So it has been quite a long time since I've posted something new on this site or on AO3, but it is November 1 - the first day of NaNoWriMo - and I felt compelled to write a little vignette for a scene that has been playing in my head all summer. It will probably get a few more chapters as the month goes on, but not everything has been smooth sailing for the Wellingtons as newlyweds with their new house guests.

Thanks for reading this additional part and my other stories, and for all those who have been faithful readers and commenters during my hiatus, you are the very best, and I appreciate all your kind words of support (Sugar, you know I mean you, of course!). We'll see how the month goes, but I plan to write 50,000 words by the end of November, so here we go!

"Are you planning to mention this turn of events to your husband?" Ivy asked Eliza as she pinned the hem of Eliza's crimson skirt. "Turn, please."

"Not at this point…no," Eliza answered quietly, as she shuffled her feet slightly to the left on the stool on which she stood, while Ivy continued to make alterations to the newly sewn garment. In the silence, Eliza could almost hear Ivy's sigh of disapproval while her mouth remained drawn in a tight line.

After another several loud ticks of the clock on the mantelpiece in the drawing room, Ivy finally spoke, "Do you think it wise not to tell him? To keep this from him and leave him out of whatever decision needs to be made about the boy, given what Ollie has done?"

"And just to be clear, Ivy, what do you believe Ollie has done?" Eliza tried to lighten the somber mood in the room, a grin of mock innocence curling her lips but not quite reaching her serious eyes as she glanced down from her perch at her housekeeper.

"You know very well, Lizzie, what the boy has done. And in my view, the inspector needs to be told about it - and soon."

"I do plan to tell William about it. I…will, " she struggled to sound convincing, even to her own ears. "But I need to give Ollie a chance to set things right himself, to come to me on his own and admit his guilt. And I'd like to show William that I'm capable of handling this as a parent would, that I don't need to run to him every time something goes wrong with the boys." She paused as if to reconsider the validity of her own reasoning. "Surely I don't need to involve William just yet?"

Taking a moment to place a few pins further along the hemline, Ivy replied, "Lizzie, you know William better than anyone else, and you know that he's become extremely attached to Ollie and Finn, having seen himself and his younger brother, Charlie, in those two boys. He's brought them into your home without questions asked, and you know he almost certainly considers them to be his wards. But you are his wife now, and you agreed when you married him that the two of you would confront life and its hurdles together as a couple, not separately as you often did before. I don't think the inspector, as an offficer of the law and a higher ranking one at that, will take kindly to you keeping the boy's actions a secret from him."

"I'm not keeping the theft a secret, Ivy…I'm…I'm waiting until a time when William likely won't become angry and do something he'll regret with Ollie and Finn because I will have already solved the problem for us. Technically, no harm has been done. Gilles Allsop recognized my necklace as soon as Ollie placed it on the display case in his shop. Luckily, Mr. Allsop set it aside and let me know that it had come into his shop for pawn almost immediately. And I was able to recover it before anyone had a chance to purchase it. I have it safely back again." Eliza reached up and fingered the outline of her diamond and pearl necklace beneath her blouse, the coolness of the gold-backed pendant pressing against her chest, making her skin tingle after having been missing for the past week. She added in a low, pensive voice, "All that remains now is for Ollie to come clean: admit his mistake and vow not to do it again so long as he and Finn remain under our roof."

"A mistake? Eliza, the lad took your necklace, which William had given you as a wedding gift - and which I'm quite certain set him back a good bob or two on a police officer's salary - from your bedroom with the intent to pawn it for money. What else will the boy - or his brother - steal from this house if the two of you don't handle this incident together as a unified front?"

"But that's precisely why I don't want to tell William just yet. Don't you see? For Ollie to learn not to steal from us again, he needs to be able to trust me, to know that I won't run to William every time he steps out of line. Those two boys need a stable home, a sense of security - not a feeling of dread that with every misstep they make, they are on the cusp of being thrown back out onto the streets and abandoned again. Besides, who's to say that William didn't commit a similar crime, or possibly worse, when he was a lad living on the streets? And who's to say that Father didn't give William the same grace as I'm offering Ollie in this instance? Of letting Will make a terrible choice, one that could have landed him in a gaol cell, but then giving him the space to come to his own conclusion about whether such a choice was in his best interest? I suspect Father gave William a chance to reverse his actions and come round to doing what was expected of him when he made a poor choice, or two. And you must remember that he was even older than Ollie is now when Father and I met him on the streets; Will had had six more years of being a pickpocket and a street fighter than Ollie and Finn have had. I don't believe Ollie is as hardened as William might have been when he lived on the streets, and I trust that the boy will come forward. He needs me to give him this chance to set things right, Ivy, and to believe in him."

"Perhaps, my girl, but please do not leave it too long. If Ollie doesn't come to you of his own accord in the next few days, then you must let William know, and then you both can decide how to handle what happens next with the boys. It isn't just Ollie's future at stake here, it's Finn's as well. And I strongly urge you not to keep secrets from your new husband, Lizzie."

"Yes, Ivy, I understand what you've advised." Eliza bent to give Ivy a firm squeeze around her shoulders. "And I will try not to keep my secret any longer than needs must."

Giving Eliza a skeptical glance, Ivy clucked her tongue, then shook her head gently. "You are always pushing the boundaries, my girl. Now stand up straight and turn to the left again," she ordered, as she slowly smiled up into Eliza's downturned face.