The light of day lit the bedroom still calm. The sun was shining and radius directly struck the face of Julia. She frowned and pushed a low growl of discontent. She had an indescribable headache and her eyelids were heavy. Her whole body was sore and she could not move a finger. Yet Julia moved her head slightly to the side. As soon as the scent of her husband came to her nostrils. She slipped her hand under the covers to feel her fingers close around the blanket next to her. The events of the night before came back to her memory and she suddenly sat up a jump, short of breath.

-William, she said, feeling her heart sink in her chest.

She looked around to notice the quiet and tidy room, as she had left the day before. Her heart skipped another beat and sadness won her fully again. Her experience was not a nightmare, William was indeed dead and she was alone in bed, wearing the shirt of her husband, disoriented, incredibly empty and broken from the inside. She sighed deeply, closing her eyes. Then she fell back on the pillow again. She sniffed the smell, looking absently William's a little further. Instinctively, she tightened the blanket in her arms, in silence, thinking of the man who had left. Well then, she felt a tear slide down her cheek before startled by hearing a noise on the ground floor. She sat up quickly again before getting up. She was take with dizziness when standing, but she walked to the chair where she had laid her bedroom dress she slipped hastily. She left the room staggered to take the stairs and down into the kitchen where the noise came from.

She froze when he saw the young woman there. Margaret cleared the table she had put the day before for her and her husband. She saw her put in the trash a chipped cup that William did not want throw for months. She remembered the day they had broken it, the day he came home early to spend the evening with her, the day they had a picnic in the garden, the day he had removed the plate a little too violently to make her love on the grass, under a sky with thousands of stars. Julia looked at this insignificant object yet reminded her such good memories before she runs a leap towards Margaret to take this cup. She slid her fingers and looked up at her friend who looked at her with incomprehension.

-Not this one, Julia whispered before looking at it again.

Margaret nodded and took another cup to set the table while Julia remained lost in thought. Then Mrs. Brakenreid returned next to her and tenderly placed her hand on her shoulder.

-Come Julia, she said softly, you need to eat something.

-I am not hungry, she replied, her voice choking in her throat, I appreciate what you are doing Margaret, but I want to stay alone ...

-There is no question, tenderly cut her friend, you need company Julia. You can not stay here alone, you will only ruminate again and again. You need to talk, ...

-I need to William, Margaret, Julia threw fighting back tears, I need him to take me in his arms, to tell me that he will always be there, I need to feel his breath in my neck. I need to hear his voice, hear him pronounce my name, I need to see his smile and know that he is only granted to me. I need to immerse my gaze in his, I want to feel his kisses and caresses. I need to be at peace against him, to hear his heart beating against mine. He is the only person on earth I need, he is all I need, Julia continued to stifle a sob, him and nobody else. I may be have the world, I do not care, I want William, only William and he is gone. I will never see him again then everything else has not the slightest importance.

Margaret was silent a few moments in front of her before approaching slowly. She took from her hands the cup she placed on the work surface before coming to take Julia against her. The young woman tightened her arms around her friend and she just let her tears flow.

-It will be alright Julia, she said, stroking her hair loose.

-No Margaret, sobbed Julia, I miss him, I miss him so much. I will not be able to live without him, my heart is broken. I almost feel a sharp blade across my chest with each breath.

-When grief is over, you will be better, you will take interest in life. This will take time, but you will, you will do it. You are strong Julia.

Julia did not answer and continued to cry in the arms of her friend. She only needed this, crying, again and again, and each time she believed no longer have the strength, the tears flowed in spite of herself. Her heart sank again, her breathing was jerky and she was crying, again.

So the two friends remained entwined long minutes in silence before they separate. Margaret lead Julia to the table where she sat and she sat in front of her. She drank tea and ate a little before Margaret convinces Julia to go in her room to dress. She did it without a fight, pulling the shirt of William she left on the bed to go to her boudoir and wear her dark clothing. It took a few minutes to tan hair somehow, to makeup to look good, trying to stay focused on her task. Then after a few minutes, the two women left the home of the Murdochs and walk to get to the police station. By closing the garden gate, Julia glanced at home after the small paved driveway. Her heart skipped a beat. She saw him before the house, his dark hair, his smile, his eyes, the sign of the hand he addressed her. He stood in the exact spot where he had stood the previous morning when she had looked out for asylum.

-See you tonight my love, he whispered tenderly in her ear, I will try to go home early.

-From long as you take care of yourself Detective, she answered on his lips, you can go on time as you like.

-You know me, I love my wife too much to risk her angry, he said before kissing languidly, have a good day, he added, stroking her cheek.

-Good day, Julia replied with a smile before leaving his arms and borrow the driveway to turn around one last time by closing the dark gate and see greet the doorstep.

-Julia? Margaret threw at her side.

They exchanged glances and Julia just nodded, taking the sidewalk beside her, giving a last look at the house where the silhouette of William was gone.

Soon arrived at the police station number four, Julia ran into William's office. She had wanted to talk to anyone, she did not want to cross their sad and sympathetic looks, she just wanted to be in this office, this place that soothed. No one came to bother her for long minutes before two officers brought her empty wooden crates. And a new test took shape before her. She had to take all the affairs of her husband, inventions, books, photographs, all that he had made for years in his office. George joined her and finally the task was less painful with the young man at her side. She began to smile several times, especially when she emptied the office of her husband, in the most intimate place. He kept some papers and supplies without interest, but also memories. An ammonite, a theater ticket when they had been to see a play many years earlier together, but also an old piece of paper on which he had written his proposal, the one he could not make because she was on the train to Buffalo. Julia smiled at everything he had kept for so many years, including a picture of her that she did not remember having given him. Well then there was this little white notebook on which was drawn a red rose. Once again Julia did not recall seeing William with this. Out of curiosity, she began to read it. Arriving on page five of her reading, she felt the color rising to her cheeks. This new titillating, she had the sense to know it in every detail except the passage on silk ties encircling the wrists of the young woman, corresponded to some nights where she had left William lead as he wished their antics.

-Oh, madam, you ... you should not ... George threw embarrassment.

She looked up at him and showed him what she held in her hands.

-George, do you know this?

-Well ...

-George?

-We had found it in a case a few years ago, it is a story I say ...

-Erotic, Julia threw.

-Well ... yes, but I think the Detective did not read it, you know, he just had to put it in a drawer and forget that he had.

Julia chuckled before looking down at the book again.

-Believe me, he read it, she murmured before closing it and get up to put in the wooden tray that was next to her.

-I think we have finished Madam, George threw watching everything around them, ooh no glasses to see in the darkness, it would be a shame to forget them, he said, taking you ...

-Keep them, cut Julia, like the overhead projector, I am sure you will use it and that William would have liked.

-Really?

Julia just nodded smiling and he did the same before calling men to take the business and ask them to load them on a cart waiting outside. When all was well attached and verified by Mrs Murdoch so nothing falls, she was about to get into a carriage.

-Julia, wait, launched the voice of Emily.

She turned to her and the young woman approached her quickly.

-Here, she said, handing her a silver chain at the end of which dangled a small cross, I think it comes back to you.

Julia took her in the palm of her hand and smiled tenderly.

-He never left it, she whispered, thank you Emily.

They smiled, and a moment later Julia got into the cariage she closed the door behind her before it left the small courtyard at the rear of the police station. Julia remained long minutes to contemplate the jewel that rested in her palm, the cross that William was always around his neck and that she had left danced numberous times between her fingers, touching the chest of her husband in the process.

to be continued ...