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[ismenin]

Hello there! Yes, it's a day early - but what the heck? I LIKE my flist, and thought you might be pleased.

LSR beta'ed this last week when she was here, because, like the idiot I am, I gave her the wrong part to do, so she went through two of them. Thank you, Lady Sunrope.

So - on with the motley...






Part 26 - The Circle Turns


Dom had fallen asleep, and it was Morlock who woke him with a cup of tea and an injunction to "get out of bed now, m'Lord, if you don't wish to receive his Grace in your dressing gown."

Dom cursed amiably at the man and prepared himself for the forthcoming encounter.

The meeting in Elijah's study on the previous day had resolved certain issues; one of these being that no-one outside the room was to be told of the second man in the thicket - not Ceddie, or Harry - not even Gil's brother, Ferdy.

For, as Sir Victor had so wisely remarked at the time, "you said it yourself, Corsham, every friend has a friend, and that would get about quicker than wildfire. What is worse, it would soon get out of the inner circle and cause conjecture of the kind we are all most anxious to avoid." He was right, of course. They resolved to keep silent.

Dom met Billy coming down the second staircase and waited for him on the landing. It had not been possible to house Billy in one of the better rooms, as he was wearing a fustian jacket and moleskin trousers, which, although neat and tidy, were not the sort of garments worn in polite circles. The servants, awake upon every household happening were bound to gossip if he had been accommodated on the same floor as his host.

It had been several hours since Billy had eaten, and he was not against joining Dom for a second breakfast, which they ate in haste as it was almost ten thirty. Dom did not wish, he said, to meet Elijah smelling of bacon.

Billy grinned at this remark. "I well remember when you were very sick, and you threw up all over his shirt as he was holding you at the time, sir. I hardly think the smell of as nice a bit of bacon as I've ever eaten would put him off. A very hardy gentleman he is, I must own."

Dom, almost blushing at this mention of his lover, made some comment, passing over his Lij's attributes. He was well aware that Billy had no inkling of their closer relationship, as far as he knew. He thought it politic that the fewer folks that knew of it, the better it would prove.

Elijah arrived at Dom's door in a chaise, as Dom had demanded, and it was immediately seen that Elijah was not happy about it.

"Good god, it's only a matter of two hundred yards, Dom!" said Elijah, hotly, as he was ushered into the room where Billy was sitting. He broke off as soon as he spotted the room's sole occupant. Until Billy was greeted by Elijah and had his hand warmly shaken and his welfare enquired after, there was no point, Dom thought, in referring to the important matters seething away in his mind.

Dom had had too much to occupy him to question Billy concerning his doings since the men had left him in the lane all those months ago. However, Dom was shocked out of the abstraction into which he had fallen when he heard Billy say, "I was hoping to have set up a small business carrying cargo, Eli - Elijah, but I could not find a boat that was large enough for haulage at the price I had set."

"It is a great pity, for all my family have been notable seamen - not my mother, of course, or my sister" - here Elijah laughed, and Dom closed his mouth with an audible snap - "so it is a great pity, for I have always longed to be the captain of my own..."

Here Dom interrupted him. "What would you say, Bill, to being captain of one of my vessels?"

Elijah, who was just about to offer Billy the extra money he needed for his venture, stopped in mid-phrase, his eyes shining.

"Billy as captain of your new yacht, Dom? What a splendid notion!"

Billy was staring at Dom, a mixture of hope and desperation writ large on his countenance.

"And between shuffling us about all over the world, you may haul as much cargo - as long as it is clean stuff - in the hold as you can cram into it."

Billy looked rather perplexed at this remark. "But you have a yacht - or rather, a yawl, already manned. You told me of it at...Ned's place. I wouldn't wish to deprive others of their employment, sir."

Dom looked offended but there was a twinkle in his eye. "I have bought another, smaller vessel, Bill. And I cannot understand why you are permitted to call his Grace Elijahand I am only allowed to be sir. My name, Mr Boyd, as you well know, is Dom."

Billy's face broke into a wide grin, and while he was stammering his thanks to Dom, the latter was sending an unspoken message to his Lij with his eyes. Billy was to be told of their relationship.

"I must have a man in charge whom I can trust, Bill, for it involves a matter of the utmost delicacy," Dom confided, his face now serious.

It was clear Billy had no notion what Dom was attempting to convey to him, but Elijah, sparing Dom's blushes, remarked in a low voice, "we will be sharing a cabin and a bed on board, Billy, as we do on land, and we need someone of discretion, whom we may trust."

Billy beamed with delight. "Well, I'll be jiggered!" he managed at last. "Of course you may rely on me, gentlemen - mum as an oyster, I am!"

His brow furrowed, then he smiled again. "And will you allow Jack to be on board as your cook?"

Dom nodded and smiled. "I give you leave to hire as many men as you need, Bill. Good men, discreet..."

Billy slapped his thigh. "Damned if I don't know a couple of men in the same case as yourselves, gentlemen. I'm sure they will be only too glad to join with me, for I was ever sympathetic to their problems - they could rarely get work on the same vessel, them both being expert steersmen, and few ship's masters being able to afford to employ two. It was that made 'em give up the sea and take to farming, but they've never liked it. They'll come, if you'll have them, sir...Dom."

So the matter was settled.

They hardly had time to come to terms with this new arrangement when Dom's butler came to announce that Sir Barnabas Corsham wished for an urgent word with his Grace and his Lordship. The man had no time to finish his sentence. Dom, feeling something was greatly amiss, gestured the man away and a harassed Barney came hurrying into the room. He nodded at Billy, but addressed Elijah.

"He's bolted, Lij - Jack, I mean. He slipped out in the middle of the night, and my man, who was supposed to be keeping an eye upon him - curse him - did not notice it until he went to call him for breakfast. Left a note, too, which was kind of him," Barney growled through gritted teeth, and then sat down in the nearest chair, rage apparent on his usually amiable features.

The two men most closely involved in the tangle were visibly concerned, and Billy, who had grown pale as he heard the news, wandered abstractly over to the window, peering out as if Jack would be seen in the street below.

"It is not your fault, Barney," Elijah remarked in soothing tones. "Short of tying him to his bed you could not have stopped him leaving, except by brute force."

"Aye, and I wish I'd done that, too, before this should happen. Here's the note," he growled, passing it to Dom.

Dom read aloud the hastily scribbled message.

Dear Mr Dom and Mr Eli, I had to go. I am sorry, I fear for my life here. I must go. I will try to find Billy and he will look after me. I am sorry, Jack

Dom stared at Barney. "What does he mean, Corsham? Was he afraid of you?"

Billy spoke from the window embrasure. "He was very fond of Grey Owl - I mean Sir Barney - it would not have been him he feared. He trusted him, as we all did, to see us right."

Barney shot a grateful glance at Billy. "It wasn't me - earlier in the evening, before he piked, he told my man that he had seen a familiar face in the street, looking up at him. That's what scared him off, I have no doubt. It is my guess it was the other man from the thicket - who else could it have been?"

Dom, seeing Elijah's puzzled look, said, "Piked - loped off, ran away. Thieves' cant. You ought to be careful where you use this language, Corsham, or else people will wonder where you picked it up."

Barney smiled and shook his head. "Oh, it's all the crack, these days, Monaghan. Everyone uses it.
But I am very much distressed that we cannot now rely on Jack for the identity of the second man - and I cannot hide from you that I am concerned for Jack's safety. If he has returned to Tally Ho, he is amongst dangerous men."

Billy walked back to the centre of the room. "I'll go after him. I know Tally Ho, and a right thieves den it is - but I'm known there, more shame to me - and if he's there, I'll find him and bring him home all right and tight."

Dom furnished Billy with a large amount of money, saying that he'd better take it as he didn't know who he might have to pay to get Jack off safe and sound, and there were other matters that needed funds.
Billy left in a Hackney without further ado, leaving behind most of his belongings, saying philosophically that they'd steal the cheese from a mousetrap where he was headed.

"What do we do, now?" asked Elijah, looking at the other two men for suggestions.

Dom was adamant. "I take you out of the city before that man, whoever he is, gets near to you again, Lij. You - neither of us, come to that - is safe here. We leave in the morning. There is no need to bring your man, unless you very much wish it. Morlock will do anything you may need. He is used..."

Elijah smiled. ...he is used to looking after two... he thought.

"Very well, it shall be as you say." Elijah said, resigned at last to leaving, although privately more concerned for the danger that threatened Dom, than afraid for himself.

Barney scowled. "Bugger it! I have pressing business with my bailiff, so who is to accompany you out of town, pistols at the ready?"

Elijah could not help it - he laughed. "I think I'll ask Sir Victor for his guardian troop. They will be the best thing. Or, perhaps Bert Slugger on his own, not to seem too obvious. You may return to your lodgings, Barney, and it is my pious hope that your man receives a just reward for letting Jack escape."

Barney left, promising a good beating to the careless reprobate, although his further threat of denying the man access to his gin for a week added greatly to Elijah's amusement.

Dom insisted on escorting Elijah back to his house, much to his love's chagrin. "I am not a child, Monaghan, I would have you know!"

"I know you are not," Dom whispered as they descended the steps onto the pavement. "If you cast your mind back, Stanford - I think we have proved you are not!"

Casting his mind back was all too easy, and the subsequent thoughts so discommoded Elijah that his pantaloons tightened in an alarming fashion, and it was several minutes before he regained his composure.

Consequently they were standing in Elijah's hall when Elijah next spoke. Whitney sailed forward to greet him, two satellite footman in attendance, which made Dom smile.

"Your Grace, Lord Henry is in the Green Salon. It appears you invited him for luncheon. He was most surprised to find you from home."

Elijah's brow wrinkled. "Did I? I quite thought it was tomorrow. But, no matter - there will be three for luncheon, Whitney."

As the butler bowed himself off, Elijah murmured to Dom, "I must tell Harry that I am leaving. It cannot always be seen that I vanish like a will-o'-the-wisp each time I leave town. It will occasion remark amongst my acquaintance."

Dom concurred, and as they entered the salon Dom was agreeably surprised to see the look on Harry's face lighten when he saw him.

"I thought you had quite forgotten our engagement, cousin. Monaghan, your servant!" said Harry with a grin, bowing low.

"No, you may acquit me of forgetfulness, Harry, old chap - but I quite thought it was tomorrow that we were engaged to meet."

Harry frowned. "Was it? You may be right. My lamentable memory. It is not as keen as yours was used to be. I remember - if you'll forgive the pun - that it was prodigious. No small detail ever escaped your mind, did it?"

Elijah laughed as he sat beside his cousin. "That was true when I was a child, Harry - but it has not been so sharp of recent times. There is something niggling at the back of my mind that I have been trying to remember for several days past - but it will not come to me, try as I will."

It was in the middle of an excellent luncheon that the thing which Elijah had been trying to remember came back to him. He almost choked as it popped into his mind.

Harry patted him on the back, and asked solicitously after his welfare, but by the time Elijah had regained his breath, the injunction laid upon them by Sir Victor to tell no-one anything concerning the present predicament came forcibly to mind, and he brushed it off as a morsel of meat gone down the wrong way. However, he cast Dom a desperate look which made him fully aware that there was something sadly amiss.

Both men were desperate for Harry to go, as Elijah was big with news and became slightly abstracted, answering Harry's queries at random. It was left to Dom to tell him that Elijah was leaving the next morning.

"Where will you go?" Harry asked, casting a worried eye over his cousin.

"To France, I think. It is safe there, now the reign of the Monster is over. We shall get the packet from Dover and I shall send for my vessel from there to meet us at Le Havre in a couple of weeks.
We shall sail about a little as I think Lij needs the sun - he has had a poor time of it, of late - he needs to rest."

Harry agreed. "I shall accompany you to the port. I expect the packet still leave twice a week, in good weather - if you do not mind being incommoded on a public vessel."

"He is welcome to take me away in a wheelbarrow, coz, if he will. But there is no need for you to inconvenience yourself to accompany us, Harry. We shall do very well as we are."

But no argument that either man could advance - and there were many - could sway Harry from his chosen path. He would go with the pair and see them safely onto the vessel.

At last Harry took himself off, and Elijah almost dragged Dom into the study to tell him his news.

"Good god, I thought he'd never go! Now what is it, my love? What has so distressed you?"

Elijah sat by the window, looking out. He did not meet Dom's eye which slightly worried his lover.

"It was in Hannah's letter. In the aftermath of the attack upon me I had forgot it. But you may not like what I have to say."

Elijah's eyes met Dom's warm grey ones, and Dom smiled at him. "The news - whatever it is - may prove unwelcome, Lij - but not the mouth that speaks it," and so kissed Elijah on the lips, which action made Elijah smile in a wistful manner.

"Come, tell me what in your sister's letter has so disturbed you."

Elijah clasped his hands together. "At any other time I think I would have immediately noticed it, but I was not myself..."

"In her letter Han gave me the latest on dit of the new French court - and the King, of course. Who was in favour, who was not - and how Mama was making up to a wealthy French Duc."

"But then, she wrote...she wrote that there was this appalling woman who had been there above two months before they arrived, and who had attached herself particularly to Mama, and Mama could not shake her off, try as she might. Mama was acquainted with her as a girl, but could not remember her married name - but said she was a near relative of the Duke of Devonshire, and that is how Mama came to know her. She was used to be a Miss Fairford before she married and gave herself airs, Han reported, and she has a brother called Cedric."

"Dom - Ceddie could not have been visiting his sister in Hampshire, could he, if she was in France?"

Dom was struck dumb. Ceddie had lied? Why was this? He folded his lips tightly together. "I sent a man round to his lodgings this morning, with a note inviting him to dine with me tonight. I felt I needed to explain why we were occupying his bed, and apologise for keeping him out of it until the small hours."

"Now I think I shall wring out of him what it is he has been about, and why he felt the need to hide it from me. Do you care to join us?"

Elijah nodded. "Indeed I do, Dom. There is too much in this to concern us - we must not ignore the slightest matter."


At eight o'clock that evening, Dom and Elijah sat in the Green salon at Dom's house, both wound as tightly as two drumskins.

They heard the bell peal, and moments later the butler announced, "Mr Fairford, my Lord"

Dom cast a warning glance at Elijah and jumped up to greet his friend. "Ceddie, old fellow! I have sorely missed you. Where have you been?"

Cedric shook his friend's hand and bowed in an amiable way to Elijah, who tried to smile, but could not quite bring his face to do so. However, Cedric did not seem to notice, as all his attention was centred upon his friend.

Dom motioned Cedric to a chair and, as he sat, he commented, wryly, " I know at least where you two have been - at least I hope it was you in my bed t'other night. You could at least have changed the sheets, Dominic."

Elijah blushed scarlet, but Dom, his nerves on the stretch, did, nevertheless, manage to laugh. "I am sorry for that, Ceddie, but you did rather rush us out. We thought you was still at your sister's - that is where you have been, is it not, until recent days?"

Both men were watching Cedric very closely, aware of his every movement and nuance of speech. "Aye, I was - and I was never so glad to get away, Dom. She grows worse with age, she...why, what is it, Dom. Why do you look at me in that manner?"

Dom walked deliberately over to the table, opened the drawer and pulling out a small pistol, held it in his palm. He looked at it as he spoke in a low tone.

"We know your sister is in France - Lijah's sister saw her there. You had best tell us what has been going forward - the game is up!"

Elijah tensed, waiting for Ceddie's confession. The threat in Dom's voice was unmistakeable.

Cedric stared back, seemingly unruffled. "Are you calling me a liar, Dom?

"Yes." Dom cocked the pistol, yet still refrained from pointing it directly at his friend.

"I want the truth from you - and if I have to shoot you to have it, I will."

Comments

[mews1945.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, now what's Jack gotten himself into? I'm glad Dom hired Billy to captain his yacht. But now, is Ceddie really part of the plot? Can't wait to find out what he's been up to.

[ismenin.livejournal.com]

Poor Jack! My withers are wrung for the lad, I must say. Awww! :D xxx