Eye of the Storm by Lee Rowan Page B

before dawn. They were blessed with decent weather, clouds that seldom rained. Every morning, the sun would appear at the very edge of the world, sparkle beautifully on the water, then slide up into the clouds and stay there through most of the short day until it reversed the process in late afternoon.
    Captain Marshall took advantage of the time to bring the crew up to scratch. The guns were never discharged; it would have been abysmally stupid to attract the attention of the French navy that way. But he did hold dumb-show drills, running their little guns out and going through all the motions short of firing. It improved their time and gave those who had not worked together before the chance to work in teams. Target practice would have been even better, but these men, all shipmates from Calypso and Valiant, could be trusted to know how to handle a real battle.
    But there was no time for him to be alone with Will. The occasional kiss, an embrace at bedtime if one happened to be in the cabin when the other was going to bed… It was like being back in the Navy again, only worse. How could one arrange a surreptitious tryst with one’s lover without the Captain’s knowledge when one’s lover was the Captain, and stricter on himself than he would be toward any of the crew?
    Archer finally decided to behave and think as he had when he and Will had first served together, when he was hopelessly in love with a man who had never even looked at him except in friendship.
    Had it been easier then? Yes, in some ways it had. It was simpler and less painful to long for what one could never have than to miss what one had once cherished. And he did miss it. A terrible thing, to miss someone who was standing not two feet away.
    “We need to investigate,” Will said on the tenth of December, as he and Archer were finishing dinner in their cabin. “Unless Dr. Colbert has been taken by the French, he should have arrived by now.”
    “How do you propose to do that?” Archer asked. “This village—and it barely qualifies as that—is far too small for me to pretend to be looking for a jeweler’s shop.”
    “Of course it is.” Will used the last of his soft-tack to scoop his bowl clean of the thick beef soup Clement had concocted in the Mermaid’s tiny galley. “I had two notions in mind,” he said when he’d finished the morsel. “The first was that, since we have no doctor aboard, I might go ashore and ask if there is any medical help at hand—an apothecary, or even a horse doctor.”
    “And the other?”
    Will shrugged. “The truth—the story we have that fits the facts of the matter. I think that would be the simplest and best plan, and you would not be faced with swallowing some nasty concoction for your innards.”
    “I would not be faced with it? Will, you’re the Captain of this vessel. Since Dr. Colbert is my uncle—by marriage, but my relative nonetheless—I should be the one to go looking for him.”
    The look Will gave him was so fierce he instinctively leaned back. “No,” Will said. “Absolutely not.”
    Archer could only stare. He knew that his supposed authority over Will was fictitious, but up until now they had arrived at decisions by mutual consent. He could argue or wait for reason, so he waited.
    Eventually Will said, more rationally, “Davy, I’m in command—it’s my responsibility. And would it not make sense for the ship’s owner to stay aboard and send his hireling ashore?”
    They were heading for another quarrel; Archer could feel it. He counted to ten, and then said, “Are you aware that you have just put forth two opposing lines of reason in support of a single argument?
    Will glared at him for a moment, then his face relaxed into a smile. “Well, no. But would you not say that means that no matter what argument you choose, I am correct?”
    “On the contrary. Whether you are in command—and should stay in command, aboard this ship…or I   am in command, and should decide whether