Departure by Clonesgirl
Part IV: A Calculated Risk
Edward Pellew opened his eyes.
"No!" He shook his head. "No, it can not be!" he whispered, aghast at the sight before him. "I must be mad! I am hallucinating!" he moaned, staring in horror.
"Dearest Edward!" The smiling figure sat on the bed and a long-fingered hand reached out to stroke his face in most soothing manner. "Listen to me! You are not mad. You are not hallucinating. We are quite real."
"Yes, Edward," came another voice, and he turned toward the other side of the bed where another figure now sat. "You are not getting rid of us that easily!"
As he gazed into large blue eyes and beheld locks of fair hair falling onto the forehead he groaned.
"It's not possible!" he murmured, shaking his head. "'Renown' has sailed. You went with her, both of you! Those were your orders! I had no choice in the matter."
"But we did!" came the rejoinder from the other side of the bed. He turned back to the other one; the one with the luscious pink lips, enormous brown eyes and thick, dark curls. "And we had them changed!"
"You what?!" he practically shouted.
"Shhh. Calm down, Edward!" the blue-eyed one soothed. "All is well."
"All is well!" he sputtered. "You will be court-martialled for deserting your ship, and you tell me all is well?"
"It's all quite legal," the dark-eyed one stated with complete confidence.
"Impossible! Only the Admiralty could change those orders, and the black-hearted devils saw to it that I had no time to consult them!" he contradicted in bitter remembrance.
"But we did!" the blue-eyed one assured, grinning at him. "Oh, and do forgive us, Edward," he continued. "We meant to be with you when you awoke but Mrs. Kelly made some tea and we were famished."
"Yes," Horatio chimed in. "We'd had nothing to eat since breakfast with the Admiral."
Edward groaned. "Breakfast with the Admiral? I am definitely going mad!" he muttered, sitting up and clambering out of bed to don his dressing gown. However, before leaving the room, he turned back once more to the bed where the two reclining figures were smiling at each other.
"Told you!" Archie muttered.
"You were right. Not even a welcoming kiss!" Horatio complained.
"That's a guinea you owe me!"
Rolling his eyes heavenward and vowing to get to the bottom of this, Edward Pellew stalked out of the room.
*
Later that evening, all three had consumed a handsome meal and retired to the drawing room to sit around a blazing fire, Mrs Kelly having strict orders that they were not to be disturbed.
"All right, you two, this has gone on long enough. What on earth are you doing here when you're supposed to be on 'Renown'? And what is this about breakfast with an Admiral?" Edward demanded.
"It's all right, Edward. All is in order," Horatio soothed.
"So you have said." He remained sceptical. "Gentlemen, explanations are in order." He gazed in earnest at them both.
Horatio took a deep breath.
"We were fortunate to be sent ashore on an errand this morning. While ashore we heard a rumour that a member of the Admiralty was in port."
"Which member of the Admiralty?" Edward demanded, watching as their eyes met.
"Uh, we'll explain later," Archie muttered.
Horatio nodded in agreement and Edward merely looked exasperated.
"We... decided to pay him a visit," Archie continued, "and beg an audience. We had not really expected to be received; after all, we are only lowly lieutenants and did not have an appointment. However, much to our surprise, he agreed to see us."
As Archie paused Edward glared at both of them. "Pray continue, gentlemen."
Horatio took up the tale. "He offered us some tea and we... uh... stated our case. He inquired of the current commander of 'Renown' and I informed him that it was Captain Sawyer."
Archie smirked. "Kind of wrinkled up his nose, didn't he?"
"Indeed he did!" Horatio agreed.
Edward smiled thinly. "So the man bears no love for Captain Sawyer. Go on."
"He said that you were one of the bravest and finest captains in the fleet and he could see no reason to take your loyal officers away from you. He agreed to grant our request to stay on 'Indefatigable' as he had the authority to do it," Archie concluded.
"Indeed?" Edward muttered, his skepticism more than evident in his voice. "A fanciful tale if ever I heard one! Do you mean to tell me that that was all there was to it? Come, gentlemen!"
"It took so long because he had to have the new orders written up, otherwise we would have been here sooner. He ordered two officers from his own ship be transferred to 'Renown' to fill our places. He then gave us new orders to give to Captain Sawyer and yourself." Horatio handed over the packet to Edward who tore it open and eagerly read its contents.
After a few moments he put it down, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. "I recognise the signature and the seal. It is indeed quite genuine." He smiled. "Well, my dears, it seems that you will be with me for a while longer."
They beamed at him.
"Now tell me what really happened."
The smiles were replaced by twin expressions of guileless innocence.
"It is as we stated," Horatio assured.
"There is no more to tell," Archie agreed.
Edward stood and paced a few steps away from the couch before turning back toward them. He held out a hand to each of them and they rose to join him. Gazing deeply into their eyes, he murmured, "Come, my dears, I know you both too well. You have never lied to me before, and a lie is a very poor way to begin a reunion."
Their eyes met, both shaking their heads, their expressions rueful.
"Told you so!" Horatio muttered. "That's a guinea you owe me!"
"We're even!" Archie retorted.
Edward sighed, resisting the urge to cuff them both. Instead he refilled their glasses with port before seating himself opposite them once more. He gazed at them in most gentle manner.
"Now tell me, my loves," he coaxed, not wishing to coerce them but rather preferring them to believe that they were volunteering the information of their own free will. As the two of them glanced at each other, their eyes immediately slid away. If he had been unsure before, he was now positive that he would not like what he was about to hear.
"Uh... he asked if we offered incentive," Horatio began.
Edward kept his expression neutral. "Go on."
"To cut a long story short," Archie continued, "we were the incentive."
Edward closed his eyes. He had heard tales of this sort of thing happening with senior Admiralty officers but had dismissed them as vicious rumours. Now, to learn that they really were true, and to hear it from his own officers no less, dismayed him to the core.
Gazing from one to the other, he inquired softly, "Are you telling me that an Admiral in His Majesty's fleet took advantage of your rank? Your relative youth?" They nodded. "Took, shall we say, liberties with your persons?" Again they both nodded. "That was his price?" Again they nodded. He took both their hands in his. "Did he hurt you, my dears?"
"Oh, no!" Archie replied.
"Not at all!" Horatio reassured.
Edward slumped slightly, relieved that at least he need not concern himself on that account. He was, however, extremely concerned about their morals.
"My dears, are you seriously telling me that you... sold yourselves to an Admiral?"
Horatio gazed straight at him, his chin held high. "I would not put it quite like that, Edward. None the less, what is done is done." There was no mistaking the pride and stubbornness in his voice.
"And we would do it again if we had to!" Archie continued in identical attitude.
Edward winced. "What have I done?" he muttered, shaking his head. "My God, have I managed to totally corrupt your morals?" he demanded.
Horatio took his hands. "Edward, you have done no such thing! We were willing!"
"More than willing!" Archie reassured. "Dearest Edward, we would have done anything to return to you! Paid any price!"
"My God! You... you prostituted yourselves! - to return to me?" he exclaimed in complete disbelief.
"Edward darling, it was nothing," Horatio tried to reassure. "It meant nothing to us."
"Do you realise the risk you took?" Edward protested.
Archie reached out to touch his face and stroke it lightly with the back of his hand.
"Edward, we are no longer naive midshipmen. Nor are we inexperienced, as you well know." Edward winced. "You have taught us to take risks, as you do. The odds were not in our favour, but we were willing to pay the price had we not succeeded."
Horatio lifted his head once more. "Edward, we both know that I will have a ship of my own, and on that day our parting will be a mutual willingness to let go, for each of us will always carry the other in his heart. However, I would have our parting be of our own choice and in our own time. I will not willingly be torn from you, now or at any other time, only to be a third lieutenant on another ship, even a seventy-four gunner. So you see, dearest Edward, we would have risked anything - including our lives - to return to you. I therefore rate kissing an Admiral's arse as a very small price to pay."
"Besides, he was most generous with us when he could so easily have put us on report," Archie added.
"So as you see, Edward, we have returned to you, and you have no cause to be churlish," Horatio concluded.
Edward closed his eyes. No cause to be churlish? All he could think was that they had demeaned themselves to return to him, and the bitterness of that knowledge thoroughly galled him. In his heart, he could wish that the Admiral's price had not been quite so high; that they had not had to...
Unable to face them, he jumped up to stand before the fireplace, his back to them. He was consumed with guilt that his love - his all-consuming passion for these two fine young men - was responsible for bringing them to this degradation. He had always known that there would be a price to pay for indulging his feelings for them, for a love as strong and as forbidden as his was bound to exact a heavy toll. However, not in his wildest dreams had he imagined that it would ever come to this, with his dear officers paying a high price so that he could go on indulging himself.
Hanging his head in bitter shame, Edward damned himself.
* * *
