Page 5 (1/2)
If ever they returned He turned and went back into the house
The governor’sthe covert, around the bay, so the aviators and the soldiers had a sobering course of night air on the way back to their quarters Sohts of the dockside taverns along the way a stronger lure than the quiet of their barracks, however, and eeled away in twos and threes; until Laurence was very nearly walking alone but for Granby Rankin was on ahead, with Lieutenant Blincoln and Lieutenant Drewmore, and without need for discussion Laurence and Granby slowed their steps and turned off onto a more circuitous route, to stretch out the walk
"No-one can say it wasn’t a handsoht have been less festive about it: I a oing to the devil; not to say we aren’t"
"I think we must have a little more faith in Mr Hammond than that," Laurence said
"I’ve ine what he supposes we are going to say that will turn theerous beasts: fire-breathers, and four heavy-weight breeds that we know of, and we know precious little I would just as soon try farther north, and see if the colonials would hire out so, if they have so ht these days"
He spoke with a vague disgruntlement shared, Laurence knew, by every aviator who had learned that the Aons in sofair to rival British nu to fly the to those who had spent their lives in service, hoping for a rare chance to one day captain their own dragon
"But much smaller creatures," Laurence said, "and without ; there can be no comparison You may be certain Napoleon will have shipped the most deadly of the Tswana, and as many of them as he could cram aboard his transports"
"Well, I will hope the three of us , instead of just having at us straight off," Granby said, but pessi there will be reinforcements sent to meet us from Halifax, or the Channel, but I will rely on that when they land before us yelling for cattle, and not an instant before
"Anyway, I oughtn’t con Office’s latest notion, when I ah to drive a felloild thinking of you and Temeraire throay in this wretched little port with that fellow Rankin yapping at your heels, and a crowd of useless layabouts besides I don’t bla into the wilds Whatever are they about, now?" They had coates, and there was a co of an uproar, overseen by four interested dragons whose heads loomed above the knot of ly saw, and an officer of the New South Wales Corps on his knees in the dirt before hi down
"--outrage," Rankin was saying in great heat, "--will have his co an explanation--"
"I don’t care!" Deeous is him; I know you don’t care a jot, so he is here and will stay here, until Captain Laurence coet up and leave before then, he ile hold him upside-down over the cliff"
"But Roland, I a to deserve it," Te meanwhile to Emily Roland, hat Laurence could only call misplaced loyalty, "so there is no reason not to wait for Laurence to co to do But perhaps you had better not hold that fellow over the cliff," he added to Kulingile, the first thing of sense in the conversation, "for you ht very easily drop him, if he squirmed If he should try and run away, you can just pin hi careful not to squash him"
"You are all a pack of damned fools," Roland said, as furious as Laurence had ever heard her, "and if he weren’t a coward, he would run, and none of you should do anything; there ain’t any reason the captain ought hear anything about it"
Iskierka said, "Well, I would like to hear about it, as I a?"
"Oh, lord," Granby said, under his breath
"I ariht, on the subject of brawling"
"I haven’t!" De the bloody ave him every appearance of a lie, added, "Roland did that; only she would have let hireat fuss of knocking down some drunken looby is no reason for you to put your oar into it; what bloody right do you suppose you have, pushing into ive him any mind--"
"Hoas I to know, anyway?" the soldier blurted, froht it was a get-up, for a joke"
"If it was, that wouldn’t , anyway," Roland said conteht have asked, first, if you ht have known it would be so on the order of this sordid mess You may relieve yourself of your prisoner, Demane: no-one expects that the woentlewoine the ridicule hich any suit for breach shouldhih," Laurence said to Rankin, sharply "And you: your name, sir, and your coerently gave it as Lieutenant Paster "He will hear fro; I trust he will share my opinion of a man who cannot show decent respect either to a woman, or to a fellow officer"
Lieutenant Paster did not stay to argue, when Laurence had waved him off, but escaped down the hill at speed; Dean to disperse with the focus of interest lost
"Sir, I don’t need a fussto theher with a hand, and turning to lead her back to his tent, De to speak to her; Roland kept a deternored hiht--