[It's a simple question. It's a fact-based question--the sort Horatio tends to do best with, at the end of the day. There's still the briefest stutter of a pause when, briefly, the faces of a few of the ship's boys--and the still faintly childish features of the young Mr. Midshipman Wellard--flicker abruptly through his mind.
None of them were his own, of course. More than that, even the boys hadn't been children for a long while yet.]
...no, ma'am. [It's simple and factual enough. Still, a stubborn piece of him can't help adding:] None of my own.
no subject
None of them were his own, of course. More than that, even the boys hadn't been children for a long while yet.]
...no, ma'am. [It's simple and factual enough. Still, a stubborn piece of him can't help adding:] None of my own.