The Death-Defying Pepper Roux Read Online Free PDF Page B

him “to the sea in the sure and certain hope of salvation.”
    “Later,” said Berceau.
    Nobody dressed up for the service either, except the Duchess, who put on red satin as a mark of disrespect.
    “Amen,” said Pepper at the end of the Lord’s Prayer.
    “Good riddance,” said the crew—which was not a response Pepper had ever heard before but which he presumed was a special seagoing expression of farewell. His efforts gave Pepper no joy: Couched on his scrapmetal bed, Roche did not look to be any more at peace because of all those words.
    Later that day, with Roche’s body still lying in the hold, Duchesse came and broke the bad news. “Married man,” he said.
    “No I’m not!” exclaimed Pepper, and sat back in his captain’s chair so sharply that it almost toppled over.
    “Roche, dear heart,” said the Duchess patiently. “Roche was a married man. The customary letter is required. To the widow.”
    And here, for the first time, was a duty no one else was willing to do for Captain Pepper.
    “Not my province,” said the Duchess.
    “Not me,” said the second mate.
    “Not me,” said Berceau, spotting the bill of lading on the floor and smoothing it out against his thigh. Pianos and porcelain, it read.
    “Doesn’t he have…didn’t he have a best friend? Someone who’s known him for a long time?” Pepper begged them.
    But Roche had no friends. So Captain Pepper was obliged to sit at his desk with a blank sheet of paper in front of him and a pencil in his hand. He wrote the name of the ship in one corner. He wrote the address of the widow in the other. He wrote: I am very sorry to say….
    Then he sent for the crew.
    They all squeezed into his cabin, elbow to elbow, knees slightly bent because of the low deckhead. What did they know about Mr. Roche? asked Pepper.
    “He was a pig,” said Annecy.
    “Used to bet the deck boys he could knock them down with one punch,” said Gombert. “Broke their faces. Took their money.”
    “Beat his wife,” said Bougon. “Used to boast about it.”
    “Don’t know how she lives. He spent all his money on whores; never sent a penny home.”
    “He sold the pans out of the galley,” said the cook bitterly.
    “Heard he killed a man once, in Nantes.”
    Pepper sighed. “There’s good in everyone,” he suggested hopefully. “My priest says…”
    “He was good with his fists,” said Annecy.
    “Perhaps you could share with us some of your own impressions of the man, sir,” suggested the Duchess, fretful at having the captain’s private sanctum cluttered up with people.
    Pepper thought hard. “He wanted to kill me.”
    The assembled crew nodded thoughtfully. “He was a rare pig, that one,” said Annecy.
    “Amen,” said the others, and squeezed out of the door again.
    Pepper stared at the blank paper. A dozen times he wrote the address and began:
    I am awfuly sorry…
    I am paned to tell you…
    I hope you wont…
    I wish I did not have to in form you…
    He imagined the woman—Mme. Yvette Roche—opening and reading his letter. In his imagination, shetook on the face of his own mother: the shoulders folding forward, the head sinking into grief.
    L’Ombrage
    Apartment 19
27 rue Méjeunet
Aigues Mortes
    Dear Madame Roche,
    I am very sorry in deed to tell you the sad news, but your poor husbund Monsieur Roche is dead. I did not no him very well, but I expect you did. I am sure he is happy with the saints.
    Your obediant servent…
    Pepper snatched up the letter and crammed it into his pocket. On the whole, he thought she would much rather not know at all. That way, she could go on hoping all was not lost, even when it was.
    “How will she manage without the money?” he asked. But the Duchess simply went on grating nutmeg over a bowl of custard. “I say we should…I mean, could we…What say we don’t tell the owners about Roche being dead? That way they won’t stop hiswages—not till the end of the trip, anyway.”
    The Duchess did look up,