Читать книгу American Captain - Эдисон Маршалл - Страница 19

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In the end I lugged both fish to the hospital, where they caused great stir. Having told of catching them on a beach far from our meeting place, I could only hope that some finny beauties were biting there, for many of the walking patients and several of the staff planned to set forth at dawn. The two lunkers furnished a feast both in the wardrooms and the common tables.

That night I did a little fishing of another sort in talk with Chaplain Blain. Although the low cunning attributed to Yankees had not come out in me yet, by mentioning Captain Ball, governor of the island, I led him on to name other bigwigs in and about. It turned out that there was only one other. He was Captain Sir Godwine Tarlton, in command of all navy installations. And the chaplain’s eyes glassed as he spoke his name.

“ ‘Sir’ means that he’s a knight?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“But that’s not as high as a lord.”

“According to precedence, no. A new-made baron sits above Sir Godwine, but it would make him very uncomfortable. I don’t mean Sir Godwine—I mean the baron. The old marquisate in North Ireland was lost. Again and again his ancestors have been offered peerages, only to decline. All they’ll accept is knighthoods, a different thing entirely.”

“Excuse me. I’m not well versed on English nobility and gentry. Why would he accept a knighthood when a knight is below a lord?”

“A knighthood is not hereditary and has little to do with family. In feudal times, knighthoods were often won in battle; it was a personal honor, not a family one. Sir Godwine accepted a knighthood for service against the Colonies; but it’s the names Godwine and Tarlton, not the sir—more than that the man himself—that chills the backbone of impostors and upstarts. But of course you don’t understand that. No American could.”

“I find it mighty interesting.”

“He was the only gentleman of England who refused to meet Beau Brummell, who’s hand-in-glove with the Prince of Wales. Dukes bow and scrape to him, but Sir Godwine said he did not accept the acquaintance of clerks’ sons and shopkeepers’ grandsons. It made the prince furious, but what could he do? Sir Godwine has plenty of money. He didn’t want any honors that the prince could pay him.”

“I’d like to see him. Does he lodge in Valletta?”

“No, in one of the old palaces near Notabile—with his young daughter and his natural son. But his official headquarters are here. And if you see a small man, dandyish in dress, with a cocked hat and powdered hair and always carrying a stick instead of wearing a sword—that’s one of the marks of the Tarlton family—you needn’t look much farther.”

“Will his natural son be able to take his place in society?” I was getting warm now, in the words of the old game.

“I doubt if he’ll encounter any difficulty. It’s pretty well known that his mother was a countess. The daughter is almost a beauty, I hear, although a bit odd-looking.”

“But if she’s an heiress——”

“She’s not, according to the talk. The Tarlton money goes to Dick. Still, she won’t be a drug on the market. There are too many young officers, of good name and prospects, loose on these seas. I hear of one in particular.”

I did not ask his name. Maybe I was afraid of showing too much interest. Perhaps I did not want to know.