A/N: Here's chapter three! A little twist and turn here and there, I'm not gonna give them happiness that easily yet! Hope you enjoy, and thanks for reviews!


Trampled On

When Eliza woke up that morning, she could feel the lingering anxiety in her heart, accelerating its rate as she thought if she would ever see Henry Higgins again after that day. He would send her away no doubt…but he had stopped her last night…maybe, just maybe it did matter to him after all, enough for him to come and see what she was doing at that time.

"Don't be a fool Eliza!" she checked herself, "Why would it matter to him? He made it completely clear that he was glad he was done with me; I always knew this day would come! What a fool I was to surrender my heart to him."

Once dressed, she went down the stairs into the parlor, only to find Colonel Pickering there, sipping his tea and reading his paper, but no sign of the Professor.

"Oh, Miss Doolittle!" said he, catching sight of her.

"Good morning, Colonel." She said soberly.

"Good morning. Are you quite alright, princess? You seem pale?"

She smiled at that, how kind Colonel Pickering was to her! He was to her everything her own father wasn't.

"Yes, I just couldn't sleep very well last night, that's all."

"Well, I wouldn't have been able to if I were you either! After all your hard work, and all the stress…and my dear, what a triumph! You were magnificent!"

'Oh, finally!' Eliza thought with a sly smile "than you, Colonel." Then gathering up her courage she said,

"Have you seen Professor Higgins, this morning?"

"No, but I think he has gone to his mothers, he said something about that last night; but he should be back soon."

"Oh, well…thank you." So he had gone to Mrs. Higgins! Maybe after all he was looking for someone she would marry, that heartless, feeling-less…

Tears began to fill her eyes, and she ran out to the hallway, to try and hide them, ignoring Mrs. Pearce who had just entered and asked if she wanted her breakfast in the parlor. She ran upstairs, she just wanted to be anywhere but that house, and yet at the same time, she wanted him to be here. To be honest, she had no idea why, for right now she hated him for hurting her, for taking away her heart, for making her feel so little and insignificant.

Upstairs, in her room, she sank on the bed and stared at the ceiling, her eyes dry now. She no longer thought about anything, only lied there waiting. In ways life had been good to her. There were so many poor girls, even more unfortunate than her, wandering around London in the cold winter nights with no place to go, those who never had the luck to meet their Henry Higgins, to taste of the life of a duchess; Those who had never known what it felt like to go to bed with a full stomach, to sleep in a warm, soft bed. She too used to be one of them, but what was different about her that chance had thrown this luck at her…only to snatch it away again.

"You never miss what you've never had" she said aloud to herself. Perhaps after all she would have been better off selling flowers without heartache at the corner of Tottenhum Court Road, than be a miserable lady in a Florist shop. She only wanted to be respected, earn more and have a better life, live amongst those beautiful, clean flowers and not have to beg around for someone to buy her nearly dead, squashed violets. But somehow that just didn't seem adequate now. Her dreams had grown as her mind had expanded : she no longer wanted someone who would take good care of her but someone who would love her well…she wanted a fairy tale!

A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts, and she was glad to escape those haunting dreams.

"Yes?"

"Eliza, Mr. Eynsford-Hill has asked to see you, what shall I tell him?" came the voice of good, old Mrs. Pearce.

'Freddy!' she thought wearily. She liked him well enough as a friend, but his constant talk of love, his empty words, poems and letters were only entertaining as a fictional novel would be. They were beautiful but unreal and clinging to them was in vain and foolish. "But it's better than this bitter solitude" she thought and told Mrs. Pearce that she would be down in a minute.

She received him with kindness and smiles, but somehow he seemed to her like a smaller brother. She had always wanted someone who took care of her and supported her…after all those years of making her way alone around life, she could not bear the thought of carrying the load of some else's shoulders too.

She patiently listened to him talk and sing for her as they walked down the street but her mind was wandering else where. She wondered where Professor Higgins was. She wondered what he was doing. She thought about the possible turns her life might take and soon the voice of Freddy Hill was lost among her dreads and doubts until he called her name "Eliza, darling? Did you hear what I said?"

"Oh I'm sorry Freddy, what?"

"I asked if you would marry me."

It took a second for her to realize that he was proposing marriage and another second to know that she did not want to answer him…did not want to think about it…somehow it was too painful. But it had to be done, she did not have the heart to hurt him, but she also knew that she could not let him hang on false hopes.

"Freddy…I…I can't marry you" she was looking at her hands for the fear of seeing his crestfallen face, but had she looked up she would have perhaps been glad to see that it was not so at all…rather indifferent, but there was another face that would have perhaps frightened her.

A few feet away, with a bunch of fresh, beautiful violets in hand, stood Henry Higgins, near enough to see them and yet far enough not to hear them. He stood there for some time watching them with an anguish-stricken face and then dropping the flowers on the ground, marched straight to the house without either of them noticing him.