Lord Wellington asked Adjutant General Charles Stewart to read the new figures for a third time. Stewart cleared his throat, a grating sound in the silence of the room, and consulting the scrap of paper in his hand, he read:
“At last count, my lord, the number of wounded was 1,260. Missing: 840. Killed… 2, 338. Total casualties: 4,438.”
Wellington gave a curt nod. “Thank you, General.” The room, a small parlor in an old Spanish villa, lapsed back into a weary, guarded silence. Stewart, Scovell, Strathclyde, Dr. McGrigor, and Colonel William De Lancey stood grouped around one end of a long oaken table littered with dispatches, maps, and guttering wax candles set in wrought-iron candelabras, looking towards their commander who sat at the other end, his elbow on the table top, the fingers of one hand rubbing thoughtfully at his lips. No one spoke; no one moved. The casualty numbers seemed to hang in the air around them, as palpable as smoke and just as suffocating.
Title: Warm Heart and Wet Noses
Author: Anonymous
Characters: William De Lancey & Wellington, William De Lancey/Colquhoun Grant implied
Prompt: Wellington is very often seen as dominant, or at least in charge, in control, the great leader running everything, and I love it. It works so well with the way the character appears in the TV series.
But this is also the man who wept for friends he lost, saw Waterloo as something more tragic that glorious victory and cared for the people he fought with. So anon would very much like it if someone wrote about Wellington being a little more… well, a little more of a sweetie actually. Show him caring for someone, noticing other people, rescuing kittens! I don’t mind what, I don’t mind if there is shipping or not, I just want to see another side to the Iron Duke.
Summary: Wellington in the aftermath of the Battle of Bajados.
Related media
Warm Heart and Wet Noses aesthetic by solitaryjo at The First Respectable Spy
notparticularlysafe.com 
