Chapter 38: Business and pleasure

(August 1814)

Mr. Augustus Leeds was of small build, with a shiny bald pate that reflected the candle lights in the entrance hall of his imposing city house. His clothing, expensive and after the latest fashion, bespoke his important role as a director of the Most Honourable East India Company, but he was all cordiality when he received Thomas and Mirabel.

“Welcome to my home, Sir Thomas, Lady Grey. It gives me great pleasure to finally meet the saviour of my family. My dear wife and my daughter have of course extolled on your chivalrous conduct, and now my son has told us even more admirable things about you.”

“You are being too kind, Mr. Leeds,” Thomas protested. “Mr. Mahoney, the British consul in Tunis, is far more deserving of praise.”

Mr. Leeds then looked at Melinda Curry and sighed deeply.

“You must be the Miss Curry of whom my son has been speaking with such admiration. Please, feel welcome in my home!”

“Thank you, Sir,” Melinda smiled, unable to respond to kindness in any other form, and Mr. Leeds had to clear his throat.

“Please, if you will follow me?”

He led the way to a finely appointed dining room where the rest of the family was waiting. Introductions were made, but of course, Thomas knew Mrs. Leeds and Daisy Leeds already. They both looked much better than a year before when they had been his guests in Unicorn.

“I trust that you have recovered from your ordeal, Madam,” he therefore said.

“Mostly,” Mrs. Leeds sighed, but then she offered a smile. “Lady Grey, you must be very proud of your husband. He was the epitome of gentlemanly conduct.”

“It is something that I hear quite often, Mrs. Leeds. May I introduce our protégé, Miss Melinda Curry? Young Mr. Leeds must have told you of her.”

Mrs. Leeds shifted her attention and regarded young Melinda.

“He has indeed sung your praise, Miss Curry. It is a pity that your father and his ship were caught up in this unfortunate war between our nations, leaving you stranded here.”

“Thank you, Madam,” Melinda answered nicely. “I worry about him of course, but I cannot complain about my own circumstances. Lady Grey and Mrs. Benning have been kindness incarnate, and their friendship has much consoled me.”

“That is good to hear, my dear young Miss. Please meet my daughter Daisy. I believe she is your age?”

“It is good to meet you,” Daisy Leeds offered. Her expression was guarded, however.

“Thank you! I am amazed at the friendliness I have encountered here in London. Of course, I know of you already. Your brother spoke of you frequently.”

Daisy Leeds gave a lopsided smile. “We certainly heard a lot about you in the last days.” Then her smile became open. “It is good to see that you are a mere mortal.”

All through this, young Leeds was sporting a severe blush.

“I could not help but profess my admiration for you, Miss Curry.”

“That was kind of you, Mr. Leeds. Are you still a member of Clyde‘s company?”

“Yes. I’ll be part of Clyde‘s company until she’ll be paid off. There is still a lot for me to do, too.”

With all the niceties being said, Mr. Leeds asked them to be seated, starting a dinner that was certainly a match for the grand dining room. The availability of fresh meats, vegetables and spices was still novel to Thomas and a great delight. For young Robert Leeds, that had to hold true as well, but his attention was entirely taken up by his table partners, Melinda Curry and his sister Daisy. The three young people were seated together at the foot of the table and it seemed as if they were getting along famously, to guess from the frequent girlish giggles and Robert Leeds’s blush.

Thomas and Mirabel were seated with their hosts and treated with friendly courtesy. Mr. Leeds was quite obviously very attached to his wife – not something very common in their circles – and he showed his gratitude. He was also pleased with Robert Leeds’s development and ascribed it to the discipline and challenges found in Unicorn and Clyde. He was even more pleased to learn from Thomas how his son had shown his mettle under fire during the action against the An Nasr.

“I believe it has done him good to have something of a revenge on those Berbers after what he’d been through,” Mr. Leeds said under his breath, casting a cautious glance at his son. He needed not to worry, for Robert Leeds’s full attention was on something Melinda Curry told them. “It’s why we shan’t interfere with his little infatuation with Miss Curry.”

Mirabel nodded sagely. “A girl such as her, with her sunny disposition, can make a young man forget all his woes. I only ask that she not be hurt in the process.”

“Robert told us that her father is a shipowner?” Mrs. Leeds asked.

Thomas was about to shrug, but Mirabel answered the question.

“She confided to me that the Curry family owns six merchantmen outright and has strong interest in a few more. Mr. Curry only took command of the Jenny Girl schooner to conduct important business negotiations with Greek merchants. The loss of the Jenny Girl will not hurt them too much, and she was insured anyway.” Seeing Thomas’s look, she smiled. “I noticed her excellent education and it did not fit the daughter of a humble master-owner. The Curries even had a lively trade going with Sir Robert Norton. I believe that I even met him once at the Nortons’.”

“Oh, you are acquainted with Sir Robert?” Mr. Leeds asked surprised.

“I spent almost two years as Lady Norton’s companion to get an introduction into society,” Mirabel answered lightly. “I still visit her from time to time.”

“Now that you say it, I believe that I saw you there,” Mrs. Leeds said. She blushed a little. “You were rather young and quite shy.”

Mirabel shrugged. “Not everybody approved of me, so I rather kept in the background and observed.”

“Oh, I’m sorry! I did not mean to raise bad memories,” Mrs. Leeds apologised.

Again, Mirabel shrugged. “Lady Norton was kind to me, and I learned many things from her. It was worth the few disparaging remarks coming from insignificant idlers.”

Thomas looked at his wife with approval. He thought that she handled these matters with the right attitude. Mrs. Leeds’s eyes widened a little.

“Yes, I suppose that is a way to see things.”

“A good way,” her husband interjected. “So the girl’s father is a man of consequence, over in Baltimore? That puts things in perspective I suppose. Sir Thomas, do you believe that my son should pursue a Navy career?”

“That is hard to say, Mr. Leeds. He has the qualities, but the Navy will be put on peacetime establishment, with little chances for a young man to distinguish himself. Perhaps the Company might offer him better chances?”

“That is my thinking too, Sir Thomas. In the Company, I can also help him along much better than in the Navy. What will be your own plans after paying off your fine ship, if I may be so bold as to ask?”

Thomas allowed himself a smile. “I envision spending a period of leisure on my lands in Surrey. I have been gone for over eight years, with only two brief visits.”

“You are not vying for a command then?”

“No. I have not the seniority to claim a command.”

“I could of course use my influence to help you,” Leeds offered.

“I’d rather you didn’t, Mr. Leeds,” Thomas replied. “I appreciate your offer, but it may just cause resentment among the senior captains, something that may prove detrimental in the future. There are also many captains who depend on their pay for their livelihood, and I should hate to deprive one of them of a much-needed command.”

“I see your point, yet I wish to show my gratitude to you.”

Thomas allowed himself another smile. “Seeing how I am reunited with my dear wife and about to return to my family home with all honours, there is but little to which I still aspire, except perhaps your continued friendship.”

Leeds nodded solemnly. “It is rare these days to encounter a modest man such as yourself, Sir Thomas.” He raised his glass. “To a continued friendship then!”

Thomas returned the toast. “To friendship!”

That was a good outcome, he reasoned. He did not need any quick favours, but a longer lasting friendship in which Leeds was indebted to him could be far more desirable. The man was well connected with the Ministry, and one just could not tell if and when Captain Sir Thomas Grey might need a word said in his favour. Quite possibly, a woman of Mrs. Leeds’s social standing might also do a world of good for Mirabel’s status.

When the Greys and their protégé left the Leeds’s two hours later, sated and slightly inebriated, Thomas thought that the evening had been a success. Whilst the ladies – including Daisy Leeds and Melinda Curry – had retired to another room for a Sherry, the three men had well aged French brandy from the Cognac region, a sign that trade with France was well established again. Mr. Leeds had then unobtrusively handed a heavy purse to Thomas, the reimbursement for the three hundred guineas which he had paid as ransom for Mrs. Leeds and her children at Tunis. Mr. Leeds also told Thomas that the Unicorn‘s company had shared into five hundred guineas upon the ship’s paying off, as a personal reward from him. That had been a fine gesture, as Thomas had been ready to acknowledge, and their parting after the dinner was concluded was indeed that of friends.

During the coach ride, Melinda Curry was rather dazed and quiet. Thomas noticed, but Mirabel slightly shook her head and mouthed the word “later”. Indeed, after their arrival at the Bennings’ and after Melinda had gone upstairs to her room, Mirabel told Thomas that Mrs. Leeds had invited the girl for tea two days hence, a clear sign of acceptance in itself, but accompanied by the address “my dear girl” which Mirabel interpreted as a sign of approval of the young American. Of course, Thomas cautioned Mirabel that any form of courtship had to wait until both Robert Leeds reached majority and Captain Curry was able to consent in one form or another.

Mirabel then smiled and let Thomas know that a letter to Captain Curry would be composed during the planned tea time at the Leeds’s house and that Robert Leeds had the means to support himself and a wife with funds inherited from his maternal grandfather. There was also hope that the war with America would be over and Captain Curry would be released before Robert reached his majority. At this point, Thomas simply shrugged and washed his hands of the matter. Both the girl and young Mr. Leeds could do much worse, after all.

On the next morning, and fortified with a hearty breakfast with their friends, Thomas and Mirabel, with Robert Leeds and Bartleby, set out for Deptford on a large wherry. On her insistence, Teresa joined them as she, like Mirabel, had yet to see the Clyde, and they were both curious. The plan was for Mirabel and Bartleby to go over the after cabin and assess the needs for entertaining Clyde‘s former captains two days later. Mirabel would be the hostess after all.

The wherry hooked on to Clyde‘s chains, and Thomas climbed up through the port to the prescribed ceremonial. Mr. Harvey was there of course, reporting on the progress of the various tasks. Meanwhile, Mirabel and Teresa were hoisted up from the wherry in the bosun’s chair and introduced to the wardroom officers, before Thomas led them aft to his cabin. Mirabel and Bartleby then took stock of the furnishings and fittings, concluding as Thomas has suspected that not much was amiss. Yet, being conscious of the fact that the cabin furnishings were in fact Sir August’s, Mirabel insisted on a few rearrangements, but also some additions from Thomas’s own possessions. As the cabin would have to be enlarged anyway to host that many captains and their ladies, the room was there, and soon a work party under Bartleby’s supervision began to knock down bulkheads and hoist Thomas’s chairs and other furniture up from the private hold under the cabin.

Meanwhile, Mirabel and Bartleby examined the remaining cabin stores. There were still Maltese foods in the hold, and Mirabel decided that those should feature at the planned dinner. Then a list was compiled of the foods and ingredients that were still needed. The table cloths, the china plates and the glasses were examined. While they were found to be more than adequate in quality, they were less than adequate in quantity for the number of guests, and again, Thomas’s own table furnishings were brought up from the hold, and the wardroom and gunroom stewards were set to the task of cleaning and polishing them.

In the meantime, Thomas was going over the various reports, with young Mr. Leeds helping him and Teresa looking on as had often been her habit in Unicorn. Early on in his captaincy of the Clyde, Thomas had discovered a few glitches in the purser’s books, all erring in Mr. Mercer’s favour. The necessary corrections had been moderately costly to the man, and he seemed to have learned his lesson.

Nothing seemed fishy now, and Thomas next examined the muster roll to look for possible promotions among the petty officers and below. Consulting with Mr. Harvey, they settled on four seamen to be promoted to able seamen, two able seamen to bosun’s mates, and one man to sailmaker’s mate. They also agreed to make the senior quartermaster Jeremiah Holmes an acting master’s mate, knowing full well that it was unlikely for the admiralty to confirm the promotion.

Having settled all matters to her satisfaction, Mirabel was ready to leave then whilst Bartleby would stay to organise the dinner. Teresa also wanted to stay, but Thomas knew that Bartleby would be too busy to look after her. Also, the tutor would come in the afternoon, and he would allow no slack in her education. He still remembered vividly the Gaetani girls and their impromptu concert, and he wanted Teresa to have a similar upbringing.

As planned, the tide had turned and was now running up the river, aiding the oarsmen considerably in their toil to bring the wherry back to Whitehall landing. Once there, Robert Leeds was tasked with escorting Mirabel and Teresa back to the Bennings’ house whilst he himself walked the short distance to The Admiralty to turn in several reports. He found the place beleaguered by Navy officers of all ranks, all no doubt seeking employment in the peacetime Navy, a rather hopeless endeavour as Thomas knew. There, sitting on a bench and wearing a sour face, was Captain Masters, accompanied by none other but his brother-in-law, Lt. Dumfries. They were looking in another direction, and Thomas made a sharp turn into another hallway to avoid meeting them. He had to ask twice to make his way to the office for which he was looking where he handed his reports over to a very bored clerk who assured him of his attention to the documents in due time.