HMS Valiant - 15. Chapter 15

September 27, 1799

Brentwood

“Please pack up my things. I’m going to eat breakfast, and then I will be down shortly,” Granger told Merlin.

“Yes, my lord,” he said.

Granger descended the stairs and went into the dining room, to find that they’d already gotten breakfast ready and laid out for him. He didn’t visit Brentwood that often, so it was very nice that when he did, they tried to make things so pleasant. He sat down and began to eat, determined to devour a goodly amount of food since his day would undoubtedly be hectic. He finished eating, went up to say goodbye to his children, then headed out to mount his horse for the ride back to London.

“You were not going to say goodbye to me,” Caroline said acidly, stopping him in large entry hall.

“I apologize for the oversight,” Granger said, just as coldly. “Goodbye.”

“Have a safe voyage,” she said, but with no sincerity.

“Thank you.”

“I really think that as many of your affairs that I’ve overlooked, you’re being terribly unfair to me,” she said.

Granger was normally so composed, and so stoic; it was a rare day when he lost his temper, but this was one of those days. He pulled Caroline into an alcove, where they couldn’t be overheard, and stood in front of her so he was less than a yard away. “Let me explain to you exactly why I am so angry with you.” His words were loud, but since they were from Granger, they were almost a shout. Granger thought about trying to curb his volume lest the servants hear, but he remembered that they already knew all about Caroline’s indiscretion, and that just made him even angrier. Besides, the alcove was relatively private.

“George…” Caroline said in an attempt to calm him, suddenly realizing that his anger was much greater than hers. She had planned to point out that he slept with other men, and that he wasn’t pure enough to judge her, but now she was backtracking. She had never seen him quite this enraged. He ignored her interruption.

“You tell me you have overlooked my affairs, so I should be forgiving of your indiscretions. Only my relations are private, and I have not risked everything with my carelessness. And this affair, such that it is, that you want me to forgive you for, is something you did not even tell me about.”

“You have done your own investigations. I feel as if you are a detective,” she said defiantly.

“I directed you to tell me what you had done, and you refused. By God, I will not tolerate that kind of behavior in my house. I have a mind to banish you to Bridgemont while I am gone!”

“I will not go!”

“You will go if I tell you to go. You will do as I wish, or you will be denounced by society as a slut and a whore.”

“You are calling me a slut and a whore?!” she demanded, outraged.

“I am telling you that is what society will think you are!” he almost snarled at her. “What do you think will happen to you when I call on His Majesty and tell him that my wife entertained two men at the same time, while I was in the country? You do not think he will be outraged, and he will banish you? He may decide to send you to Bermuda, just as he had with Freddie and Davina.”

“As I said,” she responded coldly, “you have done your own investigation.”

“Would you like to know from whom I got this information?”

“I assume that you bullied Major Treadway, threatening to destroy his career so you could satisfy your curiosity,” she said in a nasty way.

“I heard it from one of our servants,” he snapped. “Every member of our staff knows that you hosted Cavendish and Treadway in the baths. Every one of them, whether they are here, in London, or at Cowes!”

“They will not talk,” she said, but even Granger could tell she wasn’t convinced.

“I think we have the most loyal staff in all of England,” Granger said, primarily in the unlikely case one of those staff members just happened to be eavesdropping. “But even then it is possible for one of them to accidentally leak news of your infamy. When so many people know what you have done, then it will get out.”

“Winkler told you,” she accused.

“One of the footmen got drunk and told members of my crew what happened,” he said.

“Which one? Which one said that? That will be the end of his job!”

“No, it will not,” Granger said. “You will not punish other people for your sins. But as a result of his indiscretion, I am sure it is now common knowledge in the fleet. The entire Navy knows that you were fucking two men at the same time!” It sounded a bit extreme, that news would spread that fast, but Granger knew that on the lower deck, tidbits like that flew through the fleet like wildfire.

“And you have not done that?” she asked, being catty.

“Do our servants know that I have done that?” he challenged. “Does the entire Royal Navy know that I have done that?”

“I do not know what people think about you, George.”

“You obviously do not know what people think about you, either,” he said. “You have done this before, risked your reputation because of your lust, and now you have done the same thing again. It will be difficult to argue when you are condemned as a slut.”

“I will not be spoken to like that!”

“I don’t give a damn what you think,” Granger said. “And I will do whatever I damn well please. By God, Caroline, I will go see the King and have you banished to a goddamn Scottish castle, with no contact with anyone. Do you not think I can do it? Do you not think so? Who will defend you? Who?”

“I have friends, and they will not allow that,” she replied.

“Your friends will desert you, and what they want is meaningless when faced with such a wanton woman, a craven woman,” he said scornfully. “I have done my duty. I have gone out and won battles, and prize money, and been politically astute, enough that I have a knighthood and a peerage that I earned on my own. We are fabulously wealthy, primarily because of the prize money I have brought home. I have been appointed as Governor of Windsor, and a colonel of marines, and I have helped my father turn his earldom into a dukedom. I have done my part to advance our family, only to see you risk it all!”

“I have always been proud of your successes, George,” she said, in a vain effort to calm him down.

“I am going to tell you how things are going to be and I am going to tell you what to do, and if you do not do exactly as I say, by God, I’ll find a monastery to lock you up in!” They stared at each other, both of them breathing hard, their noses flaring, the rage palpable. Granger turned and walked a few steps away, and waited until he got himself under control, then turned back to face his wife. “Let me explain things to you.”

Caroline forced her own anger to cool when he turned away from her, but when she saw Granger turn around and face her, the look in his eyes, and the tone of his voice, was worse than when he was yelling. She had never seen him so cold, so frigid before. There was absolutely no love, no caring in his demeanor at all. It would be easy to conclude that he hated her. “What would you have me do?” she said calmly, even as she bit back her tears.

“I am here, at Brentwood, for two reasons. The first is to see my children. The second is to make an appearance to try and save your reputation.”

“To save my reputation?” she asked, arching her eyebrow. She thought he was being much too dramatic about this.

“I met with my father, and we devised a plan to save you from yourself, as it were,” he said.

“You talked to him about this?” she asked, stunned. “What did you tell him?”

“I told him enough to truly horrify him,” Granger said. “I would recommend that you avoid calling at Bridgemont House for the near future.”

“I cannot believe you did that!”

“What choice did I have?” Granger demanded. “You fucked my best friend. My best friend! I had no one else to turn to, so I turned to my father, and he helped me out, just as he always has.”

“What did he say?” she asked. She knew the Duke was a very good politician, and his advice would most likely be quite valuable.

“He said that since these rumors about your behavior are confined primarily to the lower classes, it is important that it appear as if nothing has changed. That is why I am here seeing you. That is why Treadway will remain on Valiant. And that is why Cavendish and I are going to Carlton House together tonight, and why we went to the Palace together on Wednesday.”

“So if this does get out, no one will believe it,” she said, understanding his plan.

“That is correct,” he said. “So you will spend your time here at Brentwood while I am gone. You are allowed no more than a week each month in London. Do I make myself clear?”

“I will not have you dictate to me, George,” she said defiantly.

“You will do as I say, or I will destroy you!” he said.

“You would do that to me?”

“Nothing would make me happier,” he said viciously. “You have killed the love I had for you. Killed it by defying me, by being a slut, and by risking everything!”

Caroline stood there, reeling. She had thought, until this moment, that they were merely having an argument, one that she would possibly win, and then things could return to the way they were. Instead, George had told her that he did not love her. That their marriage, as she had known it, was over. “I do not feel that way,” she said softly.

“I do not care,” Granger said. “You will remain celibate. If I hear even the slightest rumor that you have been with someone, it is the end of your days in society. Your father won’t be able to save you; Gloucester won’t be able to save you; no one will. Am I clear?”

“You have made yourself very clear,” she said.

“Do not think that by doing these things, that by trying to save your worthless reputation, that I am doing this for you. Do not think that,” he said coldly. “I am doing it for my children, so they are not embarrassed to have you as their mother, and so their paternity is not questioned.”

“I cannot believe you are being so cruel,” she said coldly.

“You had it within your power to save our marriage. All you had to do was explain things to me, to tell me what happened. When I demanded that you do that, I never expected you would defy me. That was unconscionable. But you did. So now, here we are, staring at the burnt ashes of our relationship, and the match that started the fire is in your hand.”

Caroline finally grasped the situation, and was so devastated, she could not stop the tears. “I was too embarrassed, too humiliated…”

“I do not want to hear it,” he said, cutting her off. “You had multiple chances to explain things, and you did nothing. So now your reasons and excuses are meaningless.”

“You won’t even hear me out?”

“Caroline, I don’t care. Why would I listen, when I don’t care?” Granger knew, deep in his soul, that he did care, but he was too angry to feel it, and much too upset to acknowledge it. “I have instructed Cavendish that if you attempt to blackmail him, and manipulate him as you have since April, that he should go to my father. If you think our conversation was unpleasant, I cannot fathom what you will think when my father discusses this with you.”

“Nothing could be worse than hearing such hateful and unforgiving words from you, George.”

“Forgiving? Forgiving? When you have not even apologized, and acknowledged what you have done? I think not. I think my forgiveness is something that will elude you until death finally parts us.” He looked at his watch. “And now I have been further delayed in my efforts to save you, evidently from yourself.” He turned away from her, then walked out the door, mounted his horse, and went back to London.

Caroline stood; looking at the door Granger had exited through, and did not move for the longest time. It was as if she were a statue. She finally pulled herself together enough to wipe her tears away, and then made to walk up the stairs to her room, where she could hide. And think.

“My lady,” said a voice, stopping her. It was Charlotte’s governess. Caroline turned to look at her, forcing her expression to be as calm and placid as it usually was. She merely stared at the woman, willing her to go on. “His Lordship has required that we teach Lord Ryde and Lady Charlotte to swim, using the bathing pools. The doctors have objected to that. They are concerned it will cause them to become ill.”

Caroline didn’t really think about what she was saying, because it did not matter. The end result of George’s rage and her indiscretion was that her power and her independence had been seriously diminished. “You will do as His Lordship instructed,” she said firmly, then went up the stairs to her room.

Granger rode back to London, furious with himself, not for the things he had said to Caroline, but for how he had said them. He did not recall ever letting his emotions rule him so completely. He could not recall a time when he had spoken to someone so rudely, and with such little feeling. He had been positively cruel, and for that, he did feel badly.

Despite his self-acknowledgement that he had behaved horribly, as he thought about his encounter with Caroline, his rage only increased. The only thing that may have saved them would have been her immediate acknowledgement that she had erred; an abject apology for what she had done, and for refusing to tell him; and her pledge to do better. Instead she had argued with him, and had once again failed to realize the extent to which she had endangered all of them. Granger increased his pace, spurring the horse on, and forcing the footmen to really work to keep up with him. In the end, the physical effort was good for him, and it calmed him.

He pondered that, with his marriage in ruins, his pledge to Caroline that he would not sleep with other women was effectively null and void. He could go out to Carlton House, and for the first time in almost seven years, he could actually seduce one of the women there. It was tempting, if only because when Caroline found out, it would upset her. It was a way to lash out at her, to visit upon her the type of pain and agony she had inflicted upon him. Then he remembered the King’s kind words. He had been at Windsor, and the King had commented that Valiant was Granger’s only mistress, and he had been proud of Granger. The more Granger had gotten to know the King, the more he respected him. It would not be worth it to sleep with one of the women of lesser virtue at Carlton House, with the end result being to upset Caroline while diminishing him in the eyes of the King. That he would not do.

Then he thought of Cavendish, and how he had done what Caroline should have done. He had come to him and explained everything, and he had apologized. Granger had forgiven him, and they had indulged in a sexual extravaganza the night before last. Granger felt himself smiling, and that did much to squelch the rage in him. And when the rage faded, he understood that while he was mad, and while his relationship with Caroline was severely damaged, he did still care about her.

On an impulse, Granger detoured to visit the Duke of Clarence. He was in need of some physical release, the kind of release that a man like the Duke could provide. He was so powerful and strong, and Granger instinctively yielded to him. The thought of that, at this juncture, was incredibly erotic.

The equerry knew him, and invited Granger into the library to wait for the Duke. Before he went in, he bid his footmen to return to Portland Place with his horse, and to send the carriage to retrieve him. It was much better to go about town in a carriage, especially if the mob should recognize him.

Granger waited no more than fifteen minutes before the Duke came into the room, closing the doors firmly behind him. “Granger! What a wonderful surprise! I thought you had sailed already.”

“Lady Elgin was evidently not on the same time schedule I was on, Your Royal Highness,” Granger joked. “I expect to leave Portsmouth on the 29^th, on the morning tide.”

The Duke ran his hand gently across Granger’s cheek. “And you decided to take some of your time to call on me.”

“I have never been disappointed when visiting Your Royal Highness,” Granger said, moving his head sideways so he could kiss the hand that was caressing his cheek.

And that gesture seemed to awaken the beast inside the Duke, and he spent the next half an hour fucking Granger on the desk, in a chair, on the carpet, and finally on the sofa. It was a marvelous release for both of them, and when they had finished, and Granger was carefully wiping his semen off the leather couch with his handkerchief, it was as if a cloud lifted. “I must thank Your Royal Highness for a truly memorable experience,” Granger said, panting, even as he hurriedly put his clothes on.

“I have to agree with you,” the Duke said, grinning as he also dressed himself. “Before you go, there is a matter I need to discuss with you. I am so glad I got to see you before you left.”

“What may I do for you, sir?” Granger asked.

“I cannot think of what more you can do, other than what you have just done,” he said, making Granger giggle, then he got serious. “As we discussed, Jardines was wounded at Acre.”

“I heard that he was, but I have not heard how badly, sir,” Granger said.

“I do not have details for you either, and I suspect I read the same report that Lord Keith told you about. I have considered your pleas on behalf of Major Jardines, and I have spoken to Arthur about him.”

“Indeed, Your Royal Highness?”

“If you find Jardines alive, and well enough to travel, you are authorized to bring him home.”

“Thank you, Your Royal Highness,” Granger said, smiling broadly. Jardines and Arthur had been a couple, but Jardines had been banished for his assault on John Travers. He had redeemed himself, largely because of his efforts to help Granger transit through Egypt, and because of his bravery in helping to fight Napoleon’s forces in Egypt and the Levant. Granger had been lobbying for him to be allowed to return, but had been skeptical that Jardines would be allowed to do so. The resistance had been strong.

“Jardines’ family and his estates are in Devonshire. If he returns, Jardines will be allowed within the confines of Devonshire, or he may absent himself to Ireland. I am not sure if he has properties there, but he may opt to buy some, such that he has somewhere else to go. He will not be allowed anywhere else in England, Scotland, or Wales. If he does not agree to those conditions, he may not return at all.” The Duke was very firm as he spoke, as if to emphasize to Granger that there was no possibility of modifying the terms.

“I am confident that Jardines will be happy with that, especially when compared to the possibility of living in Egypt or India, sir,” Granger said.

“I will be honest with you, Granger. Having him back in England concerns me. I am not sure that Arthur will be able to handle it, and I am concerned that it will send him back into the realm of insanity. At the same time, it seems dashed unfair to keep Jardines in the Levant just because of Arthur’s problems.”

“I share your concerns, sir,” Granger said. “I have come to the same conclusions you have. I think that if Jardines is in Devonshire, and Arthur chooses to visit him, there is not much we can do about it. It may end up being a good thing.”

“Yet it is a risk,” the Duke mused. “In any event, the decision has been made, so we will have to cope with any mal effects as best we can.”

“Yes, sir,” Granger said.

“A good voyage to you, Granger. I do so look forward to your return.”

“As do I, Your Royal Highness,” Granger said. He took his leave of the Duke, and even as he walked out and got into his carriage, he wondered if those words were true, and if he really did look forward to coming home. In the end, he decided that he was about as conflicted about that as Arthur must be about Jardines returning to England.

From there, Granger went to see his father and told him about how he’d salvaged his friendship with Cavendish, and all but ended his marriage, or at least the emotional side of it.

“I think, George, that if you let some time pass, it will help the anger to fade, and you may be able to talk to Caroline about this,” the Duke of Suffolk told his son.

“I am not sure I see how talking to her will change my feelings,” Granger said. “I think that all we have now is a property arrangement, and I’m not very confident that Caroline is trustworthy.”

“There are some things you can do to protect yourself against potential mismanagement by Caroline, but I really do think she’s done a good job.”

“But she will be reluctant to come to you for counsel, and I worry that will negatively influence her decisions.”

“You flatter me,” the Duke said, even though he was an astute investor. “I think she will be fine. We can look into establishing some trusts for you when you get back. Things should be fine until then.”

“There is one more thing,” Granger said, even as he got ready to take his leave of his father. “Caroline has been using this tryst as a way to force Cavendish into her corner, at least politically.”

“It would seem she has just as much to lose as he does,” the Duke said.

“Evidently there is some confusion about that,” Granger said, because he could hardly tell his father that Caroline was holding Cavendish’s homosexual relationship with Granger over his head. “I told Cavendish to come see you if she causes him problems.”

“That will require me to converse with Caroline,” the Duke said grimly, “but if I am required to do so, I will.”

“Thank you, Father,” Granger said. And then, having completed all of his obligations for the day, he went home to find Cavendish waiting for him. Granger hadn’t really understood how empty he’d been without Cavendish’s friendship. Now that he did, it scared him, to think he was that vulnerable to someone. With the rift between him and Caroline, and the conflict that he’d had with Cavendish, it seemed as if trusting people was a dangerous business.

September 28, 1799

Portsmouth

Granger walked toward the jetty, while his men carried his chest ahead of him. Winkler and Jacobs waited to greet him. Granger had dispatched Winkler to Portsmouth yesterday on a coach, and that had enabled him to ride a horse here. He had found the crisp September air to be refreshing, and he had enjoyed the physical exertion from being on horseback that long. Besides, if he had not ridden a horse, he would have been obligated to ride in the carriage with the Elgins, and that was simply too awful to contemplate.

“Welcome back, my lord,” Jacobs said cheerfully, even as they stowed his gear aboard his gig.

“Thank you, Jacobs,” Granger said curtly, not to be rude, but to let Jacobs and Winkler know he was not in the mood to chat with them. His conversation with Caroline had continued to plague him, and had occupied most of his time while he had been riding down to Portsmouth. It bothered him that he could not force it out of his mind.

Those thoughts were with him until they drew near Valiant, and then Granger’s whole focus changed. He studied the ship, and noticed how Meurice had trimmed her so she was down slightly in the stern. He had opined that being lower aft might help her maneuverability. His gig hooked on, and they piped him aboard, the mere ceremony reminding Granger that his traumas in England were past, and his duty was in front of him.

“Welcome back, my lord,” Weston said cheerfully.

“Thank you,” Granger said. “The Elgins are on the road to Portsmouth. It is my intention to leave on the morning tide.”

“We are ready for sea, my lord,” Weston said.

“Excellent,” Granger replied. But the job of a captain was to make sure that his ship was properly run, and so while Winkler finished preparing his personal effects for sea, Granger went through the manifests of the supplies they’d brought aboard, and reviewed the material state of the ship with Weston.

Lord Elgin in 1788

Granger had just finished that when he heard the pipes twittering, and he went out onto the quarterdeck, assuming that Lord and Lady Elgin had come aboard. In fact, it was only Lord Elgin. “Granger,” he said in a friendly way. “My wife has decided to spend the night ashore. We will board the ship in the morning.”

Elgin was not surprised to see Granger’s brows narrow at his announcement, because he’d been nervous about confronting Granger, but his wife was more fearsome, or so he thought. “That is most inconvenient,” Granger said. “We are to leave on the morning tide, and in order to accomplish that, we must have you on board tonight.” Granger was unwilling to let Lady Elgin set the timetable for their departure, because she would ignore the influence of tides, and those were key.

“I’m afraid that is the way her ladyship wishes to arrange things,” Elgin said adamantly.

“I see,” Granger said, and felt his anger rising again. Only unlike he had with Caroline, he was able to keep his composure. “That concerns me greatly. To have her ladyship be so uncooperative, and so inflexible, makes me suspect she will be an unpleasant traveling companion.”

“I am sure she will be charming,” Elgin replied.

“I am not,” Granger said. “I have generously agreed to share my table, and to provide meals for the two of you. I am now convinced that if her ladyship is to be this difficult, to have any peace, I will need to take my meals alone. I would recommend that you make arrangements to supply your own foodstuffs. I would estimate that would cost in excess of one hundred pounds.”

It was all Granger could do not to laugh at Elgin, who was stuck between reining in his difficult wife, and paying for personal stores. “I am not averse to paying my share,” Elgin lied.

“Excellent. Then I will give you a choice. You can either convince her ladyship to join us aboard this evening, or you can meet with my purser, Mr. Andrews, who can advise you as to what you will want to stock. If you do that, it will require us to be in port for an additional day, to gather what you will need.”

“Thank you,” Elgin said insincerely. “I will go confer with my wife.”

“We will await your decision,” Granger said. Elgin went over the side back into his boat, which rowed him back toward Portsmouth.

“Do you think her ladyship will be aboard this evening, my lord?” Weston asked. That was very daring of him, to raise an issue based on Granger’s personal conversation with Elgin, but Weston was so pleasant, it was hard to be mad at him.

“I think that the promise of such a large dent in His Lordship’s purse will help motivate him to make her ladyship see reason,” Granger said. Weston chuckled with him. Granger withdrew to his cabin to write a quick note to his own wife.

Caroline,

I do not regret the words I said to you the last time we spoke, but I do regret the way I said them.

George.

He summoned Winkler to seal the letter up for him, then put it in with the other reports and dispatches he was sending to London. When he was finished with that, he was not surprised to find that the Elgins and their entourage had decided to come aboard as originally planned.