Chapter 3

Only If You Apologize

Eliza did not leave, but she locked herself in her room for days. She occasionally granted the Colonel entrance, and they would talk of things that the professor discovered he was not to know about. Mrs. Pearce brought up her meals and was apparently on Eliza's side because she was also giving Mr. Higgins a silent treatment. As for Henry Higgins, he went up and stood outside of her door many times in attempt to get her to come down, but the most convincing thing he ever managed to say was that he would deduct her salary if she "kept being such a plain idiot."

Higgins paced the floor as Pickering scanned the next week's newspaper. "I don't understand, Pickering!" he shouted with great force as Mrs. Pearce slammed down a tea tray on the side table next to the sofa. "Why would she lock herself up in that blasted room for so long? Was anything I said to her really at all that bad?"

"Just give her time, Higgins, she'll be alright."

"She'll be irrational is what she'll be. She already is."

"Does it occur to you, Higgins, that she does indeed have things in her life that she does not like discussed? Why do you think she said that she didn't have any parents when she came here?"

"Well, to get my sympathy of course," Higgins replied with a scoff.

The Colonel rolled his eyes and turned the page in his paper. "And how would you feel, Higgins, if I asked you about your father?"

"What utter nonsense, Pickering, I haven't a father at all."

"Yes, you do. We all have a father. You just chose not to acknowledge yours."

"Rubbish, Pickering, don't speak in riddles. You'll sound just like a woman."

"And what is it that you have against women? Let's discuss that shall we?"

"What is it that you have against women, Pickering? I don't see you marching off to a wedding any time soon."

"No one said anything about marriage. You can respect women without marrying them. I never married because I was a man of the army. There's no time for a family when you're deployed in other colonies and countries."

"What about when you ended your time in the military?"

"I decided to study language in India. That's no place to raise a family. Besides, I never met the right woman."

"Because they're all simply irrational!"

"No, Higgins, because I never fell in love."

"There's no such thing as love!"

"Eliza thinks there is."

"Blast Eliza!"

"I think there is too."

"Pickering, please, I like you as a chum. I wouldn't say that I –"

"I meant when you look at Eliza."

Mr. Higgins stopped his pacing and glared back at Pickering. "Why the devil would you say that?" he asked softly, his nerves clearly evident in his tone.

"She's the only person who could walk out of your life right now and leave you empty inside."

"Rubbish."

"Deny it all you want, but we all know it's true, even you."

Higgins sighed and pressed his fingers to his temples. He threw himself in his chair. It was quiet for a long time minus the sound of Mrs. Pearce bustling about to throw away discarded letters.

By nightfall, Pickering was dozing in his wing chair as Higgins still sat pouting, contemplating. It was dead silent and dark. He wanted to ask Mrs. Pearce to turn on the lights, but her angry glare kept him from it. Somewhere in the midst of the deadly dullness, he heard the soft sound of a pair of heels quietly coming to the landing. He turned his head a little to look and saw Eliza hanging off of the side of the banister looking for Mrs. Pearce. His mind was racing at what to say.

He saw her come down to the landing and slowly look around the first floor. When she spotted him, she took off running back up the stairs. Higgins chased after her. When he was just close enough to reach out and grab her, she ran back in her room and slammed the door shut. He knocked on it hard with his fist.

"Damn it, Eliza, open the door! You can't stay in that blasted room forever! You've eventually got to come down and face your problems!"

"Why don't you face yours?" she shouted back.

"We're not talking about me. Now, I insist you come out of that room this instant!"

"Or what?"

"Or… or..." he stammered.

"I'm not coming out until you apologize."

"Is that all you want? You just want a bloody apology?" He huffed and rolled his eyes. She put the whole household through days of nonsense for him to say two words. He grunted. "I'm sorry," he said quickly. "Now, come out."

"You didn't mean it," she mumbled in a pouty tone that Higgins hated.

"What on earth do you mean? Of course I meant it."

"You didn't sound like it."

He grinded his teeth and leaned his head against the door frame in defeat. "Fine. I am genuinely and deeply sorry for hurting your feelings. Are you happy now?"

There was a long silence before he finally heard the door click. She opened the door a crack, and he could see one puffy gray colored eye peeking out at him. He stood straight and put his hands behind his back. He cleared his throat and rocked back and forth on his heels. "I really am sorry," he finally concluded softly as his eyes seemed to suddenly become interested in the carpet in the hall.

She sighed and opened the door wider. She leaned against the door frame and put her hands behind her back. "That's more like it." She giggled in attempt to show him she was only teasing him with the statement, but he still rolled his eyes. She bit her lip and also studied the gold flowers on the carpet. "You know I don't mean to anger you," she said shakily, "but it's frustrating when you do not do the same."

"Eliza, what are you talking about? I treat you kinder than I treat anyone else in the entire world."

"Then I feel sorry for every other person in the entire world."

He grinded his teeth. "Why do I even try to speak with you?"

"Well, you must care for me if you are apparently kinder to me than anyone else in the entire world. Besides, you are a man… who never gives up."

He looked up at her as she stared at her shuffling feet. "Was that a compliment, Miss Doolittle?"

"Perhaps it was," she replied. "Just don't let it go to your head. It's already big enough."

He started to get angry, but she looked up at him with a smile. Much to his own surprise, he smiled back at her jest, and just like that, she was back.