"Easy, John! That damned wound again!" He watched his friend struggle for breath and wondered how long it had been like this. When Allday turned his head, he was shocked to see that his face was quite pale, grey beneath the weathered tan.

He said, "I'll fetch Unis."

Allday shook his head and gritted his teeth. "No! Stay with me!" He nodded heavily, and took a deep breath. "It's goin'. I'll be all right."

Ferguson watched the colour returning to his rugged face, the breathing becoming more even.

Allday allowed him to help him to his feet, and then said thickly, "Not a word, mind. It comes an' goes." He tried to grin. "See? Bright as a bullock's bayonet!"

Ferguson shook his head, resigned. He was beaten; he should have known. Allday and Bolitho, like master and faithful dog, someone had once said, each fearful for the other.

Together, they lifted the cask on to its trestle, and Allday said, "I needs something stronger than ale, an' that's no error!"

Unis found them sitting by the unlit fire, her husband holding a taper for his friend's clay pipe as if they had not a care in the world. She bit her lip to contain her despair. It was all a show, for her sake. Like the new cask on its trestle. The rest she could guess.

Ferguson said, "Must be getting back. I have to look at the books." Allday followed him out to the yard, and watched as he swung himself up on to the seat.

He said, simply, "Thanks, Bryan." He stared across the fields to the glint of the river beyond the trees. "You weren't there, see. Sir Richard, a full admiral, the finest ever, leading our boarders across on to that bloody renegade's deck like some wild lieutenant! You should have been there. To me. Indoms!" He shook his shaggy head. "I could never leave him now."

He raised one hand and grinned. It was one of the saddest things Ferguson had ever seen.

And one of the bravest.

Richard Bolitho sat in the corner of the carriage and stared out at the crowds and the horses, vehicles of every size jostling for position with apparent disregard for one another.