ismenin | A Regency Tale

Well, Good Morning! Here for you is the penultimate part of my story - only ONE to go!

I hope you like it!

Thanks as always to Lady Sunrope for beta.

Part 30 - Love and Death and in-Between

Bring him to me, if you will... Elijah had said, lifting his chin and looking at Dom with an expression that brooked no refusal.

Dom cast about frantically in his mind for a way to answer his love, but was saved from doing so by the young doctor.

"If you please, sir," the doctor remarked, taking out his newly acquired - and very expensive - stethoscope, "I would wish to examine you before you speak with this person. It is very difficult to ascertain the true state of a man's health if he is examined when he is agitated."

Dom nodded, relieved for a moment from revealing to Elijah that Warbois had gone to a place much farther away than Jamaica. Elijah, casting a swift and penetrating stare at his lover - whom he was beginning to know better than any man he had ever encountered - understood much from the expression on his face.

The examination was swift and thorough, and Dr Allan asked sensible questions, which made Dom hope that Lij was going to receive the best treatment available.

Wild thoughts of taking Elijah back to London to consult the great Dr Baillie had been considered and rejected. How was one to explain how the Duke had ingested the poison? Here, no-one knew him...

Dom's train of thought was interrupted by loud voices outside the door.

"I will immediately see his Grace..." Barney's voice said in controlled but angered tones, “…and you may get out of my way, man. Now!"

Barney's tone was becoming threatening, so Dom swiftly opened the door to find Morlock, his fists raised, facing his opponent, ready to fight off the erstwhile intruder.

"Go downstairs, Morlock, and speak to the constable. Give him the round tale for I'm sure Bert Slugger will, at any rate."

He turned to Lij's friend who was no less belligerent, ready, as Ceddie would say, to sport his canvas. "And as you, Sir Barnabas, having just revealed to the whole inn Lij's position in life, come you in and stop shouting - I think Lij has the headache."

Indeed, when Barney entered the room and cast an apologetic look at his friend, it was to see the young doctor staring at Elijah in stunned amaze.

Elijah sighed. " I am Elijah Wood, Duke of Stanford, doctor, as my incautious friend Sir Barnabas Corsham has just informed you. And my companion..." he said, patiently, "is Lord Dominic Monaghan."

Dr Allan carefully replaced his stethoscope in its case, and bowed low to Elijah, and then to Dom, his eyes wide with surprise. Dom recovered his calm.

"I trust you will tell no-one of Lij's..."

Elijah's voice cut across his like a knife through butter. "Peace, Dom. Dr Allan is well aware of the Hippocratic oath. Now what is it, Barney, that makes you come to our room in such a pet, when you must know the doctor is with me? It is not like you, indeed it is not."

Dr Allan's eyes widened even further. Dom resisted the temptation to comment at the good doctor’s startled expression. It was obvious that the phrase ‘our room’ had made quite an impact. However Dr Allan made no other move, but merely sat, with great relief, in the chair his Grace had indicated and took in all the revelations.

Barney cast a darkling look at Dom. "His Lordship, so Bert tells me, has seen fit to send the bastard off to Jamaica without so much as a "by your leave" from any of us. That is the sum of it. I wished to speak with the scoundrel first."

The rigid look about Elijah's mouth slackened a trifle, and a corner of it lifted. "Correctly interpreted, I take it to mean you wished to beat him into a pulp first, dear friend - whilst I observe, from Dom's bruised knuckles, that he has pipped you to the post.”

“We will hear what Dom has to tell us in a moment - as I first wish to know what the doctor has to say concerning my condition."

Barney reddened and, muttering an apology, sat on the bed, whilst Dom, uncharacteristically silent, stood behind Elijah's chair, his hand on his lover's shoulder.

The doctor bent a disapproving eye on his patient. "Firstly, I wish your Grace would get back into bed. Your pulse is tumultuous, I must inform you, whether from shock - from which I have no doubt at all that you are suffering - or from the effects of the unknown poison, I do not know."

He glanced at Dom. "Did the perpetrator indicate in any way what this substance could be, my Lord?"

Dom was glad that he stood behind Elijah's chair, as he felt his lover's slight frame tremble under his hand. "No, he did not know, doctor. He merely asked the apothecary..."

Dom suddenly recollected the inadvisability of speaking, in front of Elijah, of what Warbois had said concerning the poison.

Elijah, so attuned by now to Dom's thoughts, and mindful, still, of Achilles's swift demise, said in a soft, sad voice, "he asked for something quick."

Dom nodded behind Elijah's back for the benefit of the two men staring hard at him.

The doctor was the first to speak. In bracing tones he remarked, "your Grace seems to be in excellent physical health apart from this latest setback, but I would advise ...strongly advise... you to return to bed before you tumble down in a faint. I see you have the scar of a recent head wound.I would not wish there to be any further repercussions from this latest episode."

Dom's brow furrowed anxiously, and his grip on Elijah's shoulder tightened perceptively. "Speak plainly, doctor. What is it you fear? Is the duke in any further danger?"

The doctor fastened his bag. "I will be plain with you, sir. I made poisoning my particular study before I qualified, and I know that some kinds have an immediate deleterious effect upon the human frame, whilst others can linger within the system for some time. As we do not know the substance, I cannot say that his Grace will be free from its effects until a significant period of time has passed. It was only yesterday that it took place. To be blunt, sirs - it is too soon to tell."

Dom felt the pit of his stomach sink and gripped the back of Elijah's chair with both hands.

"How...how long is a significant period?" he managed at last, for Elijah had not spoken.

"Until his Grace feels perfectly fit again, at least, for my examination has convinced me that he is still far from well, however good a face he assumes for your benefit. Please do not attempt to leave this place until I think it politic. His Grace needs rest. Rest and good care. I am sure," Dr Allan smiled at Dom, "that he will receive that from you. I am leaving this composer, one spoonful of which I would advise your Grace to take immediately, and I will call again this evening to see how you go on," the doctor bowed at Elijah.

"I will go on, doctor, very much better if you will stop calling me "your Grace" every other word. Sir will do me very well, I thank you."

The doctor, like so many others before him, was no proof against Elijah's charming smile. "Very well, sir. Go back to bed. Your Lordship - Sir -," he bowed to Dom and Barney, "I hope for your good offices in convincing the duke to do as I suggest."

As the door shut behind the doctor, there was silence in the room for a few moments.

Barney was very eager to hear Dom's tale, but observing the tension in the air, and that this matter was, at this present, for discussion between Dom and Elijah, he excused himself with rare tact, to speak, he informed them, with the constable.

Hardly had the door closed behind him when Dom came to the front of the chair and taking Elijah's nerveless hands in his, knelt at his feet.

Elijah's eyes were troubled, Dom saw, but he was ready with his story, and glibly began to tell Elijah how he and Bert had arranged for Harry to leave for Jamaica from Portsmouth with the two hundred pounds Dom had given him for expenses.

"I gave him a letter, too, for your agent there, saying that you were sending Harry to manage the estates and, as you were not well at this present, you would be writing shortly to apprise him..."

Dom's voice stalled and came to a halt as he saw how pale Elijah had become. "Come," he said gently, pulling Elijah to his feet. "Let me help you to bed, for I see the good doctor is right - you need rest."

Elijah offered no resistance, which greatly worried Dom, but allowed Dom to strip him, after which, he climbed into bed, and taking the composer, lay quiet as a mouse, the bright morning sun shining on his face.

"Close the curtains, Dom - the sun bothers me."

Dom did so and left the room for a few moments, then returned, and locking the door behind him, undressed and climbed in beside Elijah.

For a few moments Elijah did not move, then he turned into Dom's arms, burying his face in the curve of his lover's neck.

"I am here, my love - I will always be here," Dom whispered into the dark curls tickling his chin.

With a sound perilously like a sob, Elijah lifted his face for a kiss, and Dom, divining his lover's mood clearly, captured his mouth with his own and ravished it.

Dom felt Elijah rise against him, and taking him gently in his hand, teased him into full tumescence.

Elijah had not said a word, but was groaning in his throat - a sound between joy and pain - and Dom, knowing full well what this entailed, whispered in Elijah's ear, "love me! Make love to me! I need you."

...and you need me.

Elijah let out a low, desperate moan, and shaking with passion and grief, turned Dom on his stomach, and wasting no time, breached him.

Dom drew in a pained breath as Elijah entered him, but made no protest, nor did he let Elijah know, by the smallest sign, that he was hurting him.

Elijah was shuddering, resting on Dom's back as he thrust, making an urgent, terrifying sound each time he pushed hard.

Dom, despite the pain, was amazed to discover he was mounting in excitement as was Elijah, and urged him on with tender words of passion. It did not take long. As Elijah reached his climax, the dam he was holding so carefully within himself, broke - as Dom had known it would - and he began to cry out. "Damn you, you bastard - damn you to hell! I hate you…I hate you, Harry, hate you!”

With each word of hate, Elijah’s body slammed into Dom’s but Dom was not, at this moment, concerned with his own feelings. He had subsumed Elijah's pain within himself and his erection was diminishing, but it did not matter. What mattered more was that Elijah released the thoughts that troubled him beyond endurance.

As Elijah gave his last furious thrust then pulled away with an agonised “what have I done?” Dom turned, and taking the sobbing man in his arms, held him close, whispering to him until the storm had passed.

Elijah lay against Dom's chest, weeping quietly. "I am a brute - how can you love me after that? I all but raped you. I...forgive me...there can be no excuse..."

Dom kissed the damp brow. "I wished you to do what you did to me. It cannot, therefore, be rape, my love. Calm yourself."

Dom spoke tenderly, continuing by his words and actions to show his love for Lij in every way he could conjure.

Elijah lifted pain-filled eyes to Dom's face. "Make love to me. Show me what it is I should have done to you - for I count it an assault, not an expression of my true feelings. I love you more than I can tell, but how would you know it? Show me how to reveal it, for I am lost in the pain of Harry's treachery. It hurts me more than I ever believed."

And Dom, kissing the man held so tenderly in his arms, touching and embracing, showed Elijah the depth of his feelings by putting into every touch such grace and gladness that it brought the beginnings of brightness to Elijah's eyes.

Dom took him, but it was so far distant from his own swift taking that Elijah had time to wonder how and why he deserved the love of this man, who gave and gave of himself so unstintingly it took on a form almost of worship.

For Dom, indeed, worshipped Elijah at that moment with his body, his lips and tongue, so that, aflame with passion, Elijah was brought once more to release - but in love, and not as before, from hatred and despair.

Dom, looking down on the face of his lover as he entered him, thought to himself that there was no other place he would rather be than with this man - so gentle, so unassuming, so wracked with torment as he had been a few minutes ago - who, now, wide-eyed with joy, was keening beneath him in ecstasy.

With a loud sob Elijah came, and Dom attuned to the sound as he was to no other, followed him, and damp with sweat and love, they lay, in each other's arms, not wishing to break the moment - but still aware that they were in a public building, where people were waiting to speak with them.

For a short while they did nothing but whisper of their love to each other - Dom, sweet but firm, Lij, soft and caring, until, tiring of this they touched each other's bodies with a pride of possession.

I never thought Dom reflected, that such love would come to me, whilst Elijah rendered to whichever God had granted him the boon of Dom's love, a silent prayer of thanks.

Eventually, Dom rose from the bed to find that Elijah had fallen deeply asleep from the effects of the composer he had taken, and Dom, bringing a flannel from the wash stand, tenderly wiped Elijah's body, and patted him dry with a towel. He bestowed upon the sleeping form many kisses as he did so, as if reluctant to part from the intimacy they had both felt during the previous hour.

He had just finished washing himself when a soft rap came at the door. "It's the constable, my Lord, wishing to speak with you," Morlock said, his voice muffled by the three inches of English oak that stood between them.

Dom quickly pulled the bedclothes over Elijah, donned his dressing gown, and opened the door. The constable, a sensible man in his forties, saluted, and made as if to come in.

Dom raised a finger to his lips, and the man, suitably warned, peeped in at the slumbering form, and nodded.

"I shall speak to his Grace when it should be convenient to him, sir - m'Lord - but I would like to speak to you immediately, if you please."

Dom smiled. The man was tactful and respectful - unlike a few law officers that Dom had encountered in his time.

"Give me but a few moments and I shall come down to you, officer. Please order for yourself any refreshment you please, and chalk it up to me."

The man, grinning with delight, for he had set out before breakfast and was very hungry, hurried downstairs, and Dom, in far less of a rush, dressed at his leisure and kissed Elijah's damp brow again, before he left the room.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

mole-caz.livejournal.com

Have saved this to enjoy later!!

From:

A Regency Tale - 30

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags