Who could object to that? ‘He’ll be on deck in a minute,’ she said.
It was more than a minute as her husband carefully climbed from the platform and she hung onto the sides. When the motion stopped, he lifted her out and kissed her. ‘You’ll be in a bed tonight that doesn’t move, unless we want it to.’
‘You’re a rascal, John Beattie. Go on deck and walk with the other rascal on board.’
She enjoyed the private time of washing and dressing, then walking into the wardroom to see Allan and Pru playing cat’s cradle, while John’s steward whistled and set the table for breakfast.
‘Missy, where are we going?’ Allan asked. ‘Is there a house somewhere?’
She took him on her lap, enjoying the fragrance of little boy, even as she wondered at the trust of children, who, as far as she could tell, seemed to think that adults knew what they were doing. She understood how easy it was to love a child, especially one who had been set adrift by people who should have provided for his welfare. He washerAllan now; she knew it.
She looked at Pru, watchful Pru, who had saved John’s son. She gestured her closer. ‘I have room for you on my lap, too,’ she told the girl with the too-old eyes. ‘I always will.’
To both her delight and her deep compassion, she watched those eyes change a little, just a little, almost to a child’s eyes.
‘I do not know what our life will be like in Port Mahon,’ she told them. ‘I’ve never been there, either, but the admiral wants us to reside in his house. That way, Allan, when your father makes port, we will be there waiting for him.’
‘I wondered what was going to happen to us,’ the boy said, cuddling close.
‘It’s hard not to know, isn’t it? There’s a war, and I sometimes wonder if any of us knows what will happen.’
‘Even grown-ups?’ Allan asked. ‘Grown-ups know everything.’
‘I wish we did.’ Anna kissed his head, then Pru’s. ‘I do know this, though: we will do our best in Port Mahon and…’ It struck her with that same force that had told her John Beattie might be an easy man to fall in love with if she wasn’t careful. ‘We will do our best together, because I love you.’ Oh, Pru’s watchful eyes. ‘Allan, I love youandPru.’
‘Me too, Missy?’
‘Yes, my darling girl, yes,’ Anna said softly, wanting nothing to break the charm of the moment.
When John returned from his walk on deck with Admiral Collingwood and Bounce, she quietly delighted in his gentle embrace, in its own way as exciting as his passion.
‘Anna, here we are. Admiral Collingwood’s generosity to us is our first home. In the whole horrific jumble of events that is war, I never expected this.’
What could she say to that? A kiss sufficed.
Admiral Collingwood stood on the quarterdeck, hands clasped behind his back, looking up and up at the village of white stone, interspersed with pastel-painted structures and lush Mediterranean greenery, perched so high above the bay.
‘It’s enchanting,’ Anna said, ‘More a painting than reality.’
‘Should I pinch you, Mrs Beattie?’
‘Don’t you dare!’
‘Bring us in, Mr Marsing,’ Captain Beattie said, and stood beside the admiral.
Anna clasped hands with her children, in perfect accord with Pru’s gasp, ‘Gor, Missy, it’s splendid!’ and Allan’s, ‘It’s not like Plymouth!’ There they were, the five of them plus Bounce, lining the railing.
Since it was a deep-water harbour, Mr Marsing directed the crew to snub theSwallowright to the wharf. She counted eighteen guns on a larger frigate anchored offshore, and multiplied by two. ‘That’s theReliant,’ John said. ‘A thirty-six.’She heard the fondness in his voice as he spoke to Allan. ‘Son, I was a midshipman aboard her, seven years older than you are, and scared out of my wits.’
‘You weren’t always a captain?’
‘Nay, lad, nay.’
‘I could do that, too?’
‘If ye have a mind to, and if Missy doesn’t object.’
Anna listened to them, hearing no stilted conversation because they knew each other now. She recalled awkward conversations with Will after he returned from a year at sea, as they reacquainted themselves with each other’s habits and minor eccentricities. She watched husband and son, and gestured Pru closer. Her arms encircled the ever-watchful girl.
