My Home From Home (ManxMan)

Chapter 3

Hertfordshire, England - August 1920

Silence. Pure, painful, excruciating silence is all that surrounded the Aldringham family as they gathered around the drawing room in Aldringham Manor; the beautiful country estate that served as the family's home base for centuries, since the fifth Duke of Hertford. Henry could feel his heart beating practically through his chest as his father smoked a cigar, staring numbly at the burning fire as he stood by the hearth surrounded by a chilling silence that counterintuitively enough seemed to drown out even the crackling that was coming from the burning logs.

    Henry glanced over towards his younger sister, Georgina, his mother the Princess Alice, Duchess of Hertford and his Granny, the Dowager Duchess. Georgina looked almost unbothered by finding out her older brother was a homosexual, his mother clearly distraught as she massaged her temples and fanned herself dramatically; Granny, however, was the most surprise of them all. Being the octogenarian matriarch of the Aldringham clan, Henry reckoned she'd be most repulsed by his 'perversion', as it was known. However, contrary to his expectations, she clearly seemed as though she couldn't be bothered by it all; shelling pistachios and consuming them with a bored look on her wizened face.

"What in GOD'S NAME were you thinking!?" Henry flinched as his father slammed his hand aggressively onto the marble chimneypiece above the hearth, his rich deep paternal voice bellowing in anger and disappointment. "On Regent's Street of all places?!"

"Is there something wrong with Regent's Street?" Granny glanced around confusedly as Henry bit his lower lip to keep from cracking a smile; Granny always had some off-the-cuff remark or another to say at any given time, it was likely where Henry got his gift of being able to compliment one whilst very subtly insulting them at the same time. "I should think there are far worse places in London to be publicly indecent. The entire East End for that matter; anything east of Canary Wharf really, though I suppose there are some rather grim bits in the South as well..."

"Honestly, Papa. You mustn't be so hard on Harry. Dozens of men were arrested last night, at least he's not one of them." Georgina tried to reason with her father, though in light of recent events, reason wasn't something he was very prepared to see.

"Go to your room Georgina. You need not hear about such vile, unnatural things." The Duke said angrily as Henry felt his heart sink in his chest. His father hadn't even looked at him since he'd forced him to return from London to Hertfordshire after Daniel, or Constable Harries as he was known now, escorted Henry home to Knightsbridge after catching him in the alleyway with Pietro. Hardly uttering more than two words to him.

Daniel had been a footman at Aldringham Manor when he was younger and dreamt of becoming a police officer one day; though most of the downstair staff scoffed and looked down their noses at his dreams, Henry wasn't so quick to do so. So that summer when the family went to up to London for the summer season Henry asked the Manor butler, Turnbull, if he'd mind terribly  sparing Daniel for the season so he might go with the family to London and serve as Henry's personal valet.

 Whilst in London that summer, Henry made a few inquiries and using his family's influence he managed to secure Daniel a trainee position at Scotland Yard which ultimately led to him being Constable Harries as he was at present. At the time Henry's Papa thought he'd lost the plot; social mobility wasn't exactly a societal norm in Edwardian England, nor was it terribly well looked upon in the 1920s for that matter. Nonetheless Henry wasn't much for societal norms; and in this situation it was likely this very trait that ultimately came back to help him in his hour of need. But that relief was short lived.

Henry insisted that Daniel came inside for a nightcap when they got back to Knightsbridge; a token of his gratitude for Daniel not arresting him when he legally had grounds to do so, to which young Constable Harries obliged. He was grateful to the Aldringham's and remained loyal to the Duke and his family, but he was especially grateful to Henry for obvious reasons. But just as Daniel was led into the library by Henry, they were both caught off guard to see the impressive yet intimidating Duke of Hertfordshire sitting in his armchair and enjoying his own nightcap. Henry's father had gone up to London to sit for a vote in the House of Lords as he was a Peer, and being the ever attentive and observant man he was, he knew from Henry's tense body language and Daniel's skittishness alone that something was wrong. And it only took one question to his former loyal employee for Daniel to sing like a canary.