, livin' there all the time. Not till I went back, durin' the Peace, anyhow."

He bent again to do the second eye of his carved miniature.

"You could smell it then?" Well, it made sense. In time one could get used to anything, smells, discomfort, cold even just poor company. Though, he thought now, if he ever returned to that ship perhaps it would've been far worse for him than now for he would've known how it could be, and how nice that was too.

"What do ye think me home's like?"

"Yes. Well, it wasn't like I couldn't smell it afore, like, but comin' back, I wasn't used to it any more." He held the figurine out at arm's length to look at it properly. "She'll do. Though I think I need to work on her hair a bit," he said and paused thoughtfully. "Dunno. Never really seen a big house like the sort you prob'ly live in," he answered, slowly, still thinking. "But I seen the Adm'ralty buildin'. Did a coupla months there on sentry, as part of the Marine detachment there durin' the Peace. So, I think it's a big buildin' like that, all big rooms with lots of paintin's and stuff. And somewhere like... well, like the Lines. That's a big area of open land near where I lived, on top of the hill. The army use it for trainin' and stuff, and it's near Fort Amherst. Well, the fort's built sort of on part of it, as well as all bein' underground as well."

"You are quite right 'bout it being big n'.. 'bout paintings too. What sort of paintings do you think we have?" He asked glancing at Terpsy's smaller figurehead version. "It's turning out real lovely, that'un." he glanced up listening to any sounds that would announce what time it was, hoping that it would last somewhat longer.

"If you had a choice.. would yer like ter come see it? As.. me 'friend n'all?"

"I dunno. Most of the ones at Adm'ralty are either ships or Navy officers - which is only sensible, really. I never seen any other sort than them." He nodded, frowning a little. "I'd like to, but I ain't... ain't gentry, like you. If folks like me ever showed up, I'd be amazed if they wasn't told to go to the back door, and had to stay in the kitchen, if they even get into the house at all."

He looked at his smaller version of the figurehead. "Thanks. She'm a realy pretty figurehead to do, is our Terpsy."

"We don't have them ships no. Me parents were.. well me father was certainly no captain or been in t' navy, no." He smiled. "Though we have one painting like that.. A commission, in honour of a family's friend I think, well I never asked.. but it looks old so maybe it had been of my grandfather's too." He shrugged. He'd never thought to ask, just admire the painting sometimes.

"T' rest are ..well some are portraits." He looked serious as he considered what the marine said next and shrugged." True you'd not be allowed in... well, not if I didn't talk to me folk or if they was home without me talking to them. But you're my friend n'..I can make exceptions so... "He looked thoughtful. "Well.. I'd make one for you.. if that means anything." He looked back at the figurehead and nodded in agreement. Terpsy was pretty, a lovely lass as was the ship that he learned to admire.

"Are you sure you'd want me visitin' your nice home, though? I mean, I ain't got the... the right way o' talkin', see, or eatin', or any of half a hundred other polite things your folks'd expect a visitor to have."

He looked at his carving again. "Aye, she'm a real pretty lass, she is. I'll have to see if I can get some paint from the carpenter to do her up, just like the real figurehead is. That'd be just right for her, it would."

"Ain't a talk that makes a person good or bad is it?.."Was it really Mathew there? For this boy was talking far too... nice. He was saying things that Mathew De Guarde of the past, the Mister De Guarde would never have. He'd not have considered and he would have thought that even just to think about it would be blasphemy, yet now he was talking as if Thompson's visit was a real possibility.

"I'm sure I would want to... n' if you're so concerned that you wouldn't know how ter act or which fork to use when.. or what to do when dinner was 'nnounced.. well those are things you can learn. You're showin' me your home....I'd show you mine if you would not hold it against me."

He shrugged. "Jus' would you want ter come at all?" He then thought for another moment before nodding." Think you could get that small bit of colour easy, if we have any. It's not as if you're askin' fer a bucketful!"

Thompson blinked. "Are you sure you'm Mathew de Guarde?" he asked, looking worried. "You don't sound much like him - the things you'm sayin', I mean. An', well, are you sure you'd have me there? I might go an' do or say summat that'd send your poor ma off in a fit, an' it'd be real easy to do. 'Specially if they start askin' me 'bout meself and things like that. Though I'd like to see it. I'd like that just fine."

It probably wouldn't ever happen, of course. A Private Marine - and a bastard at that - getting invited to a gentleman's country house? It wasn't as though he was a gentleman himself was it, after all.

"I'm sure the carpenter could spare a splash of paint - which is all she'd need, poor lass," he said, looking at the model, before starting to carve lines, carefully, for her hair. "Might be a bit on the thick side, though, seein' as we'm talkin' about ship's paint here."

"Aye 's me, one and the same.. jus' with a proper coat missin' and a middy's patch too." The former midshipman pulled a face at the marine for such a silly question. Sure he was right, and the time as a Tar had changed him enough to believe he would not throw a fit and send ten men to be flogged just because his coffee hadn't been made warm enough.

"I'm sure I'd want you to come." He nodded sharply though. "I'd jus' ask that yer don't tell me ma' much ..well too much of them detail. See, as much as I can take it.. she is of a fragile composition and her mind may be more set, less... less open to such things. As so perhaps my father's." He looked at his hand which had a scar on both sides."If.. they ever notice I've even arrived. "He added more somberly. He did not particularly miss his parents, though he may have missed the commodities of his home, the servants which would have prepared all that he needed and the peace and ability to sleep for much longer than four hours and work much less than he did just then.

"Is strange how...mind changes.. with wot' it learns in time." He murmured more to himself. "..n' might be so .. maybe you could wait for us ter come to port. Get yourself some proper paints for her.. well.. somewhat less thick 'tleast!"

"I could mebbe do that," Thompson said. "Though I'd look real strange spendin' money on paints 'stead of drink and women, like everyone else does when they get a run ashore." He leaned back. "I don't think your folks'd recognise you, Mathew, y'know. You changed so much since you first come aboard. You'm much nicer now, an' a lot friendlier and easier to talk to. How are you findin' things now that you've practically become a Terpsy like the rest of us?"

"Well, yer have ter sacrifice yeself for t' sake of Terpsy. Either yer go drinkin' an' a' lady visitin' or yer go finishin' her up n' makin' 'er proud. Now tell me, wouldn't t' later be much better?"

He felt his cheeks burn in embarrassment. "Uh." He shuffled a little, tugging at his sleeve, not out of nervousness or fear but rather out of not quite knowing what to do, and that was the first thing that came to his subconscious part of his mind.

"Well. I'um flattered yer thinkin' I'um.. improved. Is.." He liked being told he'd done something right, when he'd done it. He rubbed his cheeks and lowered his gaze." So.. now I'um a Terpsy?...like one that you lot think I am to, not jus' on paper like I was before?"

He grinned. "I never 'spected to ever go spendin' me money on summat like paint. Ain't like me at all, that." He reached to put his hand over de Guarde's. "You keep all-on doin' that an' you'll tear your shirt, lad, honest you will." It was an endearing habit, though, in its own way. Somehow, it reminded him of Captain Ramage, when he'd been in Calypso, and the way that the Captain would always rub one of the scars above his eye when he was thinking about something.

"I think you'm nearly a Terpsy. But I don't think you'll be one till the day you wake up an' you, well, you just are one. Though that don't make a whole lot of sense, I know. But now you know what I meant that day, when I said bein' a Terpsy for real's much more'n just bein' on the muster list. Leastways, I think you understand what I meant."

His hand relaxed under Thompson's, no longer tugging at his sleeve even if it was tempted to. It may have held on loosely onto the fabric but for the most part it allowed it to remain quite safe.

His shoulder slumped a little and he bit at his lip, sighing just so softly that it was barely noticeable. "I dunno if I do, or If'un I ever...turn out ter be a Terpsy by yer standards. " He murmured and turned his hand just enough that he could squeeze the warm Thompson's one.

"Oh, you will, lad, you will." He chuckled quietly. "You never 'spected to get even to be what you are now, did you, not when... when the Captain said what he did, and you an' me an' Chase had that talk?" He squeezed de Guarde's hand back. "If I'd told you then that you'd end up bein' nice an' kind and thoughtful an' all, beck then, I reckon you'd've laughed at me, or worse, wouldn't you? You've changed a lot, Mathew, an' I like it. I do, honest."

"Never 'spected to become a Tar?.. oh, if you asked me about this happenin' when I was jus' arriving on the ship I'd have... I'd have called you a fool and that an insult and you'd have gotten in terrible trouble and never ter be spoken to again, as if you'd wish to." He humphed, easily showing his lack of enjoyment in the thought of what he was now. Still he was atleast learning to do his work and not to constantly complain, but try better, bit by bit even if he ever wanted to curl up in the hammock and sleep his aching limbs away. Sure he spent most of the remaining free time either in company - as now - or trying to learn new things, as was now and with that lad, Oxley and the Shepherds.

"T' talk with you n' Chase? Which'un you mean now?" He wasn't sure exactly about the occasion as he had talked much more in the past few.

He blushed at the kind words again and squeezed the hand back, as the corners of his mouth were pulled up in a big smile. He pulled the hand close and hugged it tightly to his chest without even knowing that he did it, and then the smile turned into a grin, his eyes - the pale blue, felt and looked much more happy and alive just then. "Thankee, George.. yer know.. is nice when yer say that n' I think you mean it, because you don't real lie. I know you don't."

"Not about bein' a Tar. 'Bout bein' a Terpsy, that's what I meant you wouldn't have understood back then. An' that talk we had after... after the funeral when I said... Well, when I said about you comin' to find one of us when you was ready to learn. You bin learnin' since then, an' you've done real good."

He nodded, though he was slightly bemused as De Guarde cuddled his hand to his chest. "I don't lie. Might do a hundred other things I shouldn't do, but lyin' ain't one of 'em. An' I'm real proud of you. But you know that, don't you, Mathew, lad?"

"Thank you 'gain n'." He smiled and his hold only tightened on the arm, his smile ever so brighter, though his cheeks still burned in embarrassment. "Wot's other things you shouldn't do?" He asked with an amused look in his eyes which only turned to genuine happyness at the next words. "I dun'.. I dunno I think.. but when yer say it... it feels like I do."

He shuffled a bit, but kept his hold as tight as before. "Is strange ter be told summat like that, but it feels real nice. Real good to."

"What d'you mean, what other things shouldn't I do?" Thompson asked, amused by the whole situation. "Could I have me arm back, please? I got some more work to do on this here." He held the miniature figurehead up. "An' you'm a good lad, Mathew, you are. Even though you don't allus think it. You'm trying, at least, which is summat good."

"Oh you said it yourself.. that not lyin' is one of them things you shouldn't do but do.. so what are others?"

He looked startled at the request and blinked, lowering his gaze to the hand that he was so tightly clutching to his chest. He gave a small squeak of surprise and released it, lowering his head and biting his lip. "Sorry, I didn't...I should apologise! I've invaded your space and..." He frowned. "Sorry, George.. I hadn't meant to." And still he'd not minded or rather he was just lying then.

"Maybe.. I'm not as... fine as you've said.."

He shrugged. "I don't mind that, Mathew. I just need both me hands for what I'm doin', that's all," he said and shrugged, leaning a little closer to the lad. What he was going to do would be far easier to do standing up, but then people would probably see. He reached carefully into the lad's pocket and pulled out what looked like a locket of some sort with no chain.

"Here you go," he said, holding it out. "An' that's summat I can do, but don't. Not often, anyhow."

He hadn't noticed when the locket had been taken from his pocket or even that it had been touched. Startled he looked at the offered piece and slipped his hand quickly into the pocket to see if it was there. Surely it should have been there and this was just another one.. though looking so familiar. Searching as much as he tried, he still could not find it. The pocket had several other things that it contained, none as valuable as that that the marine pulled out.

"...How did you?" He asked and looked at his pocket again then at what Thompson held in his hand. He took it and opened it quickly and was assured that it was just the one. "..How....how did you?!" He asked again. "When?" He did see him bend down a little but he hadn't exactly made much of it.

"..n'...I can?...fer... yer hand, you would allow me?"

"How? I picked your pocket. An' I only just did it now. Though don't go tellin' folks - they wouldn't 'ppreciate knowin' I can do that." He smiled and offered it back. "I ain't never done it on board ship, not once. An' only on land to folks I don't much like, after I 'listed." He shrugged. "It's summat I can do, which ain't to say it's summat I'm proud of bein' able to do. You won't go tellin' folks, will you? Please?"

"I won't tell a soul, livin' or dead." He held his hand up: "I give you my word as a gentleman.. n' presently as a Tar." He pocketed his locket and made sure it was there when he shuffled closer. "You'um good though.. I didn't feel it at all...I mean.. if you hadn't showed it to me, I would have not known it was gone till I checked some time and saw.. and then I'd have thought it was only gone because I've lost it..had it fall from me pocket or summat."

He was amazed at how easily Thopmson had stolen the thing, or rather taken it as he had just then returned it again. "Jus' don't you go doin' it to me. Though I know you won't....I.. trust you."