Dark Horse (The Charioteer story)

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Fanfiction
Title: Dark Horse
Author(s): toujours_nigel
Date(s): 19 February 2013
Length: 1422 words
Genre(s): missing scene
Fandom(s): Mary Renault
Relationship(s):
External Links: archived on MRF (members-locked)

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"Dark Horse" is a short story by toujours_nigel based on Mary Renault's 1953 novel The Charioteer. It takes place shortly before the end of the novel, after Ralph has learned that Bunny has outed him to Andrew.

Synopsis

Andrew is surprised when a strange naval officer comes to the Friends' boarding house in London claiming to be "Ralph Lanyon". However, Ralph wants to correct Andrew's misperception and reconcile him with Laurie before taking his final decision about his own future.

Background

The story was written for the maryrenaultfics LiveJournal community's Valentine's Day challenge in 2013.

Comments

It elicited a number of comments, including the following:

  • "It's exciting to see unexpected moments like this in stories, great work!"—comment by queen_ypolita
  • "Now that I think about it, this makes perfect sense, Ralph making things right and trying to ensure happiness for Laurie after he's gone. I now would find it hard to believe that this didn't happen."—comment by emily_shore
  • "Talk of ships passing in the night: I suppose he went straight back to Bridstow and started cleaning his gun. This fills a very plausible little gap that I don't think anyone has seen before. Yes, I can quite see Ralph trying to put this right, along with everything else, even before writing that infamous letter."—comment by greerwatson
    • "I'm glad you liked it; I was unsure whether to label it AU or not, but it seemed to fit in rather well."—reply by toujours_nigel