Aubrey & Maturin aboard the flagship Bellona, leading a squadron to suppress the slave trade and intercept a French misson to Ireland, c.1812
***
And we are back from our latest voyage. Laughing and learning as we go, hoping that Killick will light along there, with a coffee pot and toasted cheese. Which he already am, ain't he? ... Sir.
Lucky Jack Aubrey completes the circumnavigation of the world, and has made it to the big time. He is now a Commodore, leading a smallish squadron into action. He owns, at least temporarily, for this assignment, the rank of Rear Admiral, as I understand it.
We get some time at home, to see Sophie and the kids at Ashgrove Cottage, and to meet Stephen's daughter Brigid. We have had disturbing hints that all is not well with the youngster, and the possibility of some form of birth defect weighs heavily on all involved. Diana, Stephen's wife and Brigid's mother, has not taken it well and has disappeared. Clarissa Oakes has been acting as nanny to the little one. A breakthrough is made with the child, with the help of Stephen's hired man Padeen, who gets her to begin speaking a bit, in Irish, no less.
Intelligence matters force Stephen to want to remove his money, his daughter, and the two convicts he helped escape from New South Wales to the security of Spain. It seems a well-placed friend of Ledward and Wray, high in the government, has smoked him out, and is making trouble with respect to the pardons Stephen discretely seeks for Clarissa and Padeen.
A mission is called for! A dual mission, wherein a sea captain extraordinaire and a highly valuable intelligence agent are both required! First, go down to the coast of Africa and disrupt the slave trade (a noble pursuit, no doubt)! Also: be very much seen and heard doing just such a thing... so that a secret French squadron, bound to land troops in Ireland, will not be scared off from continuing their mission. Once some anti-slavery action is taken, quickly make for a rendezvous point where the French will be assembling for the run toward the Emerald Isle. What results? Fleet action!
A satisfying book, to be sure. The seventeenth of twenty-one. Nearing the end of the line, it pains me to say.
As a medical side note, I weigh as much as Jack Aubrey, to whom Stephen directs a constant stream of weight-related criticism. Sad.
