Her Heart's Captain by Elizabeth Mansfield Page A

brother’s experiences on shipboard might have been, they didn’t seem to have done him any damage. He was brown as a berry, and although much thinner, was taller and stronger than he’d been before he’d left. And much matured. He carried himself straighter, took a longer stride and seemed to look at the world with the assurance that comes with the knowledge that one has faced obstacles and conquered them. So sailing with Captain Allenby had not seriously harmed him after all.
    Nevertheless, the boy had had only the most unkind words for his captain. There was no doubt at all, he’d reported, that Allenby was a curel, inhuman monster. But Robbie had grown almost philosophical about sailing under him. “One must learn to deal with cruelty in the Navy,” he’d declared grandly. “I’m not a child any longer. I can take care of myself.”
    Jenny could only marvel that Robbie had become mature enough to keep from buckling under the stress. The captain’s name had come up again and again, always as a sinister, frightening presence looming over the boy’s days, yet he’d managed to adjust to it, to find friends, a measure of contentment and a new growth of self-assurance. She was more proud of her brother than ever before. She and her mother would not need to worry about him in future; as he’d said, he was quite capable of dealing with the world on his own.
    But she gave the captain no credit for Robbie’s apparent well-being. The tales she’d heard of Captain Allenby gave her no reason to soften her feelings of antipathy. He was a man distorted and brutalized by power, the absolute power that a sea captain wields over everyone on his ship. Even her recollections of their meeting now seemed changed in her mind. “ Criminals, if judged guilty, must be made to face the full weight of retribution … ” She remembered those words of his. They had been icy, she now remembered, and she’d seen even then the cold implacability of his eyes. Then she’d chosen to disregard it. Now the memory came back with different, more ominous reverberations. If ever she met him again, she would not be misled. She’d know him now for what he was.
    She was to have that meeting sooner than she thought. Robbie had not been home a week when the Clement carriage rumbled up the drive and Andrea jumped out. She ran up the walk with unladylike haste. “Jenny,” she shouted up the stairs as soon as Cullum had admitted her, “come down at once! You’ll never credit what startling news I have for you.”
    She made Jenny sit down on the sofa of the sitting room before she broke the news. “We’re to have a guest,” she announced with barely contained excitement. “A cousin of mine, whom I’ve never met, but who’s quite well known to you. Can you guess?”
    â€œNo, I haven’t the vaguest idea. A cousin of yours? What’s her name?”
    â€œ His name, if you please. We are speaking of a gentleman. Papa invited him, but he never dreamed the fellow would accept. He never has before.”
    â€œReally, Andrea, you’re being very mysterious. How can I have met a cousin of yours that you haven’t? I’ve never gone anywhere without you except to Bath two years ago. Was that where—? No, for Mama contracted one of her digestive complaints right after we arrived, and we hardly ever left our rooms.”
    â€œIt was not at Bath,” Andrea said gleefully. “ Think !”
    â€œWell, the only other time I traveled anywhere without you was—Good God ! You don’t mean—? It isn’t —?”
    Andrea nodded eagerly. “It is! Your Captain !”
    Jenny turned quite pale. “Captain Allenby? He’s coming here?”
    â€œYes, at the end of the month. He and his mother, my Aunt Dulcie, are to stay until the New Year. Papa is completely puffed up about it, for Cousin Tris has