A King's Cutter Read Online Free PDF Page B

uncertainly as more blood oozed from the bruised, raw flesh.
    ‘The Arabs use a method of washing with the wine m’sieur,’ offered Barrallier gently, ‘perhaps a little of the cognac might be spared, yes?’ Drinkwater reached for the bottle.
    ‘He was shot
    ‘ The young man, standing now next to Barrallier, spoke for the first time. He stated the obvious in that nervous way the uncertain have. Drinkwater looked up into a handsome face perhaps twenty years old.
    Drinkwater slipped his hand beneath the count’s shoulder. He could feel the ball under the skin. Roughly he scraped the wound to remove any pieces of clothing and poured a last measure of cognac over the mess. He searched among the apothecary’s liniments and selected a pot of bluish ointment, smearing the contents over the wound, covering it with a pledget and then a pad made from the count’s shirt.
    ‘Hold that over the wound while we turn him over.’ Drinkwater nodded to Barrallier who put out his bloody hands, then he looked at Montholon. ‘Hold his legs, m’sieur, if you would. Cross them over, good. Now, together!’
    Bracing themselves against Kestrel’s windward pitch they rolled De Tocqueville roughly over. Drinkwater was feeling more confident, the brandy was doing its work well. An over-active part of his brain was emerging from reaction to the events of the last hours, already curious about their passengers.
    ‘Your escape was none too soon.’ He said it absently, preoccupied as he rolled the tip of his forefinger over the blue lump that lay alongside the count’s scapula. He did not expect the gasp to come with such vehemence from the woman, cutting through the thick air of the cabin with an incongruous venom that distracted him into looking up.
    She had thrown back the hood of her cloak and the swinging lantern caught copper gleams from the mass of auburn hair that fell about her shoulders. She appeared older than her brother with strong, even features heightened by the stress she was under. She stared at Drinkwater from level grey eyes and again he felt her hostility. Her lack of gratitude piqued him and he thought of the two dead and three wounded of Kestrel’s crew that had been the price of her escape.
    Angry, he bent again over the count’s shoulder, picking up the scalpel and feeling its blade rasp the scapula. A light-headed feeling swept over him as he encountered the ball.
    ‘Hold the lantern closer,’ he said through clenched teeth. And she obeyed.
    The musket ball rolled bloodily on to the table.
    Drinkwater grunted with satisfaction as he bound a second pledget and passed a linen strip round the count’s shoulder. They strapped his arm to his side and heaved him on to the settee. Then they turned to the seamen with the splinter wounds.
    Daylight was visible when Drinkwater staggered on deck soaked in perspiration. The chill hit him as he lurched to the rail and, shuddering, vomited the cognac out of his stomach. He laid his head on the rail. Hortense Montholon lay in his cot and he sank down beside the breeching of a four-pounder and fell asleep. Tregembo brought blankets and covered him.
    Standing by the tiller Lieutenant Griffiths looked at the inert form. Although no expression passed over his face he was warm with approval. He had not misjudged the qualities of Nathaniel Drinkwater.

Chapter Three December 1792-February 1793
A Curtain Rising
    The incident at Beaubigny had ended Kestrel’s clandestine operations. Temporarily unemployed the cutter rolled in the swell that reached round Penlee Point to rock her at her anchor in Cawsand Bay.
    Perspiring in his airless cabin Drinkwater sat twirling the cheap goosequill in his long fingers. Condensation hung from the deckhead, generated by the over-stoked stove in Griffiths’s cabin next door. Drinkwater was fighting a losing battle against drowsiness. With an effort he forced himself to read over what he had written in his journal.
    It was a matter of amazement to me