A Regency Tale - 21

[ismenin]

Good afternoon. Here I am, I think. Not quite sure. :D But whatever, here is the next part of my story for your edification. We hopes you likes it, good sirs, yes we do!






Thanks LSR for your beta! xxx


Part 21- Reckonings and Resolutions



It was three days before Elijah was well enough to see Jack again.
Dom refused every one of his lover's earnest pleas to be permitted to do so, but Dom stayed firm, and remarked as Elijah wiped his mouth after a particularly bad bout of sickness, that he could do so with his good will if Elijah could promise him that he would not collapse during the interview.

Elijah, sure of no such thing, held his peace.

On the third day, the spiked wheel in his head receded a little, and Elijah, if he concentrated hard, could see only one of Dom, not two, through his misted eyes. He told Dom of this happy occurrence and Dom slapped his hand to his forehead and quickly left the room, returning in triumph with Elijah's eyeglasses.

"I am sorry, Lij; I cannot understand how I came to forget that I had them," Dom said in a voice filled with contrition. "I am sure you would have felt better before now if I had given them to you earlier."

Elijah smiled at his love, and said, with perfect truth, "until today, Dom, I could barely see anything at all, so bad has been my head - so the spectacles would have been useless, in any case."

After Dom had made sure Elijah had eaten enough breakfast to satisfy even his eagle eye, Elijah was permitted to rise and, garbed in a dressing robe of Dom's providing, sat in a comfortable wing chair by the fire for the forthcoming meeting.

Elijah had wished to hear Jack's story free from any remarks Barney would make during the recitation of Jack's tale. Barney was still very angry with the lad, as Elijah had seen when Barney visited him the previous day. Dom had told Barney straitly that he was not to seek to see Jack until Elijah and he had heard what the lad had to say.

However, before Jack had been brought to Elijah's room, Victor appeared with a letter for Dom. Elijah raised his eyebrow to the messenger who grinned at his new-found friend's surprise.

"My Lord Duke," he said in a friendly manner which robbed his tone of impertinence, "I am not above acting as footman when Dom's man is so zealously guarding the offender that he cannot be spared for his master's convenience."

Dom gave Victor his opinion of his comment in a phrase consisting of two pithy words then answered, "I remember, Victor, when you were very glad of Morlock's attentions. Genappe, was it not?"

Victor shuddered. "It was, Dom. Bloody awful place it was, too. Had the straw roof of the hovel we had been allotted fall into my stew on two occasions…mice," he added for Elijah's benefit. The horrified expression on his host's face as he recalled the incident made Elijah giggle, which, to Dom was a welcome sound.

Elijah was too well bred to ask the identity of Dom's correspondent, but Dom, stuffing the note in his pocket said, "Ceddie. He has been obliged to go out of town on an urgent affair. His sister, again, he says. Damned woman - she makes the most outrageous demands on him, you know..."


Elijah looked as if he was thinking, hard, and that his mind was elsewhere, but Dom interrupted his musings. "Poor Ceddie must have had a devil of a time, of late, Lij. We have not seen him since the night of the accident...assault.”

Victor nodded. "It is not like him to absent himself without good reason. He is usually so attentive a friend, is he not? I wonder what the abominable woman wants of him, now? Her demands on him are most unreasonable, for she sends for him as one would a servant. It must be she, Dom, it could be nothing else."

Elijah was only listening to Dom and Victor with half an ear. There was something niggling in the back of his mind, but he couldn't grasp it. So much had happened in the last few days. He had not even had time to answer Hannah's letter which he had received the day before the duel. Well, she would have to wait - he had more important things to occupy his mind at the present.

Morlock tapped the door to inform them that he had the prisoner outside, if the duke wished to interview him.

"Shall I go?" Victor asked. "I do not wish to intrude. I daresay you will wish me at Jericho, duke."

Elijah smiled. He was growing to like this man very much indeed. "Certainly you may stay, Sir Victor. It is your house, after all, and I see you are a man of generous understanding. You, who are not so closely involved in the tale, as are we, might see more clearly what is going forward, for I perceive that Dom is nearly as angry with poor Jack as is Barney, but Dom...do not show it, I beg you."

Dom stared down at his love in surprise. "Is it so obvious, Lij? I thought I had hidden it well."

Victor snorted. "Dom, my bully, you are like a horse champing at the bit. You will frighten the lad so greatly, he will be afraid to speak. Take a damper, is my advice to you!"

Elijah nodded. "It is very true, Dom. Sit over there, I beg you, and leave Jack to me. I believe we came to a tolerable understanding at...Ned's place. I am able to conduct the interview - I am not such a poor thing as you must think me."

Dom came swiftly across the room and knelt beside Elijah's chair, grasping his hand.

"I do not think you a poor thing, Lij. I would spare you, that is all, from any further distress."

They looked at each other long and slow with such an expression of love in their eyes that Sir Victor found something very interesting in the street and stared out of the window with apparent interest, allowing the lovers their moment together.

Dom was the first to gather his wits. "Bring him in, Morlock, if you please. We are ready.You may leave us. Go and polish Sir Victor's silver or something else as useful. I will ring if I need you."

Morlock cast Dom a darkling look before leaving, which, under other circumstances would have greatly amused Elijah. But Jack was standing in front of him, looking, not like a putative murderer, but a schoolboy apprehended during a prank.

Elijah gestured to the chair opposite him. "Pray sit down, Jack. It is still difficult for me to hold my head at such an angle. That ball hurt like the very devil, you know."

Jack's eyes filled with tears. "I'm sorry, Mr Eli...I mean your Grace. I didn't mean to bring you such suffering..."

Dom stifled an angry exclamation as Elijah held up a warning hand. "But you meant to kill me outright, Jack? That much is true?"

Jack nodded and looked at the floor. "Yes, sir. I thought you had caused my Dad to be killed, you see. Grey Owl - Sir Barnabas, I mean - told me it couldn't be so, and I believe him. But my Dad was lying dead on the doorstep, his brains..."

The lad shuddered and took Sir Victor's handkerchief out of his pocket, and wiped his eyes.

"I know I should have gone to Grey Owl - I mean, I know it now but I wasn't thinking straight, sir."

"Go on," Elijah prompted, in a gentle tone.

"When Foxy told me it was you, sir, that had sent the Preventives down on us, I believed him. Why shouldn't I? He was one of us - one of the Gentlemen. I didn't stop to think that if this was true he would have told Grey Owl, and he would have stopped it all - or, at least, seen that we were all safe. My mind was confused, sir. My Dad was all I had left in the world..."

Jack burst into desperate sobs, and Elijah could not help himself. He rose and took Jack in his arms, comforting him as best he could, whilst Sir Victor poured Jack a mouthful of brandy.

It was obvious, even to Dom that Jack was so distressed it was cruel to continue the interview, but after swallowing the stimulant, Jack calmed himself. "I would like to finish it, sir - get it over and done with. I can go on, now. Greeting over things is not going to bring Dad back, after all."

Elijah knew how it felt to be alone. He had been as good as an orphan all his life, but Jack...poor Jack had had a caring father in Ned, who loved him dearly. And Elijah found that he, too, felt the loss of Ned very keenly indeed.

Jack continued his tale. "I came to London with fifty guineas in my pocket, but most of it was robbed from me the first night in the inn at Tally Ho. Some men recommended it to me as a safe place. It was them as robbed me. Luckily I had five guineas in my shoe against emergencies, so I could pay my shot at the inn all right."

"Then I heard of the duel. I had been hanging about hoping to hear something, and I did. I bought a broom and set myself up as a crossing sweeper. In this way I found out all there was to know. Men are surprisingly loose mouthed when it comes to keeping secrets. You see, a crossing sweeper is a nobody - he is not regarded as being human at all. I was treated as if I wasn’t there. It was useful."

Elijah was regarding Jack with a look of consternation mingled with pity. The poor boy had had a tough time of it, that was certain. And there was no-one left of his family to put him on the right road...unless...

Jack broke his train of thought. "I stole a pistol. I had no money left, you see. I slept in the wood for two nights before the...meeting...to save my last guinea for ...afterwards. I hadn't eaten much in that time, either."

Elijah interrupted with a gentle word. "What did you intend to do, Jack? Afterwards....I mean..."

Jack looked at the floor again. "Sign on a ship going to the Americas, I s'pose, and start a new life there. I hadn't given it much thought. Without Dad I had no-one to show me how to go on - I'm not very good at being alone. Anyway, there's no getting away from it, Mr Eli - your Grace - I didshoot you, and I'm sorry. I am sorry, sir."

He stared at Elijah with hopelessness apparent in his eyes. "I won't have to hang for it, will, I sir? I'd rather shoot myself than suffer that. Oh, Dad!"

The boy fell into a paroxysm of weeping, and Elijah lifted his eyes from Jack to Dom. Dom shook his head and smiled softly at his love. Any anger he had towards the lad had ebbed away as he listened to the story. Jack was obviously half out of his mind with grief, but no jury would take note of that circumstance. If handed over to Bow Street, Jack would hang for his assault on the duke, there was no doubt of it.

Elijah rose from his chair and knelt by Jack. It cost him an effort to do so, for his head still pained him very much, but he did not regard that in the slightest.

"Come, Jack! There is no need to fear us, you know. We are your friends, and we do not forget that if it were not for you and...your father, Mr Dom would not be here today. Come, now, wipe your tears and we shall see what is best to be done. But, first, I think we should send for a nice cup of tea!"

Dom could not help himself. He burst into laughter.

*****

Jack had wiped his eyes and was gratefully sipping his tea. Dom had thought of Billy before Jack had half finished his tale, but could not remember what message Billy had said to send to the inn if he was needed - or what the inn was called.

"Well, Dom, I don't expect you was in very plump currant at the time, from what you told me yesterday," Sir Victor mused as he listened to the discussion.

Elijah picked a second muffin off the plate and spread it lavishly with butter. "It is well, for I remember perfectly. I am accounted to have a very good memory, you know. "Five hundred dibs in tune" is the message, although I am in a quandary as to whom to send with it. I..."

Dom interrupted his love. "I will send Morlock, Lij. There is no use in ordering a house servant to go there. It's probably a thieves nest and they'll carve the liver out of him before he's got over the threshold!!

Sir Victor stared at Dom in some amusement. "Well, from what I remember of Morlock, Dom, He's more likely to do the carving! God! I remember at..."

"Yes, yes, old chap, so do I remember Talavera, but this hardly helps us in the present circumstances. Will you allow your man to care for Lij until he returns to his house?"

Then Elijah surprised the men by informing them that he needed no-one to care for him as he was going home later that day.

"For I really cannot support inconveniencing Sir Victor any longer, Dom. We have imposed on his good nature for long enough. It is time we went home."

"Nonsense, duke! It has been no imposition. And I wish you will call me Victor, for I see we are about to become fast friends." Victor passed Elijah the plate containing the last muffin, and grinned at him in an affectionate manner.

Elijah was determined to prosecute his plan, and deaf to Dom's pleadings, he left late that afternoon, with Jack in tow, and Dom, standing on the pavement, promising to come to his house for dinner later that evening.

"For it must be said, Lij, that March thought it a very odd thing that I stayed here with you during the first few days of your ...illness. Especially, as he supposed, we were so little acquainted with each other.
Luckily I put it to him that to leave a stranger at Victor's house - abandoning you there for him to care for - was outside of enough, and not good ton at all. He was shocked, as the thought had never occurred to him, and as he is very punctilious in the correct way of going on, immediately owned that I was perfectly right not to do so. So I scraped through that tolerably well," Dom remarked as Elijah stepped into the carriage outside Victor's home.

Elijah sat, and regarded Dom with a look of warm affection.

Dom continued in the same low tone so the servants would not hear. "So I cannot be seen to be forever at your shoulder, Lij, if we are to escape the censure of society. However, an invitation to dinner is always acceptable. I shall see you at eight. And, Jack, mind you take care of him for me!" Dom ordered, forgetting for the moment that Jack had tried to murder his life's love.

He stared after them as the carriage set off for Berkeley Square, then returned to the house to bid farewell to Victor, who had allowed the couple the privacy to take leave of each other without his presence.


Morlock had been sent to Elijah's house on his way to leave the message for Billy, and apprised of his master's delicate condition, Slade had opted to travel in the chaise to fetch the injured duke home.

"Attacked by Footpads, indeed!" Elijah's valet, Slade, had confided in Whitney before he left the house. "As if I did not know what he has been up to - thank God his father is dead. He abhorred duelling, and not because he was not handy with a sword or gun."

The butler cast an understanding eye at his colleague. "No, his Grace's father had a sharper weapon than a sword at his disposal, did he not, Joe?"

"Aye, that's for certain," Slade remarked in a dry tone. "Never heard a man with such a tongue on him in my life. Been on the receiving end of it a couple of times, myself, too. His present Grace is such a pleasure to serve, compared with that... that... ogre."

Whitney nodded thoughtfully. "Compared with anyone, Joe, lad. His Grace has a most gentle and pleasing nature. I'm glad to hear he'll be coming home all right and tight."



Jack leaned back against the squabs and revelled in the luxury of travelling in a duke's carriage. He was wearing a suit of Victor's son's second best clothing, a high crowned grey beaver perched jauntily on his head and he carried a clouded cane with a superb gold top on it. He felt like a real swell, apart from the bruises, which were easily explained away. He, too had been attacked by the footpads.

They had decided Jack was the son of one of Elijah's bailiff's from Stanford Park, for nothing could disguise the soft country burr with which Jack spoke. However, his speech was good, and he sounded well. Jack became the bailiff's son come to town on some business on behalf of his father. The irony of this situation had not escaped Dom's attention, but Elijah had not noticed it.

Elijah fervently hoped no-one would enquire which bailiff was Jack's father. As he told Jack as the chaise drew up outside his home, "I will look down my nose at them, if anyone questions me regarding the matter - that always quashes pretension. Dom says it makes me look odiously top-lofty, but it can have its virtues on occasion."

Jack was told to give his own name if anyone asked it of him, and say his Grace had told him not to answer any questions concerning his mission.


None of the objections Dom had earlier put forth had persuaded Elijah to alter his plans to take Jack home with him. "Nonsense, Dom! If he is still intent on murdering me - which I do not think for a moment he is - I would rather it happened in the comfort of my own home."

As he was driven off, with Jack happily distracted by his turn of fortune, Elijah reflected on his other more private farewell when he and Dom were left quietly on their own by an eagle-eyed Sir Victor. They had spent a far too brief a time together lying in each other’s arms.

Elijah had discovered he felt nauseated by exertion, so they did not make love, but gently embraced each other, happy to be together, happy to kiss and to touch.

Dom ran his finger along the length of Elijah's jaw and wondered aloud not for the first time if God ever formed anything else as beautiful as this man. He doubted it. Elijah recalled how he had laughed but secretly his heart leaped that his lover could think such a thing.

Dom was hard for his love, but that did not matter. His Lij could not make love with him, so he would later find relief by his own hand. He had buried his face in Eijah’s neck, breathed in deeply, savouring the scent that was uniquely his Lij.

Elijah had captured Dom’s face in his hands and kissed the smiling mouth with fervour

“When will we be together again, Dom? Where can we do this without half the world knowing of it?”

There was silence for a few minutes whilst they kissed, each exploring the contours of the other's mouth and lips, tasting the passion that lay within.

Dom had kissed the tip of Elijah’s nose and then his forehead.

"We will find a way, my Lij. Leave it to me. Love will alwaysfind a way.”

Elijah liked that thought and only hoped it would prove to be that simple.


A Note On The Muffin

English muffins are nothing like the American cake with berries in it, or the chocolate flavoured confections. They are quite flat, round buns, an inch thick, half way between bread and a crumpet, that one cuts in two and spreads with butter and jam. Delicious. The American muffin did not filter down to my neck of the woods until the early 1990's when an ex-pat US gal got all incited over the new arrivals and bought two bags of the chocolate variety. I want muffins with butter and black cherry jam RIGHT NOW! xxx