ismenin | (no subject)

Good morning!(Just!) It's a beautiful, sunny day here, so fired with zeal and enterprise I am just going out into the garden to watch Richie work! :D

But before I do - here's this weeks episode of........

Grateful thanks to LSR for her clever amendments to this part of my story and her beta. Mwah!

Part 28 - ...Something Wicked This Way Comes.

Dom held Elijah by the arm and rushed him through the parlour door. Fortunately for both of them, Morlock was coming downstairs to eat his meal.

"Morlock, stand outside that door,"he commanded as he took Elijah down the corridor into the kitchen, "and let no-one in there - no, not even the devil himself!"

"Yes, my Lord," the servant replied, used to instantly obeying his master's commands, and took his position, arms grimly folded, before the door.

Dom hurried into the kitchen and shouted "Soap! Bring me lye soap, the strongest you have! Quickly!"

A girl hurried over with the soap and a towel, and Dom raced into the yard where he found the pump, and, holding Elijah's back flat against his own belly, scrubbed the nerveless hands of his lover.

"I am sorry, Lij, it might take off the skin..." he broke off as a groom passed him. "... you! find the landlord, and Lord Harry, and send them here, immediately, man! It is most urgent!"

Elijah, leaning against Dom's body, spoke. "I do not feel quite the thing, Dom. Do you think...?"

Dom did indeed think Lij had ingested the poison through his skin, but hoped his own swift action had lessened its effects.

"Lean against me, my love," he whispered into Elijah's ear, as he dried his lover's hands, "I will take you inside, soon, where you may rest."

The groom came rushing out of the inn. He came swiftly up to Dom. "There is no sign of his Lordship, sir, or of the landlord. What shall I do next?"

"Go and find my man Morlock, and take his place. Guard the door he is guarding, and let no one in there, do you understand? Good - tell him to come to me."

Dom turned Elijah around to face him and saw his eyes were heavy with sleep. He looked towards the door as Morlock came running. "I will carry him, Morlock, and do you clear the way. Hurry, before he faints away."

The voice was so quiet Dom nearly missed it. "I am not going to faint, Dom, I am just tired, that is all. I can walk."

Dom neatly picked up Elijah, and, despite his protests, carried him into the inn.

Dom did not venture to carry Elijah to bed, but followed one of the maids into a comfortable room which boasted a large sofa on which he gently deposited his burden.

"We must get a doctor to him, Bernard," Dom abandoned all formality with his servant, "He has been poisoned."

"Has he taken the poison, sir?" Bernard enquired as he placed a cushion under Elijah's drooping head.

Elijah answered in a flat tone. "I can answer for myself, Dom. No, I took no poison, but touched it only."

"Heaven save us," Morlock muttered under his breath.

Elijah turned restlessly on the sofa. "Where is Harry?"

Dom did not know what to answer. "I do not know - I fear he has been ...intercepted. There is no sign of him." He turned sharply to his servant. "Go and send for the doctor, damn it!"

Morlock was helping Elijah out of his coat. He had already removed his shoes. "Be easy, sir. I sent one of the ostlers for him as soon as you rushed the duke out of the door. I disobeyed you, you see. I glanced into the room and saw immediately how it was."

"Poor Achilles," Elijah said in a shaking voice. "He was such a likeable little chap."

There was a slight pause during which Dom cleared his throat and Morlock built up the fire. His Grace was cold to the touch. Morlock did not think the case was desperate, but they did not know what poison had been used to taint the food.

"I am thirsty, Dom. Could I have some water, do you think? I do not wish for wine."

Morlock moved towards the door. "I'll fetch it myself, m'Lord, straight from the pump..."

Dom was not unaware of the tacit warning behind the statement. Nothing in the inn could be consumed until they knew it was safe. Whoever had tampered with the food might still be there.

A servant girl came in carrying a blanket and a soft pillow. Elijah whispered a "thank you," but lay with his eyes closed, moving little.

"How are you, Lij?" Dom whispered after she had gone. He leaned over the sofa, and stared with frightened eyes at his love.

Elijah had just whispered that he was well, but cold, when Morlock appeared with a jug of water and two glasses.

Dom spoke with Morlock, who left the room again, and returned a few minutes later and nodded at his employer. Dom held a second glass of water to Elijah's lips, and saw that he was able to swallow it more easily than he had the first, which afforded him some relief. Then the door flew open, and Barney and Cedric rushed into the room.

"Damn your eyes, Dom! Why did you not tell me you were leav...? " Ceddie almost snarled, then, taking in Dom's pallor and Elijah's heavy-eyed lassitude, laid his hand on Elijah's shoulder and asked, in gentler tones, "how are you, duke?"

Barney strode to the sofa and took hold of his friend's hand. "Lij, old sport? How do you go on?"

Morlock coughed discreetly. "The duke would go on much better if he could be given some peace, gentlemen. It is my belief his Grace is suffering chiefly from shock, not poisoning, and needs air and quiet!

Cedric, who had seen in Spain, how skilled Morlock was at nursing the sick, drew Barney over to the window, where they held a rapid, low-toned conversation.

The result was that Barney took Dom's place by Elijah's side, and Cedric left the room with Dom.

Dom took Cedric into the parlour where Achilles lay. Cedric cast a swift but thorough look about the room. Everything was as they had left it those few brief minutes before. The carving fork lay on the carpet next to the dog; the meat had grown cold on the platter. All was quiet.

"Should I send for a constable, Dom? Although I cannot see one coming tonight, as it is nearly dark - and I suspect there is not one closer than ten miles - not to the west, anyway."

Dom shook his head. "I think we must send tonight, Ceddie, but I cannot see anyone arriving before morning - God knows how far it is to the nearest constabulary."

Dom rubbed his hands over his face in a gesture of weariness. "But Lord Henry has disappeared, you know. I have instigated a thorough search of the inn, from the attic to the cellars, but no one has come to report that he is being held here."

Cedric's face held an arrested look. "That is sad hearing. I hope, for Elijah's sake, that he is soon found. Elijah is bound to be worried, and he needs to rest. The poison may yet have harmed him in some way, Dom."

Dom nodded. "I know. Come, let us leave this room. I must get back to Lij, so please tell me the round tale, now, or you and I, I promise you, will come to blows. Out with it, man, I’ve had enough of surprises!"

Cedric shepherded Dom out into the cool night air, and sat on a bench there. There was no-one about, so Cedric felt he could speak in the utmost safety.

"Aye, you have the right of it, old chap. It is time to open the budget. I'll tell you everything I know, so be patient, it will not take long. It is a salutary lesson to us all...a sad tale. It all began..." Cedric began, removing a cigarillo from its case, "...with a horse...."

In the parlour, lying on the comfortable sofa, Elijah, feeling slightly better, began to grow angry.

Barney examined his friend with some concern. He was not overly worried about the poison, for when Lij told him, in hushed tones, what had happened so swiftly to the dog, Barney was sure that Morlock was right. It was chiefly shock that afflicted his friend.

Really it would do him no good to become heated, and Elijah had just informed him that his cousin Harry had disappeared...was feared taken...just before the incident with the capon. This was very bad news, and fell on Barney's ears like a death knell. Poor Elijah! If there was not enough for him to be concerned about - now this!

"...and," Elijah said in bitter accents, "I grow weary, Barney, of pistols and thugs and poisons. Will Dom and I never have peace - never feel safe? It is outside of enough that we have to hide our love as we do. Will we be like the Israelites, with nowhere on the earth that we may set foot, and call a haven?"

Barney immediately expunged from the details he was about to reveal to Elijah the most important fact of all. It could wait. Ceddie was, no doubt, informing Dom, as they had decided, of the name and nature of the beast.

"What we chiefly need, friend," Barney smiled, "is a nice cup of tea!"

Elijah laughed, and Barney wistfully thought that it was become a rare sight these days, to see Lij smile.

Barney called from the doorway and a girl hurried towards him. He gave his order and Elijah, listening from the sofa, managed a smile.

"Mr Retford will pay for any undue expenses, indeed. How did you know that was the name I used when I was with Dom?"

Barney grinned. "Ceddie told me. We have become fast friends, he and I. He is a very resourceful chap, you know. His outward appearance is deceptive. I was used to think of him merely as a fat, lazy flawn - but..."

"...but now you think of him merely as a fat flawn and have dismissed any thought of the laziness. Well done!"

The tea arrived, and the girl bobbed a curtsey and said with pride, "I made it just as you said, sir. Water fresh from the pump. A new chest of tea opened, and a new block of sugar. And I gave some of the milk to the cat, too." Her look plainly said she could not think why such a thing needed to be done, but, this being a post inn, she was well used to the vagaries of the Quality and made no protest.

Barney put four heaped spoons of sugar in Elijah's cup. The recipient objected. "You know very well, Corsham, that I detest taking sugar in my tea. Pour me another, I beg you!"

Barney shook his head. "Hot, sweet tea is the panacea of choice for those who have suffered a dreadful fright - and do not tell me, that you was not frightened, for I will not believe it."

Elijah, resigned to the force majeur took the tea and sipped it distastefully. Then he said in a quiet voice which was not completely devoid of the feelings he was trying to suppress, "I was afraid - I thought that this time, I would die. Poison, you know, is so little understood."

He finished the cup and handed it to Barney. "But now I am angry. I will discover who is at the bottom of this outrage if it takes me forever. I must know, Barney. I will have no peace, else."

"Are you going to tell me, now, what is going forward - or will I have to beat it out of you with a stick?" Elijah asked, trying for a normal demeanor, although his stomach was still fluttering with distress.

Barney accorded this sally the grin it deserved, but mentally he was expunging much of his story. He would not tell Elijah what he knew before consulting Dom. For, although he claimed a friendship with Lij that went back over twenty years, he could see that between his life-long friend and Dom there existed a bond that transcended anything that he himself understood.

Elijah did not notice Barney's long pause - he was far away, his thoughts with his friend and companion, Achilles. He thought of him lying in the next room, and wished someone would take him and bury him. Under a leafy tree, in the shade, would be best, Elijah thought, sadly "He would like that very well.

At that moment Dom and Cedric came into the room, and Barney saw at once that Dom was paler than he had been, and that concern was writ large on his countenance.

He stared inquiringly at Barney across the back of the sofa, and Barney gave a tiny shake of his head to indicate that he had told his friend nothing. Dom's features relaxed slightly, and he bent to kiss Elijah, unconcerned that there were people present.

It was Dom to whom Elijah directed his questions. "Have heard anything of Harry? I am very anxious about him, you must know - he is the best of good fellows. I would not have any harm come to him - not for worlds!"

Ceddie looked at Barney, whose face was a grim mask. The duke continued into the silence.

"Dom, have you learned anything from Ceddie that might help us? I am anxious for the perpetrator of this...outrage...to be apprehended."

Elijah shifted his leg and Dom sat on the sofa and took his love by the hand. "I can see you are looking better, Lij. How do you feel, now?"

Elijah shrugged. "I am a little shaken, still, and the numbness is still in my fingers and toes, but otherwise I am better. Really I am."

He stared at Barney and Cedric with contemplative eyes. "I would know, if I may, how you two came to become as thick as thieves, and what it is you have discovered. I think I have a right..."

Just then a commotion was heard in the hallway and a rough voice rose outside the door. "In 'ere, is it? Right, me beauty, in yer go!" and as Barney opened the door, Harry was thrust in, Bert Slugger and two other men hard at his heels.

Bert turned to his companions, dismissing them with an imperious wave of the hand. "Right ho! You go into the kitchen and get yerselves a heavy wet. You deserves it. And don'tcha come back till I calls yer - we'll be all right and tight in 'ere."

Bert pushed Harry forward, Elijah half rose to greet his cousin.

"Harry! So Bert rescued you after all! Bert, you are a treasure. My cousin is very precious to me..." and his voice tailed away as it was seen by all that Lord Henry’s hands were bound behind him.

Bert growled at Harry, then looked at Elijah with sorrowful eyes. "Yers, I am sure 'e is, yer worship, but not 'alf as precious as is your fortune to 'im. Here, y' see, is the murdering scum as was tryin' to close yer daylights."

Bert pushed Harry into a chair, where he sat, expressionless. Ceddie visibly restrained Dom from going forward, frowning at him, and cocking his head towards Elijah who was looking shocked. Dom could see that it would only cause Elijah more anguish if he beat Harry to within an inch of his life in front of him, so he held his peace. It could wait an hour.

"Harry? No, Bert, it is not possible - not Harry - no, indeed. You must be mistaken..."

It was Dom's calm voice that brought Elijah to a sense of the peril to which he had been lately exposed. "I am sorry, Lij, it was indeed he. Jack has been found, you see, and told all. But Barney and Ceddie were in possession of many of the facts before this. Perhaps you will believe it if the admission comes from your cousin's own lips?"

Harry, whose head had been bowed, lifted it at this, and spoke earnestly to his cousin. "I admit nothing. You are mistaken, friends. Elijah, my dearest cousin, you have to believe me…this ruffian attacked me…all I can be accused of is panic. I heard alarums raised, something about poison and I fled for my life! Untie me, I beg of you!”

Elijah stared at Harry, more than half inclined to believe his words for the alternative was more than he could grasp, yet the expressions on the faces of his friends - indeed on Dom’s alone - were more than convincing.

Bert spoke again. "Two of my men caught the lan'lord piking down the road. 'E was lucky to get away wiv 'is life, 'e was. 'E 'fessed it all once we got 'im in custody, like. 'e tole us this rudesby - 'is bloody lordship, 'ere - killed the fust lan'lord so's his man could take 'is place, an' poison the dook's meat. 'E says 'e wus paid fifty guineas fer it. Werry nice doin's on the Kings's 'ighway. E's bein' kept in the cellar, if any of you wants to speak wiv 'im."

Cedric lifted his head. "I'll go, Dom. Do you stay here with..." He left swiftly, and Dom watched carefully as Elijah lifted pain-filled eyes to his cousin. "Harry, is it true? Did you try to kill me? Why?

Harry did not meet Elijah's gaze, but stared sullenly at the fire. It was Barney who answered his friend.

"If he will not speak, I will. I have been making enquiries ever since the duel took place. I even tried to speak with Jack, but he was too terrified to reveal anything. I can see why he ran away. Harry has turned into an out-and-out damned villain!"

He cast a darkling look at Harry, who dared to glare back. "I knew that Harry was heavily in debt. I didn't know why, at the beginning - now I do. He had bought a prime bit of cattle, it cost a pretty penny, that gelding. Upwards of six hundred, was it not, Harry?"

Harry pressed his lips together, hard, refusing to be drawn.

"Then he decided he'd like to match it, to put the two chestnuts to his curricle. Then, not content with that, he bethought himself a four-in-hand would be just the thing. Matching them proved difficult, and very expensive.
Then there were new carriages, for the old ones was shown to bad advantage by the new nags. And that was how it started."

"Before long he was six thousand in debt to Tattersall's and they demanded immediate payment at the end of the quarter."

Here Barney smiled, thinly. "Sometimes it proves useful to have all kinds of men as your acquaintance - even the head clerk at Tatt's."

"Anyhow, he needed the blunt, so he started betting at White's, and then, when his credit ran out, at some of the seedier hells in the city. Before long he was badly dipped. Another six or seven thousand."

Barney cast a shame-faced look at Elijah. "It was then that he came to me. Of course, I did not know, then, the extent of, or the reasons for, his debt - and asked if he could join my...group. One of his friends recommended me as a way out of his embarrassments. Yes, Lij, he was one of my Gentlemen. That was how Jack knew him, and why I was so anxious for you not to glimpse any of my men at Ned's place. You see, Harry was there that night, were you not, my buck?"

Harry vouchsafed no reply, but scowled into the fire.

It was now past midnight, but no-one felt the need to retire until Elijah had heard the whole story.
Dom had sat down next to Elijah, and Elijah leaned comfortably against his lover. He could hardly believe what he was hearing.

"When the Preventives raided Ned's place - set on, I believe, by Harry - and shot Ned, Jack went a little mad at his father's death, and threatened to kill whoever was responsible. It was Harry, thinking that he had found an opportunity to get his hands on Lijah's wealth, who told Giles that Lij reported them to the Customs. You see, Giles was Harry's lover, so he would naturally believe him."

Dom took Elijah's hand and squeezed it, but let it go. This was not the time for a display of affection.

Barney continued his tale; and still not wishing to meet Elijah's eyes with his own, he looked at Dom instead.

"Jack was talking wildly, as I said, of putting a period to Lij's life, and Harry encouraged him. He told Jack he had sold the house for him to the knacker, and gave Jack a hundred pounds in cash to get him to London - where he got it, God knows - his share of our last enterprise was small, and I know he didn't have a feather to fly with."

"But there was something Ceddie had discovered during our investigation. He spoke with your woman, Matilda, Dom - she proved a mine of useful information. The house was not Jack's to sell, you see. It belonged, lock stock and barrel, to someone else."

Here he smiled faintly at Dom and nodded. "It belongs to you, my Lord."

Dom's chin went up at that. "To me? he stuttered, in shocked tones. "How to me?"

It was Cedric who answered. "It was one of your father's cousins who lived there, Dom. Jack's mother was your relation, albeit a distant relation. She conceived the boy out of wedlock, and Ned was merely one of the grooms on your father's estate, so a public marriage was impossible, she being who she was. Your uncle, Giles' father, was all for having her sent away, but your Pa was very fond of her, and looked after her very well, providing food and shelter for her, Ned, and Jack, in that hunting lodge in the woods, where she was very content, I understand. But more of that later - there are more important things to tell, now, old chap."

Barney resumed his story. "The rest you know. Harry went with Jack to the thicket, to encourage him to commit murder. The duel was a most convenient way of disposing of you, Lij. But there, our villain met a snag. Jack didn't wish to go through with it. When it came to the push, he fired wildly, not intending that the bullet would strike. No-one was more shocked than he when Lij fell..."

Here Barney's voice tailed off - reliving the terror of that moment brought Lij's dearest friend much pain. He gathered his wits, knowing that no-one could be as horrified by the remembered details of that dire moment, as were Dom and Lij.

"Jack is an innocent, of course - how could he know that it was Harry who had fired the wounding shot? He was not even looking at him, being too shocked by his own perfidy to give a thought to anyone else. But so it was, we discovered."

Dom met Elijah's eyes - so full of pain - not understanding what had brought his cousin's affection for him to this pass. Damn Harry! Dom thought savagely. Damn him to hell!

"Billy discovered that in Tally Ho, where one of the men remembered, after being generously greased in the fist, of course, that Harry returned that morning in a great flurry to his bolt hole there, stinking of powder, and cleaned his gun on one of the tavern tables. He also told this man that he'd fired at his target, but wounded him only. He was very put out that he'd fired so awry. He is accounted, I believe, a very fine shot."

There was silence. If there was more to tell - and Dom was certain there was - it would do for another time. Elijah leaned heavily against Dom, his eyes almost closed. There was only one question burning a hole in Dom's thoughts - he asked it.

"What was the poison, Warbois, that you tried to get Lij to swallow?"

Harry shook his head impatiently but made no answer.

“Come now - the game is up and you well know it. At least redeem yourself in some small way!” Ceddie’s outrage at Harry’s stubbornness was evident in his voice.

“I do not think he knows how. To do so would give credence to the idea that he is a gentleman after all, when we know he is a liar and a murderer.

Barney’s statement hit home for Harry’s eyes flashed with sudden anger.

"I don't know, neither do I care! I asked for something quick and painless, that is all."

Elijah made a sad little choking sound in the back of his throat, and Dom put an arm about him, careless of onlookers.

"Aye, it's the nubbing cheat for you, my fine buck, make no mistake," barked Bert, glowering at Harry and fumbling with a small book in which he had been writing. It fell onto the floor, and Elijah, opening his eyes, saw what was written on the cover. He then knew what Bert was, and the thought gave him a great sense of safety.

"Come, Lij," Dom spoke gently. "I will take you to bed, and you may rest."

Elijah nodded. He was beyond weary, and his eyes were closing of their own volition. He consented to be carried upstairs for, in truth, he did not think he could walk.

As they reached the doorway, Elijah whispered a few words into Dom’s ear. Dom halted and turned so Elijah could speak the thoughts that would not leave him.

“Why? Why me, Harry? What injury have I done that you must hate me so much?”

Harry stretched his legs towards the fire, as if he had not a care in the world.

“Cousin, who could hate you? I admit nothing, but if you want to lay blame, blame your brother for his insistence on leaving this world before his time and thus exposing you - and your fortune - to the eyes of the world. I felt your fortune needed a home with someone who knew what could be done with such riches. You, dearest coz, was merely - how do they say in Latin? - Summopere obvius”

It was the final blow for Elijah. He closed his eyes and pressed into the warmth of Dom’s arms. Harry, his own most beloved cousin Harry, a murderer!

As Dom stripped him and put him to bed, a hot brick wrapped in flannel at his feet, Elijah thought that tomorrow he would think what was best to be done with Harry. He could not be killed - not his childhood playmate.

"We must send Harry to Jamaica, never to return. He may stay there...I do not wish him to hang. Jamaica... my estates there..."

Elijah was nearly asleep, and Dom murmured swiftly, so that he could hear, and rest peacefully, "Do not you fret, my love, I will see to Harry for you."

He kissed Elijah's sleeping mouth, and, a determined look upon his countenance, went downstairs to deal with Harry.

Glossary

Summopere obvius - very much in the way

To pike - run off

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

lireeli.livejournal.com

Oh, that's a terrible , terrible story for Lij!! I feel sad for him...
But in the same time, I feel relieved, cose now, they will be safe together, won't they?

From:

(no subject)

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