A/N: Sorry there was such a gap in between chapters guys. I was on vacation without my laptop (grrrrrr), so I couldn't write. Oh well! Hope you enjoy this chapter from Betsey's perspective!

They talked for hours. For so long that Eliza had begun to fall asleep, as her eyes started to close as she listened to Alexander talk.

"I really should go Elizabeth, I've forgotten the time, and you've had a very long day." he said to her. "You look exhausted."

"Alexander, I've already told you, please call me Eliza." She spoke softly to him.

"Well then, I'll get going, Eliza. Sleep well." He told her, pushing himself up from the floor of the mill and turning to leave.

"Likewise." She responded.

A small smiled danced on her lips. As he stepped through the door, closing it behind himself, Eliza threw herself backwards onto her makeshift bed. She laughed, completely filled with joy. She was a mess. She couldn't get his face out of her head. His voice. His eyes. This stranger, this stranger who had saved her life, was intelligent, kind, caring, interesting, and handsome.

So handsome. Those eyes, that smile. Eliza couldn't believe it. Earlier that day, when Mrs. Hamilton, or Rachel, as she had insisted, had told her that she and her son, Alexander, would be taking care of her and hiding her, Eliza didn't know what to say. The most that she thought she would get was a night's rest, but this was something else altogether. They would actually be caring for her. Eliza. An eccentric Jewish girl on the run from Nazis. However, this wouldn't exactly be her first time on the run.

She had never really had a mother or father to take care of her, her parents and younger sister Peggy had all died from a sickness when she was very young. So from that point on, it had always been Angelica and Eliza. Just the two of them out there, fending for themselves.

They had lived with a terrible, abusive aunt until Angelica was nineteen, and they both ran away to live with a friend that Angelica had met at school. They lived in his flat for a few years with no rent, or pay of any kind, and it was a comfortable situation. In that way, at least.

From the second Thomas saw Eliza, he was head over heels. Her dark hair and eyes attracted him to her, but he wished more than anything in the world that she reciprocated his feelings.

She didn't.

Eliza had thought that Thomas was kind and handsome of course, but she never saw him as more than a brother. Eliza knew about his feelings towards her, of course, but made it very clear that she did not feel the same way towards him. He always seemed to look at her in a way that made her feel incredibly uncomfortable. His eyes would look up and down her body, and the way he looked at her was less in a way of admiration, and more so in a way of a predator stalking his prey.

Eliza remembered that they would go to the market together to pick up food, and Eliza would make polite conversation with the salesperson who just happened to be a male. Thomas would quickly pull her away, and tell her that she was acting like a whore. That talking to men other than himself was dangerous and loose.

"Thomas, I don't understand what I did wrong I was just-"

"No Eliza, it's dangerous and unattractive. Not to mention unladylike."

"I was just being polite!"

"Being polite, Eliza, or being whorish?"

The only one who did not know about Thomas' feelings was Angelica. She seemed to be completely oblivious. And Eliza did not want to interfere with her sister and Thomas' friendship, nor did she want to get kicked out of the apartment that they shared. Eliza shivered then, remembering the night when everything had gone to hell.

Eliza was sitting in her room in the spacious flat that she now lived in, reading one of Austen's novels. She couldn't believe that she had never read it before. The romance in the book was so strong that it seemed to be floating off of the pages, and forming an image that she could see so clearly right in front of her eyes. The passion that the two lovers shared was unbelievable.

It was so powerful, so moving. She was about to turn to the next chapter when a knock sounded softly at the door. Expecting that it was Angelica coming to tell her to get to bed, to put the book away. Eliza knew that Angelica wouldn't stop bothering her if she wasn't permitted inside the room so she quietly called.

"Come in."

The door opened quite quickly and she was startled to see Thomas enter the room, closing the door hastily behind him. Although the door was now closed, he still remained facing the door, his back towards Eliza.

Eliza rose from her cross-legged position on the bed in an attempt to be more level with him, but he still towered over her.

His behaviour was frightening to her, and when she spoke her voice came out breathy and shaken.

"Thomas?" she spoke softly. "It's very late, what are you doing here?"

He turned to her, a sly smirk gracing his features, and the bags under his eyes were extremely evident, but the eyes themselves were dark and stormy. Eliza shivered out of fright, and he chuckled.

"God Eliza, you look like you've seen a ghost," he chuckled, stepping closer and putting his hand on her delicate waist.

She flinched at such close contact, and her eyes widened. She opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by Thomas placing a finger over her lips. She tensed.

"Shhhh. It's just me, Eliza. Just me." He whispered.

She quickly spun away from his contact, crossing the room before looking at him. The smirk on his face was still evident, despite just being rejected. But there was something else in his eyes. She couldn't place it, though. Determination?

"Thomas," she spoke in a small quivering voice. "Would you care to tell me what you're doing in my room at this hour?"

"Eliza, I think we both know why I'm here, and what I want."

He took the few steps towards her, closing the distance between them, and wrapped his arm around her neck forcing her to look him in the eyes. What was in those eyes? Anger?

Eliza removed his arm from around her neck, and briskly walked to the other side of the room trying to understand what was happening.

"Thomas, you're scaring me. And no, I don't know why you're here, or what you want." She said the words with such venom that she even surprised herself.

"Eliza-" he began to step towards her, but she sharply cut him off.

"Stay right there." She said sharply. "You can explain things to me from where you are right now."

His eyebrows raised up on his face, and his hands came up in front of him in a sign of surrender.

"Okay, okay." He stated simply. "Eliza you know how I feel about you, I've made it very clear. But you keep fighting your feelings. I can see it in your eyes. I know you have feelings for me. It can't be possible that you don't." He stated simply.

Eliza scoffed at his cockiness. A feeling so great overcame her, and she could not restrain herself for any longer. Eliza was normally a selfless and kind person, but this man had made her see red.

"Well, Mr. Jefferson, I hate to inform you of this, but some women simply do not have feelings for you. Myself included." She attempted to say as calmly as possible.

"Eliza, please. Just give me a chance. Give me a chance to show you how much I love you." He took a step closer to her and in response she took a step backwards, leaving her back pressed to the wall.

"Thomas, no. I do not have feelings for you. None. Get that drilled into your head. You're scaring me." She growled at him.

His eyes turned darker even. The eyes. Was it frustration?

"Eliza. Just let me show-" He spoke exasperatedly, patience quickly running out.

"Thomas, if that implies what I think it does, nothing could repulse me more. Now, if you refuse to leace my room, I guess I'll just have to leave myself." She spat.

She turned on her heel to leave for Angelica's room when his large hand wrapped around her forearm, pulling her into his chest. He moved his hand to put one on the small of her back, and the other behind the back of her neck, roughly holding her in place, preventing her from moving.

He lowered his face so it was right in front of her ear.

"Elizabeth, I am done waiting. I am done being kind. I am done being gentle. You're mine." He whispered, his voice low and gravelly.

He started to kiss the spot behind her ear rather forcefully, leaving dark purple marks there, and realizing what was about to happen, Eliza panicked and did even more to protest against what he was doing.

"Thomas." She pushed against his torso forcefully. "Stop it. I don't want this." She whisper-yelled, not wanting to wake their neighbours, or God forbid, Angelica.

Thomas didn't show any sign of response to this and just moved lover down her neck. If anything, he started to kiss her even more roughly. Eliza pushed against his shoulders, harder now, attempting to pry herself out of his grasp, but to no avail.

When he felt her push again, he tightened his grip on the back of her neck, sending a painful shock through her. The spots where his fingers were pressing in would be sure to bruise.

"You're not going anywhere. I told you I'm done waiting." The chill in his voice sent a tremor through her body. All of a sudden, without even looking at his eyes, she knew that the answer to what was lying behind the dark orbs was lust.

Pure and simple lust. Not anger, frustration, or anything else. Lust. This could not be happening to her. She needed to get out. Before anything got out of hand.

While thinking of this, she had yet to notice that the hand that was once resting on the small of her back was now undoing the ties at the back of her nightdress. His other had drifted in a southern direction towards her most intimate place, and started to move her nightdress to the side.

She couldn't help what happened next. It was a knee jerk reaction. Literally. Instinct took over. As he reached to undo the second tie and she felt his hot skin graze over her exposed back, her knee just flew up. And then to hell with neighbours, she screamed.

Thomas let out a grunt of pain and crumpled over into a ball, and while she ran out of the room, and into the main living space she continued to yell.

"Someone, please help me! Angie help! Anyone, Please just help me!"

She ran straight for Angelica's room, but was stopped by a hand grabbing her calf and pulling her left leg out from underneath her. She landed flat on her face and her nose immediately started gushing dark blood onto the plush white carpet, staining it permanently. A shooting pain erupted in the side of her head, and it was only after the blow took place when she realized that it had been caused by a furious Thomas' foot.

"You bitch!" He screamed. "You're going to pay for that." He said this as he continued to bash her head in, along with her neck and stomach.

Eliza's vision was beginning to blur, as black spots swam around in it as well. She couldn't hear as well as she could a couple of minutes ago. She was able to force out a single thought during her torture.

He's going to kill me.

All of a sudden, the pain stopped, and a large lump slumped to the ground beside her, landing with a thump. It was Thomas. She used all of her energy and lifted her eyes to see Angelica standing behind where Thomas was, holding the blunt end of a candlestick with a look of utmost rage on her face.

Her face softened when she looked down at Eliza and instead of rage, a look of concern slowly took form on her face. Her eyes widened, and from this, Eliza suspected that she didn't look her best. Her head was throbbing uncontrollably, sending fierce shockwaves of pain throughout her entire body, and everything she could feel simply ached.

Angelica held out her hands to her and helped her up. Eliza took her hands and first, scooted around the unconscious Thomas. At first, she wobbled when she stood, but eventually her balance settled and she looked into Angelica's eyes. Tears began to well up in Eliza's eyes, but Angelica brushed them away with her thumbs. Angelica smoothed Eliza's hair, and then spoke.

"No time for tears. We need to leave. Pack as much as you can in two minutes."

They raced around the flat as fast as humanly possible gathering clothes, food, and anything else they could fit in their satchels. Time was limited, as Thomas could've woken at any time, and God forbid what would happen if he did awake and they were still there.

Just as they were about to close the door to the flat, they could see Thomas start to stir and rub the back of his head, so they down the stairs as fast as humanely possible, and avoided the main roads during their escape.

Eliza pushed the memory to the back of her mind. She really didn't want to think about the events of that horrid night from a few years ago. After all, now she had much more important things to think about. Namely, Alexander. He was unlike anyone she had ever met, and she had all night to think about him. She started to play their entire conversation back in her mind. She closed her eyes and imagined the scene playing out in front of her.

She was helpless.

A/N: Thank you guys for your lovely reviews! I love to read them and they make my day. Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I will try to get another one out as soon as possible!