Her Heart's Captain Read Free

well stare. It’s true. A midshipman , on my word.”
    â€œYou really must be demented. Am I supposed to be impressed by that?” his sister-in-law said scornfully.
    â€œBut Mama,” Jenny interjected gently, “it really is impressive, you know. It is my understanding that a boy must serve as a sort of errand boy for the ship’s captain a long while before he’s appointed midshipman.”
    â€œThat’s right,” the earl said, getting to his feet. “It takes years of service. That’s why the boys all start at eleven or twelve. Fortunately for your Robbie, my friends at the Admiralty found a vacancy for midshipman on Captain Allenby’s ship and were able to prevail upon him to accept a lad of Robbie’s age and lack of experience.”
    â€œBut I don’t wish my son to—”
    â€œWhat have your wishes to do with anything?” the earl rasped. “Your son wishes it! He was beside himself with delight when I stopped back at Harrow to tell him the news.”
    Lady Garvin gaped again. “He knows ? And he’s glad ?”
    â€œOf course! It’s a corkin’ good opportunity for him. I tell you, ma’am, this will be the makin’ of the lad. The discipline of shipboard life will be good for his character, and the trainin’ will make an excellent foundation for his future career.”
    â€œHis future career?” Lady Garvin echoed, blinking in confusion.
    â€œYes, his career. What else have I been speakin’ of? It’s plain that any scholarly career is out of the question. You didn’t want the boy to become one of those wastrels who spends his life in gamin’ and carousin’, did you?” He shook a finger in her face. “That’s where he’d have ended if I’d left his future up to you. Now there’s no tellin’ what sort of success he can make of himself.”
    â€œSuccess?” she murmured thoughtfully.
    â€œYes, success. With my influence, he may not have to serve the full six years before sittin’ for the lieutenant’s examination … and once he’s a lieutenant, I’ll see to it that his promotions come thick and fast. If he has any talent at all, he could end up an admiral.”
    â€œAn … admiral !” the mother breathed, sinking down on the sofa, stunned.
    â€œWhy not? I’ve started the boy on a road that can lead to wealth and prestige. Now are you ready to thank your stars?”
    Margaret, Lady Garvin, didn’t thank her stars right away, but after Robbie had returned home, quite overjoyed at having been released from studies in mid-term and wildly eager to embark on the new course his uncle had arranged for him, she began to abandon her objections. Now that the war with France was over, she reasoned, perhaps the Navy was the best place for him. And after Robbie had explained—with eyes shining in excited expectation—that the berth was on the Providential , a real ship-of-the-line, carrying more than sixty guns, with a crew of over six-hundred men and a main deck that measured over one-hundred-and-seventy feet, and that he was already one of its midshipmen in spite of the fact that he’d never set foot on a ship in all his life, she became quite impressed with the entire arrangement.
    Soon she began to boast about the plan as if it had been her own. She told everyone who came within earshot—Lord and Lady Clement, their neighbors; the vicar, Mr. Boyce and his wife; Jenny’s bosom-bow, Andrea Clement; Mr. Jubb, the bailiff of their estate; Mrs. Elvin, the seamstress; and every tradesman, servant and passer-by—that her son was soon leaving to become “a commissioned officer on a magnificent vessel—His Majesty’s Ship Providential , you know!” and that he was destined, one day soon, “to become the most famous admiral of the fleet.”
    â€œThe Providential , you say?” asked Alfred,