There was also the other lingering fear, that because I was viewed as such a national asset, I’d be used in other ghastly and gruesome ways by those in high places, for the good of the nation, of all things.
A broken leg and crushed internal organs I’d already tried. They’d failed and so I required new ways of shirking my duty without making it appear so and without actually leaving the army and losing the incredibly hard fought for high status I’d achieved after so much suffering. Naturally, I’d been at work in that area, but that’s another story along with how Fitzgibbon took things to extreme lengths in an attempt to expose me, my feud with the rotten man, my rogering his wife and how I ended up actually contriving to be sent away on a dangerous mission, because to remain behind in London was far more perilous in comparison. Last but not least, how the dead, after having devoured their way through Scotland, now turned on England, by Jove, toward the heart of the greatest Empire the world had ever known and toward her hero.
MELVILLE’S MOUTH PLUNGED OPEN, a sight that had become increasingly familiar throughout the last few hours. “What can I say, I’m flabbergasted and in a way, rather annoyed my taxes have gone toward your house.”
“One of my houses.” I corrected. “Though it really is a palace, in everything including name.” Wasn’t he listening?
He sighed. “The more one gets to know you, the more one is surprised, yet conversely, I’m hardly surprised at all. Though there is one thing…near the end of your story, you said your mind was on someone else. What happened to Gertrude?”
I turned away, not wanting to bring up the memories of my returning to London after the months away, of being handed her cards upon returning to Hazlitt’s, each message more desperate than the last, until the final note broke the news she was returning to Germany because she couldn’t wait any longer and had received an offer of marriage from some Russian prince. Well, if it’d keep them from warring in the future, perhaps my losing out would be worth it.
But it took many months of whoring to put that one behind me, I can tell you and once Strappy was back to his old self, I endeavoured to stay well clear of the ‘lady’ types and to never again allow my better judgements to become sullied with thoughts of love and other such poison. And if I ever required a reminder of just why that was, I need only visit my father in the lunatic asylum.
“Ok, so some things are still a little raw…we’ve all been there. But tell me, please, what was this dangerous mission you contrived to be sent on. Knowing you as I unfortunately do, this is hard to believe. The alternatives must have been truly dire indeed?”
“Are.”
“Excuse me?”
“The alternatives are dire indeed, because this brings us up to date.”
“All apart from how you got here.”
“And I’ll get to that if you give me chance. Will your bladder hold long enough? It’s not like you have a choice, is it? Because what I now have to tell you beats everything else hands down, sir. Which is why I’d like to get out of London as quickly as possible, considering I have husbands out there looking for me. Oh, if only I’d known who I was tupping.”
“Well this is hardly a revelation is it and with Captain Lynch as well as Fitzgibbon, it’s a wonder you never learn your lessons.” He’d spent the last half of my story facing me on his side, exposing his naked form to my violated eyes, but now, mercifully, he turned away, exposing his arse instead. “I’m listening.”
And as the Lord and Lady Fitzgibbon thrashed and screamed and went once more into the throws of ecstasy above, I began my story.
“I’d just been knighted by the queen…”
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Table of Contents
Copyright
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Book 1
Foreword
London 1860
My Last Day At Eton
An Uncle With Connections
Uneasy Feelings
Colonel Lord John Charles Henry Fitzgibbon, VC
Initiation
Getting Out Of The Army
More Tribulations
Pistols At Dawn
The Idiotic Expedition South
The Road To Strabane
A New Threat
Garrison
The Horde
Galway
Book 2
Dedication
Hero’s Welcome
A Chance Encounter
An Introduction To Society
Moving Up
Fitzgibbon Returns
Temptation, Undoing
In Transit
Pigeon Post
Gone Rogue
Saturday Night Entertainment
Going Rogue
Stirling
An Old Friend
Cheese And Scotch
Vocation In Life
The Horde Cometh
Siege
Trapped
Nowhere To Run
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Not Dead Yet: A Zombie Apocalypse Series - Books 1 - 2 Page 46