Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik

Lord Allendale
    looked morose and reluctant, to offer the public a rival
    for their interest and admiration; and Laurence gradually
    understood through circular approaches that they meant him
    for this figure, on the foundation of his recent and exotic
    expedition, and the very adoption which he had expected his
    father to condemn.

    "To the natural interest which the public will have, in
    your late adventure," Wilberforce said, "you join the
    authority of a military officer, who has fought against
    Napoleon himself in the field; your voice can dispute
    Nelson's assertions, that the end of the trade should be
    the ruin of the nation."

    "Sir," Laurence said, not certain if he was sorrier to be
    disobliging Mr. Wilberforce, or happier to be forced to
    refuse such an undertaking, "I hope you will not think me
    lacking in respect or conviction, but I am in no way fitted
    for such a role; and could not agree, if I wished to. I am
    a serving-officer; my time is not my own."

    "But here you are in London," Wilberforce pointed out
    gently, "and surely, while you are stationed at the
    Channel, can on occasion be spared," a supposition which
    Laurence could not easily contradict, without betraying the
    secret of the epidemic, presently confined to the Corps and
    only the most senior officials of the Admiralty. "I know it
    cannot be a comfortable proposal, Captain, but we are
    engaged in God's work; we ought not scruple to use any tool
    which He has put into our way, in this cause."

    "For Heaven's sake, you will have nothing to do but attend
    a dinner party, perhaps a few more; kindly do not cavil at
    trifles," Lord Allendale said brusquely, tapping his
    fingers upon the arm of his chair. "Of course one cannot
    like this self-puffery, but you have tolerated far worse
    indignities, and made far greater a spectacle of yourself,
    than you are asked to do at present: last night, if you
    like-"

    "You needn't speak so to Laurence," Temeraire interrupted
    coldly, giving the gentlemen both a start: they had already
    forgotten to look up and see him listening to all their
    conversation. "We have chased the French off four times
    this last week, and flown nine patrols; we are very tired,
    and we have only come to London because our friends are
    sick: and left to starve, and die in the cold; because the
    Admiralty will do nothing to make them more comfortable."

    He finished stormily, a low threatening resonance building
    in his throat, the instinctive action of the divine wind
    operating; it lingered as an echo, when he had already
    stopped speaking. No one spoke for a moment, and then
    Wilberforce said thoughtfully, "It seems to me we need not
    be at cross-purposes; and we may advance your cause,
    Captain, with our own."

    They had meant, it seemed, to launch him with some social
    event, the dinner-party Lord Allendale had mentioned, or
    perhaps even a ball; which Wilberforce now proposed instead
    to make a subscription-party, "whose avowed purpose," he
    explained, "will be to raise funds for sick and wounded
    dragons, veterans of Trafalgar and Dover-there are such
    veterans, among the sick?" he asked.

    "There are," Laurence said; he did not say, all of them:
    all but Temeraire himself.

    Wilberforce nodded. "Those are yet names to conjure with,
    in these dark days," he said, "when we see Napoleon's star
    ascendant over the Continent; and will give still further
    emphasis, to your being also a hero of the nation, and make
    your words a better counterweight to Nelson's."

Laurence could scarcely bear to hear himself so described;
    and in comparison with Nelson, who had led four great fleet
    actions, destroyed all Napoleon's navy, established
    Britain's complete primacy at sea; who had justly won a
    ducal coronet by valor and deeds in honorable battle, not
    been made a foreign prince through subterfuge and political
    machination. "Sir," he said, with an effort restraining
    himself from a truly violent rejection, "I must beg you not
    to speak