It felt like an eternity before we moved, the chill in the air causing me to shiver. Henry pulled away and started removing his coat, but I shook my head
"No Henry you must be freezing" I said and he shrugged
"Something I'm used to be being Jo, I don't mind honestly. Take it please" he said holding out his coat for me to put on. Looking him in the eyes and searching for a tell tale sign that what he was saying wasn't real. Sighing I took the coat from him and put my arms in the sleeves which were at least two inches longer than my own, looking down at his coat sitting a top of my own I smiled a little, it was a lot longer than what I would've thought but it was comforting to know that he was such a gentleman.
"Henry, we must get going. Its quite cold out and I'm sure you'll like to explain what has happened to Jo with out others listening" Abe said and we both looked at Abe, I had almost forgotten that he was there with us
"Right yes, I suppose the truth is in order and there is no better place to do that than in the sanctuary of our home. That and we can make a nice pot of tea to warm us all up" he said taking my arm and walking with me up the beach, following Abe to the car.
The ride back to the antiques store was a quiet one, Henry was in the back seat staring out the window and I was in the seat next to him trying to keep warm, and reassure my brain that he was still here and wouldn't be leaving me any time soon, like he'd promised. Of course the rise and fall of his chest and the light heart beat I could hear as I lay my head against his shoulder was more reassuring than I had expected.
"Jo we're here" Henry said tapping my shoulder. I blushed and moved to get out of the car, Henry noticing that I had freaked out a little, grabbed my hands and pulled them into his own
"I'm sorry you had to go through all this Jo. I should've told you the truth earlier" he said and I looked at him smiling sadly. We got out of the car and made our way into the store. When we made it up to the apartment above the antique store Abe headed into the kitchen to boil the kettle and Henry left me alone in the sitting room. He returned with a change of clothes, I looked at him confused and he pointed to my own clothes
"I don't think you want your clothes to be stained with blood Jo. Have a shower warm up and then we'll talk when your dressed" he said and I looked down seeing what he had meant. I was indeed covered in blood. Getting up off the couch I headed over to Henry and grabbed the change of clothes and headed down to the bathroom.
I showered and stood under the jet of water warming up after a rather terrifying afternoon, one that I would rather forget. When the water started to cool down I got out of the shower and dried myself before getting into the change of clothes that Henry had given me. Rummaging through my pockets I grabbed Henry's pocket watch before putting on the jumper and then heading toward the door. I almost bumped into Henry upon exiting the bathroom because he was waiting on the other side of the door.
"If you want I can wash your clothes and they'll be clean for whenever you decide to leave" he said, fidgeting awkwardly.
"Uh yeah sure" I said handing him my clothes. He smiled and took them from me, making his way further down the hall to where I assume the laundry was. I made my way back toward the kitchen where I found Abe sitting at the table drinking from his pot of tea. He looked up and smiled
"Jo would you like some tea?" he asked and I smiled
"Yes thank you Abe" I said following him over to the stove. He handed me the cup and saucer before Henry returned and ushered me into the sitting room. I sat on the arm chair opposite the couch where Henry seated himself. Looking at him closely he seemed lost in thought, maybe about where to start or how he was going to tell me what ever it was that needed to be said? He seemed lost, and I wanted to reach out and grab his hand, tell him that I wasn't going anywhere but I knew better than that, I just had to wait him out, so I sat there sipping the tea from my cup until it was all gone and Abe emerged with the tea pot and a place mat to put the tea pot on.
"Henry?" the deep gravelly voice of the older man sounded, and Henry shook his head looking up at him
"What is it Abraham?" he asked before he looked at me and remembered
"Oh yes right, thank you Abraham" he said. I looked between the two trying to figure out what had just happened but instead shrugged it off, turning my attention to Henry and seeing him watching me closely I felt myself blushing a little at the intensity of his stare.
"Jo what I have to tell you is a very long story, and I may not be able to tell you all of it but please just hear me out" he stated and as I looked at him I saw that he meant business. Smiling gently I nodded
"Of course Henry what is it?" I asked and he looked down into his mug, before taking a deep breath
"Jo I'm immortal" he said. I felt the urge to laugh, either that or spit out my tea. Half of my brain was shouting at me to leave and not understand Henry, but the other part the part of my brain that had trusted Henry's word from the moment I meet him, made me want to stay. Honestly if he really was immortal it would explain his knowledge and experience with dead bodies, his ability to state a random fact on a whim. I looked up at him and saw how closely he was watching me, watching my reaction to his confession. I smiled and said
"I believe you Henry" I said and he looked at me closer trying to see if I was hiding anything. However he must of seen something on my face that told him what I was saying was the truth because he let out a small smile and said
"I was born in 1779 to Donovan and Brigetta Morgan. I grew up in London where my father owned a wealthy export business called Morgan Shipping Industry. I attended school and graduated before leaving home to attend university, which in those days was a rather prestigious affair. I studied as a physician and also studied science as there weren't very many doctors around in those days and medicine wasn't as easily accessible as it is now. I met and married my first wife Nora after returning home and we ended up moving to the outskirts of London. I was out one evening with my friends when I was introduced to man who I had never met before but had come over from America to speak with my father, but had been invited to the party. My father had taken ill by this point and I had reluctantly agreed to attend the evening. As I was introduced to this man he informed me that my fathers company had joined the slave trade and was shipping them from England to America on his ships. I left the party and confronted my father about it and he didn't deny that he had, he told me that his moral still remained that of what he had raised me to believe but that the business had taken a turn for the worst and the only thing that had brought him out of bankruptcy and losing the honour of our family name was by selling those less fortunate and of a different race to the highest bidder. I barely spoke to my father after that. My mother begged me that I spend time with him as his health was failing him. Finally I agreed to see him and he told me that no matter what he had been proud of me and my actions and for not giving up on what I believed in. He apologised and handed me his pocket watch which had been past down to him from his father and his father before him and so on. I was there when he died and felt guilty for not apologising to him. It was about a month or so later and I was asked to America to discuss something with a colleague of my fathers, so I got on one of my fathers boat and got ready for the months at sea to get to America. Only one night one of the peasants had fallen ill, I diagnosed him with a simple case of the flu when the Captain of the ship ordered me to throw him overboard because he was dying and he didn't want to get anyone else infected. I argued and said that the man deserved to live, and for my efforts I was shot and tossed into the ocean for my trouble. When I came to I was bobbing up and down in the ocean gasping for air and trying to stay afloat. I was picked up a day or so later by a ship passing by, on their return to England with a stop Africa first. When I returned news of my death had already been sent to my wife and mother and they had believed I was dead. But there had been many cases of false deaths in those days, people mistakenly disappearing and reappearing a couple of months later it was common for such a thing to happen. I returned and Nora had welcomed me home and had wanted to know how I had survived. So I told her. I told her and she didn't believe me. So I did the only thing I knew of to prove to her that I wasn't insane, I grabbed a knife and tried to kill myself to prove to her that I was telling the truth and before I could she told me she believed me and that she was happy to have me home. The following day however I was taken away to Charing Cross asylum where they spent months trying to get me to admit that I wasn't immortal, they tortured me to get me to see reason and every time I told them that I believed I was mortal they found a new way to torture me" he paused to fill up his mug, I frowned, thinking about what it must've been like for Henry to have gone through all of that pain and not find a way out of it.
"Oh Henry that is horrible" I said and he looked up
"You have no idea" he whispered, deep in thought again.
So I let him have the moment to think through what he was going to say next but when he didn't say anything for a good twenty or so minutes I tried to get him to continue, I felt bad but I wanted to know, needed to know more about the man who quickly become my best friend and possibly moving toward something more.
"Henry?" I asked trying to get his attention when I didn't get it, I tried again
"Henry?" this time he looked up at me with a sad look on his face
"How did you get out of the asylum?" I asked and he nodded
"Right yes. I was transferred to Southwark Prison in 1816 where I was kept in a cell with a priest who had been caught sleeping with someone he shouldn't of been. We spent three months together before he convinced me to kill myself to escape. I didn't want to, I didn't want him to be blamed for attempting to help me escape but we did it anyway. I never got the chance to thank him" he said and I frowned. It was sad to think that this had happened to him because his wife hadn't been accepting of his immortality. But a thought crossed my mind
"Henry, how was it possible for your wife, Nora?" I asked seeing if I had remembered the name correctly, when he nodded I continued "to end up putting you in an asylum. Weren't women of that time supposed to respect their husbands and do their wishes, to be seen and not heard?" I asked and he nodded
"Yes that is how they were supposed to act but even back then women still had rights, albeit not very many, but still enough for them to make decisions if the men weren't in their right mind. Besides Nora had always been a strong willed women, with a very high opinion of how things should be run" he answered. I smiled sadly, it was harsh finding out that he had had to go through this, but unbelievably sad as well because he had been sent away against his will because of something that was out of his control. I felt sorry for him, he had only wanted to tell her the truth about what had happened and she had turned that against him and sent him away. Henry was watching me closely, watching me process this news and he spoke up
"Jo, I don't fault her. She had every right to send me to the asylum, she thought I was ill, she didn't understand that I wasn't ill and that I was telling the truth. How could she when things like that never happened and if others had found out I would've been killed in front of the whole town. Out cast for the rest of my life other wise and she would've been shunned for being married to be" he tried to explain and I nodded, kind of understanding her reasoning but not entirely sure I wanted to. Henry went to fill my mug with tea again but realised the tea pot was cold, he excused himself to refill the pot.
A/N: Hey guys I hope you like this chapter. It's filled with a lot of information of Henry's past and I hope that I haven't butchered the story to much. But I have taken a little bit of poetic license in naming Henry's father. Please review and tell me what you think