We'll rant and we'll roar like true British sailors...with a soldier

[simplestgift]

Who: Norrington (abidinglaw ), Hornblower (captainhornblower ), Sharpe (greenjacketed ), Bush (wouldntbetonit ), Kennedy (simplestgift ), and Wellard (bravelad ).
What: Officers' dinner.
When: The 23rd at four o'clock
Where: The captain's cabin of the Britannia
Summary: Archie's feeling like recapturing some of the magic officer dinners used to have when Aubrey and Maturin were here.
Rating: A is for Awkward, B is for Bonaparte, C is for Cinnamon, D is for.../shuts up

So Archie isn't Aubrey, but he's tried to make things warm and have lots of good food.  He's done pretty well, but his attempts to replace the captain of which he was so fond aren't perfect.  The beef is, perhaps, just a tad drier, the pudding a teensy bit too moist, and other such nitpicks, but hey.  One of you try it.

Comments

[greenjacketed]

Here sat one glowering Major. His green jacket was as impeccably kept as it could be in this forsaken hovel of a village -- and despite the Lieutenant's insistence that it would not be a formal meal, he would have worn his dress uniform had it been available to him. Not so, no. Instead, Sharpe made do with his faded red officer's sash and the jacket he'd taken with him to the jungle. Tidied up, at least. Buttons polished. A heavy cavalry sword (certainly not regulation for an infantryman and doubly not for an officer) sat at his hip.

At first, he'll speak very little. Asking politely for this or that and trying to downplay his rough Yorkshire vowels. After about a half hour or so, however, it will be clear that this man has been jumped up from the ranks. This would go very far indeed at explaining why he seemed so...stiff. Uncomfortable. Haunted.

Sharpe was practically holding his breath waiting for the first snide remark or joke that he couldn't understand.

[abidinglaw]

"So. Yorkshire? A lovely place."

There was not so much as a hint of snide in his voice, but then, he was exceptionally good at hiding it. Really, failing to understand one of Norrington's jokes should be a secondary concern next to the difficulty involved in determining just whether there was a joke intended at all.

[greenjacketed]

"Beg pardon, Admiral. But I have not witnessed its loveliness first-hand for these twenty years, now."

So curt. So by the book.

[abidinglaw]

"Ah yes. Our duties would tend to draw us elsewhere, would they not?"

The admiral refilled his glass. It gave him something to do with his hands - for a short while.

[greenjacketed]

"Yes, sir." And there had been so many elsewheres, for Sharpe. "I imagine that is one of the few comparable points atwixt the army and the navy."

[abidinglaw]

"Oh no. I should think there were a fair few more than that, wouldn't you?"

[greenjacketed]

He shook his head.

"Not in my experience. No, sir."

[captainhornblower]

Aubrey would have known precisely how to engage this man. Possibly Maturin, too, but Horatio liked to dismiss the Irishman as the unfriendly sort. Never you mind that the same could be said of him. Archie, too, was far more personable.

Still. Britannia was his ship, and he took that to mean he shared the duties of playing host. A large share still fell to his lieutenant, as he'd been the man behind this, but Horatio wouldn't be slack with his duties.

"We've been remiss about this," he said, more to the group, but he does look specifically at the Army man. "It used to be that we'd dine together every week."

[greenjacketed]

Sharpe very carefully cleared his throat before replying: "I've only missed a handful of neglected weeks, Captain Hornblower. For I'm still what the rest of the village calls a...a New Feather."

Horatio Hornblower was this ship's captain and so was due his proper respect. However, the man was an unknown to Sharpe and so he would treat with trepidation.

[captainhornblower]

"I hope you have not met with too much--" What was the right word for Luceti? It need not be hostile. Not really. It hadn't been welcoming. Not to him. Uncomfortable but not always unpleasant. "--resistance--" Even that word doesn't sound quite right, but it's the closest he can come to the right word. "--in your attempts to settle in.

It takes some getting used to, I've found."

[greenjacketed]

Being so terribly on alert, he had to wonder whether Hornblower asked this based on his status. The non-gentleman playing at lords and officers. But even Sharpe realized he was reading too deeply into this innocuous question and quickly shook his head.

"On the contrary, the established population's been most welcoming. Those who hold us here, on the other hand..."

A one-shouldered shrug as he reached for his glass.

[captainhornblower]

"I've found that those 'responsible' for our stay here are, at best, unreliable. I'm glad to know the village hasn't given you much trouble."

He can hardly find it odd. As he told Archie, people don't take well to him, and he's used to it. That Sharpe's had a different time of it isn't surprising.

[greenjacketed]

Frankly, it had spooked him that people had been most welcoming. Villages tended not to like soldiers, in his experience. Those who sounded like the common ilk even less.

"I'm glad to finally meet you, Captain," he lied. At least -- he wasn't glad of this circumstance. "Many had told me there was a considerable naval presence."

[abidinglaw]

Norrington tried the beef. Of course he wouldn't have tackled the pudding yet - it was a dessert, and they hadn't finished this course. What was he, a barbarian? Knife and fork, dainty cuts, impeccably straight. He could not be heard to chew, and very rarely would he be seen to transfer anything from the plate to his mouth. To have acted otherwise would have been unseemly.

[simplestgift]

Archie, for his part, tries to be something of an Aubrey-substitute, trying to prompt conversation and be generally congenial and light-hearted, but after a while it's just too painful. He's great one-on-one, but as the life of the party? So much fail. After about fifteen minutes, he gives up forcing the act and eats his pie.

He misses Aubrey and Maturin. Maybe Maturin was borderline treasonous, but so is Archie, and Maturin's utter lack of regard for military propriety was so refreshing at these dinners. Maybe he should have invited Elizabeth, even if it might have raised eyebrows. She'd be fantastic at this.

Maybe he should've waited till he'd made better friends with the extremely uncomfortable-looking soldier before inviting him to dine with the other officers.

[greenjacketed]

And yet, Archie Kennedy was the beacon 'round which Sharpe's attention hung. The only other soul he'd met in this place. Later, when conversation had split off into other corners and he could catch the man to himself, the Major tilted his chin and sought Kennedy's attention.

"You lied to me, Lieutenant."

[simplestgift]

"Mm?" He does not appear disturbed by the accusation, only curious. "And how?"

[greenjacketed]

In truth, there was no bad blood swimming in the accusation. Just a naturally gruff way of speaking. "Twice, in fact. On the day we first met and once again this afternoon. I thought you'd just arrived!"

And you, he thought now, had let me think it.

[simplestgift]

"Oh." His face falls, and he winces slightly. "I don't recall lying to anyone today. And as for the day we met, I'd rather say I merely allowed you to believe something you'd come up with yourself."

He tries to keep it light, but the more he talks, the more uncomfortable it is.

[greenjacketed]

Oh, his collar felt hot. And in a wholly humiliating sort of way. Had he somehow read their conversation poorly? Had he missed some vital written detail?

"I asked about who else would be here, Kennedy. And your answer led me to believe we wouldn't see as many as this. If I'd known..."

Well, if he'd known? He wouldn't have attended.

[wouldntbetonit]

It's actually something of a good thing that Maturin and Bush never actually met. Someone might have walked away with a fork lodged in their hand. As far as Bush is concerned though, there isn't a thing missing from this dinner. In fact, he's downright chipper. In his own quiet 'pass the beef' way. There hasn't been a gathering of officers like this since he arrived and it's a welcomed thing. Bush was busy missing naval life and order on sea, so this was a pleasant reminder of the way things were.

"Pass the mustard, Kennedy."

A true conversationalist.

[simplestgift]

Blink. Blink.

"I...did not think to bring any. Sorry."

THE DRAMA.

[wouldntbetonit]

No mustard? With...actual food?

England is falling. Can you hear it Archie? Crumbling at the very foundation. The King has run away with Napoleon. Nelson wears skirts and dogs walk men in the streets! Chaos! Panic! Horror!

Can nothing save us?!?

"Oh."

[simplestgift]

As Archie watches the apocalypse taking place in Bush's brain, he gestures to the table.

"There's catsup."

[wouldntbetonit]

But. Mustard.

"Thank you."

But he doesn't take it because Bush is stubborn and set in his ways when it comes to food. English sailors and their mustard. How dare you try to substitute his god-like condiment with something so awful as catsup? Jerk.