On the Same Page
William groaned, his head felt like elephants were tap dancing on it. He risked squinting an eye open, he had forgotten to shut his curtains, and it felt as though the beam of light was piercing through his eyeball. He felt something soft on his bare chest, and looked down.
"Hello Duke, you're finally up." The pretty brunette said, trailing her finger down his chest, and then kept going lower... and lower. William caught her hand and stopped her from going any further.
"Felicity... how much did I drink last night?" She propped herself up to lean over him, "Your usual, so a lot. I think you were upset about that lady friend of yours again." He sighed and flopped his head back on the pillow and stared at the ceiling. "You had promised me a good time last night, Duke. It wasn't." She said with a pout, "And I'm leaving town this afternoon. I'm performing in France next. I don't know when I'll be back."
William was secretly glad, he liked Felicity well and enough for certain things, but he had no desire to spend too much time with her. He didn't want the women he had affairs with getting any ideas. He made his intentions clear from the beginning, have some drinks, keep it simple, no emotional attachments, and sometimes, end with some fun in the evenings. He didn't stay over at their homes, and they didn't stay at his. That is, at least until now. I must've had A LOT more than usual... especially for Felicity to have stayed. Unless she's annoyed that I had fallen asleep so quickly.
"Duuuuke..." She said, drawing out his nickname, "Are you going to keep your promise to me this morning instead?" He was just trying to think of a way to extricate himself from the situation, she was getting too clingy, when there was a knock at his door. Thank the Lord. He thought, thrilled for the interruption, "Hold that thought." He said to her, stumbling from the bed, in just his pants, to see who it was.
"William," said a steely voice, "good day." William leaned on the door horrified, Of all the people in all the world, why did it have to be 'her'. "Liz... Eliza... what are you doing here?" If he had thought the hangover was going to be the worse part of the day, he was wrong. Very wrong.
"Duuuuke... Who is it?" Felicity jumped out of the bed and sauntered over to the door. Eliza eyed her up and down. Felicity had been wearing William's shirt, the sleeves hung a few centimeters past her wrists, and the hem was almost down to her knees. The top few buttons were undone, Eliza could see her pert bosom straining against parts of the fabric. She subconsciously looked down at her flatter, corseted, chest. She shook her ahead, annoyed with herself, and looked back at William to see what he would say.
"Err..." he seemed to be at a loss for words. He ran his hand through his hair, causing it to stick up in every which way. "Felicity, Eliza Scarlet. Felicity is an actress friend, she happened to be in town this weekend. Miss Scarlet is..." Felicity raised an eyebrow and smiled, "Ah, so this is the Miss Scarlet. You spoke of her last night." William was baffled, and horrified. When he was drunk he usually got grouchy and fell asleep, it looked like last night he had been rather verbose. What on earth did I say?
Eliza was looking at him, wondering the exact same thing. "I did not mean to intrude, William, Father asked me to give this to you," she said handing him a file, "he believes the husband killed the wife's lover because the baby wasn't his. You might want to have a detective interview him, and arrest him. Good day." She nodded to Felicity, turned on her heel, and began to walk rapidly up the street.
William cursed under his breath, forgetting about Felicity, he trotted behind Eliza, realizing the ridiculous figure he must have cut, following a woman down the street, in the middle of the morning, with no shoes, and no shirt on. "Eliza! Wait, Lizzie, hold on, I can explain." He called out to her.
She stiffened upon hearing her nickname. Her momentary pause gave him the chance to catch up to her. She turned around to face him, "I asked you not to call me that any longer. My name is Eliza." "Yes, yes, sorry, I forgot." He said, How do I break that habit? She's always been Lizzie to me. My Lizzie. "Eliza, it's not what you think..." "Oh?" She said raising an eyebrow. "William, I truly do not care, you do not owe me an explanation on whose company you decide to keep. As you keep reminding me, you are a man now, and I'm sure you have many manly things to do today, so as I said, good day." She turned quickly and walked away, hoping he hadn't seen the tears that had begun to run down her face.
"Lizzie..." he said softly, still standing in the street, as the passerby began to stare at him.
Later that day…
William's day didn't get much better after that, he had trouble focusing. Henry had finally convinced him to take the detective's exam, he was stressed about studying, the new Superintendent, Sterling, hated him for some reason he couldn't fathom, and, after finally getting Felicity to leave, he realized he was supposed to meet Jasmine that evening, a young widow with a voracious appetite, and it wasn't for food.
He groaned and put his head in his hands. Police Constable David Evans looked over at him from the desk next to his. "Long night Duke?" He asked with a grin. Duke had a reputation for drinking, gambling, and womanizing. He was very careful to keep his affairs quiet, out of respect for the women, but Evans had become a friend, they had rose through the ranks together, and he knew more about William's personal life than the others.
William glanced around to make sure no one was within earshot. "I was with Felicity last night." "Oh ho, that pretty actress of yours?" Evans asked. William nodded, "Yes, but I had drunk so much, I fell asleep." "That's not very exciting." William laughed despite himself, "Aye, well, Felicity had a similar opinion." "Was your morning more interesting then?" Evans asked with a grin, he loved salacious stories, but was trustworthy. Evans was a nice man, but horrible with women. He would get nervous and anxious around them, and unable to look them in the eye, or even speak. So he lived vicariously through William's stories. "Aye, but not in the way you mean. Eliza stopped by. While Felicity was there. Wearing my shirt. And nothing else." Evans let out a long whistle and sat back in his chair.
He knew the story between William and Eliza, William had lived with the Scarlet's for around three years, he had moved out when he had began to make enough money to live on his own, but the real reason was, that his feelings for Eliza had grown and he didn't trust himself to be around her. Or, when he was being truly honest with himself, that she would reject him.
When William was younger, he had hoped to marry Eliza, but she on the other hand, had made it very clear that romance and marriage were the last thing on her mind. She had continued to dream of being a police officer, and then later, when she had finally got it through her thick skull that that was impossible, wanted to work with her father at his Private Detective Agency.
William had once broached the subject of marriage with her, around a year after he had moved out. It hadn't gone well, which he had been expecting to some extent, but what he hadn't anticipated, was her trying to change the conversation every minute to try to get him to convince her father to let her work with him at his agency. William had gotten frustrated, they had another one of their shouting matches, which had become an increasingly common way of them communicating, and he had stormed out.
Following that incident, he would only come by for drinks with Henry, and he and Eliza continued to grow more distant. She had felt that William wasn't being supportive of her dream and resented him.
William had become increasingly busy at work, showing an aptitude in leadership, and feeling rejected and lonely, he threw himself into drinking, gambling, and women. Anything to try to get his mind off of her.
Eliza meanwhile, kept trying to secretly solve cases to impress her father. It wasn't working though, he would merely get annoyed with her for putting herself in danger.
William knew deep down that Eliza was jealous of him, and avoided him because she didn't want him having the satisfaction of knowing that, and gloating about it. Little did she know, William missed her, deeply. But he wasn't quite sure how to go about healing the rift that had developed between them, without swallowing his pride. He was pretty sure a half-naked woman opening his door wasn't the right way to go about it.
"So what are you going to do?" Evans asked. Before William could answer that he had no idea, one of the Senior Detectives approached them. "Gents, I need the two of you on a case." They both perked up. Working on a specific case was more exciting than being on patrol.
"Yes, Sir!" They both said simultaneously, rising to their feet. "There's been a string of jewelry store robberies. We have information that it's three men, armed. They hit the shops right around closing time, they only take gold, no gems. Probably easier for them to melt down and sell. We don't know where they'll strike next. I'm assigning pairs of constables in plainclothes to stake out every jewelry store in town. I need the two of you at the shop on Grand Street. You'll each get a revolver," Their faces lit up, "but your objective is to watch them, and let them rob the shop. We need to catch them in the act. You're to send for backup immediately. Under no circumstances approach them, they are dangerous men, they're not afraid of hurting people. They shot one of the jewelers who tried to resist. The man survived but it wasn't pretty."
William and Evans nodded. The detective continued, "Go home, change into something inconspicuous, then head over there. Before you leave, stop by the desk sergeant. He'll give you your weapons." "Yes, Sir!" They both said, then hurried off.
"This is exciting Duke!" Evans said, not even bothering to try to play it cool. "I know, finally, something more interesting than dealing with drunkards!" William said. Evans looked at him, he knew that William had been getting the short end of the stick when it had come to assignments. Neither of them could figure out why Sterling had something against the young PC. Maybe it was about time things were looking up!
They retrieved their weapons, went to their respective homes, and reconvened a couple of blocks away from the jewelry store. "How do you want to play it?" Evans asked William. He was more than fine with letting William take the lead, he had done a bang up job at an opium den drug bust, and Evans trusted his judgement. "Let's just loiter here, we can pretend to be vagabonds. Hopefully no PCs come by to get us to move along!" The both chuckled at the thought. Evans lit a cigarette and took a long drag.
They leaned against a wall, in an alley, across from the shop. They could see the shop perfectly, but as they were hidden in the shadows, it would be harder for anyone to spot them.
"So, you still seeing Jasmine tonight?" Evans asked him with a nudge. William sighed wearily. He couldn't exactly pinpoint the moment his life had spiraled out of control. After leaving the Scarlet's, he had been much lonelier than he had expected. He hadn't realized his whole life had revolved around them, especially Lizzie. She had been his closest friend and confidant, and then he lost that, practically overnight.
He knew he was partially to blame, he had been so excited about his work, going out drinking with the fellow officers he actually got along with. With each passing day, he had become a less and less frequent dinner guest at the Scarlet's home.
The night he had tried, and failed, to broach the subject of marriage with Lizzie, was a particularly low point for him.
He was nervous, even though he knew Lizzie well, he wasn't sure how she would react to him asking for her hand. He had hoped that their friendship was strong enough that it had turned into love. It had for him, he just didn't know if she was on the same page.
"Say Lizzie," He had begun to speak, one night after dinner, as they sat on the settee in the drawing room. Henry had already gone to bed, before dinner, with a headache. "Yes, William?" She asked, distracted, not even reprimanding him for using her childhood nickname. She had told him over dinner that she was working on a case, without her father's knowledge. William had disapproved, but held his tongue, he wanted her to be in a good mood after dinner so he could talk to her.
"I was thinking… we've known each other a long time…" he said. She turned to face him, "Yes! We have! Then you'll help me?" She asked. "Help you? With what?" He asked confused, not sure anymore what the actual topic of the conversation was.
"You'll talk to Father for me? Tell him he can depend on me, to help him with work? He trusts you, he would listen to you, I'm sure you'd be able to convince him!" Her face was glowing, and full of hope.
"What? No, of course not, it's not safe for a woman to be doing a man's job. Your father is right, you belong at home." He said, perhaps a tad more harshly than he should have.
"So my place is 'at home'? In the kitchen? Having babies? How dare you William!" She cried out, completely frustrated, and feeling slightly betrayed by the one person she thought she could rely on, to be on her side.
"Would that be so bad?" He asked. I would treat you well, he thought.
"That is not the life I want for myself! You of all people should know that!" She shouted at him, "I DO NOT want to get married! I want to be an independent woman!"
"THAT'S NOT HOW THINGS WORK!" He had shouted back at her.
At some point during their shouting match, they had both stood up. They were facing each other, practically nose-to-nose, each breathing heavily. Their anger and frustration was clouding their judgement, superseding any feelings of friendship they had.
Eliza had finally lost some steam. She lowered her voice, "Just go William, I do not wish to see you any more."
He nodded, "Very well." Then he stormed out.
After her rejection, he had gotten extremely drunk, and had flirted heavily with a woman at the pub. Not even realizing what he had been doing, he had left with her. And spent the night with her.
The next morning he had deeply regretted it. He had never planned on doing that with someone he hardly knew. But the other officers had seen him leave with her, and somehow his reputation for being a drinker, gambler, and womanizer got out of hand. And why should he care? So he did nothing to disabuse the notion, and almost reveled in the fact that he could have any woman. Except the one he truly wanted.
Before William could answer him, about whether or not he was meeting Jasmine that evening, Evans pushed himself off of the wall and squinted at the shop entrance. It was near closing time, right around the hour when the robbers would strike.
"Who's that now, you reckon?" Evans asked William. William peered at the figure approaching the shop's entrance, his eyes widened in recognition, "Eliza," William groaned, what is that confounded woman doing here? He wondered, angry.
"Wait, you mean to say, that's your Eliza?" Evans asked, shocked, as William nodded. "Talk about bad timing." Evans said. William shook his head, gritting his teeth, "Oh, this is not bad timing, she's up to something. I have to get her out of there. Before anything bad happens." "How?" Evans asked, then, "Duke," he nudged him and pointed to three men, approaching the store. "Shit." William cursed under his breath.
"Go. Get her, I'll distract them." Evans told him. William nodded, not even wasting time to ask him how.
He ran to the entrance of the shop. Eliza was just opening the door, when William stepped up next to her, took her hand, and slid it through his elbow. "What…? Will?" She asked, astonished. Before she could saying anything else, he cut her off. "Shhh… Lizzie, what are you doing here?" He hissed at her. Irked by his demeanor, she said, "Working." And pulled him inside.
William was trying to tug her back outside, but she propelled him forward with her momentum. "Hello, there! How may we assist you?" The clerk asked cheerfully. "Hello! My darling fiancé and I wish to look at gold wedding bands, we apologize for coming right at closing…" Eliza said. "Not at all." The clerk said, happy if he could make a last minute sale. "Please, right this way!" He said, gesturing to a showcase that held the wedding bands.
Eliza, still with her arm looped through William's, dragged him to the counter. The clerk noticed his panicked face and said, "Ah, sir, do not worry, we have a wide range of rings, at all levels of affordability." He had noticed that William was dressed simply, and did not give the impression of wealth. William bristled at the comment. If he was to buy Lizzie a ring, he would save up, and buy her whatever her heart desired. But it was a moot point, he already had an engagement ring for her, and her wedding band would be her mother's anyway.
William shook his head, Why am I thinking of this now? I've got to get her out of here! "My love," William said to her, he felt her stiffen next to him, "Why don't we come back, when they'll be open longer. This way you don't have to rush to decide." The clerk looked like he was ready to argue with William. William gave him a glare that frightened him off, the clerk swallowed, and said, "Whatever you and your lovely fiancé prefer."
Eliza turned to look at William with a scowl on her face. She was about to argue when something in his face stopped her. He actually looked afraid. "Please, Lizzie, let's just go." He said softly, "I beg of you." Astonished, she just nodded, and he led her away from the counter, and out of the store.
Outside Evans ran up to them, panting, with a black eye and bloody lip. "Jesus, Evans, was your face the distraction?" William asked, concerned for his friend. Evans grinned at him and spat some blood on the street. "That would be an apt description! So, is this your Eliza? Hello, I'm David Evans. Duke's mentioned you quite a bit, he neglected to mention your beauty though." Now he's loquacious! Where's his stutter? William wondered baffled.
Eliza smiled, "Yes, I'm Eliza. So what exactly has William told you about me?" She asked sweetly, fishing for information. "He…" Evans began. "Do you want your other eye to match?" William asked, clenching his fists. Evans laughed, "Looks like that's a conversation for another time!" Eliza chuckled, she liked Evans, he seemed very kind and friendly. William noticed her smile at Evans, and growled low under his breath. She turned to look at him, "You stop it." She said to William, then turning to both of them asked, "Why are you here anyway?"
William looked up and down the street, "Come on, let's get out of here and we'll tell you." She nodded and they hurried off.
They went to Henry's office, they would be undisturbed there, and Eliza knew that her father wouldn't be in. He was still nursing a hangover at home. She let them both in and bustled about to find some clean handkerchiefs for Evans to clean his bloody face with.
Much to her annoyance, William took a seat at Henry's desk. She and Evans sat in the chairs across from him. Eliza picked up a handkerchief, and instead of handing it to Evans, gently leaned forward to dab at the cut above his eyebrow. Both his and William's eyes widened in surprise. Evans knew she was doing it to get a rise out of William. The only reason he was even able to talk to her coherently, was because he knew she was spoken for. Sort of.
William was about to tell Eliza to let Evans take care of himself, but she spoke up. "Why were you there?" She asked. "Why were you there?" William asked back. They glared at each other over the desk. Evans coughed, "Err… we won't get very far if this is how the conversation is going to go." They both turned to glare at him. He held up his hands, "Or whatever works for the two of you." Eliza sighed in annoyance. He was right, someone had to give in first. Well it wasn't going to be her.
She crossed her arms over her chest and stayed silent. William cursed under his breath, he had better things to be doing with his day, so he started talking, "There's a string of jewelry store robberies. We were supposed to stake out the store, watch for the robbers, and call for backup as they tried to rob it. Now your turn. Why were you there?"
"That particular jewelry store is cheating people. They're not using pure gold for their wedding bands. My Father was hired by an affluent couple to verify this, so the store owners could be arrested for the deception." She shrugged, "I decided to help my Father, and get a head start by purchasing a wedding band to run a chemical analysis on it."
William groaned and leaned his head into his hands on her desk, "Eliza, you just jeopardized a police investigation. Evans, how did you distract the robbers?" Evans shrugged modestly, but said proudly, "I pretended to be drunk. Stumbled onto them and kept getting in the way. They didn't want to cause a commotion by shooting me on the street in broad daylight. Instead I got punched in the face!" William couldn't help but chuckle, "You don't even drink!" It was Evans turn to grin, "Yeah, you were my inspiration for acting inebriated!" He had hung out with Duke enough to have been the only one sober at the end of the night. He usually ended up helping him get home. William glared at him, then sighed, weary and disappointed, with the way things had turned out.
"How are we going to tell the detective about what had happened? They got away because of us." William said but was looking at Eliza. She had the grace to look at least slightly embarrassed.
Evans had finished wiping up his face as well as he could. "Duke, we'd best head back. They'll wonder what happened to us." Great, another chewing out. William nodded. "I'll meet you downstairs." Evans said to William. Then facing Eliza, "Miss Eliza, it was a pleasure, I hope we have an opportunity to meet again." She smiled at him, "So do I. Best of luck David." He grinned and gave a slight bow then left.
William and Eliza eyed each other warily. Then William sighed sadly and slumped in Henry's chair. "Lizzie, we can't go on this way." He said, truly hoping they could reason with each other. "Don't call me that, it's Eliza now. And I don't know what you are referring too. Now if you don't mind, I am busy and you are sitting at my desk. "
William was about to beseech her, then stopped. Why should I be the one to beg her to be my friend again? All she is is trouble. "Very well, Good day, Eliza." He rose from the desk, nodded at her and left.
Eliza was slightly shocked, she had thought he was going to apologize for ruining their friendship. She sat there for a moment, ignoring the fact that tears had started to trickle down her face. Then she turned back to the job at hand, she had to hope she could get to the jewelry shop tomorrow without William knowing.
Back at Scotland Yard…
"Unacceptable Constable Evans, completely unacceptable. You were told to not approach the robbers." The detective shook his head in disappointment. William and Evans were standing in Stirling's office while getting chewed out. Before William could speak, Evans had taken the blame, saying he didn't want anyone getting hurt, so he stopped the robbery from happening.
Stirling sat there, eyeing the two of them. He didn't trust what they were telling him, but since they corroborated each other's stories, they had no reason to assume the two young officers were lying. When the detective finished berating them, Stirling merely said dismissively, with a wave of his hand, "Now go, get back to work."
"Why did you do that?" William whispered to Evans as they headed back to their desks. He smiled and shrugged, "It was my idea after all. What happened with Eliza? Did you two makeup?" William hung his head, "No, I… I walked out." Evans pat him on the shoulder in consolation, "I hope the two of you work it out, she seems really special." "You mean really annoying." William said. Evans chuckled, "So, what do we do next?" "What do you mean? You're not thinking…?" William began to say. Evans grinned and nodded, "We have to redeem ourselves somehow, Duke. I doubt they'll try that store again, but maybe we can narrow it down to a few, and stake them out on our own." William smiled back at him, "I'll get a map."
A few days later…
They had spent the next couple of days staking out a few more jewelry shops. They were about to give up, but then they finally hit jackpot one evening, on a store a few blocks away from the one on Grand Street.
"Duke, hey, I think that's them!" Evans said shaking William's shoulder. William had fallen asleep leaning against a barrel. He quickly scrambled to his feet. "We should go get backup." William said, prepared to find a constable to help them, or get a message back to Scotland Yard. Evans was just about to agree when they heard a woman's voice screaming from inside, and a gunshot loudly go off.
Neither of them thought ahead, they sprung forward, running across the road into the store. The three robbers turned to them when they heard the door open. One of them laughed, "And what do you think you're going to do? All you have are batons and you're outnumbered, two to four." Four? William wondered, then he heard the click of a revolver being primed from behind him. "Drop the batons lads, and no one has to get hurt."
Will was more annoyed than afraid, realizing he had no other options available, he dropped his baton. It clattered to the floor. He was just wondering why he only heard the sound of one baton falling, when he turned his head to look at his side.
Everything that followed happened in a split second. Evans had decided to fight back, he swung his baton and hit the wrist of the gunman's hand. The gun fell to the ground and William dove for it. William turned and took aim from where he had landed on the floor, at the gunman. He didn't have a clear shot though, he was afraid of hitting Evans. He was just about to risk it, when a loud CRACK rang out.
It all happened in a blur… Evans falling, blood gushing from his back, William shooting at all four robbers, and somehow, miraculously hitting only them, and no one else. With the robbers down, William slid himself over to Evans and pulled him onto his lap. "Hang in there buddy, come on, help is coming, I hear sirens. You'll be fine. I'll find a nice girl for you who won't care that you'll barely be able to hold a conversation with her." Evans looked up, and smiled at William, "Nah, I think it's a little too late for that now, but thanks anyway…" "David, no, c'mon. Wake up." William slapped his cheeks lightly, realizing after several moments that it was futile. He hung his head in sorrow, feeling too bereft to even cry.
Later that evening…
"Eliza, if you are here to berate me, I am not in the mood." William had opened the door for her, and then turned away to go sit on the settee.
She came inside, and stood in front of him. He looked up at her. "I'm not here to argue with you William. If you please, I'd like to call a truce of sorts." She said this simply, with no hint of recrimination in her tone.
Earlier that day she had finally been able to secure a gold wedding band from the shop on Grand Street. She had run a chemical analysis test on it at home. The results had given her proof that the jewelry shop was swindling people. Following her discovery, she had gone to Scotland Yard to talk to a detective. Whilst there, she had overheard that an officer had been shot and killed during a jewelry store robbery.
Her heart had almost jumped out of her chest. She had run to the hospital straight away, praying the whole time that it wasn't William who had been killed. She knew in that moment that regardless of what had happened, whether they fought, argued, or he found another woman, that she would always care for him. When they told her it was Evans who had been killed, relief flooded through her body. She then went straight to William's house. She knew he and Evans had been close friends, and she was worried about him.
He just nodded at the idea of a truce, too tired to speak. She took stock of his face, his dark blue eyes were red rimmed from sorrow, and bleary from exhaustion. She placed her palm on his cheek, "I heard about David." She said softly. He nodded again, a few tears escaping. She wiped at them with her thumb.
"It was horrible, Lizzie," William finally spoke, a shudder going through his body. "He died in my arms." His voice broke, and a sob escaped his throat.
Eliza stepped closer to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, his face pressed into her abdomen.
She stroked the back of his head, running one hand gently over his hair. "He was so young. He never even managed to talk to a girl without stuttering." William said.
"Shhh… shhhh…" Eliza murmured. She didn't know how much time had passed, just that she had held him until his breathing evened out. She realized he had started to drift off.
Carefully, trying not to disturb him, she lay him down onto the settee as best as she could. She picked up the blanket that he kept nearby, and gently covered him with it. Then, she knelt down at his side, right by his face.
Ever so lightly, she brushed his hair away from his forehead.
Perhaps one day, William. When I know you'll be able to respect me, to see me as an equal, we can build a life together. But until then, farewell.
Softly she kissed his cheek, and let herself out.