by C. P. Odom
He resumed walking. “Though I hope you’ll forgive me for wishing I do not have to prove my devotion anytime soon!”
“You and Fitzwilliam are much the same in that regard, Major,” Darcy said quietly. “Despite his polite demeanor, I often see more than a hint of danger in him.”
“I suppose that means I must spend more time refining my manners,” Fitzwilliam said. “It may also explain why no young ladies of large fortune and astonishing pulchritude have rushed to throw themselves into my arms and take me away from my dangerous occupation.”
McDunn took note of Georgiana’s expression, and he could tell she did not find Fitzwilliam’s last comment particularly humorous.
If I had to guess, I’d think Darcy’s sister has some plans for her cousin, even if she’s a mere girl, he thought. I guess a union is feasible if Britain allows first cousins to marry. But is she really thinking of marriage so soon? Girls of this time have to be careful, especially those with a substantial inheritance. They can’t divorce a cad and continue the search if they make a mistake!
McDunn was trying to think of something to say when Georgiana turned to her cousin. “How long will you be remaining at Pemberley, Richard? You have been absent far too often these past few years.”
“I am not completely sure,” he said uncomfortably.
“It will be some weeks,” Darcy said. “His regiment must be recruited back to full strength, and he was ordered to rest and heal, so he came to stay with us. And you are his favorite cousin—after me.”
“Hmmmph! That is not true! Richard told me I was his favorite before he departed for Spain.”
“But you did not write him as often as he thought you should.”
“I wrote him every week, just as I promised!” She looked to Fitzwilliam for confirmation before she saw the mischief dancing in her brother’s eyes.
“You are teasing me again, William!”
“Of course. That is what older brothers are supposed to do.”
Georgiana rounded on McDunn. “I thought you said you would be my defender, sir! Are you going to allow my brother to tease me this way?”
“I learned a long time ago not to intervene between squabbling brothers and sisters,” McDunn said mildly. “Far too dangerous.”
“In any case, my dear,” Darcy said, “I have a task for you. Since the major needs clothing of his own, I sent for a tailor from Lambton, and I would appreciate you working with him to make sure everything Major McDunn needs is put on order.”
“It would be my pleasure,” Georgiana said, looking at McDunn and his rather disreputable attire. “Of course, some of what he needs will have to be ordered from town.”
“Explain it all to the tailor so the necessary measurements are taken. And winter is almost upon us, so include suitable clothing.”
“Uh, look, Mr. Darcy,” McDunn said, then lowered his voice. “That sounds expensive, and you’ve already been most hospitable. I can’t ask you to buy my clothing, especially since I can pay for whatever I need. Remember my gold coins?”
Darcy waved a hand in dismissal. “I think a single one of those coins will take care of everything. Do not concern yourself.”
McDunn nodded thoughtfully and then gestured to his BDUs. “In that case, I’d like to add some items similar to what I’m wearing. Exercising in the dress clothing both you and the colonel wear would be…well, kind of uncomfortable.”
“I daresay,” Fitzwilliam said with a dry chuckle.
“And hopefully, everyone here will get used to the mad American, so I won’t draw an audience every time I go for a run.”
Darcy nodded. “I believe the tailor can devise something similar to your trousers and jacket for this disgusting exercise you seem to find so necessary.”
Fitzwilliam gave a bark of laughter and clapped McDunn on the back, almost staggering him. “I think my cousin likes you, Major. I know he likes me, and this is how he deals with me.”
“I suppose so,” McDunn said, turning his torso back and forth experimentally. “I suppose you like me too, which is why you just broke two of my ribs.”
“Of course!” Fitzwilliam said cheerfully. “Besides, you should not worry about intruding on my cousin’s hospitality. Do you not realize you are like a mystery puzzle that will keep all of us intrigued for weeks and weeks? Do you think Darcy would dare turn you out, penniless and forlorn, until we had drained all your secrets? Do you think Georgiana and I would let him?”
“You are perfectly welcome to remain at Pemberley for as long as you wish while you get your sea legs in our British world, Major,” Darcy said, “and to accompany our party to London before we get snowed in.”
McDunn looked at Darcy for several moments before nodding. “You’re very gracious. In fact, I almost feel…”
He stopped talking, but Darcy’s curiosity was obviously piqued. “Yes? What is it you feel, Major?”
McDunn looked directly at Darcy for a moment and then quietly said, “Your assistance has been so valuable, sir, and so freely given that I…well, I almost feel as though I was destined to be found by you.”
After a moment’s silence, he continued. “Yet, as a rational man, I don’t believe in destiny unless inspired by God, and I know for a certainty I’m too small a speck in an infinite cosmos to warrant even the slightest second of the Lord’s attention.”
“But what about the Siege Perilous my brother described to me?” Georgiana said. “Did you not say you thought it was of Divine origin?”
“I did and I do. Still, everything seems too good to be true.”
“It was not so for your comrades who perished in your world. Your survival is solely due to this man Kaswallon finding you and sending you on to our time before you bled to death.”
“I remember asking myself if he was a Druid when he was explaining everything, but that can’t be since he said he was a Christian. Anyway, I thought Druids painted themselves blue, and Kaswallon certainly wasn’t blue—though he did wear a costume that looked as though it was designed for the theatre.”
“I think the Druids were more prevalent in Wales than in Cornwall,” Darcy said thoughtfully. “And it was the wild Celtic warriors who painted themselves blue when battling the Romans. Not much is known about the Druids though you are right about them not being Christian.”
“But this is still so thrilling,” Georgiana said, her eyes gleaming with excitement. “His family having charge of the Siege stone for all those centuries—sending people to those other dimensions! Why, the mere thought is fascinating!”
“Which reminds me, Mr. Darcy,” McDunn said. “I figured parallel dimensions would be rather difficult for you to accept, but it didn’t seem to jar you very much. I’d expected the concept to pose a problem since it was a fictional concept in my time in books and some…uh, theatrical productions. I remember tossing around the idea with other students at college when we were taking a break from studying, but it was really casual and fanciful. We usually dwelt on more trivial topics like whether the Tarheels could really take the Wolfpack after six straight seasons of disappointment.”
“Tarheels?” Fitzwilliam asked.
“The nickname for our university sports team. The Wolfpack was the nickname for our main rival who had beaten us badly for six years in a row. It seemed so important back then, but now it seems trivial.”
“It does not sound trivial to me,” Georgiana said. “Those details you call trivialities are some of the things that make everything you tell us so believable. You are not inventing a story to tell us but are simply remembering your other life.”
“True. I had not put the thought into words, but Georgiana has expressed it perfectly,” Darcy said. “It was one of the reasons I accepted what you told me and decided to be of assistance to you.”
“My brother is glad to help
you, Major. He truly is! Oh, everything is so exciting! I cannot wait to see what marvels you are going to reveal! And I thought life at Pemberley, even with Richard visiting, would be so dull!”
“But we must remember to keep this a family secret as we agreed,” Darcy said, his voice gentle but firm, the voice of a guardian instructing his ward.
“Oh, certainly, William. I understand completely. But I wonder—shall we include Mr. Bingley when he comes to visit?”
Darcy and Fitzwilliam glanced at each other; then Darcy said slowly, “Bingley is a good friend, and I enjoy his company exceedingly. But I think not. Unlike Richard, he really does not have anything to contribute.”
“And the more people you bring into a secret, the more likely it is to be compromised,” McDunn said. “I’ve got a number of things to discuss with you, not the least of which is the kind of work I can do to produce income. I can’t live off the gold coins that so fortuitously arrived with me. Even if we melt them down, using too many might make people suspicious, and they won’t last forever. After thinking it over last night, I plan to use my knowledge from the future to produce and sell new products. But all my knowledge is academic—not real-life experience. So I need to pick your brains as much as you want to pick mine.”
“He has hundreds of these sayings!” Fitzwilliam exclaimed. “‘Pick our brains!’ We need to keep this man around just to listen to him speak, Darcy!”
“Your firearms alone are so amazing in their precision that they would be priceless to the military,” Darcy said.
McDunn shrugged. “Unfortunately, I think something like that would be a bit too ambitious as a first effort.”
“Which brings us to the demonstration of your pistol you mentioned,” Fitzwilliam said eagerly.
“Indeed it does, and I’ll get it from the stables where I left your fine clothes, Colonel.”
McDunn left at a trot and returned a few minutes later with a cloth-wrapped bundle.
“This thing is really loud, and the projectile has a lot of energy,” McDunn said. “I think we’d better get a lot farther away from the house.”
Darcy nodded and led everyone about a half-mile along one of the paths to a cleft in the hillside behind the house.
McDunn looked around and nodded then knelt and unwrapped his holstered pistol as well as some triangles of wood one of the stable-hands had found for him. He took these about fifteen paces into the cleft and rammed the point of each into the turf so they stood upright. On his way back, he found a branch that he laid on the ground before them.
“Those will be your targets,” he told Darcy and Fitzwilliam, indicating the wooden triangles while removing his pistol from the holster, instinctively keeping the muzzle pointing away from everyone. “And this branch will be the firing line.”
Pointing into the cleft, he said, “That direction is downrange. When you have a pistol in your hand, it must always be pointing downrange.”
He looked intently at each of the men. “Remember, gentlemen, your pistol always points downrange. Always!”
Both men as well as Georgiana nodded seriously at McDunn’s stern instructions.
“Spoken like a man who has commanded troops and is used to having his orders obeyed,” Richard said. “Listen well, cousins. He knows what he is about.”
McDunn continued with both men, showing them how to load the pistol, take their stance, aim, and fire it. But before starting the demonstration, he pulled a handful of small cloth rectangles from his pocket then demonstrated how to roll them into a cylinder and insert them into their ears to protect their hearing against the loud muzzle blast.
“Remember to slowly squeeze the trigger…like this,” McDunn said, and a loud click sounded as the internal hammer hit the firing pin. “I want you to fire three rounds, but do it slowly, releasing the trigger and taking aim as I instructed.” He paused and said, “Any questions?”
When there were none, he said, “Then I think we’re ready. You first, Mr. Darcy. Take your position at the firing line.”
McDunn handed Darcy the pistol after he was in position and coached him through inserting the magazine and racking the slide to insert a cartridge. Then, just as he had been instructed, Darcy held the pistol with both hands and took careful aim. He began to squeeze the trigger slowly, slowly…
Unexpectedly, there was an immense roar, and the pistol kicked back as the muzzle rose into the air.
“My word!” Fitzwilliam said breathlessly.
“Did I hit the target?” Darcy asked plaintively, seeing all six wooden triangles still in place.
“You were just over the one on the left,” McDunn said. “Your form wasn’t bad. Try again.”
Darcy fired two more times, neither one coming as close to his target as his first shot, and McDunn took the pistol and removed the magazine and the round from the chamber.
“I told you it would be loud,” McDunn said, motioning Fitzwilliam into position before handing him the pistol and magazine.
“And you were correct that it would kick like a mule!” Darcy said fervently, working the fingers of his right hand. “I have shot a pistol many times, but never like this! And I could not hit a single target.”
“A couple of your shots would at least have hit a man-sized target,” McDunn said. “And it takes some training to shoot a pistol accurately. Now, let’s see how the good colonel does.”
A few moments later, there was another roar, followed by two others. Fitzwilliam had managed to hit the target once, causing the wood to fly to pieces.
“Well, that is disappointing!” Fitzwilliam said. “I expected to hit three times, and I only hit once. I suppose I ought to depend on my sword arm.”
“Like I said, it takes training to shoot a pistol accurately. I simply don’t have enough cartridges to train you.”
“Major,” Georgiana said timidly as McDunn unloaded the pistol and started to put it in its holster. “Could you please demonstrate the pistol yourself?”
McDunn looked at her in surprise, then Fitzwilliam chimed in. “Yes, please, Major! I would dearly love to see how it is supposed to be fired.”
Darcy nodded his agreement, and McDunn thought for a few moments before giving a shrug.
“Very well, but only a few shots.”
Stepping back to the branch on the ground, he reloaded the pistol and took a firing position.
BAAAAMMMM! BAAAAMMMM! BAAAAMMMM! BAAAAMMMM! BAAAAMMMM!
With each loud detonation, a wood triangle disintegrated, and each shot followed on the previous one by less than a second.
“The oak at the end of the cleft. See the lowest branch to the left of the trunk?”
Again he assumed a firing position but aimed more carefully. When the front and rear sights came into line, he began to squeeze the trigger.
BAAAAMMMM!
The sound of the explosion as well as the kick of his brute of a pistol came as a surprise to McDunn, just as it always did when it was done right. The branch thrashed about and a number of leaves fell off.
“That is amazing, sir,” Fitzwilliam whispered in astonishment. “Simply amazing.”
“The result of long training and thousands of practice rounds,” McDunn said mildly, unloading and holstering the pistol before flexing his fingers as Darcy had done. “And now you see why it’s no fun to fire. It’s really powerful, and it’s made for one thing only—and that’s war.”
Fitzwilliam paused then asked, “Is there any possibility of making similar firearms for our army?”
McDunn shook his head sadly. “As I mentioned, it’s a bit too ambitious at the present time. I’m not yet familiar with the state of things here in Britain, but I know your—what’s the word—ah, mechanical arts simply aren’t up to the challenge. I knew you were going to ask the question, so I gave the matter some thoug
ht. I’m afraid it will be years before even a single-shot pistol could be produced. For one thing, the steel has to be much stronger than you can make right now.”
“I wish I could fire your pistol,” Georgiana said sadly, taking the rolled up shreds of cloth from her ears. “But I know I am not nearly strong enough.”
“I am not sure I am strong enough!” her brother said, patting her fondly on the shoulder.
“True words, Darcy,” Fitzwilliam said with a nod. “But did you see how fast Major McDunn hit those targets? Five shots, five hits! In only a few seconds!”
“In my time, it took a full two weeks and hundreds of rounds to train a marine to shoot the pistol adequately,” McDunn said. “But now, I believe I need a bath before the noon meal. I’m famished!”
“You are always famished, Major,” Fitzwilliam said cheerfully. But this time McDunn managed to dodge the gargantuan clap aimed for his shoulder.
As the party returned to the house, Georgiana glanced at Fitzwilliam, savoring the sight of him as she always did. She spared a quick glance at the taller man beside him.
Richard may not be as strong and as powerful looking as you, Major McDunn, she thought contentedly, but he is the man with whom I am going to spend my life. I might have been tempted by your dark, dangerous figure if I had not already decided Richard would be my husband.
Enjoy yourself for the moment, cousin. I do not believe you have any idea of my plans for you!
With that thought, Georgiana lengthened her stride to join her brother and Fitzwilliam.
“It is very good to have you returned from Spain safe, Richard. Despite what my brother tried to say, I know I really am your favorite cousin.”
Fitzwilliam showed pleased surprise at hearing this. “How could there be any other opinion on the subject?”
Chapter 5
If I get a parking ticket, there is always a parallel universe where I didn’t. On the other hand, there is yet another universe where my car was stolen.
