“He is with me,” Felix said.
Greer appeared very unhappy and shuffled some papers around. “Well then, take a seat. What can I do for you?”
“I have come to ask, to plead, for Gabriel’s reinstatement as captain.”
Felix gestured to Jennings to come closer and sit down.
Greer sucked his teeth. “Is that so? Did he convince you he had not meant to shame me?”
“Actually, I meant to shame myself,” Jennings said in a low voice.
Greer adjusted his bulk in his chair. “And you did a fine job of it I must say.”
“And he is sorry for the trouble he caused,” Felix added. “For everyone, but especially to you. It was not well done of him, but grief and drink robbed him of his dignity that day.”
Jennings said nothing to correct him, and he was grateful not to be contradicted. It had to be said that Jennings had been a fool. It had to be easier if someone else said it for him.
Greer’s gaze finally settled on Gabriel, his eyes hard and assessing. “You, sir, are lucky not to have faced me on the field of honor.”
“I know,” Jennings said quietly. “And yet I would not have deserved the expense of the shot, let alone the burial.”
Actually, it was probably Greer who was lucky that Jennings was incapable of answering his door when the seconds had called that night. Jennings had been so under the weather that it was said he had oozed from his chair without any semblance of having bones within his limbs. And Jennings had stayed that way for fully eight months. Tubby Greer had not come out from behind his desk in years and likely would have been incapable of matching Jennings’s former skill with a sword or pistol. Two lives had probably been saved thanks to his inebriation.
“I will vouch for him,” Felix added. “He has changed.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“It is not as if I can lose my late wife again,” Jennings remarked. “I have made my peace with her loss and vow never to let love affect me again.”
Greer grunted and turned his attention to Felix. “He is reinstated at half pay.”
“Half pay?” That was not enough, but it was a starting point for negotiations. Felix wanted Jennings to command a ship again. During the journey to London, he and Jennings had talked about his future if this meeting went badly. The only way for Jennings to prove himself again and put the past behind him was to find an active profession. He was best suited to command a frigate.
Greer took papers from a desk drawer, scrawled a signature, and handed them to Jennings. “Give these to my secretary on your way out.”
The reinstatement had come so easily that perhaps Admiral Greer had always meant to reverse his decision if given the opportunity without the loss of honor. He nodded. Greer had at least some compassion in his soul. Felix sat forward. “What about a ship?”
“There are none”—Greer scowled—“so even if he was sober enough for sailing his way out of a mere hip bath, there is nothing more that could be done.”
“There must be a ship somewhere,” Felix protested.
Jennings grasped his arm. “Hastings, you have done enough for one day.”
It was not enough. “What if a command were to become available today?”
Greer’s eyes narrowed, and then he shook his head. “Planning to murder a fellow captain? That is one way to do it, I suppose, but terribly untidy.”
The sarcasm was not amusing, but there was a way. Felix’s solution was not simple and would likely cause argument within the admiralty, but he was the only captain who had means and motive to make the offer. He took a breath. “What if I step aside?”
“Hastings.” Jennings gasped, almost leaping from his chair. “What the devil are you suggesting?”
Greer turned his full attention on Felix, eyes alight with amusement. “You would resign as captain of the Selfridge for the sake of a drunkard’s soul?”
“For my own,” he insisted. “But only if Captain Jennings assumes command.”
A devious smile curled Admiral Greer’s lips. “Well, well, well. Do I sense friction between you and your esteemed benefactor? What will the Duke of Rutherford say? He likes to throw his weight and money around the admiralty.”
If Felix returned to marry Sally, there probably was not a lot he would say against his resignation. “There has always been friction, but in this I feel I have the Duke of Rutherford’s complete support.”