This is the second of three vignettes I wrote for the Spring 2022 Flash Fan Fiction Challenge.
The prompt for this vignette was the phrase from Episode 5 of Season 1, spoken by William to Eliza at Woolwich Prison: "Must you disagree with everything that I say?"
Kneeling at the edge of the intact floorboards, she peered into the gaping darkness of the cellar below and called out, "William? William!"
She heard him curse angrily, "Bloody hell!" then shout up to her through the jagged opening in the rotting floor, "For God's sake, Eliza, what the hell are you doing here? You shouldn't have come. It's too dangerous."
It was too dangerous - for all of them - but she couldn't simply wait at home with the doctor, as he'd requested when he sent word about the injured boy before leaving Scotland Yard.
Instead, she'd dispatched Georgie for the doctor, with a message for Ivy to prepare a room at the house for the street boy's recovery. She'd gone to the abandoned, dilapidated tenement house, which threatened imminent collapse around them, to help her husband and the two boys, Oliver and Finnegan O'Rourke.
Sighing heavily, William growled at the older boy kneeling beside Eliza, "Ollie, would you escort Mrs. Wellington home and see that she stays there?"
"William, you cannot ask this boy to keep a grown woman at home. He most certainly won't be manhandling me."
"Get. Back. Home. Now! I won't have you putting yourself in jeopardy."
"It's too late for that, and you cannot afford to cast aside my assistance so easily. I'm not leaving you, William, so let me help."
Eliza peered around the squalid, dimly lit first floor room but was unable to locate a door leading down to the cellar.
"How did you get down there?" she asked, puzzled.
"I dropped down through the hole in the floor. The cellar leads out into the alley through a set of bulkhead doors. They must be bolted from the outside since I've not yet been able to open them. The only way to get the lad out of here is through those doors."
He paused when the small crumpled form on the floor wailed, "Ollie? Don't let me die here. Please?"
From above, Ollie soothed his younger brother, "Finn, it's all right. Duke and Mrs. Wellington are here to help you. You won't die here, I promise."
William commanded, "Ollie, show Mrs. Wellington where the outside doors to the cellar are. Eliza, open them quick as you can. I'm worried the lad's going into shock. My cravat's acting like a tourniquet around his leg, but he has an open fracture that's still bleeding. We need to splint his leg and move Finn out of here."
She inched her way back from the hole's edge, then stood up. She stopped when she heard William's voice again.
"And Eliza, please do be careful…for my sake?"
"I am being careful."
"I would dispute that, mo chridhe."*
"Must you disagree with everything that I say? This hardly seems the time for us to argue. After I've rescued you, you can scold me for not being a dutiful wife, but now…"
"Right now, I'm glad you're here. Take Ollie and go! We haven't a moment to lose."
The End
End Notes:
* mo chridhe = literally, my heart in Scottish Gaelic, meaning my sweetheart, my love. William speaks Scottish Gaelic to Eliza in many of my stories, especially using it for terms of endearment for her.
The boys, Ollie and Finn O'Rourke, make their first appearance in my story, Three Weeks, which covers events during the three weeks of William's and Eliza's engagement after their return to London from a whirlwind trip to Glasgow. William meets the boys in Chapter 4. EM Jessup, while he is waiting in an alley for Eliza to finish her business with the jeweler. He tells Ollie and Finn to come to him at Scotland Yard if they are ever in need of help - what a good man is our William! ;)