Read Online Lieutenant by Kate Grenville - Free Book Online
Authors: Kate Grenville
Tags: General Fiction
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it, and the governor knew it too. The Great Cabin on Sirius had never offered solitude or quiet. At one end of the chart table, Rooke would be calculating the ship’s longitude with the aid of Dr Vickery’s Almanac and the Requisite Tables . At the other end, the midshipmen would be doing their navigation lessons. By the window the commodore would be at his own desk with his papers and charts. In the corner there might be an animated discussion between a couple of officers about, for instance, the respective merits from a culinary point of view of the variousfish that the sailors were catching off the side. Rooke could be called on for his opinion and give it without missing a beat in his calculations.
The governor, isolated both by his position and, Rooke thought, his temperament, might have understood a man who enjoyed his own company best of all. But to allow him that enjoyment could look like an indulgence, and indulgence to one officer would open him to trouble from others.
The governor put his thumb under his chin and caressed his lip with a forefinger. Rooke could feel him performing a brief but complex calculation, one in which the need to demonstrate his authority against this mulish junior lieutenant was set against the future usefulness of a cooperative one. Rooke felt a flush of panic. Gilbert was nothing more than a naval captain of unremarkable talents, older but less gifted than himself. How was it that he could stand between a man and his proper life?
‘Very well, Lieutenant Rooke. Have your headland. Let the Astronomer Royal get his comet. But, let me warn you, at the first sign of trouble you will be recalled. We are not so lavishly supplied with men. There may be a time when every musket is needed. And Lieutenant’—he lowered his voice— ‘speaking of that, I wish you to ensure that your weapon is loaded at all times.’
Then a private came bustling up and that was the end of the interview.
Out of sight of the governor Rooke stopped and laid a hand on his cheek, hot with the bitter flame of what he had so nearly lost.
Squeaked through , that was his thought. A narrow squeak . What squeaking? Why squeaking? It was a relief to wonder about the silly phrase rather than what would have happened if the governor had said I regret, Lieutenant, but my decision is final, kindly do not ask again .
He must remember how fragile his position was. There might be a destiny awaiting him here, but the governor was not interested in it. If he knew what was in his lieutenant’s mind he would remind him that he was not a man of science, an astronomer of the fairest promise , but just another of the governor’s subjects.
Unlike Greenwich, an antipodean observatory could not boast a majestic building with every convenience for an astronomer. The best approximation Rooke could devise was a small room surmounted by a cone of wood and canvas, something like an Indian teepee. The cone would have a long slit to accommodate the telescope, and its vertex would be a little off-centre to allow observations at the zenith.
It looked peculiar on his sketch, and he thought it would be peculiar when built. But there was a sharp pleasure inre-inventing the idea of an observatory from first principles.
Major Wyatt took the view that he could not be expected to pander to every whim—he did not spell out whether the whim was the lieutenant’s or the governor’s—but eventually he let Rooke have some men. They panted and scrambled up the ridge with the canvas and the poles for the tent that was to be Rooke’s temporary home, with the bed and the table and the boxes of instruments.
Explaining his sketch to the carpenter, Rooke referred to the teepee as the dome. Perhaps dome was a little grand. He tried to explain why the cone had to be off-centre, went into detail about the need for the instruments to point straight up. He tried to use commonplace words, but he caught an astonished look in the man’s eyes.
To speed the
The governor, isolated both by his position and, Rooke thought, his temperament, might have understood a man who enjoyed his own company best of all. But to allow him that enjoyment could look like an indulgence, and indulgence to one officer would open him to trouble from others.
The governor put his thumb under his chin and caressed his lip with a forefinger. Rooke could feel him performing a brief but complex calculation, one in which the need to demonstrate his authority against this mulish junior lieutenant was set against the future usefulness of a cooperative one. Rooke felt a flush of panic. Gilbert was nothing more than a naval captain of unremarkable talents, older but less gifted than himself. How was it that he could stand between a man and his proper life?
‘Very well, Lieutenant Rooke. Have your headland. Let the Astronomer Royal get his comet. But, let me warn you, at the first sign of trouble you will be recalled. We are not so lavishly supplied with men. There may be a time when every musket is needed. And Lieutenant’—he lowered his voice— ‘speaking of that, I wish you to ensure that your weapon is loaded at all times.’
Then a private came bustling up and that was the end of the interview.
Out of sight of the governor Rooke stopped and laid a hand on his cheek, hot with the bitter flame of what he had so nearly lost.
Squeaked through , that was his thought. A narrow squeak . What squeaking? Why squeaking? It was a relief to wonder about the silly phrase rather than what would have happened if the governor had said I regret, Lieutenant, but my decision is final, kindly do not ask again .
He must remember how fragile his position was. There might be a destiny awaiting him here, but the governor was not interested in it. If he knew what was in his lieutenant’s mind he would remind him that he was not a man of science, an astronomer of the fairest promise , but just another of the governor’s subjects.
Unlike Greenwich, an antipodean observatory could not boast a majestic building with every convenience for an astronomer. The best approximation Rooke could devise was a small room surmounted by a cone of wood and canvas, something like an Indian teepee. The cone would have a long slit to accommodate the telescope, and its vertex would be a little off-centre to allow observations at the zenith.
It looked peculiar on his sketch, and he thought it would be peculiar when built. But there was a sharp pleasure inre-inventing the idea of an observatory from first principles.
Major Wyatt took the view that he could not be expected to pander to every whim—he did not spell out whether the whim was the lieutenant’s or the governor’s—but eventually he let Rooke have some men. They panted and scrambled up the ridge with the canvas and the poles for the tent that was to be Rooke’s temporary home, with the bed and the table and the boxes of instruments.
Explaining his sketch to the carpenter, Rooke referred to the teepee as the dome. Perhaps dome was a little grand. He tried to explain why the cone had to be off-centre, went into detail about the need for the instruments to point straight up. He tried to use commonplace words, but he caught an astonished look in the man’s eyes.
To speed the
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