"I came to you willingly. I loved you, I always did. If I have one regret, it is the waste of years before you found me."

He looked into the fire. "It happened after Golden Plover was reported lost. Zenoria was here and, like you, she awakened in the night. Adam was a boy again, crying his heart out because he thought you and I were dead. Val was thought missing as well." He shook his head. "What a lot that damnable vessel has to answer for!"

"We were together, dearest of men…"

"I know. I think of it often."

She asked, "Did he tell you everything?"

Bolitho nodded slowly. "They were lovers, perhaps even in love. But when the news broke that we had been rescued by Larne the deed was already done. I do not know how Zenoria feels about it-she has a good husband and a child now. It was an act of need, not madness or deceit." He looked at her squarely and touched her hair with great care. "But Adam is in love with her. It is a secret he must keep, and so must she."

"I am so glad he told you. You of all people mean so much to him."

"There is a letter."

She tensed as he continued. "In despair he wrote to her. Last year sometime. That will be the test. We must wait and hope."

Catherine picked up the goblet. It was quite hot from the fire. She felt him watching her as she swallowed some cognac. "When will you know, Richard, about London?"

He sounded almost relieved to change the subject. "Their lordships seem very considerate about it."

Catherine drank more cognac and felt it burning on her lips. There was more to come.

She asked, "Sir James Hamett-Parker has gone, I believe?"

He nodded. "Oblivion. There is another in his place. Admiral Sir Graham Bethune. He should do well."

She turned to face him. "You have often said that the navy is like a family. But you have not mentioned him before."