A/N: So this story follows on from The Disappearance of Clara Wilson, so if you've not read that one, read that first as I refer back to things that have happened in that story, as well as things in the show. Time for a little Romance ... maybe...
For Bella, I hope I manage to capture your Rupert as well as you hope.
Miss Scarlet, in the library, with the candlestick.
Part 1
It was London 1882. Miss Eliza Scarlet was sat stewing in the jail cells of Victoria police station, and she was not at all happy about her situation.
The cells were in the depths of the station building. The whole place was dark and stank of various bodily fluids, while there were groans and foul language coming from different corners of each of the tiny cells around her. Many of the other women were currently eyeing her up as the sweet looking lady in the smart, pretty blue suit dress and the impeccably styled blonde hair.
She was seated on a short bench in one of the many tiny cells. In there with her was a drunk woman who was staring at her with one eye open, since she was half passed out on the floor, a young street girl curled up in the corner looking terrified, and a barely dressed woman, who looked and smelt like she'd been living in a brewery and could use a bath and some fresh clothes.
Eliza was internally fuming, though she tried not to show it. She folded her arms across her chest, while she avoided eye contact with the others around her. She did not belong here with these women, and looked wildly out of place amongst the drunks, thieves and lunatics.
Whilst this certainly wasn't the first time she'd found herself arrested, this was the first time the arresting officer hadn't taken her to Scotland Yard, where she knew some of the officers first hand. The jail cells here weren't like being taken to Scotland Yard.
At Scotland Yard, they knew who she was, they kept her away from all the other women and put her in her own cell. A cell that she was sure her "friend" Detective Inspector William 'The Duke' Wellington, had put her name to and reserved especially for her, since he'd locked her in there so often.
"Ello," the barely dressed woman slid up towards Eliza on the bench and sat herself down, as Eliza really wished she wouldn't. She was practically shoulder-to-shoulder with her, rather closer then Eliza was comfortable with. Eliza tried to subtly move down the bench as she eyed her cautiously, but any more and she'd fall on the floor.
"What they got you in for?" The woman asked. She spoke to her with a rather rougher London accent then Eliza was used to.
"A mistake," Eliza confirmed angrily. She was still cursing the officer who arrested her, since he clearly had no interest in listening to her when she told him she was a Private Detective.
"Always is love. Booked me for solicitation… just cause I was standin' on a corner!"
Eliza gave her a look. In fairness, her limited clothing might well have added to the suggested charge, but who was she to judge, so she thought better of the reply.
"I have someone coming to get me," Eliza told her. Though it had been well over an hour since she had expected William to turn up, and he still hadn't arrived. He never was particularly punctual.
As if on cue, the main door to the jail cells opened, and in walked a smart uniformed police officer, followed, by a tall, smartly dress man in a long black coat and hat. Eliza instantly recognized her friend, even if he looked decidedly unimpressed and annoyed at being there.
Eliza sighed a heavy sigh of relief when she saw him, even though she was sure she was about to get a heavy outburst from William about being arrested, again. At this very moment she didn't care if he did yell at her, she just wanted to get the hell out of these disgusting cells. She stood up and moved towards the individual cell door, as the officer walked over to the cell door followed by William.
"Cheerio love," the barely dressed woman called out and gave her a wave. Eliza internally cringed, not giving William the satisfaction of seeing how uncomfortable she was really feeling.
The officer moved to unlock the cell door, and Eliza stood as tall as she could and held her head high as she defiantly strode out the cell, passed Detective Inspector William Wellington, while he just shook his head at her.
"Making friends I see," William teased irritably. This wasn't the first time he'd got her out of jail, and he was certain it would not be the last.
In total silence, they followed the uniformed officer back to the front desk, to collect Eliza's dark blue hat and brown handbag from the booking in desk, then quietly out of the of the building to the bright daylight outside.
"This was not my fault," Eliza said angrily, finally addressing him once they were out on the street.
"No, it never is." William replied, just as angry at being dragged out of his office to get her out of jail. Again!
The pair of them were stood on the pavement opposite each other, close enough to be angry, but still trying not to look like they were making a scene to the people and horse carriages that passed by them.
"That officer would not listen to me." Eliza tried to defend herself, but it always fell on his deaf ears.
"How many times do I need to come and get you out of jail Eliza!" William asked her, unimpressed.
Over the years they had known each other, his Scottish accent had adopted a lighter English tone to it, unless when he was angry with her, in which case his Scottish accent was all the more prevalent.
"I tried to explain that I was a Private Detective, working a job, it's not my fault that officer would not believe me." She was livid. No one ever did believe her when she told anyone her job.
"You do realized, that I actually have better things to be doing with my time then this, like my job."
"Well I was just doing mine!" She hated that he always thought he was so much more important then she was, all because he was a man.
"Oh, so what job were you doing?" he asked, still completely annoyed at her. Somehow Eliza just doing her job always seemed to come back and bite him.
"A wife hired me to look into her husband, she suspects him of an affair, and I was just following him..."
"…And you were arrested for loitering," William pointed out, rubbing his beard with the back of his hand.
"Well judging by the pretty young brunette on his arm, and the hour that passed as I waited for them to leave that hotel, I'm sure his wife isn't wrong!" she grumbled.
"Eliza!" William groaned, exasperated with her.
"What?"
"You have got to stop getting yourself arrested!" William moved his hand up his face to rub his forehead, feeling yet another Eliza sized headache coming, as he wondered if she would ever listen to him.
"But it's not my fault!"
"It doesn't matter. I can't keep getting you out of trouble."
"Well next time I won't bother you with it! I'll just sit in there with the drunks and the insane shall I?"
"How about there is no next time?" William tried, but knew he was wasting his breath. There was always going to be a next time.
"It's not like I purposely try and get myself arrested!" Eliza reasoned.
William walked over to his waiting driver and carriage, and held the door open for Eliza to get in, only she walked straight passed.
"Do you want to ride with me back to Scotland Yard?" He called out to her as she walked away.
"I'll make my own way home. I wouldn't want to put you out!" She yelled at him angrily as she carried on walking away from him, with a temper in her stride. There was no way she was going to sit through a silent, uncomfortable carriage ride with him back to his office.
"Fine!" He bellowed back as he threw his hands up in the air and watched her striding down towards the Thames. He shook his head and gave an angry sigh, before he removed his hat and getting into the carriage.
Eliza was still mad at him the next afternoon. She was in her office, and she heard familiar voices from the street outside. She moved to the window that over looked the street, and saw William outside talking with Tilly Hildegard. She was the niece of the German undertaker, Herr Hildegard, whose funeral shop was directly next to her office.
Tilly usually had a steely firm gaze, yet Eliza witnessed from her window, Tilly actually cracked a small smile, and even attempted to touch William's arm. Eliza was sure William was probably used to women falling all over themselves for his attention, but from his stance, even he seemed uncomfortable with the young Fraulein's attentiveness.
She smiled to herself and wondered if she should just leave William to fend for himself, but then remembered that he had come to her rescue on a number of occasions. Perhaps she should maybe give him a hand, though as he often did, she would take her time getting to him.
Gradually she pulled on her black leather gloves, gathered her brown bag, her navy hat from the hook, and locked up her office. She'd been a good five minutes, and as she descended the stairs outside of her office, she could see through the window that William was still in the same position, speaking with Tilly.
"Inspector Wellington, you're late for our meeting, again." Eliza announced brightly, as she locked the street door, and turned to look at them. She was sure she saw a flash of relief across his face, and Tilly dropped her smile and returned to her usual resting scowl.
"Ah, apologies, Miss Scarlet, I was just speaking with Fraulein Hildegard," William told her politely, and looked between the two women.
"Fraulein Hildegard," Eliza offered, with a smile, but Tilly said nothing and didn't break her scowl.
"Well, we can walk and talk." William nodded his hat by way of goodbye to Tilly, and Eliza moved in-between them, to walk past. Tilly continued to scowl and stare as they walked away from her, only moving inside her uncle's shop when they rounded the corner, out of her sight.
"That woman is terrifying," William whispered once they were out of Tilly's earshot, and by way of a thank you. Eliza stifled laughed. Tilly certainly was rather terrifying.
"What do you want?" She asked him crossly, as she marched down the street and he followed a few steps behind her.
He could tell from her change in tone, that she was still holding their conversation at Victoria Police Station against him. It didn't bother him though, since he was still rather annoyed at having to go and pick her up.
"Hello to you too," he teased, matching her cross tone.
"I'm busy," she told him, with a small smile on her lips as she kept her eyes on the street in front of her.
"How's the cheating husband?" he asked her, as he caught up and walked along side her.
"Well…" another source of Eliza's annoyance for the day. "Apparently the pretty brunette I saw him with, that was his daughter … One that he'd never told his wife about."
William did a double take, that wasn't quite what he had expected.
"So he wasn't having an affair?" He questioned, amused that she'd been wrong in her assessment.
"Apparently not. I mean how do you keep a daughter a secret from your wife for 18 plus years?" Eliza queried.
William was about to reply when he saw Eliza's friend Mr Rupert Parker walking at a pace towards them. Of course that was just what he needed right now.
Mr Rupert Parker was from a wealthy London family, however, he was a more timid gentleman, who always seemed slightly nervous. He was continually smartly dressed in an expensive suit, one that was a more flamboyant style to William's own black suit, navy blue waistcoat and black over coat.
Today Mr Parker wore an olive green suit that had a long thigh length jacket, matching couloured hat on top of his brown slightly curly hair, and a gold and red embroidered waistcoat.
William wasn't entirely sure of the specifics of Eliza and Mr Parkers relationship. All he knew for sure was that they were friends of a sort, and that he'd invested in her detective agency. Eliza had never divulged any further information on the subject, and it would have been improper for him to ask any questions, even if he was more then a little curious.
"Ah Miss Scarlet, Inspector Wellington, just the people I was looking for." Rupert was slightly out of breath from walking quickly, and stuttered slightly.
"Mr Parker," Eliza smiled. Whilst she was pleased for the interruption, she wasn't sure why Rupert would be looking for them both.
"Lovely to see you both. So erm, Fraulein Hildegard has somehow got me to agree to arrange a dinner party at my house on Friday night. She doesn't know many people now that she's moved here and wants to get to know a few new friends, and I thought you should come, both of you."
Eliza looked at Rupert confused. Given the rather frosty relationship she shared with Fraulein Tilly Hildegard, as well as their meeting just moments earlier, she was certain that Tilly would not want to invite Eliza to a dinner party she was hosting. There was also no way Eliza herself would want to attend such a dinner.
"Rupert, I'm pretty sure Fraulein Hildegard does not want me in attendance at her dinner party," Eliza told him honestly, in the hopes that she could avoid the evening.
William was also slightly confused. For one, he didn't really know Mr Parker well enough for him to invite him to a dinner party. He also hadn't been aware that Rupert and the young Fraulein were perhaps a couple. Certainly the way she had been speaking with him moments ago hadn't led him to believe she was attached to someone.
"But you must come," Rupert insisted to Eliza. "I don't know any of the people she's invited. They are people my mother knows apparently, that have already accepted the invitation." Given how firm Mrs Parker was, Eliza could see why Rupert might be concerned about who would be in attendance at his party.
"Surely you have other friends you can invite?" Eliza asked, with shrugged and a half laugh.
"And which of my friends do you think it appropriate to invite?" Rupert replied, quickly and pointedly.
Eliza didn't exactly know many of Rupert's friends, other then Dr Woodhouse, but she assumed that they were possibly like-minded fellows like Rupert. They were not so interested in the company of women, so perhaps not quite the right company for Tilly's dinner party.
"Fine, I will come," Eliza reluctantly agreed.
"Excellent, and yourself Inspector Wellington?" Rupert asked, looking towards William with a smile.
William had been quietly watching their interaction. It was very curious to him how friendly these two were. He wasn't sure he liked the idea of them being possibly more then friends.
Certainly, Eliza had never given him the impression that there was more to their relationship, and clearly there seemed to be something between Mr Parker and Fraulein Hildegard. Yet, William couldn't quite work out what any of these relationships were. Perhaps an evening in their company might shed some much-needed light on the subject.
"Oh, I'm sure Inspector Wellington will be far too busy…" Eliza started.
"… I'm sure I can make something work," William interrupted, looking at Eliza with a smile. The added bonus was that he knew it was going to annoy her completely.
"Wonderful, it will be lovely to have you both there. Now, I've got a long list of things the Fraulein has given me to do for the dinner party, so I must be off, but I'll see you both Friday, my house, drinks at seven," Rupert confirmed, before tipping his hat and leaving them with a smile.
"Really?" Eliza asked William, once Rupert was out of earshot, as she turned to face him, clearly even more annoyed at him then before.
"What?" William shrugged. "Mr Parker invited us both," he replied, making a poor attempt at seeming innocent.
"Oh, because you'd just love to spend your Friday evening at a dinner party with Rupert Parker and Fraulein Hildegard!" Eliza threw him a glare before walking off down the street, while William gave a small laugh to himself and followed her.
To Be Continued...