Ramage and the Dido by Dudley Pope Page B

their bodies are healthy. I am concerned that we have a first-class chaplain who will make sure they are healthy in spirit.’
    ‘I understand you, sir,’ Brewster said. ‘But I hope you will leave me to do it in my own way.’
    ‘How do you mean?’ Ramage asked suspiciously.
    ‘Well, sir, I left my last ship because of the captain’s attitude,’ Brewster said frankly. ‘He was a man with very narrow and fixed religious views. In my opinion he did not need a chaplain: he interfered so much – even to providing notes for sermons – that he did the chaplain’s work for him. Except, of course, the men never went to him for help or advice, as they would have done with the chaplain.’
    ‘You mean that they did not come to you?’
    ‘No, they didn’t. They should have done, but they were intimidated by the captain giving them long sermons and conducting prayers – doing my job, in fact. That was why I left the ship and applied for a transfer to another of the King’s ships.’
    Ramage appreciated the man’s frankness and replied in kind. ‘Well, Brewster, I am not going to interfere with your work while you are chaplain of this ship and providing you carry out your duties satisfactorily – in fact I have only one rule for you to start with: no long sermons. Ten minutes is quite long enough, whether the men are sitting there in the freezing cold or under a Tropical sun.’
    ‘I’m a ten-minute man myself, sir,’ chuckled Brewster. ‘My last captain reckoned on a minimum of half an hour. If he was delivering the sermon himself he could go on for an hour.’
    Ramage shuddered at the thought. ‘All right, Brewster, ten minutes of crisp talk, and rousing hymns where the men can sing their hearts out.’
    That evening he gave instructions to Jessop to call at the shops next day and arrange for deliveries on board the Dido on the day following.
    He found Sarah sitting in their room at The George busy embroidering a cot cover for him. She had chosen a design of griffins, the Ramage family crest, sewn in the correct colours of blue and gold.
    ‘I am having to use yellow thread instead of gold,’ she explained. ‘I can’t find any gold thread in Portsmouth – gold colour, anyway: actual gold thread would be heavy, and I’d never get it done before you sail.’
    ‘Ah yes,’ Ramage said, ‘for once the Daily Report to the port admiral had some definite information today: I put down that we will be finished with the dockyard men – painters, caulkers and so on – in four days’ time. We shall have taken on all the provisions and water by then, so it will be just a question of taking on powder and we are ready to sail.’
    ‘And then you pack me off back to London?’
    Ramage nodded. ‘The admiral may want me on board before then: Jessop will be telling the shops to deliver the furniture and things the day after tomorrow, so I shan’t have the excuse that the ship isn’t ready for me.’
    ‘Has the smell of new paint gone? You know how that makes you ill.’
    ‘It’s almost gone. All the ports are open so there’s a good draught blowing through.’
    He suddenly realised that Sarah was quietly crying.
    ‘The time has gone so quickly,’ she said, as he sat on the arm of her chair and held her to him. ‘I had so looked forward to us being alone at Aldington, left in peace, and we haven’t even been able to go down there.’
    Suddenly Ramage felt a longing to be alone with Sarah at their home in Kent, walking, riding, and just lazing during the day, and making love at night, content just to be together after such a long time spent apart.
    ‘At the end of this commission I’ll go on half-pay for six months,’ he said. ‘You’ll be tired of my company long before the time is up.’
    ‘Can you be sure of being employed again after six months?’
    Ramage thought of all the Gazette letters, and his recent unexpected promotion. ‘Yes. I may have to wait a month or two, but their Lordships would find