Chapter 17: The truth, the whole truth, and nothing like the truth

Two days later Krish and Lillian Armityge arrived at the temple but were shown to their accommodation before I had chance to speak to them. The following morning, after a solitary breakfast in the guest bungalow, I was escorted by a Nubian, whom I knew as Mahmoud, to an annexe off the throne- room.

The Armityges and Eloise were already seated around a rectangular table, Eloise at the head with Krish to her left and Lillian to her right. I was placed at the foot of the table, with Mahmoud and another Nubian guard standing behind me. I tried and failed to catch Knish’s eye, but did draw scowls and angry looks from Lillian. What was going on?

“Well, Doctor Armityge, tell me why Elijah was sent to me bound up like a goose for the kitchen?” Eloise said.

“I know there are issues between you and Greenaway, Baroness. I thought delivering him to your door would stand me in good stead in any future business relationship between us,” Krish replied, not taking his eyes from Eloise’s face the whole time he spoke.

Eloise gave a wide smile. “And it certainly does encourage me to look favourably upon you and your charming wife. But did you not wonder what I would do with a trussed up Elijah?”

Krish shrugged his shoulders. “What you have planned for Greenaway is no concern of mine.”

“But I thought he was your friend? You saved his life after he had been shot by my husband.”

“I treated a man for gunshot wounds. He was in a coma, for which I could do nothing, and it was Mimi Renoir who saved his life. As for once being a friend, I thought him so until he stole the woman I loved from me!”

He spoke with such bitterness and vehemence that I realised he was not playacting. Krish Armityge had not forgiven me for winning Caroline’s love and was seeking revenge. A shiver of apprehension swept over me.

I jumped to my feet. “You know that Caroline...” I began until forced back into my chair by Mahmoud. I also received a rebuke from Eloise.

“Sit down and be quiet, Elijah. You will have your chance to speak all in good time.” She turned to Krish, “please continue, Doctor Armityge.”

“I had loved Caroline Ashford since childhood,” Krish said. “I asked for her hand in marriage but her father refused on account of my lack of money and my mixed blood. Instead, she was affianced to my best friend, Richard Davenport, who was killed at Albuerha in eighteen eleven. I vowed I would return his body to his family in England. It was two years later, after the battle of Vitoria, that I was able to fulfil my pledge, and returned with his embalmed corpse to Kent. Caroline and I then embarked on a sexual relationship that continued even after her marriage to Jarvis Braxton-Clark.”

Krish paused and shot an angry glance at me. “Greenaway knew of my love for Caroline, but unknown to me he had developed a lust for her and decided, by hook or by crook, to gain her for himself. Jarvis Braxton-Clark, Greenaway, and I belonged to the same regiment, and it was at the regimental barracks in Hounslow that Greenaway concocted the plan to prise Caroline away from me. One evening he and Braxton-Clark were engaged in a game of cards, and Braxton-Clark caught Greenaway cheating.” Krish threw another bitter look at me. “Greenaway was quite adept at palming cards, and I believe he intended Braxton–Clark to catch him. Naturally, Braxton-Clark made his accusation and Greenaway had no option but to demand satisfaction for the slur on his honour. Braxton-Clark was a well-known marksman and he, as the called out party, had the choice of weapons, which were pistols. Captain Basset, Greenaway’s second, asked that I be the doctor in attendance, to which I agreed. He also suggested that I combine that duty with that of Umpire. The authorities, particularly the Duke of Wellington, frowned upon duelling, and the fewer people involved in the affair of honour the less chance of the event coming to the attention of the authorities. After conferring with Braxton- Clark’s second, I was appointed Umpire, the person who loads the duellists’ pistols. On the evening before the duel, Greenaway came to me in a blue funk. He begged me to do all I could to protect him from the marksmanship of Braxton-Clark. I was amazed at his behaviour, as Greenaway always gave the impression of being fearless, yet he was blubbing like a schoolboy. He suggested I not load the ball into Braxton-Clark pistol, as he, Greenaway, was certain to be shot. He swore he was no marksman and had only fired a pistol when putting injured horses out of their agony on the field of Waterloo. Greenaway and I had served together throughout Portugal and Spain, whereas Braxton- Clark had only joined the regiment prior to Waterloo. I considered Greenway a friend, a brother in arms, and agreed to his suggestion only if Greenaway would delope, which he swore he would...”

“What is delope, Doctor?” asked Eloise.

“To delope is to throw away your shot in a duel – it means deliberately missing your opponent, either by firing into the air or into the ground, or aiming extremely wide of your opponent.”

Thank you, Doctor. Pray continue.”

“Greenaway gave me his word that he would delope immediately after Braxton-Clark had fired his shot. ‘I am such a bad shot even if I aimed to miss I might accidentally hit my target’ he said. ‘I shall fire into the air, well over his head.’” Krish paused and looked grim. “I believed Greenaway to be a man of honour but I was proved wrong. On the morning of the duel I handed Braxton-Clark his pistol, sans ball. He fired at Greenaway and ‘missed’. Greenaway fired in return, and when the smoke cleared Braxton-Clark was stretched out stone dead on the sward with a pistol ball in his heart. Of course, Greenaway insisted he had fired over Braxton-Clark’s head and blamed the inaccuracy of the dragoon pistol for Braxton-Clark’s death. However, later that week I learned that Greenaway had been honing his pistol shooting skill with constant practice, and I had been made an unknowing accessory to murder!”

Once again, I tried to give the true facts. “I had no idea you had removed the ball from...”

“Be silent, Elijah. If I have to tell you again I will have you gagged!” Eloise’s voice cracked as sharp and as vicious as a pistol shot.

She turned to Krish. “So far all that Elijah has done is to kill the husband of your lover, clearing the way for you to marry her.”

Krish nodded his head. “I realised that, and how I had put myself into Greenaway’s hands, but it was not his intention to blackmail me but Caroline. After the death of her husband, Caroline left England for Bermuda. We kept in touch by letter and agreed that after a year she would return to England and we would be wed. During the voyage to Bermuda Caroline realised she was pregnant. The child could have been Braxton-Clark’s or mine. If mine then Caroline would be ostracised by society, and the child would not be able to take his Grandfather’s titles and land as Earl of Hungerford, however, if Braxton-Clark’s then the land and title would be the child’s. Eventually, the year passed and Caroline returned to England with her son, arriving in London in March of eighteen eighteen. I was away in Manchester at the time and unbeknown to me Greenaway met Caroline in London. He gave her an ultimatum, marry him else he would tell Braxton-Clark’s father that I had not loaded a ball into his son’s pistol, and that the boy child that accompanied her from Bermuda was fathered by me. Caroline had no choice; her lover’s life and her son’s future were in the balance, so she agreed to marry Greenaway.”

“Was the marriage not a success, Doctor?”

“Caroline made the best of a bad job. She endured Greenaway’s depraved, degenerate, sexual perversions but was concerned by his unnatural interest, close physical interest, in their two adopted daughters. He was giving a more than fatherly attention to their...”

I leapt up from my chair in fury and bellowed at Krish. “That is a damned lie! Caroline loved me, and I loved my daughters as a father...”

Eloise rapped out an order, presumably in Nubian, and the two guards pushed me back in the chair. Mahmoud gagged me with a cloth while the other tied my hands and feet to the arms and legs of the chair.

“I warned you, Elijah. You will be untied after the Armityges have finished given their reasons for handing you over to me.” Eloise turned to Lillian, “and why do you hate Elijah Greenaway?”

“Jack Greenaway took my maidenhead by raping me; he debauched and degraded me, and when his animal lust had been satisfied he sold me to a brothel!”

I strained ineffectually at my bonds and tried, without success, to shout out it was all lies that Lillian was telling.

Eloise looked at me with a grin on her face. “I know, from what I heard of his exploits in Napoli, that Elijah has a vigorous sexual appetite but would never thought he would descend to becoming a rapist. Go on with your story, Missus Armityge.”

Lillian continued her farrago of lies, with eyes filled with hate and loathing fixed on me.

“My mother was widowed shortly after we arrived in England from India. My father had been an officer in the Madras Army of the East India Company but succumbed to wounds received. My mother was a beautiful but wilful woman, who soon had a queue of suitors but chose a charming but flawed man as her husband. My stepfather had many dissolute friends and acquaintances who would gather in our house to drink and carouse at the expense of my mother’s dwindling fortune. A year after her marriage we were destitute. One of my stepfather’s friends was Major Greenaway, who made no secret of his lust and desire for me. He offered my stepfather money to become my guardian, seeing it a legal path to have his wicked way with me, as I was a virgin and not yet sixteen years of age. My stepfather agreed to the sale. Only one man stood in the path of my loss of innocence and descent into degradation, and that was Mister Barton Seagrave. He was a neighbour, a widower with two young daughters whom I was teaching to play the pianoforte. I received a small gratuity for the service, the only money coming into the household. Mister Seagrave heard of the transaction between my stepfather and Greenaway and offered a higher price to become my guardian. My stepfather agreed, but before the deal could be signed Greenaway visited Mister Seagrave and threatened his daughters’ lives if he did not withdraw his offer. As a warning, Greenaway sliced off the lobe of Mister Seagrave’s right ear.” Lillian sighed, “What could Barton do but allow the transaction between Greenaway and my stepfather to proceed? He did however take counsel with a lawyer acquaintance, and was on his way to the office of the Bow Street Runners to report Greenaway’s criminal behaviour when he was set upon by a gang of footpads, who robbed him and cut his throat. The ruffians were in the pay of Greenaway of course, although no one was ever arraigned for the murder of Barton Seagrave, as kind, decent, and honest a man one could ever meet.” Lillian snuffled, and Eloise handed her a handkerchief to dry her eyes.