Page 37 of The Cornish Widow

Jack made his way back to amidships. “What’re you doing down here?”

Theo beamed, full of childish confidence that if he liked someone, they were bound to like him back. “I saw your ship come in from up there.” He waved his hand vaguely up towards the clifftop. “I asked Mama if I could go out after supper, and she said I could. So I came down to find you.” He paused, suddenly not quite so sure of himself. “You said the other day that when your ship came back, you’d take me on board and show me around.” His voice rose in question towards the end of his words.

Jack looked him up and down. “Come aboard, then, and I’ll show you The Fly.”

Theo needed no more encouragement. On nimble feet he scrambled down the ladder and landed with a thump on the deck in front of Jack. “Yessir, Cap’n.”

The boy’s evident enthusiasm made Jack smile. “I suppose I did say I’d show you my ship. What would you like to see first?” He well remembered the first time he’d been aboard one of the old King of Prussia’s ships, as a boy younger than Theo, and the impression it had made on him. Who was he to deny Theo the same pleasure?

It seemed Theo required to see everything, from one end to the other, and then, if he’d had his way, up as well. “Can I climb the rigging?”

Jack, thinking of Theo’s mother, who would have undoubtedly seen climbing the rigging of any ship as too dangerous an undertaking for her precious son, shook his head. “You’re not old enough.”

Theo put his head on one side. “How old do I have to be?”

How old was he already? Jack didn’t want to give him an estimate that was too close. Probably by the look of him about eleven. “Fourteen.”

Theo’s face fell. “That’s two years away.”

So, he was a small twelve. “When you’re a sailor, you have to learn patience. For instance, the wind doesn’t always blow, and when it does it’s not always the wind you want.”

Theo frowned. “But the wind’s hardly blowing, and I’m really good at climbing trees. And cliffs.” He paused. “Please don’t tell Mama that last bit.”

Jack shook his head. “Being good at climbing has nothing to do with it. I don’t take boys of… twelve… to sea. That’s too young. I didn’t go to sea properly until I was fifteen.” No need to mention the little single-sailed crabbing boat he’d sailed in by himself, or occasionally with Nat Treloar, from the age of nine.

Theo appeared to be digesting this information. Until the sight of the hatches caught his eye. “Can I go in the hold, then? Can I see what it’s like?” He grinned conspiratorially, as though accepting Jack into his coterie of young boys. “I’ve always wanted to see inside a hold, don’t you know.”

The baccy was down in the hold. Could Theo be relied upon not to mention what he saw? Suppose Captain Carlyon called at Keynvor and spoke to Theo? The boy might not mean to betray them, but it might come popping out of his mouth without thinking. Jack shook his head. “You’ve seen enough now, and the sun’s almost vanished. It’ll be dark in no time. You go on back up to your house or your mother’ll be coming down here looking for you, and I’ll be in trouble.”

Theo’s lower lip jutted in rebellion. “Will The Fly still be here in the morning? Can I come back and see her again?” He paused. “Can’t I just stay here a little bit longer? I love the way you can feel her moving under your feet. It’s like magic.”

As this was much how Jack felt about being on board a ship, he softened a little. “Well, I was going to sit here on the hatch cover and just look at the stars for a bit, as they come popping out. I suppose you can sit here with me. Stars are important things for sailors. You can navigate by them.”

Theo sat down with alacrity, probably in case Jack changed his mind. “You can? Will you teach me how to do it? I’d like to be able to do that.”

Jack shook his head. “Not tonight. Maybe another time.” He sat down beside Theo and gazed up at the stars where they were just beginning to prick out in the darkening sky. A few at the moment, but it was a cloudless night and very shortly the sky would look like sequined velvet. He heaved a sigh. Watching the stars come out had always been something he loved.

“Mama likes to watch the stars,” Theo said. “But in Bath we couldn’t see that many. Mama said it was because there was too much light. I wish I had a telescope so I could see them better.”

Jack rubbed his chin. “I can fix that.”

A minute later he was back with his own short telescope which he handed to Theo. “Lie on your back and take a look up at the sky.”

Seizing the telescope, Theo did as he was told. “Thank you, Cap’n. Oh my goodness. They look so close.”

Jack was watching the moon coming up in the east. She’d been on the wane a few days now and her pale hemisphere glowed like a lantern in the dark sky. “Take a look at the moon.”

Theo obeyed, gasping in appreciation as he focused in on it. “I can see its face.”

“That’s not a face. Those’re craters.”

“Craters?”

“Impact sites where meteors have struck the surface. A man called Johannes Hevelius studied the moon closely and made maps of it. They’re in a book he wrote called Selenographia. I have a copy in my library at Rosudgeon.”

“Might you show it to me?”

Jack chuckled. “I expect so.”