Thank you so much for your really nice feedback on this story. I am rather proud of this one, so any good feedback is making me smile. But if there is anything you'd like to criticize – do so! I take any constructive criticism into consideration!
Thanks once again for my great beta – my best friend, Brina (Brinchen86)! HDGDL!
Disclaimer: The idea and Bea are mine – everything else belongs to CBS!
This chapter is a rather long one – forgive me, but once my muse starts, it won't stop! But then again, most Victorian Novels are three-decker novels – novels in three volumes. Does that excuse the length?
Deputy Chief Constable Donald Flack walked into his house and handed his top hat to the maid who had opened him the door.
"Is my wife in?" he enquired.
"She is upstairs in her room, Sir. Ma'am wasn't feeling well and went to lie down," she answered.
"When was that?" he asked further?
"Two hours ago, Sir," she said and took the coat that Flack had taken off.
"Thank you, Lena," he dismissed her and walked into his study.
Inside, he walked over to his desk and sat down. The desk was covered with papers and where others would have only seen chaotic surroundings, Flack had a system. One pile contained closed cases that hadn't come to trial yet. Another pile consisted of all the open cases that his detectives were working on and which he had to supervise. And a third pile was full of folders – the cases he was working on himself. Flack had always been talented at his work and that was why he had made it to Deputy Chief Constable as quickly as he had. He was highly respected within London's police force and he was seen as a fair and demanding superior. Ever since he had made it as high up the ladder as he was now, there was less crime in the city and that was something Flack was proud of. He could at least rest on his working laurels.
His marriage, however, was not going quite as successfully. He and Jessica had been married for almost a year now and his wife was still not with child. Various doctors had been there to examine his wife and the doctors themselves had consulted with each other – neither one of them could find anything at fault with Jessica. When he and Jessica had gotten married, they had been looking forward to building a family and now all those plans seemed to slowly vanish. Flack dearly wanted to be a father and his position in society practically demanded that he'd built a family soon.
Another problem of his was that he could not present his wife in society as of late. She was staying up in her room almost all day and she avoided their dinners together. Dr. Hawkes had been in last week and he had warned Flack that Jessica was suffering from depression. He advised Flack not to pressure his wife any longer – it might simply be that she could not bear any children.
For Flack that was an unbearable thought – in the society he lived in, a marriage was only perfect when there were children around, as a manifest to love and family. It hadn't been that long ago that he had talked with his lawyer whether their childlessness would be a reason for divorce. This was not an easy decision for Flack because he loved his wife – that was why he had married her in the first place. They had sworn each other true love forever, but now Flack wasn't sure anymore whether he could hold that promise.
He rang the bell for the maid. She came in and asked what the Master wanted.
"Tell my wife to come down for dinner. I want to have dinner with her tonight. And tell her that I will not allow any excuses on her part again," he ordered.
The maid left and walked up to the first floor to wake up her mistress. She gently knocked on the door and waited to be asked inside.
"Miss, the Sir would like you to come down for dinner."
"Tell him that I'm indisposed and cannot come down tonight," Jessica answered. She was lying on the bed and had a piece of cloth over her face to shield her from any form of bright light. She had a severe migraine.
"The Master says that he would not accept any excuses tonight, Miss," the maid said hesitantly. She didn't like being caught between her Master and her Mistress, but she also knew that her work required to not being too inquisitive.
Jessica groaned and told her maid that she would be right down – she just needed a couple of minutes to clean up nicely for her husband. She dreaded the dinner with Flack because she knew that they would either not talk at all or they would fight. She saw her husband slipping away from her and she was afraid that he might divorce her. No matter what she tried, she just couldn't conceive and it was eating her up inside – that she couldn't give the one thing to her husband that he so deeply desired.
Back at Lord Hammerback's house, he was sitting with his niece and the doctor around the dinner table. One of the maids had poured them all some wine and water and they were now waiting for dinner to be served.
Lindsay was involved in a conversation with Hawkes about the ball next weekend and her uncle was just looking at them discussing various advantages and disadvantages to a ball. He was proud of his beautiful and eloquent niece – so proud that he sometimes wished to be her father. Lindsay's parents were living in the West Indies, where her father was Governor of a colony. Her mother had accompanied her husband into the great unknown, but they had not wanted to take their daughter along. So they had asked him, the mother's brother, to take the young Lindsay in and give her the education that she would not be able to enjoy in the colonies. Sid had been more than happy to take his niece in – he had always wanted children, but his wife had died in childbed and his little child had died only shortly after. He had never fully recovered from the loss of his dear wife, so that he had never been interested in getting remarried. All he wanted for his niece now, was to get married and be as happy as he had been all those years ago. And to satisfy his sister and her husband, he had chosen the best partner Lindsay could have ever hoped for.
"Do you dance?" Lindsay asked Hawkes.
"I do indeed, Miss. But why don't you just let me show you next weekend? You would do me a great honour if you would open the dance with me," Hawkes asked.
Lindsay blushed and answered him that she would gladly do him the honour. She then sighed and took her uncle's hand and pressed it lightly. "Oh uncle, have I already thanked you enough for giving this ball? I have so longed for a ball and now I'll have one next weekend!" she shouted out and her broad smile amused both, Sid and Hawkes.
"Any girl should be able to see the high pleasure and value that there is in a ball," Hawkes stated.
"You should tell that to Beatrice, Dr. Hawkes," Lindsay winked.
"Why? Does the Lady Beatrice not long for the ball?" he wondered.
"Beatrice is…" Lindsay hesitated and searched for the right words. "…special. She is not like other ladies of our class," she then said.
"Oh, really?" Hawkes exclaimed. "I have only met her a couple of times, but she always seemed so very charming and entertaining," he shared.
"Oh, she is. She is my best friend and I would not know what to do in this place without her," Lindsay called out.
Hawkes smiled at her – he was charmed by this young beauty, by her innocence and by her lust for life.
Just as Lindsay was about to add something about Bea, the door was opened and Danny walked in, serving the first course. He had changed into the best black suit and white shirt he owned. He had a severe air on his face and he had to concentrate on the process of serving, deeply worried that he might stumble and make a fool of himself in front of Lindsay.
"Oh Daniel, how nice of you to take Lisa's part tonight," Sid commented.
"Anything for your Lordship," Danny answered ungainly.
Lindsay sniggered at the awkward answer Danny had given – one could see that he was not trained in polite conversation, but rather in hard work. For Lindsay, this made him really pleasant – he was different from the men in her class and she liked that about him. Sometimes, Lindsay felt as if she had been born into the wrong class and with her gaiety she would rather be a match for one of the lower classes than for the reserved upper class she belonged to.
They all took their first course in silence and when it was time for Danny to clear away the plates, he stumbled and dropped one of the spoons on the floor. Out of reflex, Lindsay immediately bent down to pick it up, but so did Danny. Under the table, their heads bumped into each other and when both winced, they also bumped against the table top. This made them laugh, kneeling under the table together, both rubbing their heads and looking at each other. At that moment, they both felt such a strong and deep sense of connection between them as neither had ever felt before. They stopped laughing and simply stared at each other, caught up in the magic of the moment.
"Lindsay! Will you please come up from under the table!" her uncle reprimanded her in a fierce voice.
Lindsay woke up from her reveries and immediately came back up, followed by Danny, the spoon in hand.
"Messer, the next course. Now!" Lord Hammerback ordered indignantly. He disapprovingly looked at his servant and then at his niece. As soon as Danny was out of the room, Sid started again: "Lindsay, when will you ever learn that you are a member of the upper class and you have to behave like one!" he scolded her in Hawkes presence, deeply embarrassing Lindsay.
Not only felt she ashamed that Hawkes had seen his future fiancée in such a situation – she had also realized that the foolish feelings she might have for Danny had to stop immediately – they belonged to two different classes and that was a thing which simply didn't mix.
After the fight she had had with her father, Bea was sitting upstairs in her room. She had excused herself from dinner and had gone up without eating anything. She hadn't felt hungry by the time and even though now the hunger started to set in, she refused to go back down.
She would never let her father pressure her into doing something she did not honestly believe in. She had never felt the urge to get married and she was resolved never to change that. Her plans for her own life were different to the ones her father had for her, she knew that, and yet – no matter how much she loved, valued and appreciated him – he would never be able to force her into marriage.
For Bea, the highest feeling on earth was true love – something she encountered again and again in the novels by Jane Austen. How she had longed for Elizabeth and Darcy to finally admit to their feelings and how she had been happy when Emma had finally realized she was in love with Mr. Knightley! If ever Bea were to give up her independence, it had to be for a love as ideal, perfect and wonderful as that.
Downstairs in his study, the Earl of Heslington was sitting at his desk, bent over some papers. No matter how long he stared at the words in front of him, he couldn't make sense of them. His mind was somewhere far away – with Bea and with Bea's mother. He had loved that beautiful dark-haired woman, had adored her long curls, her full red lips and had never met a woman as perfect as her. She had been the love of his life and when she had died of typhoid a couple of years ago, it had ripped his heart up into pieces.
He knew that he was considered a very handsome bachelor in society these days and there were some very interesting women courting him, but he simply wasn't sure whether he was willing to risk his heart again. It had taken so long for him to gather the pieces back up and he was still not sure whether he had found them all.
The only woman out there he was remotely interested in was the Baroness Bonasera. She was a very interesting and a very beautiful woman, Mac had to admit. But in his eyes, she was trying too hard to win him over. If only she would give him a little more space and be a little less aggressive, he might even consider her as the future companion for his life.
He rang the bell that was standing on his desk and waited for the maid to come in. To his surprise, it was Martha, their cook, who now appeared at his door. Martha was by now way in her seventies and she had started working in his parents' household. Mac had grown up with her and she was the only servant in the whole world he could say he loved dearly. A few years ago he had offered her to go back to her family and enjoy her life there – he would have given her enough money for retirement. But she had simply refused and she had said that she had been in Mac's family for so long, she considered him and Bea her family. Mac had been very happy that day, but he had never admitted to this to anyone.
"Martha!" he now greeted her emphatically.
"I'm sorry, Sir, but Katharina hadn't been feeling well and I sent her to bed," she explained. "Do you need anything, Sir?"
"No, Martha. I just wanted to know whether Beatrice had anything for dinner."
"No, Sir. The young Miss has gone to bed without," Martha started. Mac had already bent his head back down to his papers because he considered the conversation to be over, but Martha wasn't quite finished. "May I speak freely, Sir?" she started again.
Mac looked up at her and smiled. She was the only servant in the whole world whom he would grant such a wish. "Of course," he said. "You know that you will always be allowed," he added.
"You must not pressure the young Miss like that, Sir. She is trying so hard to be good," Martha pointed out.
"What do you mean exactly?" Mac asked again.
"I know that you, Sir, aren't very happy that the young Miss is reading so much. But if that is her only flaw, don't you think you should be happy, Sir?"
Mac pondered over this for a minute and then answered: "You think I am too hard on her sometimes?"
"Quite frankly, Sir? Yes, that's what I think," Martha answered.
"But she is almost eighteen now, she needs to get married soon. That's how life is, Martha. You've been with us for so long now, you should know," Mac emphasized.
"I know that, Sir. But why don't you give her the choice of choosing her husband herself?" she proposed.
"You know what? I'll think about that. Thank you Martha," he said and dismissed the maid.
Next chapter – preparations for the ball commence and what will the next meeting between Danny and Lindsay be like? Will Don and Jess overcome their difficulties or grow even further apart? And did Mac take Martha's advice?
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