“Hawke has apparently agreed to back your explanation, that this was a freak occurrence,” Darling said. “Why?”

“Because it was.”

“Do you like Mr. Hawke?” Darling asked.

“No, sir. I don’t.”

“You do not like him, you did not hire him,” Darling said. “This was your chance to blame him and get rid of him. Why hasn’t that happened?”

Darling watched Kannaday’s face. The blanket glow of the spotlight left nothing in shadow. The captain did not break eye contact or move his mouth. It was unnatural.

Kannaday was concealing something.

It took a long moment for the captain to speak. It must have felt far longer than that.

“You’re right,” Kannaday said at last. “I called him out for this. I demanded that he surrender his post.”

“And what was his response?”

Carefully, the captain rolled down the neck of his sweater. There was a white surgical bandage taped to his throat. In the center of the bandage was an ugly red spot. Jervis Darling was not surprised to see it. Kannaday had to have been wearing the high collar for some reason. Had he been injured in battle, he would not have sought to hide the wound.

“Hawke put a blade to my throat.”

Darling snickered. “You let him surprise you just as the pirates did.”

Kannaday did not reply.

“Hawke let you survive so you could absolve his team of blame,” Darling went on. “On the one hand, I should not care about that. I am only concerned about results. The problem, Captain, is that I like people to meet or surpass my expectations. You have failed in that regard.”

“Once!” Kannaday said. There was frustration, not anger, in the captain’s gravelly voice. “We’ve had a single slip in more than a dozen very difficult, perfectly executed missions.”

“You had two slips, Captain Kannaday,” Darling pointed out. “First the pirates, then Hawke.”

“All right,” Kannaday agreed. “I made two mistakes. I accept that responsibility.”

“Wherein lies the problem,” Darling said. “Errors can be repaired. Restoring trust is another issue.”

“Mr. Darling, I feel like a catboat in a bloody hurricane,” Kannaday said. “I need to finish this job. Then I have to look ahead to the other jobs. I can live with the way things are between me and John Hawke. My ego can handle that. But how do I fix it with you?”

“You are the captain,” Darling said. “Figure it out.”

“Sir, I’m trying very hard to do that,” Kannaday said. “In the future we will attack or avoid any ship that comes close. We’ll push the Hosannah to make up as much lost time as possible. I will work out my problems with John Hawke if you like.”

“Captain Kannaday, I don’t ‘like’!” Darling sneered. “You suffered a mutiny on board your vessel!”

“It was a disagreement, Mr. Darling.”