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First in a historical AU series in which Napoleon is exiled to the Midlands rather than St-Helena, which naturally means that eventually he and Arthur, Duke of Wellington meet at a country house party, become frenemies, and investigate a murder with supernatural overtones. Oh, and there’s slash.
It needs an editor in places (some sentences have an anachronistic ring or are just confusing); but overall it works as a non-comedic story about a crack!fic pairing. The supernatural bits are effective, not-too-cliched, and hellaspooky (it looks like the Big Bad for the whole series might be Fae, and very much the creepy not-at-all-humanoid kind) and for a story based around an M/M pairing, there are a lot of good female characters (my favourite — and everyone’s, judging by the comments — is Harriet Arbuthnot, Arthur’s friend who everyone assumes is his mistress; really if anything she’s trying to fix his relationship with his wife Kitty.)
Pale Before the Fall (40021 words) by oneinspats
Chapters: 13/13
Fandom: Historical RPF, Napoleonic Era, 18th & 19th Century CE RPF, Napoleonic Era RPF, 19th Century CE France RPF, French History RPF, british history RPF
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Napoleon Bonaparte/Arthur Wellesley, Arthur Wellesley/Kitty Wellesley, Bonaparte/Wellington, Napolington
Characters: Napoleon Bonaparte, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, Harriet Arbuthnot, Kitty Wellesley, OCs of various sorts, Montholon, Albine Montholon, Fannie Bertrand, Henri Bertrand
Additional Tags: playing with history, historical fiction - Freeform, magical realism but not but IDK, faux gothic, Ghosts, 2spoopy4u
Series: Part 1 of A Near Run Thing
Summary:
Chapters: 13/13
Fandom: Historical RPF, Napoleonic Era, 18th & 19th Century CE RPF, Napoleonic Era RPF, 19th Century CE France RPF, French History RPF, british history RPF
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Napoleon Bonaparte/Arthur Wellesley, Arthur Wellesley/Kitty Wellesley, Bonaparte/Wellington, Napolington
Characters: Napoleon Bonaparte, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, Harriet Arbuthnot, Kitty Wellesley, OCs of various sorts, Montholon, Albine Montholon, Fannie Bertrand, Henri Bertrand
Additional Tags: playing with history, historical fiction - Freeform, magical realism but not but IDK, faux gothic, Ghosts, 2spoopy4u
Series: Part 1 of A Near Run Thing
Summary:
After Waterloo, through a cunning lawyer and some finagling, Bonaparte manages to end up in England instead of St Helena for his final exile.
Of course things don't stay quiet. There's an old murder. A stodgy Duke newly returned from France. A disintegrating marriage. And a couple of ghosts to top it all off.
(and full of pretentious chapter titles and what not)
