Mark Arbour

Yeah, no spoilers on 9-11. You'll have to hang in there. I'm glad you liked this chapter, and you know I love my readers, or at least most of them. ;-)

Pushing each other's buttons = fathers and sons. :-). IMHO

Just take Ricky with you!

July 11, 2001 I sat back in the Gulfstream V’s comfortable seat and watched Mason’s BMW drive away, even as the engines wound up and we started to move. “That wasn’t Tony,” Dad joked. “That’s pretty perceptive of you,” I teased. “So what’s your plan?” “I thought I’d go to Hawaii with you,” Dad said. “I figured we can surf tomorrow, and then I can head back to Malibu on Friday.” “That’s awesome!” I said enthusiastically. “You’ll only get one day on the

It was too much of a golden opportunity to have Granger in India and not meet Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington.

I suspect that is what Chartley is now, but once he "retires" and returns to London, will he be different? If he does return to London.

I suspect Granger is a little disappointed that Chartley is going too, but I think Chartley is much more involved in Bertie's business dealings than he's let Granger see. I suspect for him it's rather important.

Take five Viagra. That should give you a painful erection and send you to the hospital. That should be good for 8 hours.

April 1798 “I would much rather have gone to Madras,” Granger groused to Bertie and Chartley as they watched the sprawling city of Calcutta envelop them. “I am sure John Company would be willing to change its entire administration and move its headquarters from Calcutta to Madras, just to suit you, George,” Bertie said sarcastically. “I will have to ask the Governor-General about that,” Granger said, smiling. “Who is he, by the way?”

OK

I would be happy to tell you how stupid you are...if only you would oblige me by being stupid. I'll let you know when that happens. You are correct in that Granger left orders for Calvert, not Bertie, and one would assume that those orders tell him to sail for England with all due haste. And while Bacchante is considerably faster than Santa Clarita, and she has a head start, there is no accounting for the vagaries of weather. Bacchante could end up becalmed for weeks while Santa Clarita rushes toward her.

Time for an update. How are you, my friend?

Yep, and it's your fault. Langridge was wrong, so I fixed it.

That would be an interesting hearing, if Jeanine tried to get his emancipation revoked. There would probably be some interesting things to discuss. I wonder if Stef's behavior would factor in as an influence on Will's behavior. I wonder if it would matter if his fathers have a dungeon in their bedroom. Super jailbait.

Actually, firing on the uproll was the preferred French (and Spanish) strategy, with the assumption that if you immobilize a ship it is then at your mercy. How well that worked out is illustrated by the battle history between the Royal Navy and their Franco-Spanish adversaries. But you make an excellent point, in that once the ships were at close range, it was in essence a slug fest, where fire was predominantly directed into the enemy ship's hull. That's why rate of fire was so important, something most Royal Navy ships excelled at. You raised another good point, in that there weren't many men in the rigging during a battle. Ships would reduce to "fighting sail", generally topsails only, once battle had been joined. That meant they didn't need men aloft and could focus the entire crew on fighting the ship. The only people aloft would most likely be snipers, and certainly there wouldn't be officers in the tops. In addition, they would have rigged slings across the deck to protect themselves from falling spars (partially effective) and gruesomely, falling bodies.

He's got the libido of a 17 year old. That's pretty much the definition of a handsome male between 17-19: worry about the next sex act.

I agree with everything you said. Will and Mason were in that 'honeymoon stage' of getting to know each other...the reality didn't have a chance to set in. And Tony seriously needs a shrink.

Hmmm. I don't think that just because Will's bottoming he's being used. In fact, I'm betting that based on my estimate of the top:bottom ratio in the gay community, it's probably the tops that are being "used".

Yep. That's what I'm thinking.

That one works. By the way, I don't think the woman you picked for Hank is butch enough, but the other one works perfectly for Jeanine.

That was actually a little harsh, to bring Tony's father into the conversation, but Will seemed to do it in the spirit of tough love, as you noted. There are really two distinct things happening here. Tony is struggling with his sexuality, something Will is prepared to be quite patient about. But Tony's also treating him like shit, and that's something Will's not going to put up with.

I didn't intend this to be a major admission/moment for Mason, I saw it as a casual, after-sex comment. And I think that in the vernacular of his age demographic (14-19 year olds), they "yeah, pretty much" was significant agreement. I usually preface comments with qualifiers, because I don't view these characters as being set in stone. They can evolve, and sometimes even I haven't figured out what's going on in their minds. I see Mason like that as well, as a guy who knows he's gay but isn't ready to come out yet.

You know, I think that what made Mason a fun character is that Will obviously had fun with Mason.

I see Mason is this a good guy, but one who has kind of cocky and smarmy attitude. Will didn't see much of that.

I'm glad you're enjoying it! You raise an interesting point, and that is that Stanford doesn't start classes until the end of September, so Tony won't have to be back before 9-11.