Chapter 6 ~ In Quarters

{Future M/M} Major Bailey is seen in a new light.

Chapter 6 ~ In Quarters

Taylor was alone in the office that night. Prior had gone to the quartermaster only a few minutes earlier to discuss what Bailey had gone through with him the previous night and he had been left with writing up the last details of what had happened during Colonel Dawes’ scouting mission over the past week or so. The scouts and other members of the expedition had been up, calling upon Prior, at various intervals during the day and more and more information had come in, all of it centred around what Dawes had told them that morning. It sounded like good news to Taylor �" he wouldn’t have been thrilled if the reports had come in of the hostiles gathering in force but Prior was still bemused about it all.

Taylor was very different to Prior, he knew that, but he didn’t blame the man for being confused. He knew of the trouble that was happening and he knew that it was affecting Prior �" that was an obvious comment �" and he also knew why. The frustration of the men and officers at the fort against the might of the fort against General Terry’s desires against his own desires against the purpose of the post �" to protect. And more, probably. Prior seemed to be building up his difficulties day by day, often via his own mind. Taylor did his best not to get too wrapped up in them, as he had a tendency to do, but the general had a way of getting to him.

The lieutenant yawned quietly, glad neither Bailey nor Prior were there to see him, and rose from the desk to wander idly over to the cupboards, searching for a letter that he couldn’t seem to find. He swore he spent half of his working life looking for lost letters. Not the most exciting part of his job, he had to admit, but it was something he often found himself doing and having to do also.

Where was this damn letter? Maybe Major Bailey knew.

The last time he had seen him he had said he would be going to draw the general’s bath for the night. However, upon visiting Prior’s quarters, linked to the headquarters by that long, often dark corridor, Taylor discovered that the major was nowhere to be found. Sighing, he exited and tried Bailey’s own quarters yet again to no avail.

Taylor, not willing to go on a full scale search, decided to wait for Prior to return and see if he knew where the letter was. Admittedly, it wasn’t overly urgent anyway �" just irritating. Still, he began to head back up to HQ, taking the shortcut across the parade ground.

On his way back, he noticed that there was light coming from the windows of Colonel Dawes’ quarters down officers’ row. Knowing that he would only come back down again if he didn’t, Taylor decided to visit him to see if he had any idea where this confounded letter was. He had been in and out of the office many times that day after all.

He pulled his jacket tighter around him as he crossed the parade ground again and then paused on the porch of the colonel’s quarters to knock politely at the door. Only to stop altogether.

He didn’t understand why he did, really, yet as he happened to glance in the window, the sight had surprised him a little. Usually Colonel Dawes didn’t allow anyone into his cabin past a certain hour but in there that night was Major Bailey. They were standing there together by the log fire and locked in the tightest embrace, Bailey’s head resting on Dawes’ shoulder and his hands clasping the back of his uniform as they muttered things to each other that Taylor couldn’t hear from beyond the door.

A strange sensation bubbled in Taylor’s stomach at the sight and he had to look down, half feeling he was invading on a private moment and half feeling…something else. He quickly knocked on the door to try and displace it. However, the action didn’t do much towards this intention.

In the window, he happened to see the embrace break and Dawes walking away towards him and the door, Bailey watching from the log fire. Taylor almost felt embarrassed as he was greeted, as if he had been spying on them. Watching them. Dawes certainly seemed to have the power of dominance on his side.

‘’Lieutenant Anderson?’’ he asked as his subordinate saluted him. He replied quickly. ‘’Is there a problem?’’

‘’No, sir,’’ he said, shyly, if he would ever admit it. ‘’I was just looking for a letter and I wondered if Major Bailey knew where it was. But when I couldn’t find him, I came to you. But I see that �" Major Bailey is here too.’’

Bailey joined Dawes at the door. Taylor suddenly felt very small. ‘’Which letter, Taylor?’’ he asked softly.

‘’Oh �" not a very important one,’’ he said with an attempt at a smile. ‘’It just �" I wanted to find it.’’

Bailey exchanged a short look at Dawes then back to Taylor. ‘’ Very well,’’ he said and turned into the cabin again to fetch his jacket before exiting onto the porch. Taylor stood aside, twisting his hands behind his back when his two superiors said farewell to each other for the night. He didn’t quite know why the simple action of Bailey’s hand running down Dawes’ arm after he patted him on the shoulder made such an impression on his insides.

He also didn’t know why he was walking a few steps ahead of the major when they started to walk back up to HQ.

~~~

Even when Prior reached his bedroom later that night, he couldn’t stop his incessant pacing. He closed the door, took off his jacket, hung it up neatly over the back of the door and tried to sit down but this attempt lasted for mere moments. Within seconds, he was back on his feet and crossing from one side of the room to the other and going over Colonel Dawes’ words again and again. No one had said anything different that day, no matter who it was visiting his office, and Prior had felt his patience slipping away with each one. Not because of the actual informer, but because of the information.

The Indians. The Indians. They were immobile for the time being, no obvious hostility being shown, so what were they meant to do with them? Keep the garrison safe and leave them be or show the garrison’s might and surprise them? The general just couldn’t think anymore. Hours had passed and still nothing had changed. He wasn’t sure why he was still thinking about it in this endless, vicious circle.

Stopping at last, he ran a weary hand across his forehead and through his hair, still damp from the bath that had done nothing to help his tension, and closed his eyes for a moment or two. They stung furiously and behind them, he could feel the first signs of a vicious headache beginning to throb. He needed some fresh air. He had been stuck in that office for too long.

Fetching his jacket again and pulling it around him, he exited the room and into the corridor. Everything was quiet out there, as it should have been at that time of night, all the doors closed and most of them locked as well. Checking his pocket watch, Prior regretted to see that midnight was fast approaching. His original intention was to go for a peaceful stroll down to the river near the edge of the fort but yet at the routinely call from the sentries, his mind had to be forcibly changed. If the general was going to be ambling about after hours, what impression would that put on his men? When a commander wanted his rules to be obeyed, he must obey them first �" at least that was how Prior’s mind was set.

No matter how pungent the smell of cigar smoke was on his jacket.

He knew he still wouldn’t be able to rest that easily though. Although the outdoors was off limits, the indoors wasn’t. Walking the lengths of this building would be better than nothing.

Returning briefly to his room to hang his jacket back up, he walked out into the dark corridor and trying to make his footfalls too loud, began his night time tour. It hadn’t been the first time he had done such a thing. Often in the last winter, when the snow had come whirling down against the vicious December winds, causing the windows to rattle and shake in their intensity, he had taken to the hallways after hours of lying awake, staring at the same point on the ceiling back in his room. He knew them well and now, he took out his pipe on force of habit as he began his stroll around them. He quickly put it away at the returning and instantly overpowering scent of his uniform.

He got all the way through his quarters and through the adjoining headquarters too without seeing a soul. The corridors were deserted, the only sound being his footsteps, and there was an all surrounding feeling of tranquillity, so very, very different to what the headquarters were like throughout the day. It was calming, pleasing, satisfying.

By the time he had reached the end of his HQ, where it broke off into his staff’s quarters, his headache had started to fade and his chest felt no longer constricted by the cigar smoke that he had left behind somewhere along the way. With a mind to turn back to his own bedroom to rest for the night, he paused for a moment or two, stretching his legs. The sound of gently sloshing water from along the corridor distracted him.

General Prior would admit that he was a curious man �" it was better than admitting a handful of other things about himself �" and that night, he allowed it to take the better of him, peering around the door. Major Bailey’s bedroom was the closest room to where he was presently standing and from there, a soft orange light was still spilling through into the hallway. Prior almost sighed aloud as he saw this. He’d had times when Dandy did this too �" stay up far beyond the hours he needed to be awake at. His aides needed their rest but apparently, Bailey wasn’t being overly mindful of the time.

Intending to go and inform his major of the late hour, Prior entered his staff’s quarters and walked the short distance to Bailey’s ajar door. Looking back on the situation, he knew he should have put two and two together but still, as he peered in a firstly idle way into his aide’s room, he felt a momentary jolt of surprise in his stomach.

His breath immediately caught in his throat and he had to stop himself from gasping by hastily biting the inside of his bottom lip.

As was the custom that he had adopted for a long while now, a small tub had been placed in Major Bailey’s room as a small ‘settling-in’ gift, or so it had been named. It wasn’t anything altogether fancy yet there was some thought behind it and that night, Major Bailey was obviously relishing the privilege. He had filled the tub up with water, probably collected from the nearby river and heated over the fire judging by the large bucket next to him, and was relaxing back it, head lolling over the rim. He was facing away from the door so his decency hadn’t been completely compromised but then again, he obviously hadn’t been expecting an audience.

Prior felt awful as he thought of himself being ‘an audience’. He looked away, focusing on his feet, only to find his eyes straying back to the sight within the major’s bedroom.

He was washing �" only washing �" but his back was slightly arched and legs spread, almost so much as they were hanging over the rim of the tub. A hand rubbed his damp hair through with soap as he hummed a tuneless song while the other danced up and down his thigh, idly swirling the water. He looked completely relaxed, his eyes closed and a distant smile on his mouth, and as Prior watched, there was only one thought in his head, rising time and time again.

He was so damn handsome.

He was older than Dandy, he could see that in his face but not because of his personal mannerisms or features; more because of the fact that on comparison, Dandy looked so young himself. Bailey was probably only in his late twenties or early thirties so there wasn’t that much between their ages yet while the general stood at the door, still looking in, he found himself making more comparisons.

Dandy had a look that was a lot more delicate than Bailey’s. Bailey appeared to be stronger but Prior knew that appearances could be deceiving. Although it wasn’t a side that raised its ugly head often, Dandy had a temper on him and he had this proved to him a couple of times throughout the War. Never directed at him �" never really directed at anybody else either �" but more at himself. Still, this was a rarity.

Prior didn’t know Bailey all that well as of yet but he didn’t look like somebody who would merely stand by as something he didn’t agree with happened. He had control though and was disciplined �" Prior knew that from his records in the War �" and heaven above, what records they were �" and the more Prior thought about him �" the more he watched him, the more he became glad that he was serving under him as his aide.

Prior smiled at this fact as he stood there that night and watched Bailey lean his head backwards below the water to wash out the soap, his song momentarily stopping. Deciding now not to enter and instead just leave him to it, the general stepped backwards and found himself taking one last look before exiting into the corridor and walking quietly towards his own room.

He thought it was best to ignore the heat that had suddenly flushed his cheeks.

TBC