A Regency Tale - Eighteen

[ismenin]

His Grace, Elijah, Duke of Stanford, by the excellent Prim Baggins



Hey-ho, me hearties! On a dull afternoon in Welsh Wales, I dedicate this part to all those with birthdays this week, *Waves at flist*, hoping they are having a happier week than the poor DomLijah.

I hope you all enjoy it - if that is the right word. :D







Thanks, as always, to Lady Sunrope for beta.

Part 18 - Amongst Trees and Grass



Elijah remained rooted to the spot, his mind a maelstrom of emotion; staring at Dom's back as he left the room, . He stood, heedless of the men talking quietly around him. A duel? A duel? He could not believe his ears. He could not fight a duel with Dom! His mind and heart revolted at such a thing. His beloved Dom? He could not do it - it was a thing impossible. Then Barney quietly took his arm and led him off to the dressing rooms.


"What on earth was you about, Lij, to allow yourself to get so heated you did not see the button had come off?" Barney said in an urgent undervoice. "I will go and put it about that you are having trouble with your eyes and are to consult an oculist about your sight - for, I tell you, you will not otherwise escape censure !"

Elijah sat on the bench and leaned against the wall, closing his eyes. "Yes, see what you can do to lessen gossip, Barney. I truly did not see it - the button. You must believe it!"

Barney offered his friend a wry grin. "I do believe it, Lij, for I have never known you to lie to me. But why were you so out of reason cross with Monaghan? I could see it, and, no doubt, so could the others."

Elijah opened his eyes and met Barney's puzzled gaze. "I was angry that he seemed to be toying with me - that is all. I seem to leap always to the wrong conclusion where Dom is concerned. Go and see what you can do, Barney."

Barney shook his head at this latest revelation. Clearly all was not well in Elijah's Paradise, and he fervently hoped his dear friend would not get too badly bitten. The Serpent seemed to be far too close for comfort.

Just as Barney was leaving on his self-appointed mission, Dom prepared to enter the room with March, his arm having been bandaged by one of the assistants, and, seeing, through the open door, his lover sitting there with his eyes closed, pale and dejected, was hard put not to rush to take him in his arms and kiss away the frown. He had brushed away his injury as an accident, but the Earl objected. He stood in the hall outside the rooms and stubbornly folded his arms .

"Damn it, Dom, it won't do, man. He must have seen the button was off - no-one could miss that! Unless he was an idiot or half-blind!"

The same happy thought that had occurred to Barney came to Dom in that moment, and lifted the heavy feeling that had been lying in his stomach, for he did not wish to believe that Elijah had deliberately hit him with an unguarded blade. That was it! That was why Lij could not shoot accurately at a target - he could not see it properly. He had a visual impairment!

Dom cleared his throat to gain a moment to gather together his thoughts. "It is odd you should say that, Julian, because Stanford told me, at the Regent's soiree the other night, that he was having trouble with his eyes. That must be it!"

March nodded, wisely. "It would, indeed, excuse much if it were so, Dom."

As they entered the room, Elijah stood and approached Dom. "I am sorry..." he began, but Dom cut him short. "It is very well, my Lord. I know you did not mean it - have you consulted an oculist yet, as you said, at Carlton House, that you intended to do ?"

Elijah stared in amazement. How could Dom know...?

He shook his head, dispelling the inchoate thoughts racing through his mind. Dom was trying to save his reputation. "I...I have asked my man to make an appointment for me, Monaghan. I beg... you must know that I did not see the button was off. I meant you no harm, indeed I did not. Are you much hurt?"

Dom smiled at Elijah as March helped his friend on with his coat. "A mere scratch, Duke. I am very well, I thank you for your concern."

March looked at Elijah with a little more kindness in his eye than had been there a few minutes before. "I am one of Monaghan's seconds, together with Cedric Fairford, m'Lord. I suppose Corsham will be acting for you. Whom else will you choose?"

Elijah felt the earth tremble under his feet and put out an arm to steady himself. So the duel was still going forward!

"I think I shall ask my cousin, Harry Warbois, March, if he is still in town. If not I shall find another of my acquaintance to act for me. When will... it...take place?" Then, looking at Dom with concern in his eyes, asked, "Will you need time to recover before...?"

"Well," Dom pointed out in a cool, but calm spirit of enlightenment, "it is my left arm that is injured, after all, Duke, so I should not have trouble holding a pistol, do you think? I will leave it to our seconds to thrash out a suitable place and date, that is, if you are not averse to this course?"

Elijah shook his head, his throat very dry. Pistols! "I thank you, no, my Lord. It is very well."

Barney came back into the room and winked at Elijah over Dom's shoulder. His mission seemed to have been accomplished to his satisfaction, and, after adjuring Dom to make sure he saw a doctor to check there was no infection in the wound, dragged an unwilling Elijah across the road for luncheon.

Elijah would not eat, but accepted a small glass of brandy from a concerned Barney when his friend saw how distressed the Duke was over the affair.

"Surely you realize it...the duel... is a mere formality, Lij? Good God, the man don't mean to shoot you! Remember when Peplow spilled wine all down Golden Ball's new coat? Nothing else for it, but a dawn meeting. Hughes Ball Hughes is very particular in matters of his attire, as you know. Worse than Brummel. Anyway, both men deloped and all was right and tight again. Went off to enjoy breakfast together, as happy as grigs. Shows you!"

Elijah gazed sadly at his friend over the glass from which he was sipping with a look of distaste on his usually amiable features. He had never had any great liking for Cognac, and the smell of it, now, brought vividly to mind an unwelcome picture of Dom, lying injured and feverish in Ned's house in the wood.

"But who knows if Dom means to fire in the air, Barney? He might be out to teach me a lesson. I don't know - I can't be sure..."

Barney swallowed the last mouthful of his steak and washed it down with a glass of ale. "Lij, you can be a nodcock on occasion, y'know. Of course he don't mean you a mite of harm - saw it in his face. What else was he supposed to do, eh? With half the club present, and you two supposed to be barely acquainted with each other, you thrust your foil into his arm? He had no other recourse than to call you out. If you had been alone, it would have been a different thing altogether - you could've kissed and made up. As it was - all those men gawping at you - nothing else he could do, old chap. Thought he handled the whole affair beautifully. A real gentleman, his Lordship - that I will allow."

After all that had happened that morning, Elijah was in no mood to accompany Barney to Jackson's, but returned to his house in a thoughtful frame of mind. He went to his room and rang the bell for his man, and Slade came in looking pale, coughing and clearing his throat.

"I am sorry, your Grace, but it seems I have taken an epidemic cold from one of the grooms. I beg your pardon," he wheezed in a husky voice.

Elijah was too busy wondering how it was that the mighty Slade had had contact with a lowly groom to concern himself about any possible infection he might take from him. Then he saw that his valet was looking very ill indeed.

"Go to bed, man - but first desire Whitney to send a doctor to you, on my orders...and get him to take a look at the groom, also. But first tell me where I may find a clean shirt - oh, yes, I see - thank you! I shall ask for one of the footmen to assist me until you are fully recovered. Now, go!"

The man gratefully bowed himself out, still coughing, and Elijah changed his shirt which was damp with sweat, and retired to the library, ostensibly to read the newspapers. He picked up the Pelican, but it lay unread, in his lap. In reality his whole mind was given up to Dom and their forthcoming meeting, the thought of which could not but fill him with dread.

How he wished that Dom was here, in his arms, and all of it forgotten. Elijah closed his eyes and let thoughts of the green fields of Ireland run through his mind. It was a far more pleasant occupation than dwelling upon what awaited him in the near future.



Two days later Elijah visited Dr Hawkins the famous oculist, accompanied by the Earl of March, who was acting as Dom's second. March had only half believed the story Dom and Barney had put about, for he had checked, and was quite certain the Duke had not complained of his eyesight to any other of their mutual acquaintance. He determined, therefore to offer to accompany the Duke to his appointment, which was gladly accepted by Elijah, Barney having left town abruptly on the evening of the incident.

Lij - I'll be back in a few days. I am sorry, but something has come up which needs my urgent attention out of town. Chin up! It will all be over soon. B ...

ran the hasty note delivered by Barney's man. Elijah wondered what it could be that made him leave in so incontinent a fashion, especially as he must know that he - Elijah - needed support from his closest friend at this time. He determined not to quiz Barney about it - if he wished to tell Elijah of his doings, he would do so without prompting.


At the oculist's surgery, Dr Hawkins took quite some time examining Elijah and at the conclusion of it, addressed the Earl of March with a wry grin.

"Well, my Lord; you ask if His Grace's eyesight is poor enough to support his assertion that he did not see that the button was come off his foil. I must inform you, sir, that the Duke's eyesight is so poor, I wonder he could see his opponent without a pair of eyeglasses, never mind the foil! I shall write a letter to that effect which you may pin, with my goodwill, on the board at Angelo's."

He bowed slightly to Elijah. "Your glasses will be ready within the week, my Lord Duke. I shall have them sent to you. If you have any problem with them at all, send a lad to fetch me - I shall be glad to come and adjust them."


After March had put the letter up at Angelo's, Elijah was pleased to note that his acquaintance continued to show him that distinguished observance to which he was used. He would not have been surprised if some had cut him. He was glad that his reputation remained intact, and was also grateful to both Dom and Barney, for they knew more of him than he did of himself. He was so used to not seeing properly - it was obvious, even to him, that he could not know how it could be otherwise. The arrival of the eyeglasses was a revelation. Everything was so much clearer, now. It was a new, brighter and clearer world.

Elijah would have liked to know what Dom thought of the letter now pinned on Angelo's notice board, but what Dom's feelings were on the subject, unfortunately, no-one had heard.


*******


The seconds, having met together, and proceedings agreed upon, the meeting was arranged for the following Friday, at dawn, on Finchley Common.

"Barney knows of a secluded spot, Lij," said his other second, his friend, Gil Faversham, as Elijah's cousin, Harry, was out of town. "Nice little clearing where no one will see you from the road, and no nosy magistrate will come snooping in and stop the fun."

Elijah could think of many things that he would be fun, but this was not one of them...except that all the others he had thought of also included Dom. He forbore comment, however, and tried to behave as if it did not mean very much to him.

Gil was intent on relating the tale of his own meeting with a man whose toe he had inadvertently stepped on in a shop doorway in Regent's Street. He had scratched the man's new boots just delivered from Hoby's, the irate boot-owner had pointed out to Gil, but Elijah was listening with half an ear. In truth, he was very frightened about meeting Dom in this way. He had never even witnessed a duel, but he did remember vividly that a few years previously, a distant relation - a lad of nineteen - had been shot and killed during such an engagement.

Elijah did not wish to die. He wanted many years before him to savour his new relationship with the most wonderful person he had ever met, and not to have his life snuffed out at dawn on a cool, misty morning in early summer.

All his acquaintance seemed to take the matter lightly, but Elijah was not at all sure. What if Dom wished to teach him a lesson? He had seen Dom shoot and knew that he could engage to put a ball through any part of Elijah that he chose. Perhaps he meant to clip him as a warning. He had, after all, heard nothing from Dom, even though he had sent a note to his house, formally apologising for the incident. He was hoping for a reply, and was sad and unsettled that none had been forthcoming.


As Elijah, not having slept a wink, rose before dawn on the fateful day, and dressed himself all by guess - the faithful Slade still being confined to his bed on doctors orders - Dom was doing the same thing, assisted by his henchman, who, being on such free terms with his master as would cause critical comment amongst Dom's peers had they known of it, ventured an opinion.

Chard, his valet, had died some time previously, and Dom had had brought up from his country seat someone in whom he reposed the greatest trust. Morlock had been Dom's batman during his time in Europe, and, besides having kept Dom's clothing as neat as a new pin during the most difficult of circumstances, had fought beside his master through three battles and four other engagements. The man was also very fond of his employer, and Dom of him.

Morlock was a wiry, grizzled man in his early fifties, with a large nose and sparkling grey eyes. He was no-one's idea of a valet, but Dom did not care a button for that. A relationship existed between them that went far beyond anything that would be thought allowable in polite circles, not only because Morlock was allowed an opinion, but that he was encouraged to voice it - which thing would not be tolerated in any other servant.

"Now don't you go hurting of his Grace, Sir - he is werry well liked in society, I judge. Werry well liked, he is," said the man, in far from refined accents.

Dom shrugged into his coat, and glared at Morlock with a look that rested between annoyance and amusement. "Bugger off, man. Less of your impudence, damn you!" he said as he left his room, and made his way out through the front door to the Hackney carriage Cedric had waiting outside. If Dom had cared to glance up the street, he could have seen Elijah leaving his house, but he did not choose to do so. He looked neither to the left or right, but sat between March and Cedric, a stony expression on his face.


The doctor, Dom's personal physician, was waiting for them with Gil Faversham on the edge of the Common, and the group walked to the clearing Barney had found, to find Elijah and his friend waiting there.

Barney, who had returned to town three days earlier, was leaning negligently on the bole of a convenient tree, but Elijah was restlessly pacing up and down, his face as pale as milk.

Elijah had suffered a gruelling few minutes waiting for Dom. He was shivering, although the morning boded fair, and he felt hot and feverish, and his eyesight was blurred even with the aid of his glasses. He had taken Slade's epidemic cold from him, that was certain, but it could not be allowed as an excuse to postpone the engagement. Far better to get it over with.

When they met briefly and shook hands, Dom felt Elijah's trembling in his. He was also, Dom noted, wearing his new eyeglasses.

Poor boy - my poor boy! Dom thought, sadly, and determined to get it over with as soon as possible.

Dom, being the injured party was allowed first choice of weapon from a very fine pair of Manton's pistols provided by Cedric. He tried very hard not to look at Elijah, who was now trembling more violently than ever. He could not wait for this to be over. It was a dreadful ordeal for both of them.

March gave the instructions for the two men to stand back to back, mark out twenty paces, then turn. When he called "present" they were to take aim. They were to fire, as was usual, whenever they so chose. If one man fired first and missed, he had to stand completely still whilst his opponent took his shot - those were the rules of engagement. Those intent on doing their opponent some serious injury, or who thought that the other man meant to hurt them, needed to get in their shot first, and make it a good one.

The two men paced the distance, and turned to face each other. Dom saw that Elijah was hardly able to hold his pistol, far less aim it, and, taking pity on his lover, quickly pulled back the catch, and as the second called "present!" pointed his gun at Elijah, then jerked his arm up and fired.

Elijah dropped to the ground without a single word, his life's blood staining his face and hair scarlet.


Glossary

Delope - fire the gun in the air. A formal way of ending a duel without injuring one's opponent.

Grig - grasshopper - as happy as a grig.

Nodcock - idiot, fool