Part 3

Eliza sat at her desk in her office looking over the letter that her latest client, Mrs Daphne Reid, had left with her. The letter was small, on plain light paper rather then card, that had been folded in half and had a short handwritten note in black ink. She'd once again had to borrow a magnify glass from Herr Hildegard, the German undertaker who worked next door to her office, since she'd still not been able to locate where her fathers set was.

She carefully looked over the words that were written in fine black ink.

Do not judge what you cannot understand.

Do not hold others to a standard you claim is better.

You sit in your ivory and gold and sneer at others misfortunes.

One day you will be judged on the path you've chosen.

I beg you to choose the path of kindness not malice.

Mrs Reid was part of a ladies group that met at their friend Lady Rosemary Healy's house in Mayfair, on Tuesday's every other week at 7pm. They met for drinks, to play cards and for a general gossip. The ladies of the group were all well to do women, with husbands who were well off and either Lords or Dukes who owned various amounts of properties around the city. Mrs Reid was the only exception it seemed since neither she, nor her husband, were of any great standing. Instead, she was part of the group due to a long-standing friendship with Lady Healy.

From their discussions when Mrs Reid hired her, Eliza knew all the ladies who attended the group had received the exact same note, just a few days after their last meeting. Yet, Mrs Reid could not remember anything being said at the meeting that would make someone send such a note. The note was not a threat to cause any harm, but still, Mrs Reid had taken it to heart.

Clearly their gossiping had offended someone, and Mrs Reid was egger to find out who. She had been insistent that it wasn't sent by any of the ladies of the group, and most likely a member of the staff, but Eliza couldn't be sure until she met the ladies herself. So she had arranged to attend the ladies next meeting the following evening with Mrs Reid.

However, she would need to be discreet since Mrs Reid did not want the other ladies to know that the simple note had disturbed her so much that she had hired a private detective. Which meant that she would have to go as her alter ego, Mrs Alice Morgan.

There was one other small issue with attending the group. That being, Eliza didn't actually know how to play cards with the ladies. She knew how to play poker, her father had taught her many years ago, despite the fact that he'd been a terrible player himself. Playing with the ladies however was a different matter.

Eliza sat back in her chair and dropped the note on her desk, and released a sigh of frustration. The silence of her office was deafening. It was so quiet that she could clearly hear the sounds of people talking on the pavement outside, and the horse and carriages as they rattled along the road.

There was little she could do for Mrs Reid's case until she met with the other ladies involved, so all she could do was wait, and that was never an easy task for her.

She was aggravated by her lack of work, and the mounting bills that needed paying, as she drummed her fingertips on her desk. Sitting in her office waiting, was almost worse then sitting at home waiting for something to happen. At least at home she had Ivy to talk to.

She glanced out of her office window. It was a beautiful day outside. The afternoon sun had finally cut through the low clouds, and was starting to warm the world outside. Perhaps a walk in the air would do her some good and lighten her dark mood.

Quickly, she collected up her bag, gloves, angled her navy hat to protect her eyes from the sunlight and locked up her office. The warm sun hit her cheeks as she opened the door to the street outside instantly perking up her mood. She locked up the street door, and almost immediately Herr Hildegard was outside his undertakers shop to greet her, as if he'd been waiting to pounce on her.

"Fraulein Scarlet, how are you this fine afternoon?" He asked in his warm friendly German accent with a kind smile.

"I'm fine thank you Herr Hildegard," she said whilst trying to walk past in the hope that would end their conversation.

"You know Tilly has not stopped talking about you since her dinner party the other evening. It was a great success was it not?" He pressed her with a chuckle.

Eliza stifled a laugh. That dinner party had ended with the death of a guest, so she would hardly call the evening a great success.

"Mmmm, it was a lovely evening," she responded with a wry smile, before trying to move forward.

"It's so nice that the two of you have become friends. She certainly needs another lady such as yourself to spend time with, instead of an old man like me," he continued to chuckle, amusing himself.

"Yes." She wasn't sure she'd go as far as calling them friends, but at least Tilly had softened her steel gazes since that dinner.

"Well I must be off," she said politely trying to excuse herself.

"Of course, plenty of detective work to keep you busy I'm sure," he nodded, letting her leave.

Eliza plastered a smile on her lips, before turning to walk away, and dropping it with a sigh when he couldn't see. She felt her shoulders drop as she made her way down the street out of his sight. She knew she had all the skills she needed to be successful in this business, if only others could see it.

The fresh air and sunshine was at least helping lift her sprits a little, as she strolled around St James's Park. She needed a plan. Whilst she'd received some recognition from the few newspaper articles that had been printed with her name in, it wasn't getting her enough work to keep her head above water. Rupert was currently not bothered when she repaid his loan, so certainly her household bills needed to take priority.

She needed to gain a few more regular clients. The question was, how to find them? Clienteles like Mr Trewsbury and Mrs Reid were good, but they liked to keep their details private, and their use of her low key. She couldn't exactly publicise her work with them. Her other recent customers were married women, trying to dig up some dirt on their cheating husbands. Fun, but she was hardly going to set the world on fire with details of unfaithful men.

As she was leaving the park, she was concentrating on the idea of specalising on a specific area of detection, such as missing persons, or perhaps employment backgrounds for a major bank. That would at least bring in some regular work, even if it would be possibly rather dull. She was crossing a busy road heading back towards her office, when she noticed someone familiar.

Ivy was standing on a street corner, in her long black skirt and wrapped in a cream crochet shawl, with a basket of vegetables, talking to a man who had his back to Eliza. He was a small man in stature, and fairly smartly dressed and light brown curled hair peaking out the bottom of his black bowler hat. There was a familiarity about him, but from the back she wasn't sure if she knew him or not.

Ivy was smiling, and laughing with the man, which Eliza found curious, and the man appeared to be laughing back judging by his stance. She was certain she'd never seen Ivy quite so enamored looking, with her eyes bright as stars. She couldn't be sure if Ivy had noticed her, but it would certainly be rude not to say hello, now she'd seen them, so she casually strolled towards them.

"Ivy," Eliza called out, as she got closer to them. Ivy moved her head and looked passed the man and smiled towards her as she heard her name.

"Miss Scarlet, fancy seeing you here," Ivy said, surprised but cheerfully, as she saw Eliza walking toward them.

At the mention of her name, the man turned round and Eliza instantly recognised him. It was Mr Potts from the mortuary, and she noticed the smile on his face quickly drop to a grimace and his eyes widen as she walked past him and stopped by Ivy's side facing him.

"Mr Potts?" Eliza smiled, greeting him with curiosity. He was looking at her with worry, which seemed to go unnoticed by Ivy, who was still smiling.

"You two have met?" Ivy asked surprised that Eliza knew her new friend.

"Yes," Mr Potts confirmed, with an annoyance. "We've met.… You two ladies know each other?" He stammered, suddenly nervous as he shuffled his feet and his beady eyes darted between the two ladies.

"I work for Miss Scarlet," Ivy told him politely, seemingly unaware of the awkwardness between them.

"At her detective agency?" He asked quickly, seemingly worried at the thought. He had enough trouble with Miss Scarlet turning up unannounced at the Mortuary, but Ivy quickly laughed at the suggestion.

"Goodness me no. I'm her housekeeper," she laughed a little harder, and Eliza noticed Mr Potts looked relieved at the thought, as he nervously let out a laugh as well.

"I'm sorry, you two know each other…." Eliza questioned, looking between them. She was missing something, as these two seemed rather friendly, and Ivy had never mentioned meeting anyone, let alone a man.

"Oh Mr Potts here helped me last week, you know when I told you my basket broke and sent the vegetables rolling over the floor," Ivy explained, with a smile and a chuckle as she remembered the event. "He noticed it happen and me struggling to contain the runaway items. He came over to help me pick them up and then he fixed the handle with a piece of string so I could carry everything home. So clever," Ivy beamed.

Eliza was sure Mr Potts was blushing, as he started staring at the floor. While this meeting did amuse her, she couldn't help but feel an awkwardness, like she'd been a rude interruption to them.

"And how do you two know each other?" Ivy queried.

Mr Potts finally looked up and caught Eliza's eye, and she gave him a chuckle. She had mentioned Mr Potts to Ivy before, so she was surprised that she hadn't put together how they knew each other. However, she hadn't always been the most complimentary about him, so it was probably better Ivy hadn't figured it out herself. She could of course mention how they knew each other, but she suspected he perhaps didn't want to give away his line of work

"Oh we've just bumped into each other in my line of work," Eliza gave a smile, while Mr Potts fidgeted, before deciding to make his excuses.

"Well I must be off. It was lovely seeing you again Miss," he smiled to Ivy and nodded his head to say goodbye to both of them, then hurriedly made his way down the street. Ivy turned and watched him walk away for a moment before turning her attention back to Eliza.

"What?" Ivy asked with a shrug. Eliza was giving her a look, waiting for her to divulge some more information about what she had just witnessed, but she just smiled looking embarrassed, and said nothing.

"You never mentioned meeting someone when your basket broke," Eliza pressed.

"There wasn't anything to mention. I didn't think I'd ever see him again." If Ivy was trying to hide her smile she was doing a poor job of it. So evident was it that Eliza couldn't help but wonder if there was more here that she'd missed.

"Well I'd best be off home, dinner won't make itself," Ivy said wanting to make her excuses. "Shall we walk together?" Ivy asked, but to her relief, Eliza shook her head.

"I need to go past Scotland Yard first, for my case," Eliza lied. Clearly she needed to tell William of this interesting meeting between Ivy and Mr Potts. This was bound to amuse him as much as it did her, she was sure.

"I'll see you at home then," Ivy said with a nod, before walking off towards the park. Eliza watched her go, and she was sure she saw an extra bounce in her step. With a giggle, Eliza headed in the opposite direction towards the Thames, and Scotland Yard.

Eliza continued to make her way to Scotland Yard, it was late afternoon now, and dusk would soon be upon London town, but that didn't bother her, as she let her mind roam to what William would make of her meeting with Ivy and Mr Potts.

It would certainly give her a little leverage with him at the mortuary should she need it if they had a common interest in Ivy. This did however leave Eliza with a burning feeling that had been hanging around her for a while. Should Ivy actually meet someone, a person that could perhaps become more serious, she would find herself alone, and that wasn't a prospect Eliza wanted to dwell too hard on.

It was as she was walking under the train bridge that she spotted William standing on the steps of Scotland Yard. She went to call out to him and get his attention but she stopped herself, noticing that there was something odd about him. He wasn't looking his usual smart self. In fact, he actually looked like he could possibly be mistaken for a drunk being thrown out of one of his cells, she realised.

She stayed back so he didn't see her as she watched him casually on the steps looking in both directions. His hair was messy, and he wasn't wearing his usual tie or waistcoat, which didn't make sense. She couldn't remember a time she'd not seen him looking well put together, so this was all rather odd to her.

He did at least have his hat with him in his hands, as he ran his fingers through his hair before placing it on his head, as he started to move away in the direction of the Thames.

He walked straight passed his normal carriage driver without even so much as an acknowledgement that today he had planned to walk instead of driving. Eliza's curiosity was peaked, so she decided to follow carefully behind him to see what he was up to.

She kept her distance, so as not to be noticed by him, as he crossed Waterloo Bridge over the Thames, and strolled his way down the embankment towards Lambeth. He seemed like a man on a mission, Eliza thought, as he upped his pace and never once stopped, or seemed to question where he was going.

It was starting to get dark, as she followed him through some winding streets of what she assumed was now Vauxhall. At one point she honestly thought he'd realised she was following him and was purposely trying to lose her through a maze of darken alleyways. Only, he never stopped or turned around to suggest he'd noticed her behind him.

He was certainly taking them through some of the less reputable back end streets that smelt of sewage and rotting food. Some were rather thin and dark in places, and Eliza cringed, as she was sure she saw a few rats, both dead and alive. Still she kept her distance from him and continued to follow him, as she wondered what he was up to, and why he was possibly walking around the less desirable places in London.

She stopped back in the shadows of one such alleyway when saw him walk across a busy looking street and approach four men. They were all standing on the street corner opposite leaning against walls with their heads down and hands in their pockets or smoking. All of those men were looking rather suspicious. One man, who seemed to know William and looked of similar age, wore a large dusty dark suit and flat cap, he seemed to introduce William to the three other men.

She watched as William shook hands with firstly an older man, perhaps in his fifty's, and then two younger men. They were all looking grubby, and their suits were far from smart. From her distanced she guessed one of the young men was of similar age to William and the other slightly younger then her maybe.

They all seemed rather shifty if you asked her, as they stood close to each other and were constantly checking who was walking around them. Eliza questioned to herself what William might have to do with them. None of this was making any sense.

She noticed them move backwards towards the corner of the street across, moving towards the shadows where it was harder for her to see them. She looked around, wondering for a moment how she could get a closer look, and perhaps in hearing distance. Only before she had a chance to move, she felt an arm around her waist and a hand on her mouth pull her backwards further into the shadows.

To Be Continued…

A/N: So, Ivy and Mr Potts, I think a little friendship between these two might just come in handy for Eliza. As for William... Is he really up to no good, and who was following Eliza?