by Abby Ayles
“Then I am happy for you,” Juliana said, embracing her friend again. If there was a tear in her eye, it was because she was so pleased to see that her friend would be well; and that she would find her own kind of wedded bliss.
It may not have been real love, but the gentle nature she knew both of their souls to possess would surely make for a harmonious and happy household.
“Have you spoken about where you will go?” Juliana asked.
“We will first travel immediately to see my family,” Mary said. “I am to begin packing today and leave tomorrow. I suspect the Duke may take you away from here swiftly, at any rate.”
Juliana offered her a downturned mouth, an expression of loss at the end of their time together. “I will be sad to part from you, but I believe you are correct.”
“Once with my family, we will make the preparations and wed soon. There is no reason for delay. The Baroness, in her forthright way, has given us permission. She will follow after us in a day or two and we will likely hold the ceremony down there.”
“And after?”
Mary gave her a girlish smile which told how excited she really was.
“We shall find his parish. I have instructed him to search in this part of the country only. I know you may have to move when you marry Christopher, but I want a good chance that we will remain close enough to visit.”
“I should like that very much,” Juliana said, squeezing Mary’s hands.
It was touching to hear not just a thought for the future of their friendship, but also a glowing belief that Juliana would achieve her goal.
“You will attend the wedding?” Mary asked earnestly.
Juliana frowned and sighed. “I wish to do so,” she said. “The Duke is angry, however. It may be that he forbids it.
“My mother, too. They will see this as a betrayal on your part, as if you snuck in behind my back. I know the truth, of course.”
Mary bit her lip and nodded. “I understand,” she said, though the words lingered in the air over the knowledge they both shared – that she would very much have liked to see her friend there by her side.
“So, this is to be our last night together as maidens,” Juliana said, giving her a heartfelt smile, even if it was a little watery around the edges.
“We shall have to make the most of it.”
“I will ask the cook to bring us some cake,” Mary said, her eyes sparkling. “And we shall practice pinning up one another’s hair, and have a fashion show with our gowns.”
“And the bed sheets,” Juliana said, laughing. “We will pin them into the latest fashions.”
The two girls embraced again, both of them holding back tears. For even if the reason was a happy one, the era of their close friendship was coming to a close, as it always did for young women who grew up with one another.
Just as Juliana’s sisters had grown, married, and moved away, so the two of them had to do the same.
Chapter 30
Christopher had had a lot to think about, these past days. He felt, in many ways, as if he had progressed into another chapter of life: another layer of understanding of how the world worked, and the people in it.
He had been perhaps quite naïve in taking the expressions of people like Jasper and Kitty at face value. He would not make the same mistake so easily again in the future.
He was applying himself more seriously to his duties, and he felt that he was at least making good on some of the promises he had made. The others might take longer to come through, given their nature; but he would not abandon the path he had taken up.
Christopher was walking back to the barracks one late afternoon, after taking part in a drill exercise, when he saw a man who at first was not familiar at all.
He looked to be a beggar: he wore threadbare clothing, and his bedraggled hair had perhaps not been washed for some days. There was even dirt and grime on his face and hands.
But as he approached, Christopher saw with horror that the man was not a stranger at all. It was a man he recognized well.
It was Brazen; the man formerly a Captain, whose position Jasper had stolen from underneath him.
“Hardwicke,” Brazen breathed, as he came closer. Then he seemed to remember himself, and that he was no longer in a superior position. “Lieutenant, sir.”
“Brazen,” Christopher greeted him, feeling the blood drain from his face.
“I – I came here to…” Brazen faltered for a moment, looking at the ground. He was clearly warring with something inside of himself. “M-might you spare a coin?”
Christopher watched him with utter horror. Here was what he had wrought, he and Jasper. For all their positioning and talk of advancement, all their selfish and greedy reasons, they had cast one of the best men amongst them down into the dirt.
“Come with me,” Christopher said urgently, grasping him by the arm and leading him inside the barracks.
A civilian man should not have been allowed to enter, particularly not one who looked like a beggar; but evidently, this man was recognized, and so was the fierce determination on Christopher’s face.
Once they were inside the privacy of Christopher’s room, he sat Brazen down on the spare cot and then sat on his own, facing him.
“Are you truly brought so low?” Christopher asked, unable to keep a tear from his eye. “You are begging for food?”
Brazen looked down at the floor, thoroughly ashamed. “I am sleeping under the trees,” he said, apparently taking Christopher’s words for rebuke.
“My wife was tortured by the allegations against me, and for her sake I removed myself. There was no other occupation left to me; being a soldier is all I know. I have nothing, but these clothes I wear.”
Christopher had to pause for breath. He knew he should make a response, but he found himself unable for a long moment.
“I know who did this to you,” he said at last.
Brazen raised an incredulous eye.
“I am partially responsible. For that, you have my eternal shame and as many apologies as can be heaped upon a man in his lifetime. I will put this right. I swear it to you,” Christopher said.
Brazen seemed unable to understand what he was saying. “You will… put it right?”
“I go now to the Major,” Christopher said, standing up. “Please, rest in my room here. The bed is free. Help yourself to anything. There are some small cakes and treats in a tin just there; I picked them up as a souvenir on my last leave.
“You are welcome to them. When you are feeling stronger, go to the baths; and if anyone should question you, tell them you are given your rank back.”
“The Major will give it back?” Brazen asked, everything filtering through to his dazed consciousness in pieces.
“I go to make sure of it,” Christopher said. He straightened his uniform and checked the buttons on his sleeves. “Even if it costs me my commission, I swear to you. I will put this right.”
With that he left, shutting the door to give the man some privacy and to prevent any cowardly notion of delaying further.
Christopher’s blood felt cold within his veins. How had he managed to go so wrong? He was meant to rescue the former Captain immediately on his return, as he had discussed with Edmund.
Yet again, he had allowed himself to be distracted. Yet again, he had put his own selfish desires first.
He strode to the Major’s office, fuelled by anger this time – a righteous anger at his own self.
Yes, he probably would be dismissed for this. A dishonorable discharge from the military, which would see him publicly shamed. And fine! Well and good it was! He deserved it, for what he had done.
It would probably destroy any chance at all that he and Juliana had of being happy together. But he deserved it. He deserved all of that and more.
It was time to be a man, a real gentleman, and face up to what he had done.
The Major was blessedly free when Christopher came and knocked upon his door. He did not have to wait out in the
corridor or fight against a demand to return another day; that much was the best luck he could hope for.
Standing in front of the man, who sat behind his desk with a harried expression and an imposing presence, Christopher felt his nerve try to fail. But he would not let it.
No, this would be done – or he would never forgive himself for it.
“Major, I have a report to make,” he said, standing smartly to attention. “It concerns the disgraced former Captain Brazen, and Captain Rivers.”
The Major eyed him with some impatience. “I have just heard from several others that Brazen has been making a nuisance of himself,” he said.
“I cannot do much about it unless you expect me to throw the man out on his ear. Which, incidentally, I will do if his nuisance grows.”
“That is not the problem, sir,” Christopher said, shifting uncomfortably. “My report is about his dismissal. It was unfair, sir. None of the accusations leveled against him were true.”
“He resigned of his own accord,” the Major said, leaning forward over his desk. “But, continue.”
“Captain Brazen was the victim of a plot,” Christopher said, taking a deep breath. “Initiated by myself and Captain Rivers.
“The plan was to disgrace him entirely so that he would feel duty-bound to resign, which he did. Then I would step in to take his place. Except, of course, that Rivers was quicker than me.”
The Major’s brow furrowed deeply. “This is a serious accusation, Hardwicke,” he said. “Think carefully before you proceed.”
“I have thought, Major,” Christopher said, rushing on now that he was here. “It has been all I could think of, at times. Today I met with Captain Brazen outside the barracks and I saw what we had reduced him to.
“I had already resolved to come forward, but now I know I cannot put it off for a moment later. Captain Brazen is innocent of everything.”
“Explain to me how this came to pass,” the Major said, narrowing his eyes.
“I needed to advance my commission in order to seek the hand of the woman I love,” Christopher said, plainly, not bothering to spare his own blushes. Only the truth would do.
“I brought this problem to Jasper, who at the time was my close friend. He provided me a solution which I did not at first agree with.
“We would sneak and place such items in the Captain’s room as would incriminate him in some scandals. Stolen items, and items belonging to loose women, that would make it appear as though he were guilty of multiple sins.
“Then we would wait for them to be discovered, and in the following hue and cry, await the Captain’s resignation, thus opening a commission for me to take.
“I knew it was wrong from the start, but I allowed myself to be persuaded. Rivers stole the necessary items, then planted them, as I kept watch. The next morning, I came to confess all.
“But I saw him here with you – and I was stunned. It was not until after that I found out what he had done, taking the Captaincy for himself.”
The Major rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “If what you say is true,” he said slowly. “Then you and Rivers both are fit for dismissal.”
“Yes, sir,” Christopher said, hanging his head. “And I can prove it. I will describe for you all of the items you recovered from Captain Brazen’s room. I know them in clear detail.”
“You will not win your lady love, if you are no longer in the army at all,” the Major mused.
“No, sir,” Christopher said, feeling the words burn in the back of his throat.
“Rivers jumping in ahead of you is of no concern to me,” the Major said. “But perhaps you confess this now out of spite? To bring him low?”
“No, sir, only to raise Captain Brazen high again,” Christopher said earnestly. “But there is more. Rivers – the money he used to purchase his commission.
“He got it from a girl’s father, who insisted that Rivers raise himself to Captain and then marry his daughter, who was in a position of disgrace. Disgrace brought by Rivers himself, sir.”
“And are they now married?”
“No, sir. I believe Rivers took the money and then refused the man, and abandoned the girl.”
The Major considered all of this silently, looking into the distance and thinking his own thoughts. He looked down at a piece of paper in front of him and made a few scratches on it with a quill pen, then set it aside.
Christopher waited awkwardly, feeling as though he were watching everything unravel in front of him yet again. When he looked back later in life, he knew, this would be the moment where his future with Juliana was lost.
He only hoped that there was still a chance for her to marry that lord after all, and find some happiness of her own kind.
“Alright,” the Major said at last, standing up and straightening his uniform. “I have made a decision. Hardwicke, you will come with me. We go to Rivers.”
Chapter 31
The Duchess of Prighton was in a foul mood, as she had been for weeks.
Ever since Juliana had returned in her step-father’s carriage, bearing the news that Mary was to be wed, the woman had stormed around the house in fits of misery.
There were many rows, and plenty of choice phrases that Juliana believed she could now recite by rote; it was all that commonly spoken aloud. All of this, and she had also been banned from attending the wedding, a fact which grieved her greatly.
Mary had not exaggerated the timeframe with which they intended to move forward. They had already scheduled a date and were then married within a few weeks only.
Juliana sat at home, feeling glum, and watched the early summer sun from her bedroom window.
“You are a lazy girl,” her mother clucked furiously, passing by the door and seeing her daughter resting idly.
“Imagine sitting and staring out a window with no other purpose all day long. It is no small wonder you are to become a spinster.”
“I have a purpose,” Juliana said hotly. “It is thinking of my dearest friend and sending her prayers of happiness, since I cannot be with her on this, her wedding day!”
“A day which you will never see, despite the injury you knew it would cause your poor mother,” the Duchess retorted.
“The man she weds today was your final and only chance at a good marriage. Courted so many times, betrothed once, and not a marriage out of it. What fine family will look at you now?”
“The Hardwickes,” Juliana replied, though she wished immediately that she hadn’t.
“A fine family, I asked for,” the Duchess scoffed.
Juliana did not know where they had got it into their heads that the Hardwickes were not a fine family, for they were well-respected and liked most everywhere; but Juliana could not find the space to interrupt.
“And here you are, wishing you could be there to see the betrayal of your so-called friend, who would sneak in and rob the food from your plate and the dresses from your wardrobe if you looked away!”
“Mary is a good person, through and through!” Juliana told her.
This was the part that irked her most of all of it: that there should be any kind of smear against Mary’s name, when she knew her to be one of the kindest and gentlest creatures in all of Christendom.
“She marries with my blessing. I never wanted that tiresome man for a husband, and you were made aware of it.”
“What kind of pernicious, haughty, self-important girl you are!” the Duchess exclaimed.
“What right have you to choose your own husband? What is it that makes you think you can have your say? Do you think I chose to marry your father from love? No! It was a match of names, and we accepted it, and we liked it!”
“Bully for you,” Juliana said rudely. “At least you found a man you tolerated well.”
The Duchess gasped in outrage. “A successful marriage and a happy life is not about finding someone interesting,” she said, mirroring the words of the Baroness from not long before.
“It is about making a good match, c
reating heirs, and then enjoying your life on your estate. An estate which you will not have!”
“I have this one,” Juliana pointed out. She was quite tired of all this rowing and was near enough ready to mount outright insubordination.
“I shall be here as long as you live. And when you die, perhaps my brother will allow me to linger on in the attic.”
“I shall ensure he does no such thing,” the Duchess replied. “He will see you in the poorhouse and know that it is only your own actions that have taken you there.”
