She could tell that William was intrigued as they walked through the park.
"It didn't say anything about bringing a guest." Julia pointed out.
"It didn't say anything about anything really. Only to come here at this time." William said, letting his wife enter the tent first.
"Most of the scientific community is here William!" she whispered. "I wonder who ..."
"Oh, Detective Murdoch I see you received my invitation." a voice said behind them.
They turned around to see Sally Pendrick walk towards them.
"Doctor Ogden, so nice of you to join us." she said, her smile directed to William. "I hope you will enjoy this event." she continued, still only looking at William.
"What is this about exactly?" Julia asked, getting closer to her husband, taking the arm she had let go a few seconds earlier.
"My husband will explain in a few minutes. Now if you'll excuse me, there are other guests I must greet." Mrs Pendrick said, smiling before leaving them.
"Can you believe this woman? She acted as if I were not here at all!" Julia said.
"If I had known the invitation came from her I would not have ..."
"Don't be stupid William. Given the audience under this tent, this must be some very important event. Look, here is Doctor ..."
"Doctor who?" William asked when she stopped talking without ending her sentence.
"Is that Ruby over there?" she asked, pointing to a corner of the tent.
"Yes, it looks like her. Did she tell you she was coming into town?" William asked.
"No she didn't. In her last letter she talked only about New York and everything that was going on down there. And who is she with? It looks like they are … together. And he seems old!"
"Come on Julia, let's go meet them and you can get all your answers." William said.
Before they could walk far, James Pendrick appreared in front of the audience and started to talk about the Eugenics Society and how it was supposed to better the world. During his speech, a dog entered the tent, carrying something in its mouth. The dog walked around and stopped in front of William and Julia.
"Drop it." William said, looking at the dog.
He obeyed, dropping part of an arm on the ground before walking away.
As they were getting ready for bed after Mr Wells's talk, William could not get the look the author had had in his eyes when he had looked at Julia out of his head. He had looked directly at her during all his speech, making her clearly uncomfortable and William as well.
"What are you thinking about?" Julia asked, getting out of the bathroom in her nightdress, her hair falling down her back.
"I don't like the way Mr Wells looks at you." William said before thinking.
"Are you jealous?" she laughed, helping him get out of his shirt.
"No, well maybe a little but it's not really jealousy because it is clear that you are not interested in him. But he doesn't seem to see it. Or he saw it and he didn't care. He acted as if he could get you anyway and ..."
"Hey, don't get angry William. I agree with you, he was completely out of line. But don't worry about it, I can take care of it myself. And believe me, next time I see him I will make myself very clear on the subject." Julia said, kissing him softly before pulling him to their bed. "Now get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a long day looking for all the other body parts."
Once in bed, Julia snuggled in her husband's arms, the only place she could fell asleep peacefully. William did not sleep well though, waking up instantly and everytime Julia rolled away from him.
The following day when he walked into the station house and saw Ruby waiting for him, he sighed. He could feel the problems and the headache coming. Ruby did not disappoint. She followed him after he had told her explicitely not to get involved only to faint when she saw the other body parts being recovered.
When the case was finally over, William joined Julia in the morgue. She was cleaning up her instruments when he arrived.
"I'm sorry William, I haven't finished yet." she said.
"Don't worry, I can wait." he said, kissing her quickly. "And I'll certainly find something to occupy myself for a while." he continued
"I received a new medical journal this morning if you want to read it." Julia said, kissing him again before going back to her instruments.
William settled at her desk. He looked her work for a few minutes but found it too tempting so he decided to find the medical journal she had talked about. He had only been reading it for a few minutes when he heard the door open. He looked up to see H.G. Wells enter. He was standing up when his eyes fell on Julia's. The message was clear: let me take care of this. He sat back down but kept watching through the office windows. The author didn't seem to have noticed him.
"Mr Well, what can I do for you?" Julia asked politely, putting her instruments away as she talked to him
"I was wondering if you had thought about my proposition."
"What proposition?"
"If you would like to have dinner with me." the author explained.
"I don't have to think about it Mr Wells. I told you no last time, my answer hasn't changed." Julia said rather coldly.
"Are you sure? You could be surprised. I can be pretty entertaining."
"What part of NO don't you understand?" Julia asked, getting angry.
"I assure you I ..."
"That's enough Mr Wells!" William all but shouted, coming out of the office like a fury. "I'm sure the situation is clear enough for you to understand. She DOES NOT WANT to have dinner with you. You are way too insistant Mr Wells, once a lady says no, it's no. You already made her uncomfortable several times, I will not have it anymore. She told you she is not interested. She's married. To me. Either you leave on your own accord or I escort you out and into our cells for harrassment. What do you prefer?" he asked, trying to restrain his anger.
The author didn't bother answering, he simply turned around and left.
William had barely turned to Julia that she was crushing into him, her lips attacking his.
"I love when you get all territorial like that."