HI Folks! Sorry to have posted the last chapter without set up. Anyhow, Eliza and William are back at the lounge to gather evidence and such. Also to begin the healing process. However, is this the final healing? We shall see. Enjoy! Love to know that this story is being liked. Please continue with any comments. I do enjoy reading them.
Funny Meeting You Here
Chapter 13
William followed Eliza to the back dressing room. He did not volunteer anything or say anything at all. Just followed in silence. It bothered Eliza. She looked behind her every now and then to see his expression and see if she could detect any kind of feeling toward her. Was he still angry at me? She asked herself. Even his footsteps behind me are measured and do not convey anything to me.
"We're here, William," Eliza said as she opened the door and let William enter before her.
"Ok. Where is the alcove where Octavia Stout was being held captive?"
Eliza started moving the heavy table and chairs that hid the tunnel leading to the alcove. Eliza started moving it herself until William noticing how heavy the furniture was for her took over silently and lifted the table and chairs to the center of the small room.
"You're not wearing your ring," He said as he passed by her and entered the tunnel.
Eliza quickly followed behind him.
"I didn't think you would want me to wear it anymore being we're no longer engaged," Eliza ventured.
William stopped short, and Eliza almost collided into his back. He turned around swiftly then. He harrumphed grumpily as he looked down on her. He noticed that Eliza would not meet his eyes.
"You know, I didn't want to do this here…" William said looking at her. "But I am a little upset over the other night. Admittedly, I was embarrassed to see my future wife parading herself half naked singing a very dirty song."
"William!" Eliza yelled behind him as he had turned on his heel back to the matter at hand and resumed his heavy strides to the tunnel.
Instead of turning around and acknowledging her, he entered the alcove and observed the room. He noticed ropes looped around the posts of the cot. He looked behind him and noticed a regular dining room chair with one large rope draped over the dirty white cushion.
"When I saw Octavia being held captive, Harry and Billy had her tied on the chair with her hands tied around her back. The next time, when I was here, I saw Octavia with all four limbs tied to the corners of the cot. That's when I saw Clarissa was involved as she was standing over her. Taunting her, "Eliza confirmed with a sad forlorn expression to her voice.
"That's how you knew the body in Bydinway's foyer was not his wife but his sister-in-law," William conceded.
"Yes, that was the first thing I noticed. The rope burns on her limbs when I observed her body."
William continued taking stock of evidence and roaming around the room. He had not spoken anything to her since he had confirmed her correctness in identifying the body. He had glanced behind him at her without her knowledge and noticed her expression was a bit guilty and sad. He knew he had hurt her in return without really wanting or expecting it. He knew he had to make it right. He really wanted to take her in his arms and hold her and not let go.
First, though, he had to finalize taking stock of this room and its evidence.
When William and Eliza had emerged from the back rooms, William flagged down a bobby and told him to return to Scotland Yard and bring Detective Fitzroy with him when he returned.
Since the club was closed due to the police activity, William went behind the bar and helped himself to a glass of whiskey. He offered to Eliza but she refused. She wanted to keep a clear head because she felt that William was ready to have a talk with her. She preferred not to discuss something as important as their relationship in this place, but the choice was not hers. Then changing her thinking, maybe, it was better in a somewhat neutral place or, sarcastically, the scene of her crime.
Eliza sat at one of the dustier tables while she watched William pour his drink from behind the bar. She waited silently but uneasy as she watched him deliberately have his back to her and pour his drink silently before turning around and finding her in the dim light and walking his way slowly back to her at the table. Hopefully, Fitzroy and the other men would take an interminably long time to arrive at the lounge to brush the room for prints and catalog evidence.
"William," Eliza said looking up into William's inscrutable face.
"Eliza," William said with a sarcastic rise to his tone. He gulped a good portion of his beverage before taking his seat.
"I'm sorry that I didn't tell you about the case, but I was embarrassed just by being here and I really thought you wouldn't find out."
"That's the issue, Eliza. You thought I wouldn't find out. If I hadn't returned, I would have known nothin' bout this case except what you chose to tell me in one of your letters."
"I didn't want you to worry. That's why I glossed over some of the more terrifying aspects of the cases."
"I know you can take care of yourself, but you know I don't like thinking that you are constantly in danger."
"What about you? Do you not think I have the same concerns? You're in a different country, across an ocean, working in a dangerous city. Do you not think that I worry for you, too?" Eliza asked, becoming cross and sad. I will not show him tears! I'm a woman but I refuse to use a woman's wiles to get to him!
"I have no way of knowing what you think, Eliza!" William exclaimed, taking the last gulp of his whiskey. He rose, shoving the chair out of the way and proceeded back to the bar to pour another.
He stood behind the bar, leaning on his outspread arms; and this time faced her without pouring his drink although his glass and the bottle stood on the counter in front of him.
"Eliza!"
"William!" Eliza rose herself and stomped to the bar in her fury.
"If I had no feelings for you, do you think I would have spent days and hours by your bedside, when you were shot, willing you to wake up!? I missed you and wanted to hear your voice, see you smile, even have you yell at me just to know I hadn't lost you forever! I felt you needed to come home with me, so I knew you would get the best recuperative care possible! I had to know….because I truly love you, William."
Eliza slowly ventured behind the bar and looked up into his face. She watched as he turned his face downward. At her words, he seemed to focus on the bottle and the glass but did not pour himself a drink.
After what seemed an eternity, Eliza heard him take a deep breath. His massive chest expanded seemingly willing to burst within his suit.
As he exhaled, he turned to Eliza and spoke to her in a quiet tone.
William took her left hand as he always did when he needed to speak seriously with her. Her left hand. The one where he had placed his small rosebud diamond engagement ring. It was also the hand with which she wrote her letters. William smiled as he remembered that her father had been left-handed as well. Henry Scarlet. What you left to me was invaluable, frustrating, and lovely, William thought.
His eyes rose to hers as he held her hand.
"Eliza, I still love you…so much. I'm not surprised you thought that I no longer wanted to marry you. Yes, I was embarrassed, but I may have overreacted a bit."
He saw her smile at that.
He kissed her hand.
"We're here, sir," Detective Fitzroy suddenly interrupted.
William released Eliza's hand and then became all business and directed his men to the rooms and the alcove.
Before he turned to leave Eliza, he kissed her hand and said quietly. "Wait here for me, Eliza."
Normally, she would have eagerly followed him to be part of the group and to add her input. However, today, she learned something that she should have realized a long time ago. Work was work and William had been many times a part of that work which was important to her, but this, her personal relationship with him, their love for each other, was the most important and everlasting possibility in her life.
So, she did what she was told and remained where he had left her.
William returned about 30 minutes later to find Eliza still standing behind the counter but having almost finished an entire tumbler of beverage and leaning against the bar tapping her foot impatiently.
"I'm surprised you didn't come join us in the back," William said upon seeing her.
At the sound of his voice, she had turned to see him. William was very surprised not to see a contemplative, ready to pounce expression on her face. Instead, William saw a beautiful face with a loving look in her eyes. His future wife, which is what he still considered her, was beautiful indeed.
"You told me to wait for you, William. That's what I did," Eliza responded to his comment. She finished her drink and then came the question that William was anticipating.
"So, was everything where I told you it had been?" Eliza's eyes sparkled as she hoped William would share anything, if anything, had been found.
"Yes, Eliza, we found everything, and we brushed for fingerprints. Now that it is in Scotland Yard's hands we will confirm Clarissa Stout's hand and confirm the murderer of Octavia and Sam Stout. Appreciate your help as always."
Eliza suddenly stood up straight.
"Excuse me, William, but was it not, in fact, my case? I solved it using the evidence and my knowledge of the parties to conclude it." Eliza confirmed.
Instead of taking umbrage at Eliza's audacity (although she had deduced the correct scenario from her work), he smiled down into her face.
"Yes, Eliza, it was technically your case," William confessed.
Eliza smiled with self-satisfaction and happy that William acknowledged her part in it.
"Eliza," he softly said as the bustle and noise of Scotland Yard's finest could be heard leaving the building.
She looked up at him expectantly.
He gently cupped her cheek and stroked her face with his thumb.
"Let's go home."