Life has been crazy of late (school, new job, etc). I'm sorry it always takes me like fifteen years to update but I am now writing my ass off trying not to fall behind again (no promises, as I said, crazy life). Here is the next installment, I hope you like it!

Begin Chapter 12

The morning after they arrived at the hotel everything for the first session of the shoot was set up in the greenhouse. Mary was fussing over her breakfast; Sybil had brought her a croissant and sweetened her coffee with real sugar. "Sybil, I can't just eat things like that. Some of us aren't so flippant about our weight."

"Was that aimed at me?"

"It wasn't aimed anywhere, Sybil darling. If you chose to take it personally, that's hardly my fault."

"Fine. I'll have the coffee and croissant. You may get your own breakfast. "

Elsie, who was standing about ten feet away and facing the opposite direction, thought Sybil handled it rather well. She was glad that Tom's taste was refined enough to pick the more diplomatic and reasonable sister. Not that he needed her approval, but she did approve of Sybil Crawley. Mary was all dressed and ready to go, with exception to the fact of her missing breakfast. Gene was fussing with his camera, doing things Elsie did not begin to understand. As she stood waiting her stomach began to growl, calling her attention to the fact that she, too, had missed breakfast. Hotel staff had been cleared from the greenhouse so there weren't any around to ask. She didn't see Tom, or Sybil for that matter, and supposed he was otherwise engaged. She decided to head inside and fetch a bit of fruit or something to tide her over. Once inside she still could not find a single hotel employee. She wandered into the dining room, which was currently empty, and found a small continental breakfast setup. The selection, she had to admit, was rather disappointing. No fruit or proteins anywhere in sight, but several bread options, coffee, and tea. She poured herself a cup of tea and popped a slice of bread into the toaster.

She leaned against the counter, her back to the food, and let her mind wander back to Charles. She was not precisely worried about him anymore, or jealous, or suspicious; she was simply confused. She only wanted an answer from him. She only wanted him to tell her, to give her a good reason for running off without a word. But she would not contact him again; he would have to be the one to contact her. She's determined that she was being ridiculous in thinking for any length of time that Isobel was the cause of the trouble. She knew Charles better than that, and she knew that he would never betray her. She couldn't say she had any idea what it was he was up to, but if it did involve his former wife it was certainly not in a romantic way. She supposed it was best that he hadn't been able to come with them to Scotland. It wasn't a holiday; it was work. She needed to get her head out of the clouds and stop acting like a love struck schoolgirl. Elsie began biting her lip while she stood and reflected on all of this. She had been so deep in thought that when a large figure slammed the door open and rushed past her she was quite frightened and confused.

He had shoved her out of the way causing her to lose her balance and end up on the floor. He grabbed the full pot of coffee and emptied it onto the area around the toaster. It seemed that a napkin underneath it had caught fire and sent a considerable amount of smoke floating to the ceiling and out into the hall. Charles set the pot down with a thud and looked at her like she was insane while she stared at him in shock. "Elsie, what the hell are you doing!?"

"I was just making myself some toast." She answered in a very level, matter of fact tone. Charles' look of incredulity and concern deepened every line of his face in a hilarious manner. She was still angry at him and couldn't resist her desire to agitate him just a little more "Would you like a piece?"

Once the smoke had been aired out and the repairs to the counter settled with a large check everyone seemed to be in a mood to laugh at the ridiculousness of the whole thing. Elsie had barely acknowledged Charles once the hotel manager came in to see what the problem was and she continued ignoring him until the whole matter was settled and Charles finally pulled her into the deserted library and begged her "Elsie, I came all this way to see you; please stop ignoring me!"

"Charles, I don't know what to say to you!" She nearly yelled at him.

"Then please let me explain!" He whispered fervently.

"Fine!" she hissed at him "Explain yourself! Explain why you left me without a word and let me stew in worry for days! Explain why you ignored my calls! Explain to me just why in the hell you're here!" She regretted being so unkind. Hadn't she determined he must have had a good reason? Hadn't she been deciding to stop letting her emotions rule her when it came to Charles? He looked so crushed and guilty when she scolded him that she wanted to pull him to her chest and kiss his face, but she didn't. She wouldn't touch or kiss him until she was satisfied with his explanation.

He took both of her hands in his and began to explain. She fought the urge to pull away, she was angry but she didn't want the sadness on his face to sink him any deeper. "Elsie, what I have to tell you is one of the most shameful parts of my history." He looked at her hands while he spoke "You see…" she could hear that it was painful for him to even begin " Early on in my career I had a partner. His name was Charles Grigg. We opened a sort of… nightclub together. I secured the investments and he did most of the planning. I was very foolish and very greedy when I was young. I did the books, he did the managing, and everything seemed to run smoothly for a while." Elsie was very interested in the direction of this story; she knew so little about Charles' life before they met. "After a while, and I'm ashamed to admit it, a very long while I finally asked him about the money that seemed to go missing every month. St first it just looked like a few oversights at the bar, nothing to be too concerned about, but over time the same steady amount kept disappearing and when I asked him about him he became very tightlipped, and suddenly had some very important appointments to keep. When I began to investigate and question the staff I was horrified to discover that not only had money gone missing, but quite a bit more was coming in that ought to have been in the first place." He had brought himself to look at her face now "Charles' clumsiness in trying to satisfy his own greed had led me down a trail of breadcrumbs to discovering the alternate business he had been running under the umbrella of our establishment…" He took a deep breath here and looked down again as if he just couldn't bring himself to say it to her face. "There were…there were women. Several women who frequented the club under his direction… women who had come to the club to… " he was having trouble finding the words "…find work… to find a very particular kind of work. Charles had been taking an unfair cut of their profits as well. He called it his management fee." Charles spat the words, clearly the whole idea made him sick to even consider. "Well I got out of business with him and did my best removing any trace of myself from the records. I shut the club down and cut ties with everyone. It had been enough for a very long time, but he started it up again in America. He had opened another nefarious club and was using my name." He was looking at Elsie again. "The call I received when I was with you; the call that required my immediate and complete attention was my lawyer informing me of the whole situation. I flew to Chicago to confront him myself. Seeing me and hearing what I had to say scared him so badly that he ran off. He emptied his bank accounts and has been off the grid for days. I have he authorities on the lookout for him so I knew there would be no point in my remaining in America, especially when he was almost certainly gone. And now" he took a deep breath "I'm here explaining myself to you and hoping that you can find it in your heart to forgive me." He looked into her eyes as if he were expecting another scolding.

She sighed at looked into his eyes "Charles" she was exasperated "Why couldn't you just tell me that? Tell me anything? Why did you make me wait for days hearing nothing? You've no reason to be ashamed; you've done nothing wrong. Wrong has been done to you, my love. Why would you feel the need to hide that from me?" Charles looked at her as if he wanted to say something but had nothing. She sighed another exasperated sigh. She stroked his cheek and then gave in and stood on her tiptoes to kiss him. He rested his forehead against hers and asked "Am I forgiven?"

"Yes, Charles. I suppose you are. As long as you promise not to keep me in the dark like that anymore. My love for you isn't shallow, you know; it can't be driven away by the news that the great Charles Carson has made a mistake." She caressed the end of his nose with the end of hers. He felt so foolish and so full of love for his sensible, kind, affectionate woman, he kissed her again. And again. And once more just as lady Mary opened the door to the library "Oh there you are. Gene is panicking without you. He needs your input on a couple of his more avant-garde ideas apparently." Mary declared as if she hadn't just interrupted two people having an private moment. Elsie and Charles separated and began walking to the greenhouse with Mary. Mary slowed her pace and dropped behind Charles to take Elsie's arm and whisper in her ear "I thought you were done setting fires for the day, but by the look of him I'd say you're not."

End Chapter 12