Apologies for the delays, and thanks for all of the good feedback. I hope the next two chapters will come quickly after this one, which I decided was needed to set them up. This has been a great opportunity for me to do a bit of historical research, which has been fun, although the period is a bit depressing. Again, this wouldn't be possible without fun, meaty characters that are the creation of Shaw, Lerner, and Loewe, and my work is done in tribute to them. Enjoy.

Henry Higgins shook the snow from his shoulders and strode into the front foyer of 27A Wimpole Street to find his wife seated at the reception desk greeting him with a smile. "Good evening, Mrs Higgins!" he said jauntily.

"Good evening, Professor!" Eliza smiled. "How was your meeting today?"

"Quite interesting, quite interesting. Let's have tea and I'll tell you all about it."

They addressed each other formally in public situations, or when they wished to demonstrate their high regard for each other, or when one or the other wished to be sarcastic and cutting. This exchange, happily, was representative of the second scenario.

Not quite a month after they had come home from France, Archduke Ferdinand was shot, and England was drawn into confusion, uncertainty, and before summer ended, war. The news seemed to change the direction of the war every day, and Eliza took great comfort in the old routines, like continuing on as her husband's scheduler for his work.

However, it grew more difficult to avoid the war's influence. Eliza had assumed that Henry would never be involved because he was too old to enlist. And then just after Christmas, he was summoned by the War Office.

"They can't afford me," he had told Eliza upon reading the letter. "Not to mention that I am not interested in adjusting my methods to suit the ways of the military. Imagine, Mrs Higgins, your husband taking orders from some little lieutenant."

Eliza laughed heartily. "I would pity even the generals!" She even sent Henry off that morning with "Now don't be too hard on the poor generals, Professor!"

But as they sat in the parlour over their tea, it quickly became apparent that the meeting did not go as Eliza thought it would. Eliza grew agitated listening to Henry's account of the meeting. The War Office people did not order, bully, or beg. They simply and cleverly appealed to Henry's very high opinion of himself.

"...and of course no one in Europe has taken the study of phonetics and dialect in the direction I have. They admitted as much. Means I can dictate my own terms."

"Then you won't have to go overseas."

"Oh, I shall need to a bit, but away from all the action of course, and only for a few weeks at a time, I'll need to stay in close touch with the War Office..."

"Why can't you just give them some books like the Colonel did?" Eliza wailed.

The MI5 had contacted Colonel Pickering only the previous week about using his skills to help quell the uprisings in India. "I gave them a copy of Spoken Sanskrit and a copy of Hindi Dialects of the North and told them everything they needed from me was in those two volumes," he had told Eliza and Henry at a dinner party, sounding very old as he said it.

Henry dismissed Eliza's question. "Oh, I think he wanted to avoid being in a position of inadvertently getting some old friends in trouble. Not questioning his patriotism, mind you, he's as solid an Englishman as they come. He's given his best years for king and country. And now it's my turn."

"But what about your business, your research, your family..." Eliza was trying to raise reasoned concerns, but her voice broke when she mentioned "family."

Henry put his arm round Eliza's shoulders. "Come, Eliza, it's not like I'll be in harm's way. It will likely be more like a regular job than anything I've ever done... with a few trips here and there of course. But don't you see the opportunity? You and I know the value of my work, but there are always those who think it of no importance. Now I have a chance to prove its worth to society, to our country, by using it to help bring down the Kaiser! That will silence the naysayers once and for all!"

Eliza looked quietly at Henry. "So are you doing this for Britain or for yourself, Professor?"

"For mys-! For my DISCIPLINE, Mrs Higgins, for the study of language! It will never be marginalised again!"

Eliza sighed. Henry was his work, the man and the vocation were inseparable, so his words confirmed her suspicions. "And what is it exactly that you will be doing?"

Henry said nothing for a moment, then took a deep breath. "Ah. Yes. The consensus is that it would be better if you did not know all about my work. Of course I trust you, I know you are trustworthy, but generally if family members in this particular department are ah, unaware of the particulars of the officer's work, they are less prone to be... used, or... sought out."

Nothing could make that explanation sound reassuring. Eliza felt faint, but returned Henry's look with a hard stare, from which he had to look away.