Chapter 13:

William suddenly heard the bathroom door open again and he quickly put the watch back where he had found it. He watched Colleen close the door carefully behind her and he frowned in suspicion, slowly realizing what he was witnessing. He had just understood quite a few things and he suddenly got up from the bed, trying not to keep his face as closed as he wanted.

"Excuse me…" she smiled at him. "So…? Where were we?"

She approached him with a seductive look and stroked the collar of his shirt. William smiled at her innocently. She tried to kiss him again and he turned his head to the bedside table.

"Whose initials are those on the watch?"

"The watch?' asked the former journalist, confused.

"Yes… This one?"

William took the watch in his hands again and showed it to her. Colleen looked at it, her face suddenly losing its luster.

"Th…Those are my grandmother's initials." she stuttered.

"What was her name…?" William asked gently, trying to sound genuinely interested and empathetic.

"Juliette…" she paused. "O'Brien."

William nodded looking at the watch in his hands and could suddenly feel the fear emanating from the fiery haired young woman. He jerked his head up, his face suddenly closed.

"Juliette O'Brien? Are you sure?" asked the detective rhetorically. "Wouldn't that be Julia Ogden instead?"

"Who?" Colleen clearly panicked.

"Julia Ogden…don't pretend. It's Miss Ogden's watch, you stole it from her. I don't know how you did it because she doesn't even remember seeing you." William asserted.

"I didn't steal anything from her, that's not true. I forbid you to say such things! Get out of here!" she suddenly shouted, pointing her finger directly at the door.

"That's enough now. I now understand where your wealth comes from. You may have been a journalist, but you are above all a thief. All those items!" he gestured to the items that were scattered around the room. "You stole them…"

"You are delirious!"

"So, if I open the bathroom door, I won't find Madam Hébert's dog inside?" William smiled triumphantly as he quickly headed for the door.

He reached out to grab the handle.

"Nope!" Colleen shouted. "No, no, don't open."

William lowered his hand and returned to Miss Forbes with a satisfied face. He noticed that, in reality, she was not attractive at all. Her face had lost all its elegance, all its colors and it was seriously marked by wrinkles of nervousness.

"So, let's keep it simple. We'll make a deal together. I'll take the watch and I'll return it to Julia Ogden. You will let Bobby out of your compartment, and you will manage so that Madam Hébert falls on him tomorrow morning. In exchange... I won't tell anyone what you did." declaimed the detective.

"Why would you help me?" finally yielded the young woman, her face completely crestfallen.

"I'm not helping you. I can't prove that you stole all these items, and I am not 100% sure of what I am saying, I have no proof. On the other hand, you did steal a dog and a watch. I don't see the point of denouncing you, at worst you will receive a reprimand as you are an influencial woman. I don't want to ruin an entire trip. But you can be sure that Walid Champagne will never want you on his trains again." replied William. "On the other hand, if only one disappearance is noted or if you do not respect your end of the bargain, I will go directly to Inspector Brackenreid."

Colleen was speechless and finally nodded slowly, her face crestfallen. The young man nodded in turn and tilted his head slightly.

"Miss Forbes." he greeted her.

He quickly left Colleen's compartment, without another word, his hand shaking around Julia's watch. He had one thing left to do. Give it back and apologize. She was going to be overjoyed to find it. Maybe she would even be grateful and hug him awkwardly.

He arrived without realizing it in the corridor where he knew that the compartment of the young woman was. It was a bit late, but it was to give her back her watch and he knew it was important to her so…

He took a deep breath and reached up to knock on the door. Then he lowered it. He looked behind him at the moonlit winter landscape. He turned back to the door again and raised his hand, then lowered it again, breathing hard. Darn! But what was his problem? He had to go ahead and just knock on the door and he would see how it would go. He raised his hand for the third time and let it hover just in front of the marble door. In fact, this woman was intimidating him. She was really elegant and graceful and… He did not know how to understand his own reactions.

He lowered his hand; he raised it and he laughed at his own ridiculousness. No but really… Good. He knocked on the door suddenly, almost too hard. He felt his heart pounding in his chest, and he waited for the door to open, listening intently. He heard movement, then footsteps, and the door opened. It opened to Magnus Duval. William literally lost all color in his face and stared at him, frozen in place. He clutched the pocket watch in his hand.

"Yes?" asked the man who was no longer wearing his black suit jacket and had his shirt slightly unbuttoned.

"I... I thought that was Miss Ogden's compartment." said William stupidly.

"Yes, it's her compartment." Magnus frowned. "And you're?"

"Wil…William Murdoch." he stuttered.

"What is it, Magnus?!" suddenly cried a female voice that William immediately recognized as Julia's.

She suddenly appeared behind Magnus, her long golden blonde hair loose and falling beautifully to the small of her back still wearing the light blue dress from earlier.

There was a silence of a few seconds during which everyone looked at each other with incomprehension.

"Okay, I'll go back to my compartment…" finally declared Mr. Duval, who had draped his suit jacket over his shoulder. "See you tomorrow, Julia."

He smiled at her and kissed her on the cheek. He nodded to Murdoch and passed between them to head for the front of the train.

"Why are you here?" Julia asked, her face closed.

"For…I…"

"Yes?" she insisted, losing all patience.

Seeing her start to lose her temper so quickly in his presence made him lose his even faster. Whatever he said, whatever he did, he constantly annoyed her. So that and seeing Magnus Duval come out of Julia's compartment at such an hour...

"I wanted to know if you had found your watch?" the young detective asked stupidly, clutching the pocket watch even more tightly in his right hand.

"At this hour?" she answered surprised. "And are you interested now?"

She looked at him with a cheeky face and he sighed, feeling angry.

"I just wanted to be nice, but you're not really kindness personified…" he said impulsively.

"Well, if you came specially to tell me that, I think you can leave!"

The young woman slammed her door shut, leaving William in his wake, smoke almost coming out of his nostrils in anger. Clearly, this trip was going to kill him before the Alaskan cold did.

Note: Definitely, they can't get along! Hope you like my story.