Remember Me - Lesley Pearse [91]
‘Come on, tell me,’ Will exclaimed. ‘Charlotte will be back in a moment and we can’t speak of it in front of her.’ Charlotte was very talkative now at three and she was inclined to repeat things she’d overheard.
‘He said he would help us,’ Mary said. The truth of it was that Detmer had asked, ‘How far are you prepared to go to gain my assistance?’
‘Why should he want to help us?’ Will’s eyes narrowed with suspicion.
Mary shrugged. ‘Because he likes us. Because he wants to get back at Captain Phillip. Because I was persuasive. Take your pick.’
‘Did you tell him what we need?’
Mary leaned closer to Emmanuel so Will wouldn’t see her blushing. She had been shameless, just as she’d been with Lieutenant Graham on the Dunkirk. But what made it worse in her mind was that she actually wanted Detmer, and if she hadn’t had the two children with her, she might very well have let him have his way with her, then and there.
‘Yes, I told him, and he’ll sell us a sextant and a compass,’ she said. ‘And he’ll throw in a couple of old muskets, some ammunition and a water cask. You can agree a price with him for those.’
‘What about a chart?’
‘That too, he’s going to look it out. He’ll need to talk that over with you.’
‘So I have got some role in this then?’ Will said sarcastically.
Mary wanted to slap him for always wanting to be the big man. If she’d sat back and let him try to organize this escape, he’d be in irons by now because he couldn’t keep his mouth shut. Even Detmer, who had only known Will for a relatively short time, had been worried about his reputation for having a loose tongue. But she had to hide her irritation. Everything depended on keeping Will sweet.
‘You have the biggest role,’ she said, reaching out to stroke his face in a display of affection. ‘You are the navigator. Detmer says only a good one like you could manage to sail through the reefs without holing the boat.’
Will was appeased at that. ‘I’ll whip one of the new seine nets tonight,’ he said. ‘They won’t miss it.’
Mary looked to see where Charlotte was, and, satisfied she was out of earshot, making mud pies, she continued, ‘We ought to decide now who we’re going to ask to go with us.’
‘James Martin, Jamie Cox and Samuel Bird, of course,’ Will said. ‘They’re my mates, been with them right from the Dunkirk.’
Mary nodded. She had expected Will would want them. She wasn’t too pleased about Samuel Bird, he was such a gloomy man, but then she hadn’t tried very hard to get to know him, put off by his red hair and pale eyelashes. ‘Yes, but we did think William Moreton would be a good choice too, he knows about navigation.’
Will wrinkled his nose. ‘I don’t like him.’
Mary didn’t like the dark, bull-like man either. Like Will, he was a big-head, full of his own importance. But he could navigate, he was strong and able to keep his mouth shut.
‘We need another navigator,’ she said firmly. ‘You can’t do it all alone.’
‘Very well, him too, and maybe Wilf Owens and Pat Reilly.’
‘Wilf Owens is a fool,’ Mary said dismissively. ‘And Pat Reilly can’t keep his mouth shut.’
Will looked hurt. Wilf and Pat often came out fishing with him and he liked drinking with them.
‘So who do you think then?’ he snapped at her.
‘Sam Broome, Nathaniel Lilly and Bill Allen,’ she replied.
‘We can’t take that many,’ Will exclaimed in horror. ‘Besides, they aren’t our mates, they’re all from the Second Fleet. We hardly know them.’
‘We’ll need that many when we have to row,’ she insisted. ‘Besides, the boat’s big enough. And they can all handle it. What does it matter if you haven’t known them long? They are all trustworthy and capable.’
Will didn’t mind the idea of Nat and Bill. Nat was another young kid like Jamie, who hung on his every word. He looked like a cherub with his fair hair and big eyes and Will liked having him around.
They called Bill the Iron Man. When he was flogged for theft from the stores, he never cried out once, and walked away at the end of it without even wincing. Compared to most of the men here he was a real criminal,