'You both deserve it,' the Admiral said, standing up. 'Now, we'll go up and look into Fort Royal. You stay patrolling off the Diamond, and report on board here at ten o'clock tomorrow morning. Your orders will be ready by then. Have Aitken report to me at half past nine.'

Ramage stood up and as he was leaving the cabin he heard the Admiral saying angrily to Captain Edwards: 'I'm sick of that Jocasta business! Damnation take that fellow Eames. If only...'

The voices faded as Ramage walked away. If only what? And earlier the Admiral had said something like: 'Dammit, Edwards, I knew I should never have let Eames . . .' Eames had been blockading Fort Royal for many weeks, then he had returned to Barbados. Ramage remembered that he was the man the Admiral seemed to have in mind for the special service that the First Lord had referred to in London; the special service for which the Juno had brought out the orders.

Had Eames made a mess of them? He shrugged his shoulders. There was no point in speculating; it did not concern him, although he was unlikely to find Captain Eames becoming a friend. That his young successor, far below him in the List, had established batteries on the Diamond was unlikely to delight him. And what did the Admiral mean about the Jocasta?She was still in Spanish hands after her men mutinied.

The officer of the deck came up to him and saluted. 'Are you ready for your boat, sir?’

For a moment Ramage was too startled to answer and then he returned the salute with as much coolness as he could muster. 'Yes, when you are ready.'

It was pleasant being a post captain, he thought to himself as the Invincible's great foretopsail was backed while the Juno's cutter, which had been towing astern, was brought up for him to climb down into it.

When he arrived on board the Invincible next morning, with fifteen minutes in hand to make sure he was not late for the Admiral, Captain Edwards met him on deck and commented on the beauty of the anchorage. The Invincible and three frigates were anchored close in to the long Grande Anse du Diamant. Directly to seaward was the grey tooth of Diamond Rock; to the north-west Diamond Hill.

The sun was getting hot now, and Captain Edwards nodded towards the awning. 'We'll take a turn or two until the Admiral is ready for you. Tell me, how the devil did you sway those guns up? I don't mind telling you that you spoiled the Admiral's regular game of chess last night. We had charts out, drew diagrams ...'

As the two men walked up and down the quarterdeck, cool in the shade and with the offshore breeze just setting in to ripple the water, Ramage described how he had moored the Juno close against the sheer cliff on the south side, rigged the jackstay and used the capstan to hoist each gun with a gun tackle.

'But a sudden swell,' Captain Edwards interrupted. 'We get them in Barbados - rollers, ten feet high with no warning ...’

'But not here, sir,' Ramage said, 'They're peculiar to Barbados, so far as I know. I never heard of any of the other islands experiencing them.'

'True, but it's frightening when it happens in Carlisle Bay. I once saw a frigate put up on the beach. The sea was calm with just the usual waves knocked up by the Trade winds and nothing strange about the weather. Then these rollers came up, one after the other. Lasted about an hour or more, and parted the frigate's cable ...'

Ramage described how he had moored the Juno so that if the wind had backed or veered and knocked up a sea, he could have cut the cable of the stern anchor, cast off the jackstay, and swung clear.

'You still took a frightful risk,' Edwards commented, looking at his watch.

'I did, sir,' Ramage admitted frankly, 'but it seemed worth it.'

Edwards gave a dry laugh. 'You've commanded ships before as a lieutenant, but you are very new to the post list. I'm a dozen or so names from the top, and I've learned one thing, which I pass on for what it's worth. If you succeed in something like that, Their Lordships will consider the risk was negligible. If you fail you can expect a court martial and you'll never be employed again.'

'I've learned that already, sir,' Ramage said soberly.

Edwards glanced at him sideways. 'Yes, the Admiral was telling me last night of some of the things he had heard about you.'

The voice was neutral and told Ramage nothing of what the Admiral had actually said or any opinions he might have expressed. They reached the taffrail and turned inwards together to begin the walk back to the quarterdeck rail.

‘The Admiral is in a rather difficult position at the moment, Ramage,' Edwards said quietly. 'When you came out in the Juno, you carried orders for the Admiral from Lord St Vincent. You know that, of course.'

'For some special service, yes, sir.’

'Did His Lordship tell you what the special service was?'

'No, sir,' Ramage said, realizing that this encounter with Captain Edwards had been far from accidental.

‘Nor did His Lordship hint that you might be entrusted with it?'

'No, sir. You see, I had just completed some particular service for His Lordship - it was of a very secret nature,' he said apologetically. 'There had been other things, too, and His Lordship made me post after I had reported to him. He gave me the Juno and said I was to serve under Admiral Davis. He told me I was to get under way as soon as possible because of the urgency of the dispatches I was to carry. He also mentioned that I would be carrying orders to the Admiral concerning some special service, and I'm afraid I immediately showed interest, thinking it concerned me. His Lordship made it quite clear that the choice would be up to the Admiral.'

Edwards nodded. 'Hmm, that was the impression the Admiral had and he entrusted the service to his senior frigate captain . . . Well, there have been, er, well, unexpected difficulties, with the result that the particular service has yet to be carried out.'

Edwards paused, and Ramage said in a neutral voice: 'I understand, sir.'

The Captain looked sideways at him and sighed. Clearly he was not enjoying the role the Admiral had given him. 'Good, I thought you would, and you can probably guess the rest.'

'I hope so,' Ramage said cautiously.

'I'm sure you do,' Edwards said, making no attempt to disguise the relief in his voice. 'One thing is important, though: do you have complete trust in your officers and ship's company?'

It was an unexpected question, and Ramage hesitated as he remembered a similar one from Admiral Davis when he first arrived in Barbados. 'In the Master, petty officers and seamen, complete trust, sir: after all, I couldn't have ...'

'Of course,' Edwards said hurriedly. 'But the officers?'

'I'll only have the Master and one lieutenant left,' Ramage pointed out, 'The others will be new.'

‘Quite so,' Edwards said hurriedly. 'Well, wait here, I'll be back in a few minutes.'

When he returned his face was completely expressionless. 'The Admiral is ready to see you now.'

Admiral Davis was sitting in the same chair at the table, with several papers in front of him, and he waved Ramage to the chair opposite, while Edwards excused himself and was promptly told to sit down. The Admiral looked up to bid Ramage a gruff good morning and then continued reading. The Invincible was swinging slightly at anchor as the wind eddied off the land. Ramage saw the headland at the foot of Diamond Hill and a minute or two later, as the ship's stern swung, he saw the Diamond Rock. A sharp eye might detect the tiny signal mast, and Ramage realized that at this very moment French patrols along the coast would be looking at it through telescopes, trying to spot where the batteries were, counting ships, preparing a full report for the Governor. Not, he thought with satisfaction, that there is a damned thing the French can do.