Page 57 of Trouble

Captain Edwards laughed quietly, and Emily’s chest lightened.

‘So .?.?. did they send you home?’ she said.

‘Yes .?.?. Well .?.?. It was suggested that I should take a few months at home and remarry as a matter of urgency. I didn’t mind as much as I ought to have. I suppose my disillusionment with the Royal Navy began the moment I set foot on deck for the first time. And .?.?. it was marginally better than being summarily executed.’

‘So, are you going to?’

‘To what?’

‘To remarry.’

Captain Edwards lifted his shoulder very slightly, in the merest suggestion of a shrug, as if it was none of his business what happened to him next.

‘I expect so.’

‘And then will you return to your ship?’

Captain Edwards rubbed the stubble at his jaw thoughtfully with his free hand.

‘That remains to be seen.’

‘And this .?.?. this fellow officer .?.?. ?’

She had to wait for him to finish his mouthful before he spoke.

‘Yes. We parted ways. I suppose I should count myself lucky that it would be possible for me to find happiness in the confines of marriage again. He is .?.?. not so fortunate.’

Emily grimaced. ‘Willhemarry?’

‘He already has. He is not in the .?.?. financial position to weather being cast out of polite society. Even if they cannot find cause to execute us, they can certainly find other ways to do lasting damage.’ He straightened up in his seat, putting back his shoulders and schooling his expression. ‘I find the fuss ridiculous, but I am in favour of keeping my head and my house, especially after everything the children have been through.’

Downstairs, there was a burst of raucous laughter, a sudden reminder that the house was full of the Royal Navy’s finest. Or .?.?. probablynottheir finest, as they’d managed to ram their ship into a large, stationary rock. Emily was finished with her stew. Captain Edwards did not seem to be making any more headway with his. Emily was about to take his bowl and excuse herself, but curiosity won out.

‘Why are you telling me all of this?’ she said.

She had thought him a relatively intelligent man, but here he was, handing her everything she needed to destroy him.

Captain Edwards smiled at her. It was a small smile, sad and rusty from lack of practice. Like his laughter, it rendered him utterly transformed. Human. Handsome.

‘Because you asked,’ he said. ‘And .?.?. because I haven’t shared a meal with somebody like this for a very long time.’

Chapter Twenty

Emily’s beliefs and values were very important to her.

There were things she clung to: that the French revolutionaries had the right idea about what to do with wealthy people, even if they had gone somewhat off the rails after the initial idea; that the impoverished and working class of England were treated abominably, and that all should strive towards more equal distribution of wealth so that the rich didn’t sup on strawberries while the poor choked on coal fumes; that her sister’s well-being was of greater importance than the life of anybody else in this country, due to the fact that she was goodness personified and had been dealt a monstrously unfair hand.

She didnothave a particular code of conduct when it came to her own personal dealings with other people. She did not care if everyone thought her spiky, unpleasant and rude. She did not harbour any aspiration to bebeloved. In pursuit of her own ends, she was dogged and single-minded, hardly noticing if she stepped on a few feet along the way.

She knew all of these things about herself and had made peace with them a long time ago.

Her certainty about her own character meant that she very rarely experienced any kind of moral conundrum; the qualities of being both headstrong and never inanysituation with the aim of making friends did not give rise to the need for much umming and ahhing about the path ahead.

Now, however, as Emily lay in bed – alone, now that the sailors were departing, and Akia had returned to her own room – she realised that she was stuck.

In the grand scheme of things, telling Charles about Captain Edwards’s admission would not tip the scales of the world in any direction. He was still relatively wealthy. If his commanding officers had already given him the benefit of the doubt, and hedidin fact remarry quickly, she was sure he would survive, even if his good name did not. Grace and Aster could weather the indignity of being reduced to living with onlyonedrawing room.

What Emilydidtake issue with was the fact that, in ratting him out, she would be taking the side of the worst of the Royal Navy – unfortunate in the extreme – and those who filled their days with moralising and hand-wringing about who people ought tolove,something so embarrassing and petty that Emily wanted no part in it. His comrade, Wakefield, might also be at risk of greater harm than Captain Edwards; she was not entirely sure what would become of him, but she could not pretend that he would escape unscathed.