Corsair by Dudley Pope

into it, Aurelia was ready: her hair was combed and tied with a fresh ribbon, she had changed into a blue jerkin and a white split skirt, and she was wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat.
    Thomas and Diana greeted them cheerfully, Thomas gesturing at the frigate. “Any bets?”
    “The King is handing over the island to the Dons,” Ned said.
    “Don’t joke about it,” Thomas said with a shudder, “although I must admit that was the first thing that crossed my mind when I saw the frigate at anchor.”
    “Well, she’s carrying instructions, that’s for sure,” Ned said, “and nothing has ever arrived from London – including old Loosely – that was good news for us.”
    “Your luck must change some time,” Diana said lightly. “Why, your brother might send you a packet of sweetmeats.”
    Ned gestured towards the Phoenix . “Thomas, let’s leave the ladies to gossip while we go over and see what Martha Judd has done for Coles and Gottlieb. They’ve probably recovered enough to go back to command their ships.”
    Saxby was waiting on board the Phoenix , and he immediately commented on the frigate, saying gloomily: “More trouble for all of us…”
    “At least her ship’s company haven’t any brothels to visit,” Thomas commented. “They’ve probably been thinking about nights of sin all the way across the Atlantic, and now they’ve found a Puritan has sneaked back!”
    “Let’s hope they riot,” Ned said sourly. “Come to think of it, we ought to have let our chaps riot in the streets. A few bottles through the governor’s windows might have worked a treat.”
    “Bit late to think about that,” Thomas muttered. “All the whores have become nuns by now.”
    Ned laughed sourly. “That’s what puzzled me about old Loosely. Did he think that shutting down the brothels would change anything? A whore’s a whore, whether in a house or out in the street.”
    “Just go to the door of a tavern and whistle,” Saxby said unexpectedly.
    “How are the patients?” Ned asked.
    “Both up and walking about,” Saxby said. “Both anxious to get back to their ships.”
    “So Martha’s sorted them out?”
    “She’s been enjoying herself. I think both Coles and Gottlieb have enjoyed their convalescence, too. Special soups, hot poultices, tots of rumbullion – they haven’t been looked after like that for years!”
    At that moment Martha Judd, a large woman with breasts like sacks of potatoes and a cheery red face, came on deck, took one look at Ned and said: “She’s not feeding you right: you look thin.”
    “It was all the chasing about building the house,” Ned said defensively.
    “Sir Thomas was chasing about just as much, but he looks as plump as ever.”
    “I’ll tell Aurelia,” Ned said. “How are your two men?”
    “They were right poorly when they arrived. That Dutchman was worst. But they’re both all right now. I have a sovereign remedy for men in that condition, and it soon put them right.”
    Ned wondered what the “sovereign remedy” was but decided not to ask: it had worked and that was all that mattered.
    “Well, we’ll get our mates back, then,” Thomas commented.
    Saxby looked round for the Argonauta and Dolphyn , spotted them and said: “I’ll send ’em off in one of my boats and deliver Lobb and Mitchell on the way back.”
    He suddenly pointed to a boat which had left the jetty at Plumb Point and was heading for the Griffin .
    Ned groaned. “It’ll be that damned secretary to the governor.”
    “Your men will send him to the Peleus . We’d better say hello to Coles and Gottlieb, and then be getting back to wait for him.”
    Ned shook hands with the two men and, after being assured that both had fully recovered, asked Coles: “What do you remember of the questioning by the Spanish garrison commander?”
    “The Army here,” Coles said. “He just kept on asking about the governor disbanding the Army. If it was true.”
    “What did you say?”
    “Well, it