Sixteenth Dispatch - [written]

[captainhornblower]

To the crew of the Britannia:

We sail on the sixteenth as planned.


To interested parties:

Today is the last day I will allow new crew members to sign the muster list. My officers need time to relay important instruction before we sail.

- Hornblower

[In the face of everything? The threat from the Malnosso over this missing member of their own? Charged with unnamed crimes? And a ticking clock for how long they have to obey?

...It's better, Horatio thinks, to be away from the village. He has no place in the politics of this group. What they do is their choice. He will, though, be trying to protect his crew. It's a gamble, but it's one he's willing to take.]

[Filtered, Jilly, 25%]:

[He's slightly learned to filter!]

Miss Jilly,

I would like to request your presence on board Britannia for her maiden voyage.

Horatio

Comments

[action]

[captainhornblower]

[The slight smile is back, and Horatio does not pour coffee into the thermos lid. Instead, he screws it back on as he nods. He steps off the dock, into the quarterboat tied there, already loosening the cable.

Once it's loose but not free, he offers his hand to help her down.

A few minutes of him rowing, and they'll be alongside the Britannia.]

[action]

[theoniongirl]

[It's not a long ride but, then, it's not a large mug either. Once they've pulled up beside the ship, she finishes off the last of her coffee and, setting it carefully inside her satchel, frees her hands for the climb up onto the deck]

[action]

[captainhornblower]

You first.

[It's said with a soft smile, and he doesn't even think about the impropriety. He carefully stands and leads one of her hands to find a rung of the rope ladder hanging down the side of the ship.

She's climbed it before, but in daylight, and the candles lighting Britannia are not that bright.]

I'll follow.

[action]

[theoniongirl]

You better.

[his touch is the first time, in all of this, that it actually occurs to her to question what they're doing...to remember that this isn't home and Geordie and a city where they could be as recognized or anonymous as they wished.

He touched her hand, and she felt the first nagging concerns...before he spoke and she shrugged them away. After all, he was smiling, which was exactly what she'd set out to do. And it was Horatio. There was nothing to worry about.

So she smiles and nods and pulls herself up the ladder. It's slower than she might be in sunlight, but the distance between the rungs is predictable and it doesn't take her long before she can hoist herself over the railing and on to the safety of the Britannia's deck.]