What if 2/2
What did you do in 2006, little girl?
Took up my pen and posted. Made several good friends online, some of whom have become real life pals. Took on various new things in the real world, including having my first stint of paid employment in sixteen years and training in Prayer Ministry.
What are you doing in 2007?
Waiting to see what new opportunities crop up. Carrying on writing. Seeing John Barrowman in panto again. *g* And posting some more:
Title: What if? 2/2
Pairing: H/A, in their original (and best) form.
Rating: PG
Summary: Carrying on the series of vignettes based on the simple premise 'The Duel - what if the Indy had arrived half an hour later?'
Notes: I play with these characters but have no rights to them.
"R - E - K - N..."
"No, that's not right. Not at all."
"What is it then? Eh? Smarty pants?"
"R - E - N - O - U - ..."
"Mr Hornblower! You're inxoti - intossi - incoxi - you're drunk."
"So are you."
"Shan't deny it. Never spoken a truer word."
"So am I then."
"B-E-D?"
"N-O-W?"
"S-E..."
"D-E-A-F-...D-E-F-I-N-N-...D-E-F-I-N-I-G-....Y-E-S."
***
My dearest Rosamund,
At sea again - it seems hardly five minutes since I last wrote a letter like this. I enjoyed my leave so very much and I can only apologise again that my being unwell may have detracted from our time together. I am trusting that the wind in the rigging and the smell of a good broadside will put me to rights.
It is pleasant to see so many of the old crew again - loyal men, who give their captain the sort of support he needs. Buckland is here too - as faithful as a spaniel and about as fierce as one of your kittens. The man is competent with sails and anchor cables - I'll give him that - and I suppose that his connections have allowed him to maintain positions of consequence, but he has no real leadership or enterprise. God forbid that anything should happen to me and he have to take over command.
My new second lieutenant is indeed one of the Kennedys as you surmised - the third son of the Earl. My first impression is that he will not have needed to use his father's influence to ensure a place on such a ship as Renown. He's superbly efficient, with a sense of humour that is usually saved for the appropriate occasion. He and Clive should make my dinner table a happy one.
The third lieutenant I'm not so sure of. Not one of the Monmouthshire Hornblowers, my dear, this one hails from Kent. Ultra zealous I suspect; needs his friend Kennedy to temper his enthusiasms somewhat. Sir Edward Pellew assures me that they have served together on and off for many years and are worth a combination of any three other officers. Time will tell. He is keen to be exercising the gun crews but I tell him that there'll be plenty of time for that and powder does not grow on trees.
Our fourth lieutenant, Mr Robinson, retains his illustrious place, his nose somewhat put out of joint, I dare say, by the new comers having leap-frogged over him. But that's the way of the service - good men are rewarded and the mediocre stay in their place - I except my first lieutenant in this rule of course. .
I hope that we will be together again soon - I know that you are often lonely and it is my one regret in life that I could not give you a child to keep you company during my time at sea. I'm so very sorry.
Your affectionate husband.
James Sawyer.
***
At this point I go all Alan Ayckbourn and give you two alternatives. You choose which one you take as true.
Version 1
The charge is mutiny. Captain Pellew's dignified and sonorous tones rang out over the courtroom. He had thought long ago that the part of his duty he most disliked, after writing letters to soon-to-be grieving mothers or wives, was the service for the dead; now he realised he liked presiding at a court martial even less.
Phillip Buckland, First Lieutenant. As the days passed, Pellew and his fellow judges listened to a tale of the man's gross incompetence. No matter how the story was told and how a good a light his fellow officers sought to show him in, no-one could hide the fact the first lieutenant of Renown had been unable to cope with command and his dithering had made many a situation worse. Caught asleep in his bed. Pellew had forgotten himself so far as to rely on ridicule and he immediately regretted his lack of self-control - regretted it all his life.
Archibald Kennedy, Second Lieutenant. Being tried in his absence, the man presently residing in the prison infirmary. It was not long into the taking of evidence that the whole court knew that the Spanish port had been taken and destroyed under the leadership of Kennedy and Hornblower, with a compliant Fourth Lieutenant Robinson and a reluctant Gunner Hobbs in tow. It was due to the good offices of these two men that three handsome Spanish prizes lay in the harbour; it was their efforts that had taken Renown off the reef. The ship of the line had been captained by her second and third lieutenant in all but name. And now Kennedy lay with a wound a foot long down his chest, stitched and cleaned, with a more than even chance of surviving. But would escaping death from wounds simply lead to meeting it on the gallows?
Horatio Hornblower, Third Lieutenant. Pellew could not help admiring the dash and guile his old protégé had shown in this business, irrespective of the fact that a capital charge hung over his head. Given some scope by a second lieutenant who trusted him implicitly and recognised his worth, Hornblower had shone. It was his ideas and Kennedy's sheer brilliant competency that had made this disastrous mission an eventual success for all concerned - except for its nominal captain and incompetent first lieutenant. When Buckland had condemned his fellow officer out of hand with his accusations in court, Pellew knew - had suspected all along - that Hornblower was just the sort of man to push another down a hold, whether for the good of the service or to save the life of his friend.
Robert Robinson, Fourth Lieutenant. As the trial began, lying in a bed next to Kennedy, but much closer to death than his superior officer was. His part in attacking the fort and defending the Renown could not be underestimated and had shone through in other witnesses' testimony. No one expected him when he arrived in the court. Pellew could not know that this man's declaration had in part been motivated by resentment of the two men who had leapfrogged him in the chain of command; he was not happy to cover up what he knew to be the truth even if that hero-worshipper Wellard had been. And to hit at Hornblower would hit at Kennedy too - he would see justice done to both his usurpers if it were his last act.
Hornblower had pushed the captain down the hold, just as Buckland alleged. Mr Kennedy possibly knew this, although he had not been present. I colluded in covering the matter up, at Mr Hornblower's behest.
***
Pellew's gaze rose momentarily to the scaffold and fixed upon the young man who had been his favourite midshipman in over thirty years of sailing; he also sought for Kennedy, positioned in the crowd - but if he sought to read any message in their faces it was hidden behind an impassive facade. Would this have happened, he mused, if things had been different all those years ago? What if the Indy had been a few minutes earlier and the senior midshipman from Justinian had survived? Surely he would have taken command of Papillon - and would the chain of events then have turned out differently?
******************************************
Version 2
Three things made you happy in Kingston:
That Archie had not died on deck - that the wound had been clean and the blood loss small.
That Sawyer's name was preserved and the man entered into history for the story of the three French frigates rather than the lunacy in the West Indies.
That you were still so much Pellew's blue-eyed boy that he'd manipulated events to ensure no courts martial.
Three things made you unhappy:
That poor Wellard had died next to a man who'd made his life hell - just as if Kennedy had died arm in arm with Simpson.
That Buckland's incompetence had been covered up along with Sawyer's madness and your fatal shove. That he could still end up with command of a vessel somewhere, some day.
That Archie, although still recovering from wounds, got command of Retribution. Should have been four things that made you happy - but there were only three.
***
"Admiral's boat approaching, Captain Hornblower, sir."
The boy reminded him of himself at seventeen - all angles and awkwardness - though the lad would never have believed that a flag captain could have been scared or maladroit or even seasick at Spithead. But those days were long past, as was the war with France - now Horatio was to lead his squadron to protect the burgeoning merchant trade. No, the Admiral would lead it, as was right and proper.
They shook hands on deck and came down to Hornblower's cabin to take wine and biscuits; they took kisses too, together again after three months apart and over twenty years since their first embrace on Indefatigable.
"Three more Post Captains meet their maker and you'll be an Admiral too." Kennedy's bright blue eyes twinkled as they had the first day the men had met. "This may be the last chance to sail together."
"Then we'll make the most of it. This cabin will remain inviolate, as will yours. I'll make any man who comes in without knocking and waiting a decent amount of time dance from the yard."
"That's the sort of opportunity we should have had when we were young men - not now that we're old and creaking."
"Speak for yourself. When I hoist my flag I'll take one final voyage then retire."
"I don't believe that for a moment."
"Irrespective of whether you believe it, it's true."
"Should I be flattered? Is it a case of If we can't sail together then I won't sail at all?"
"Yes, something like that." It was a feeling he'd kept from Archie all these years. If I can't outrank you then I don't want to play anymore.
"Then show me round the ship and I'll repair to my cabin."
"Will you take wine with me tonight?"
"But of course. I'll take anything you want, Captain."
***
Sometimes there was still a brilliance and intensity to their lovemaking that made anything else in their lives pale into insignificance. Even now.
Sometimes they just lay next to each other like an old married couple and chatted and dozed. They had each other and for Archie it was enough; for Horatio, it would have to be.
Took up my pen and posted. Made several good friends online, some of whom have become real life pals. Took on various new things in the real world, including having my first stint of paid employment in sixteen years and training in Prayer Ministry.
What are you doing in 2007?
Waiting to see what new opportunities crop up. Carrying on writing. Seeing John Barrowman in panto again. *g* And posting some more:
Title: What if? 2/2
Pairing: H/A, in their original (and best) form.
Rating: PG
Summary: Carrying on the series of vignettes based on the simple premise 'The Duel - what if the Indy had arrived half an hour later?'
Notes: I play with these characters but have no rights to them.
"R - E - K - N..."
"No, that's not right. Not at all."
"What is it then? Eh? Smarty pants?"
"R - E - N - O - U - ..."
"Mr Hornblower! You're inxoti - intossi - incoxi - you're drunk."
"So are you."
"Shan't deny it. Never spoken a truer word."
"So am I then."
"B-E-D?"
"N-O-W?"
"S-E..."
"D-E-A-F-...D-E-F-I-N-N-...D-E-F-I-N-I-G-....Y-E-S."
***
My dearest Rosamund,
At sea again - it seems hardly five minutes since I last wrote a letter like this. I enjoyed my leave so very much and I can only apologise again that my being unwell may have detracted from our time together. I am trusting that the wind in the rigging and the smell of a good broadside will put me to rights.
It is pleasant to see so many of the old crew again - loyal men, who give their captain the sort of support he needs. Buckland is here too - as faithful as a spaniel and about as fierce as one of your kittens. The man is competent with sails and anchor cables - I'll give him that - and I suppose that his connections have allowed him to maintain positions of consequence, but he has no real leadership or enterprise. God forbid that anything should happen to me and he have to take over command.
My new second lieutenant is indeed one of the Kennedys as you surmised - the third son of the Earl. My first impression is that he will not have needed to use his father's influence to ensure a place on such a ship as Renown. He's superbly efficient, with a sense of humour that is usually saved for the appropriate occasion. He and Clive should make my dinner table a happy one.
The third lieutenant I'm not so sure of. Not one of the Monmouthshire Hornblowers, my dear, this one hails from Kent. Ultra zealous I suspect; needs his friend Kennedy to temper his enthusiasms somewhat. Sir Edward Pellew assures me that they have served together on and off for many years and are worth a combination of any three other officers. Time will tell. He is keen to be exercising the gun crews but I tell him that there'll be plenty of time for that and powder does not grow on trees.
Our fourth lieutenant, Mr Robinson, retains his illustrious place, his nose somewhat put out of joint, I dare say, by the new comers having leap-frogged over him. But that's the way of the service - good men are rewarded and the mediocre stay in their place - I except my first lieutenant in this rule of course. .
I hope that we will be together again soon - I know that you are often lonely and it is my one regret in life that I could not give you a child to keep you company during my time at sea. I'm so very sorry.
Your affectionate husband.
James Sawyer.
***
At this point I go all Alan Ayckbourn and give you two alternatives. You choose which one you take as true.
Version 1
The charge is mutiny. Captain Pellew's dignified and sonorous tones rang out over the courtroom. He had thought long ago that the part of his duty he most disliked, after writing letters to soon-to-be grieving mothers or wives, was the service for the dead; now he realised he liked presiding at a court martial even less.
Phillip Buckland, First Lieutenant. As the days passed, Pellew and his fellow judges listened to a tale of the man's gross incompetence. No matter how the story was told and how a good a light his fellow officers sought to show him in, no-one could hide the fact the first lieutenant of Renown had been unable to cope with command and his dithering had made many a situation worse. Caught asleep in his bed. Pellew had forgotten himself so far as to rely on ridicule and he immediately regretted his lack of self-control - regretted it all his life.
Archibald Kennedy, Second Lieutenant. Being tried in his absence, the man presently residing in the prison infirmary. It was not long into the taking of evidence that the whole court knew that the Spanish port had been taken and destroyed under the leadership of Kennedy and Hornblower, with a compliant Fourth Lieutenant Robinson and a reluctant Gunner Hobbs in tow. It was due to the good offices of these two men that three handsome Spanish prizes lay in the harbour; it was their efforts that had taken Renown off the reef. The ship of the line had been captained by her second and third lieutenant in all but name. And now Kennedy lay with a wound a foot long down his chest, stitched and cleaned, with a more than even chance of surviving. But would escaping death from wounds simply lead to meeting it on the gallows?
Horatio Hornblower, Third Lieutenant. Pellew could not help admiring the dash and guile his old protégé had shown in this business, irrespective of the fact that a capital charge hung over his head. Given some scope by a second lieutenant who trusted him implicitly and recognised his worth, Hornblower had shone. It was his ideas and Kennedy's sheer brilliant competency that had made this disastrous mission an eventual success for all concerned - except for its nominal captain and incompetent first lieutenant. When Buckland had condemned his fellow officer out of hand with his accusations in court, Pellew knew - had suspected all along - that Hornblower was just the sort of man to push another down a hold, whether for the good of the service or to save the life of his friend.
Robert Robinson, Fourth Lieutenant. As the trial began, lying in a bed next to Kennedy, but much closer to death than his superior officer was. His part in attacking the fort and defending the Renown could not be underestimated and had shone through in other witnesses' testimony. No one expected him when he arrived in the court. Pellew could not know that this man's declaration had in part been motivated by resentment of the two men who had leapfrogged him in the chain of command; he was not happy to cover up what he knew to be the truth even if that hero-worshipper Wellard had been. And to hit at Hornblower would hit at Kennedy too - he would see justice done to both his usurpers if it were his last act.
Hornblower had pushed the captain down the hold, just as Buckland alleged. Mr Kennedy possibly knew this, although he had not been present. I colluded in covering the matter up, at Mr Hornblower's behest.
***
Pellew's gaze rose momentarily to the scaffold and fixed upon the young man who had been his favourite midshipman in over thirty years of sailing; he also sought for Kennedy, positioned in the crowd - but if he sought to read any message in their faces it was hidden behind an impassive facade. Would this have happened, he mused, if things had been different all those years ago? What if the Indy had been a few minutes earlier and the senior midshipman from Justinian had survived? Surely he would have taken command of Papillon - and would the chain of events then have turned out differently?
******************************************
Version 2
Three things made you happy in Kingston:
That Archie had not died on deck - that the wound had been clean and the blood loss small.
That Sawyer's name was preserved and the man entered into history for the story of the three French frigates rather than the lunacy in the West Indies.
That you were still so much Pellew's blue-eyed boy that he'd manipulated events to ensure no courts martial.
Three things made you unhappy:
That poor Wellard had died next to a man who'd made his life hell - just as if Kennedy had died arm in arm with Simpson.
That Buckland's incompetence had been covered up along with Sawyer's madness and your fatal shove. That he could still end up with command of a vessel somewhere, some day.
That Archie, although still recovering from wounds, got command of Retribution. Should have been four things that made you happy - but there were only three.
***
"Admiral's boat approaching, Captain Hornblower, sir."
The boy reminded him of himself at seventeen - all angles and awkwardness - though the lad would never have believed that a flag captain could have been scared or maladroit or even seasick at Spithead. But those days were long past, as was the war with France - now Horatio was to lead his squadron to protect the burgeoning merchant trade. No, the Admiral would lead it, as was right and proper.
They shook hands on deck and came down to Hornblower's cabin to take wine and biscuits; they took kisses too, together again after three months apart and over twenty years since their first embrace on Indefatigable.
"Three more Post Captains meet their maker and you'll be an Admiral too." Kennedy's bright blue eyes twinkled as they had the first day the men had met. "This may be the last chance to sail together."
"Then we'll make the most of it. This cabin will remain inviolate, as will yours. I'll make any man who comes in without knocking and waiting a decent amount of time dance from the yard."
"That's the sort of opportunity we should have had when we were young men - not now that we're old and creaking."
"Speak for yourself. When I hoist my flag I'll take one final voyage then retire."
"I don't believe that for a moment."
"Irrespective of whether you believe it, it's true."
"Should I be flattered? Is it a case of If we can't sail together then I won't sail at all?"
"Yes, something like that." It was a feeling he'd kept from Archie all these years. If I can't outrank you then I don't want to play anymore.
"Then show me round the ship and I'll repair to my cabin."
"Will you take wine with me tonight?"
"But of course. I'll take anything you want, Captain."
***
Sometimes there was still a brilliance and intensity to their lovemaking that made anything else in their lives pale into insignificance. Even now.
Sometimes they just lay next to each other like an old married couple and chatted and dozed. They had each other and for Archie it was enough; for Horatio, it would have to be.