"It is probably true. What does it say?"

"Leave the rumour for the moment. We have just heard officially that the convoy sails tomorrow with the London, Hull and Leith ships, and you are not named as the commander of the escort, nor is the Calypso mentioned."

When Ramage nodded, Yorke continued: "The rumour – which I don't mind telling you is upsetting all the masters considerably - is that you are being court-martialled at the instance of the captain of the Jason."

Ramage pointed at the papers on his desk. "That's not a rumour, I'm afraid. The Admiralty has ordered the trial and the date is already fixed - for the beginning of next week."

"But... but what about witnesses?" Alexis said angrily. "All the convoy will have sailed and the masters want to give evidence on your behalf!"

"That rumour-which-is-not-a-rumour is not the only one," Yorke said. "I hear that our old friend Goddard is the rear-admiral here. Does that mean ... ?"

As Ramage nodded, Alexis exclaimed: "Goddard? Who is this Goddard? Why do the pair of you have such long faces? Are you frightened of him?"

"Yes and no," Ramage said, and quietly explained to her how Goddard had entered his life, toadying to the old ministers and currying favour by attacking the Earl of Blazey's son.

"Sidney," Alexis said firmly. "We let the Emerald sailtomorrow with the convoy, and we move on shore to an inn. The King's Arms, I think; I refuse to stay at the Prince George - I dislike Foxhole Street and the place is always full of noisy shipmasters and foreigners."

Yorke agreed but warned that after so many weeks at sea, it would take a few days to find their land legs.

Alexis pointed at the papers on Ramage's desk. "Why are you so sure that this Goddard man will preside at the trial?"

"In Plymouth there is a port admiral," Ramage explained. "He is Vice-Admiral Sir James Bustard. I know nothing about him except he's getting on in years. He has a house - just near Mount Wise and the Telegraph, and just across the Parade from Government House.

"Then there is a rear-admiral, who is the second-in-command. His main purpose in life is to preside at courts-martial. In a big port like Plymouth there are trials almost every day and they're held on board the Salvador del Mundo, an old prize which is well suited for the purpose."

"Trials almost every day?" Alexis exclaimed. "But what for?"

"Don't forget that a 74-gun ship (most of the ships you see here larger than frigates are seventy-fours) has at least seven hundred men on board, and the frigates about two hundred each. So take half a dozen seventy-fours and you have more than four thousand men. If only half a dozen of them desert, get drunk and start a brawl and hit an officer or mutter treasonable phrases in their cups - well, that makes half a dozen courts-martial a day!"

"Not to mention captains who misbehave out in the Atlantic and come in here to be punished," Alexis added mischievously.

"Indeed not," Ramage agreed gravely. "Poor Rear-Admiral Goddard must be a much overworked man."

"It's a pity you have to add to his burden."

Ramage laughed and said wryly: "I am sure he will think he's doing me a favour."

Sidney Yorke, who had remained unsmiling as Ramage and Alexis teased each other, asked quietly: "Am I being indiscreet in asking what you are charged with - and by whom?"

Ramage sorted out the papers on the desk and passed them to Yorke. "They're in order now. When you've read them all, you'll know as much about this as I do."

Alexis look questioningly and Ramage nodded. "Of course you can read them too."

"They'll make a change from the Paston letters which you lent me and which I've nearly finished. Not that I haven't found them fascinating, but I didn't know the Pastons and I do know you!"

She waited a few moments and then said quietly: "Why don't you come with us and stay at the inn? You have not slept on shore since -"

She just prevented herself putting a hand to her mouth, a gesture which in other women always irritated her, but there was no way she could recall the words. Ramage said easily: "Since Bonaparte's men chased us out of Jean-Jacques' château near Brest. No, but a captain may not sleep out of his ship without the port admiral's permission. That is just for a night. For longer, he needs permission from the Admiralty."

"And for the moment you do not want to ask favours of anyone."

Ramage nodded. "Anyway, I have plenty to do - lists of witnesses, draw up my defence, and so on."

"And rally your friends," Alexis added.

"A naval officer on trial for his life in these circumstances has no friends," Ramage said with unintended bitterness, and was startled to see Alexis's eyes beginning to glisten with tears.

"That is not true," she said quietly.

He said gently: "I spoke clumsily. Yes, I have friends. Very few, and of those the Yorkes are the most valued. I thought you meant that I should rally my friends in the Service, and I meant that I have none but in any case at a time like this, with a man like Goddard involved, anyone in the Service is well advised to keep away. In fact I'd tell him to!"

"But what about Aitken, and Southwick, and Bowen -?"

"Oh dear," Ramage said. "I sound ungrateful but I'm simply tactless. I'm conceited enough to assume that all the Calypsos, like the Yorkes, are on my side. When I said I was on my own, I really meant we  - the Yorkes and the Calypsos - can't look round for friends."

"But," Alexis said chidingly, "you forget the masters who were in the convoy, and surely the Count of Rennes and your father and father-in-law will help?"

"The Count saw nothing that you didn't, so there's no way he can help, and anyway he's probably on his way to London by coach. My father and the Marquis are stunned by Sarah's disappearance. I'm not going to add to their troubles."

Sidney said suddenly, an impatient note in his voice: "Think, girl! The Count is a friend of the Prince of Wales, and this wretched man Goddard is one of Prinny's favourites. Nicholas wouldn't dream of putting Jean-Jacques in such an awkward position."

"I would," Alexis said stoutly, "and Prinny too, if I thought the Prince of Wales's presence would make sure justice was done."

"You'll be sent to bed without any supper," Yorke said in a mock warning, and then turned to Ramage and said: "These Articles of War that Shirley's charging you under - what penalties do they entail?"

"Some leave it up to the court; guilty verdicts with others call for death, without any option."

There was the hissing of silk against silk and a gentle thump as Alexis fainted and slid out of the chair, and as he jumped up to go to her, Ramage noticed she had the most shapely legs.

"I should have left her on board," Yorke said, "but I'd have had to lock her in. She's taking all this business very seriously."

"So am I," Ramage said drily. "Ah, she's coming round . . ."

"You're on board the Calypso and everything is all right," Yorke said hastily, and Ramage realized the hurried words were in case the dazed girl said something which might cause embarrassment. He asked her if she wanted a drink of water but she shook her head and Ramage was relieved. There was no need for a Marine sentry and his steward Silkin to know that Miss Yorke had fainted. That was the trouble with fainting - it could be caused by anything from a shock to pregnancy, from "vapours", intended to attract attention, to real illness.

Aitken and Southwick looked at Ramage, waiting for his answer, and the first lieutenant still held the list from which he had been reading.

"Wagstaffe - yes, I can't see how I can avoid calling him - he'll be called by the prosecution anyway. But I need only one of the Calypso's officers - he can give evidence about the challenge, lack of reply and being fired on."