Hostile Shores Read Online Free PDF

pets,” Captain Meadows slyly said in jest.
    “That’ll be enough, Mister Hayes,” Commodore Grierson said as he waved a hand in dismissal. “I think I take his measure. And, in any instance, he will not be on-station much longer.”
    “Aye, sir,” Lt. Hayes said, doffing his hat and bowing himself away. Arrogant prick! Hayes thought.
    The Commodore, Captain Grierson, strolled aft to watch a cutter depart the Reliant frigate’s starboard main-chains and set out for Athenian under oars, steering to cross close under his ship’s stern and end up alongside her starboard side, and the starboard entry-port, the port of honour. Grierson thought of requesting a telescope for a look at this Lewrie fellow, but decided that that would be showing too keen an interest. He would wait ’til he was aboard.
    Grierson was certain that he would not like him, already.
    *   *   *
    “Best coat and hat, sir?” Pettus enquired as Lewrie prepared to board his cutter.
    “No, no time for the niceties,” Lewrie decided. “A senior officer sends a summons, and it’s better to obey instanter.”
    “I found Athenian in Steele’s, sir,” Midshipman Munsell said as Lewrie began to walk over to the starboard ladderway and the beginning of the sail-tending gangway, where the open entry-port and side-party awaited. “She was brought out of Ordinary in October of last year, and her captain is Donald McNaughton.”
    “Thankee, Mister Munsell,” Lewrie told him with a brief grin and nod of confirmation. “A Scot, is he? Perhaps I’ll be piped aboard with bagpipes, and be offered a sheep! Carry on.”
    He doffed his hat to the side-party, the crew, and the flag, and quickly descended to the cutter, where his normal boat crew, hands who had been with him in his retinue for years, waited with vertical oars. Once seated aft by Cox’n Liam Desmond by the tiller, the boat shoved off and began a smart and rapid row to the two-decker.
    Lewrie looked up as his boat crossed the Athenian ’s stern, and he was grudgingly impressed by her transom decoration. Her name board was royal blue, framed in expensive gilded wood scrollings, and wooden letters, also gilded, spelled out her name. To either side, there were representations of Grecian helmets, shields, and spears, also done with gilt paint over bas-relief. Much the same had been applied to all her quarter galleries and stern gallery, where a senior officer could sit with his feet up on the ornate railings in good weather and sip wine, or read in private.
    This McNaughton fellow must be rich as Croesus! Lewrie thought.
    The bow man hooked his gaff onto the main-chains, the oars were tossed, and Lewrie unsteadily stood and made his way to the gunn’l to reach out to the battens and man-ropes. The climb was a lot longer than on his frigate, though the two-decker’s tumblehome was not as steep.
    As the upright dog’s vane of his cocked hat appeared above the lip of the entry-port, the bosuns’ calls began a duet salute, Marines stamped and presented muskets, and sailors’ hats were doffed high. Lewrie reached the top step of the entry-port and hauled himself in-board with a characteristic jerk and stamp, well clear of being dunked back overboard should Athenian do an unpredictable roll. He doffed his own hat to one and all, to the quarterdeck and flag.
    “Welcome aboard, sir,” a sun-bronzed and rough-featured Post-Captain said to him. “Allow me to name myself to you.… Meadows, the Flag-Captain of Athenian. ”
    “Lewrie, of the Reliant frigate, sir, and delighted to make your acquaintance,” Lewrie replied with a smile. “Your Captain McNaughton is below, Captain Meadows?”
    “Oh sir, I fear your Steele’s is out of date,” Meadows told him with a frown. “Captain McNaughton passed away some weeks back of some fever. Captain Henry Grierson now commands the squadron. If you follow me, sir? He awaits you on the quarterdeck.”
    That’s never a good sign, Lewrie thought as he