“Sir John Dycker.” Ashley’s fingers twitched at his side.

“Who?” I asked quietly.

He pretended not to hear me as he collected his blue frock and shrugged it on. “Prepare to receive him and his lieutenants.”

“Yes, my lord.”

Wallers stepped out, closing the door behind him.

“Who is John Dycker?” I gripped Ashley’s arm, startled by the tension in his muscles.

“Admiral of HMS Ludwig. My superior.” He pulled away and grabbed his hat, his tone calm, void of emotion. “Play-time is over.”

He headed toward the exit.

“Ashley.” My heart ached as I waited for him to turn. When our eyes connected, I stood taller, my voice fierce. “Change your course and set me free. This is our happiness. Yours and mine. Take it.”

“I cannot.” He opened the door and swept out in a blear of royal blue. “Sergeant, escort Miss Sharp topside if you please.”

He vanished around the corner, without a backward glance at my fractured expression.

34

There were three things certain in life—disappointment, death, and the pompous presentation of English admiralty.

Sir John Dycker strutted his important self across the upper deck of HMS Blitz, paying no attention to the rolling drums, strident pipes, and booming cannons that lit up the overcast sky in his honor.

His superior rank allowed him to walk among these men as if he were the king himself. Adorned in rich silks, brocades, and embroideries of gold and blue, he reeked of wealth and status.

Lines of soldiers stood in perfect formation around me, regarding the admiral with unconcealed awe and great fear.

As the sailors had escorted me topside, I’d heard their whisperings about the sort of discipline Sir Dycker meted out. One sergeant claimed that the admiral carried a rattan cane so that he could whack slow-moving crewmen across the head. Another said Dycker was known to make his lowest-ranked man run the gauntlet, forcing him to walk naked between parallel lines of soldiers while everyone flogged his back with knotted cat-o’-nine tails.

Ashley would have a better idea than most as to how his admiral governed men, but his expression gave nothing away. He stood off to my right at the end of the line with a row of lieutenants separating us. I’d been shuffled toward the back as if my presence put a moral stain on the proceedings.

I watched Ashley in my periphery, only glancing in his direction when I was certain no one noticed. But he never met my eyes or acknowledged my existence in any way. I reminded myself he was the commodore of this ship, and this was his mask. The veneer he wore among his men.

Deep down, however, I didn’t believe that was all this was. Something had changed between us the instant that knock had sounded on his door.

That something had to do with HMS Ludwig.