Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade by Diana Gabaldon
There were noises, somewhere in the building. Voices, laughter. How was it possible that normal life continued, anywhere? He heard Percy draw breath, heard it catch in his throat.
"You could not give me love, you said--but kindness and honor; those were yours to give," Percy whispered. Grey looked up, and saw that the hectic flush had faded, the luminous skin gone pallid and chalky.
"There is no honor left to me." His lips trembled; he pressed them tight for an instant. "If--if there is any kindness left between us, John--I beg you. Save me."
He couldn't. Could not bear to remember: not Percy warm in his bed, not Percy in the fetid cell--certainly not Percy in the attic room with Weber--could not think about the current situation, could not decide what to do, or even how to feel. Consequently, he went through the necessary motions of each day like an automaton, moving, speaking, even smiling as necessary, but aware all the time of the clockwork within, and his inability to stir beyond the constraints imposed upon him.
Beyond a terse inquiry as to whether Percy was housed and treated decently, Hal had not inquired as to the results of his visit--a glance at Grey upon his return had told of the failure of his mission. The old pistol was still in Grey's haversack.
The note arrived a week later. There was no direction upon it--a German private had delivered it--but Grey knew where it had come from.
He should throw it into the fire. Grimacing, he slid a thumb beneath the flap and broke the seal. There was no salutation; was that caution on Percy's part, he wondered, to avoid incriminating Grey if the letter should be intercepted--or simply that Percy no longer knew how to address him? The question evaporated from his mind as he read the opening.
I will leave you to imagine, if you will, what the writing of this letter costs me, for that ultimate cost is up to you. I have been in perturbation of mind for days, debating whether I shall write it, and now, having written, whether to send it. The end of my deliberations, though, is the point from which I began: that to speak may mean my life; not to speak may mean yours. If you are reading these words, you will know which I have chosen.
Grey rubbed a hand over his face, shook his head violently to clear it, and read the rest.
You know something of my history, including my relations with the gentleman I will call A. One day whilst I was in his house, another gentleman called upon him. I was sent upstairs, their business being private. Looking out upon the drive, I saw the visitor's coach, which was a very elegant equipage, plainly not hired, but minus armorial markings or crests. After a short time, the gentleman came out and was driven away. I saw nothing of him save a glimpse of his hat as he passed out from beneath the porte cochere, though I did hear him exchange some words in farewell with Mr. A.
Being sent for, I came down, whereupon A told me that his visitor had heard of your mother's marriage, and thus of my putative relations with your family, and wished to know whether I had met you or your brother, and when we might meet again. A had told his visitor of my luncheon with you and Melton, adding that I had invited you to Lady Jonas's salon. The visitor had given A a packet of money to give to me, and asked that in return, I should undertake to guide you to the edge of Hyde Park upon our departing the salon, and should leave you near the Grosvenor Gate, as he wished to have a message delivered to you there.
This sounding innocent enough, I did as he requested. As you did not mention the matter upon our next meeting, I supposed it either confidential or inconsequent, and thus did not ask you about it. I did not learn of your encounter with the two soldiers in the park until you told me of it later. I was shocked to hear of it, but did not perceive that the incident might be connected with Mr. A's visitor.
Then we were attacked in Seven Dials, and I realized that you were the specific target of it. This caused me to recall Mr. A's visitor and his errand, and consider whether both attacks might have been at his instigation. I could see no reason for such a thing, however, and thus held my peace, though resolving to keep close guard upon you.
You then told me the true story of your father's death, and later of the other odd events, such as the page of your father's journal discovered in your brother's office. I began to suspect at this point that the matters were connected, but I still could not see how. As the regiment was bound to depart within such a short time, though, it seemed you would be removed from harm.
I had, as I say, debated for some time whether to write to you regarding my knowledge. The matter became exigent early this week. I heard a voice in the corridor outside my cell, and believe that I recognized it as the voice of Mr. A's visitor. I could not attract the attention of a guard for some time. When finally I succeeded in speaking to one, I asked who the English stranger had been. The guard did not know, had not seen the man--but was persuaded for a consideration to make inquiries, and next day returned to tell me that the man was an army surgeon, come to make trial of a new experiment upon one of the prisoners who had suffered a grisly leg wound.
I cannot swear it is the same man, and if it is, I still do not know why he should wish you harm, though I must suppose that it has to do with your father's death. If it is connected in this manner, though, then there is every reason to suppose that you and your brother lie in mortal danger.
Believe me always your servant,
P. Wainwright (2nd Lieutenant)
Grey said something blasphemous under his breath, and threw the letter on the table.
Mysterious visitors and army surgeons--with no names. It was possible that Percy had not been able to discover the surgeon's name--if Mr. A's visitor had been the same man, or if he even existed. It was also possible that the man did exist and Percy knew his name, but wished to force Grey to see him again in order to discover it. He made no mention in his letter of trading further information for the Greys' assistance, but the implication was clear enough.
"Are you all right, me lord?" Tom Byrd was squinting at him dubiously. "You look what my mam calls bilious. Ought you to be bled, maybe?"
Grey felt distinctly bilious, but doubted that bleeding would help. On the other hand...
"Yes," he said abruptly. "Go and ask Dr. Protheroe if he might come as soon as convenient."
Tom, unaccustomed to having Grey accept his medical suggestions, looked stunned for a moment, but then lighted up.
"Right away, me lord!" He hastily stuffed the shirt he had been mending back in the chest, and shrugged into his coat, but paused at the door to offer further advice.
"If you feel as though the blood might burst from your nose before the doctor comes, the thing to do is put a key at the back of your neck, me lord."
"A key? What for?"
Tom shrugged.
"I don't know, but it's what my mam would do for a nosebleed."
"I'll bear that in mind," Grey said. "Go!"
He stood in the middle of the tent after Tom's departure, wanting to do something violent, but was forestalled by the lack of anything breakable within reach save his shaving mirror, which he was loath to part with.
He wasn't sure how much of his anger was due to this further evidence of Percy's perfidy in keeping the information from him, and how much to the discoveries that Percy had made. There was no doubt that the blood was pounding through his head, though. He went so far as to feel his nose surreptitiously, but perceived no evidence that it was about to spurt blood.
"What are you doing?" Hal stood in the tent, flap in one hand, eyeing him in puzzlement.
"Nothing. Read that." He thrust the letter at his brother.
Hal read it twice; Grey was grimly interested to see Hal's color rise and a vein begin to throb in his forehead.
"That little shit!" Hal flung the pages down. "Does he know the surgeon's name?"
"I don't know. Possibly not. You can go and ask him if you like; I won't."
Hal grunted, and glanced at the pages again.
"Do you think there's anything to it?"
"Oh, yes," Grey said grimly. "He might withhold the name,
Hal frowned, thinking.
"Only to cause us to come to him, I suppose--that he might appeal for our help directly, in hopes that a personal appeal would be more efficacious than a letter."
"There's no help we can offer--is there?" Grey was not sure that he wished to know, if there was--but could not deny the small flicker of hope that rose in him with the question.
"Not much." Hal rubbed a knuckle under his lip. "If he is condemned, I think it might be possible to exert some influence in order to get his sentence commuted to imprisonment or transportation. Might, I say. I would try," he added, with a brief glance at Grey. "For his stepfather's sake."
"If he is condemned," Grey echoed. "Do you honestly think there is any chance that he will not be?"
"Not the chance of a snowflake in hell," Hal said bluntly. "We must be prepared for--who's this?"
It was Tom, returning with Dr. Protheroe, the regimental surgeon, who put down his bag and glanced from Melton to Grey and back again.
"Ahh...your man here says you are bilious?" The question was put dubiously. Protheroe was small-boned, dark, and handsome; a skillful surgeon, but quite young, and rather in awe of Hal.
"Well, not precisely," Grey began, with a glance at the letter on the desk, but Hal cut him swiftly off.
"Yes, my brother is feeling a trifle indisposed. Perhaps you would not mind examining him?" He gave Grey a minatory stare, forbidding him to contradict, and before he could think of some suitable excuse, Grey found himself seated on a stool, being obliged to put out his tongue, have the whites of his eyes peered at, his liver prodded, and answer various humiliating questions regarding the more intimate processes of his body.
Meanwhile, Hal engaged Protheroe in apparently careless conversation regarding his experience in Prussia, what he thought of the food, how the men did...Grey glared at his brother over Protheroe's head, which was pressed to his chest, mouthing, "Get on with it!" at him.
"Do you have much to do with your fellows?" Hal inquired at last, pleasantly. "The other regimental surgeons?"
"Oh, yes." Protheroe was fishing in his bag. Grey grimaced; he was about to be bled, he knew it. "One or two of the German fellows are quite knowledgeable--and the duke has an Italian surgeon, who has the most marvelous instruments. He showed me them once--never seen anything like them!"
"Quite," Hal said. He glanced again at the letter. "How many English surgeons are there, do you know?"
Protheroe continued to rustle through his bag.
"Oh, five or six," he said vaguely. "Now, Lord John, I think--"
"Do you know their names?" Grey asked rudely. Protheroe blinked and Hal rolled his eyes in exasperation.
"Why, yes...of course. Simmonds--he's with the Fourteenth. I do believe, my lord, that leeches will be the best thing. Your man says you've been troubled by headache of late--"
"That's certainly true," Grey said, eyeing the lidded jar the doctor had removed from his bag. "But I really--"
"Simmonds," Hal interrupted. "Who else?"
"Oh." Protheroe scratched reflectively at his jaw. "Entwidge--good man, Entwidge," he added magnanimously. "Though a trifle young." Protheroe could not be twenty-four himself, Grey thought.
"And there's Danner..." A twist of the lips dismissed Danner as a charlatan. "Have you any milk to hand, my lord?"
"Just here, sir!" Tom, who had been hovering in obvious anticipation of this request, sprang forward, milk jug in hand. "You'd best take your shirt off, me lord," he said importantly to Grey. "You won't want to go about smelling of sour milk, should any of it drip."
"Indeed I won't," Grey said, with a foul look at his brother, who appeared to be finding something funny in the situation. Resigned, he stripped off his shirt and allowed the medico to anoint the skin of his neck and temples generously with milk.
"The milk encourages them to bite with so much more enthusiasm," Protheroe explained, dabbing busily.
"I know," Grey said through his teeth. He closed his eyes involuntarily as Protheroe scooped a dark blob out of his jar. The bite of a horseleech did not really hurt, he knew that. The creatures carried some element in their saliva that numbed the sensation. But the clammy, heavy feel of the thing against his skin revolted him, and the knowledge that the leech was slowly and pleasurably filling itself with his blood made him light-headed with disgust.
He knew it was harmless, even beneficial. His stomach, however, was ignorant of any sense of scientific detachment, and curled up in agitation.
Protheroe and Tom were arguing as to how many of the vile creatures might be the optimum, the doctor thinking a half dozen sufficient, but urged on by Tom, who was of the opinion that if half a spoon of something was good, three were better, when it came to medicine.
"That's quite enough, sir, I thank you." Grey straightened himself on the stool, chin lifted to avoid any more contact than necessary with the leeches now festooned round his neck like a ruff, sucking away. A film of sweat came out on his brow, to be wiped away by the doctor, seeking a good roosting spot on his temple for another of the obnoxious things.
"That will do capitally," Protheroe exclaimed in satisfaction, drawing back to study Grey as though he were some work of art. "Excellent. Now, my lord, if you will just remain still while the leeches do their work, all will be well. I am sure you will obtain relief almost at once."
Grey's only relief was the observation that Hal had gone green around the gills, and was clearly trying not to look in Grey's direction. That was some slight comfort, Grey thought. At least he himself couldn't see the bloody things.
"I'll go out with you, sir," Hal said hurriedly, seeing Protheroe close up his bag and make ready to depart. Grey shot him an evil look, but Hal gestured briefly at the letter and went out in the doctor's wake.
Tom tenderly draped a towel about his shoulders: "Lest as you might take a chill, me lord." It was midday and sweltering, but Grey was too busy trying to ignore the morbid fancy that he was being quite drained of blood to register a protest.
"Fetch me some brandy, will you, Tom?"
Tom looked dubious.
"I think you oughtn't to drink brandy whilst being leeched, me lord. Might be as the little fellows would get squiffy and fall off afore they've quite done."
"What an excellent idea. Get me brandy, Tom, and get a lot of it. Now."
Tom's disposition to argue was interrupted by the reappearance of Hal, who looked at Grey, shuddered, and pulled the snuffbox containing his smelling salts from his pocket. Grey was touched at this evidence of solicitude for his distress, but uttered a cry of indignation at seeing Hal put the vial to his own nose.
"Give me that! I need it more than you do."
"No, you don't." Hal drew in a deep breath, choked, and went into a coughing fit. "Protheroe remembered another surgeon's name," he wheezed, eyes watering.
"What? Who?"
"Longstreet," Hal said, coughed again, and handed over the salts. "Arthur Longstreet. He's here with the Prussians."
Grey pulled the cork and lifted the vial to his nose.
"Brandy, Tom," he said briefly. "Bring the damned bottle."
Beyond the interesting scientific discovery that brandy did indeed appear to intoxicate leeches, the effect of Mr. Protheroe's visit was indecisive.
"With the Prussians," Grey repeated, pulling on his shirt with a sense of profound relief. "Where with the Prussians?"
"Protheroe didn't know," Hal replied, bending over the table to peer at a leech, which was extending itself in an eccentric and voluptuous manner. "He just happened to meet Longstreet a week ago, and saw that he was wearing a Prussian uniform. But he naturally didn't take any notice of which regiment. Do you think that one's dead?"
Grey prodded the insensible animal in question, then gingerly picked it up betwixt his thumb and forefinger.
"I think it's just passed out." He dropped it into the jar and wiped h
"No," Hal said thoughtfully. "But we must be careful. If he does mean you--or me--harm, it wouldn't do to alert him to the fact that we know about him."
"I should think that would be the best way of insuring that he doesn't attempt to do us harm."
"Forewarned is forearmed, and I have every faith in your ability to defend yourself from a mere surgeon," Hal said, with a rare smile. "No, we don't want to alert him beforehand, because we want to talk to him. Privately."
Chapter 28
Huckelsmay
He had reproached Percy for reckless stupidity. At the same time, he was painfully aware that he had often been as reckless and stupid himself. He had been luckier, that was all. Once, no more than a few seconds had saved him from precisely the sort of disaster that had now befallen Percy. The memory of that instance was enough to bring him out in a cold sweat--all the colder for his exact knowledge now of what could so easily have happened.
The immediate shock and the hurt of betrayal had faded, leaving in their wake a sort of dull wretchedness. He kept this wrapped round himself like a sheet of canvas against a storm, knowing that to let it go was to suffer instead piercing gusts of sorrow and terror.
The army had moved on, leaving Percy in his cell with the sausages. Tonight, they camped near the village of Crefeld--"crowfield," it meant in English, a very literal place-name; the fields teemed with the black birds by day, and flocks of crows burst cawing from the furrowed fields as the army passed.
But the army had settled now, and night rose gently from the fields near Crefeld. The air was still, and the smoke of watch fires mingled with the natural haze that always hung above the fields; a dark mist seemed to rise slowly about his horse's hooves as he rode.
Grey passed from company to company as the summer night came slowly on, dismounting at each fire long enough to share a swallow of beer, a bite of bread or sausage as he talked with the captains, the lieutenants, the corporals. Passed through each camp, nodding, smiling, exchanging words with men he recognized, assessing mood, readiness, equipment with seeming casualness. Hearing with one ear the concerns and talk of his officers, the other listening to the sounds of the encroaching night. Waiting for any interruption in the cricket song of the gathering dark between camps, any note of alarm in the muffled talk and laughter of the troops settling to supper and their rest. Somewhere nearby was the enemy.