Hervey 06 - Rumours Of War Read Online Free Page A

Katherine Greville had been most insistent. He was to be her escort at Apsley House, and she could do no less than have him travel comfortably, and fast, to town. She had been disappointed when he had declined her invitation to stay at Holland Park, but, he explained, he would have business to transact early at St James’s, and it were better that he lodged, as usual, at the United Service Club in Charles Street. It was not the whole truth, but Lady Katherine’s portion of their correspondence while he had been in India filled a small trunk, and with Lieutenant-General Sir Peregrine Greville not in residence (his duties as military governor of Alderney and Sark, such as they were, detaining him almost permanently on the other side of the English Channel) he judged it prudent to observe a strict decorum. But first there was his engagement with his old friend at White’s. There could scarcely have been a less auspicious beginning to any friendship than that which was theirs. Lieutenant, as he had then been, Lord John Howard had arrived at the vicarage in Horningsham those eleven years past to place the then Cornet Matthew Hervey in arrest and to bring him to London. They had never served together, but the circumstances of their meeting, and their subsequent acquaintance, had been such as to build a mutual regard. It was a regard, too, that might have puzzled any outside the service, since Lord John Howard had risen by purchase two ranks higher than Hervey, and had done so without ever hearing a shot fired in anger. Hervey’s regard for him rested in considerable measure on his friend’s own humility in that respect. But above all the regard was conditioned by Lord John Howard’s evident qualities as a military courtier and staff officer, qualities which, Hervey knew full well, eluded him.
    When he arrived at the United Service he found it in some disarray. It had been resolved for many months that the club would give up its premises in Charles Street and move to a new house to be built on land close to Carlton House, which was being demolished, the King having moved to Buckingham Palace, and it seemed that the whole business bore heavily on the club’s functioning. So much so that Hervey found himself allocated a bed in a temporary dormitory, and a place in a queue for a bath.
    He now wished he had brought a servant of his own. That way, at least, he might have his levee dress laid out reliably while he had his soak. Doubtless, though, it would all be worth the inconvenience when the move was done, for the present building was scarcely commodious, and the oil gas lighting had a very rank smell – although a hundred guineas per debenture (the members had to raise the extra funds) had come as an unwelcome call on his finances so soon after arriving in Hounslow.
    He hoped, too, that hot water might come to the baths in the new house through pipes rather than by the method he had known in India; for his place in the queue meant he had little enough of it now. Nevertheless, he managed to divest himself of what remained of Hounslow Heath, and to dress himself without mishap, and to cross St James’s Square and beyond to St James’s Street in time for his much looked-to appointment. But for all the diversions of this, the greatest capital city in the world, India had many comforts he missed, and he could only hope that his friend at the Horse Guards brought ripe news.
    ‘One glass, yes,’ replied Hervey to Lord John Howard’s offer of champagne. ‘I should want the clearest head this evening.’
    ‘For the Duke of Wellington, or . . .?’
    The proscription against ladies’ names did not hamper communication. ‘Just so,’ said Hervey, nodding solemnly, yet his face just a shade wry.
    ‘Hervey, I simply do not know why you will not come to the Horse Guards. I am sure I could arrange it. With the Duke of York in such ill health there is an increase in our work, and your experience of India alone would recommend you to