Empire of Ivory Read Online Free PDF

not
    recover, then-" He paused.

    Laurence only looked away. Temeraire had good excuse for
    not understanding at once. Dragons were hardy creatures,
    and many breeds might live a century and more; he might
    have justly expected to know Maximus and Lily for longer
    than a man's lifetime, if the war had not taken them from
    him.

    At last, sounding almost bewildered, Temeraire said, "But I
    have so much to tell them-I came for them. So they might
    learn that dragons may read and write, and have property,
    and do things other than fight."

    "I will write a letter for you, which we can send to them
    with your greetings, and they will be happier to know you
    well and safe from contagion than for your company,"
    Laurence said. Temeraire did not answer; he was very still,
    and his head bowed deeply to his chest. "We will be nearby," Laurence went on, after a moment, "and you may write
    to them every day, if you wish; when we have finished our
    work."

    "Patrolling, I suppose," Temeraire said, with a very
    unusual note of bitterness, "and more stupid formationwork; while they are all sick, and we can do nothing."

    Laurence looked down, into his lap, where their new orders
    lay amid the oilcloth packet of all his papers, and had no
    comfort to offer: brusque instructions for their immediate
    removal to Dover, where Temeraire's expectations were
    likely to be answered in every particular.

    He was not encouraged, on reporting to the headquarters at
    Dover directly they had landed, by being left to cool his
    heels in the hall outside the new admiral's office for
    thirty minutes, listening to voices by no means indistinct
    despite the heavy oaken door. He recognized Jane Roland,
    shouting; the voices that answered her were unfamiliar; and
    Laurence rose to his feet abruptly, straightening as the
    door was flung open. A tall man in a naval coat came
    rushing out with clothing and expression both disordered,
    his lower cheeks mottled to a moderate glow under his
    sideburns; he did not pause, but threw Laurence a furious
    glare before he left.

    "Come in, Laurence; come in," Jane called, and he went in;
    she was standing with the admiral, an older man dressed
    rather astonishingly in a black frock coat and kneebreeches with buckled shoes.

    "You have not met Dr. Wapping, I think," Jane said. "Sir,
    this is Captain Laurence, of Temeraire."

    "Sir," Laurence said, and made his leg deep to cover his
    confusion and dismay. He supposed that if all the dragons
    were in quarantine, to put the covert in the charge of a
    physician was the sort of thing which might make sense to
    landsmen, as with the notion advanced to him once, by a
    family friend seeking his influence on behalf of a lessfortunate relation, to advance a surgeon-not even a naval
    surgeon-to the command of a hospital ship.

    "Captain, I am honored to make your acquaintance," Dr.
    Wapping said. "Admiral, I will take my leave; I beg your
    pardon for having been the cause of so unpleasant a scene."

    "Nonsense; those rascals at the Victualing Board are a pack
    of unhanged scoundrels, and I am happy to put them in their
    place; good day to you. Would you credit, Laurence," Jane
    said, as Wapping closed the door behind himself, "that
    those wretches are not content that the poor creatures eat
    scarcely enough to feed a bird anymore, but they must send
    us diseased stock and scrawny?

    "But this is a way to welcome you home." She caught him by
    the shoulders and kissed him soundly on both cheeks. "You
    are a damned sight; whatever has happened to your coat?
    Will you have a glass of wine?" She poured for them both
    without waiting his answer; he took it in a sort of
    appalled blankness. "I have all your letters, so I have a
    tolerable notion what you have been doing, and you must
    forgive me my silence, Laurence; I found it easier to write
    nothing than to leave out the only matter of any
    importance."

    "No; that is, yes, of course," he said, and sat down with
    her at the fire. Her coat