"Eh?" Hoag did as he was bidden. These windows faced seawards. The sea was grey, swell heavy and nimbus clouds had closed out the sun, dominating the sky. "Oh!"
"Yes, oh! There'll be a bloody storm before dusk so no cutter burial even if it was possible, and you know Sir William ordered a Hong Kong burial so by God that's where it will be."
"But Settry, don't--"
"Not for you, Angelique, anyone--"
Pallidar broke off with a new fit of coughing, then added hoarsely, "Sir William's in charge, he made a decision and that's it.
Clear?"
"Yes, but..."
"No bloody but for Christ's sake. Kindly fetch some cough medicine and stay to hell out of the morgue. Sergeant!"
Towery stuck his head in. "Yessir?"
"Put a sentry on the morgue, no one to go in without my approval. I don't want the coffins touched."
Hoag went off cursing himself for leaking Sir William's decision, cursing Pallidar, the busybody Sergeant, but mostly himself. Fuck it, he thought. I've botched it. In the clinic he found the cough mixture, was tempted to add some castor oil but decided not to. "Here, Settry, this will do the trick."
Pallidar took some, choked. "Filthy stuff, you sure you didn't pee in it just for badness?"
"I was tempted." Hoag smiled. "Sorry for being a perfect bloody idiot. You can still close your eyes, you could you know, Nelson did."
"Yes but he was Navy, we keep our eyes on teeth marks."
"Settry. Please?"
Thoughtfully Pallidar sipped the medicine.
"You should comply with Sir William's order, best in the long run. You were bound to be caught, yesterday was the thirteenth."
"Damn me, I didn't notice."
Hoag's attention focused on the care lines on the good-looking face. "What's up?"
"With me, nothing, except this lousy cold and cough. Plenty's up in the Settlement."
"What now?"
"Last few days lots of enemy movement all around us, samurai patrols, most of them covert --just for safety we've been patrolling to the Tokaido and Settlement limits so we spotted them. Coming here samurai were stacked ten-deep in places. They didn't interfere with us except for the usual gibbering. I counted almost four hundred armed bastards."
"Tairo Anjo trying to harass us, scare us?"
"Probably." Pallidar coughed, took another gulp of the medicine. "This is dreadful, I feel worse already. Ugh! I'm recommending we withdraw all personnel from here for a while."
Hoag whistled. "We wouldn't want to close the clinic."
"I wouldn't want to have you dead without a coffin.
These bastards love surprise attacks. Like poor bloody Malcolm. Someone's going to pay for him."
Hoag nodded, "I agree." Idly he was looking out towards Yokohama, the countryside flat and uninteresting in winter--hate the cold, always have always will. His eyes took him to Prancing Cloud, the steamer mail ship, the merchantmen, warships and tenders all busy, preparing for the coming storm or preparing to leave. Warships had smoke trickling from their funnels--fleet orders, well publicized, so that the Bakufu and their spies would be aware that the whole fleet could sail on a war footing within an hour.
Stupid, all the killing, but then what can we do? Those responsible must pay. Then he saw the smoke from the Struan steam cutter chugging this way, bobbing through the troughs, spray from the bow wave drenching the glass of the bridge and main cabin. His anxiety crested. "Settry, don't you think--" He aborted another fervent plea, suddenly realizing that even if tonight was out for the actual burial, with luck he could still keep the first part of the plan and have the wrong coffin put aboard Prancing Cloud.
I'm the only one who knows which coffin is which, except perhaps the Sergeant and I've a hunch he won't notice the difference. No one can, unless a coffin is opened. "Don't you think life in Yokohama is weirder than other places, living on a powder keg as we do?"
"It's the same everywhere. Just the same,"
Pallidar said thoughtfully, watching him.
YOKOHAMA Jamie, Angelique and Skye were grouped around the bay window in the tai-pan's office.
Rain splattered the glass. It was near midday.
"Tonight will be too dangerous."
"Then it will storm, Jamie?"
"Yes, Angelique. Enough to stop us."
"Will Cloud sail tonight as planned?"
"Yes, no storm will stop her. The cutter's gone to Kanagawa to collect the other coffin. You still want it put aboard her and not the mail ship?"
"That's Sir William's order, not mine," she said firmly. "He wants to send my husband against his wishes and mine, he says it should go as quickly as possible and that's by clipper. A coffin will go as he wishes. Jamie, our ruse, I think our ruse is fair. As to the storm, it will be a little storm. If we can't bury my husband tonight, then we'll try tomorrow. Or the next day."
"The mail ship will sail tomorrow around noon."
"Could you delay her, in case?"
"I think so. I'll try." Jamie thought a moment. "I'll talk to the captain. What else?"
Angelique smiled, sadly. "First we have to see if Dr. Hoag was successful. If not ... perhaps I must go with the clipper after all."
"More than likely Hoag will come back with the cutter, then we can decide." Jamie added, not believing it, "Somehow it'll all work out. Don't worry."
"What about asking Edward Gornt to join us?" she asked.
"No," Jamie said. "The three of us are enough with Hoag. I've arranged berths on the mailship, for Hoag, you and I."
Skye said, "Angelique, it's much wiser for you to stay here. Everyone here knows Wee Willie made the decision against your wishes, and that takes some of the heat from you."
"If we cannot bury Malcolm, then I will go.