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]

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.