Hey Folks! Here's the latest in what is turning out to be an epic story of Eliza and William. As I said to my X (Twitter) buddies sometimes the story writes itself. That is what is happening with this one. Just a brief note concerning Catherine Bulloch. She is a fictional character that I created. However, I did make her the daughter of an American Confederate "hero" James D. Bulloch. A man revered for getting arms to the Confederacy from his perch in Great Britain. Other than that, I don't know much about him. So enjoy! Please let me know your thoughts and opinions. Love-Carebearmaxi.
Funny Meeting You Here
Book 2/Chapter 20
The dawn of February 15 was spectacular. The sun was in the sky, birds singing in the trees, and William actually felt warm although Eliza was not sleeping beside him as they had mutually decided to delay any additional sessions of lovemaking until after they were married. They had not made love since the night they had set the date. They did have more than a couple of evenings alone spent in permissive touching or deep kissing. Both were guilty of stopping the other when the touching became even more advanced with William's hand lightly cupping Eliza's breast or Eliza's knee carefully rubbing William's crotch.
"William, I want you so badly, but I want to wait until our wedding night now. It will almost feel like our first time if we wait now."
William smiled and agreed. "You're right."
The waiting for the wedding was becoming harder the more they worked on Patrick's case. William declared that the investigation was now officially under Scotland Yard's auspices and was being worked jointly with Eliza Scarlet as the case had been presented by her. This meant that Eliza would officially be paid for her help in solving. William did not care who did not like it. William's boss knew the situation and as much as he was unhappy about it he was resigned to allowing Eliza's working on the case. Besides, William thought, the Super could jump off a cliff for all William cared at the moment since his future now lie in New York with Eliza beside him.
There was a knock on his bedroom door.
"Sir, Miss Eliza is at the door."
"Thank you, Mrs. Rowe. I'll be down presently," William called from behind the door.
"I'll put her in the kitchen. It looks like I need to feed both of you. There will be nothing left to either of you by April."
About twenty minutes later, William emerged from his living room into his kitchen. He spotted Eliza looking pert and ready for the day.
"Good morning, love!" William said taking a seat across from her.
Mrs. Rowe intervened. "Is that anyway to greet your fiancée?" Go ahead and kiss her,"
William smiled and rose and leaned over the table to Eliza and kissed her lips.
"Good morning, William," Eliza said after opening her eyes.
Mrs. Rowe discreetly left so they could be alone.
Eliza rose and started to serve William his breakfast. She was becoming accustomed to serving the more she did it. Surreptitiously, she was taking cooking lessons from Ivy for everyday knowledge. For entertaining purposes, Eliza had swallowed her pride and had asked for Arabella's help. Arabella, needless to say, was more than happy to accommodate.
"Thank you, Eliza," William said.
"You're welcome, William," Eliza responded.
Then Eliza fixed herself a plate and sat down to eat.
William took one bite and gave Eliza a look.
"What?"
"You've got that look on your face," William stated shaking his fork.
"What look on my face?" She asked innocently.
"The look that said you discovered something, and you cannot wait to tell me."
Eliza smiled practically batting lashes at her future husband.
"Yes, but you need to come to the house and speak with Patrick."
"He's coherent enough to talk?" William asked.
"Yes, Dr. Rodell came last night and gave Patrick the last dose of the antidote. His stomach cramps have stopped completely and so did the bleeding from his mouth. He still is a bit congested, but his brain is completely coherent."
"All right, Eliza, right after breakfast. I do need to go the office first. The Super needs me to complete some exit paperwork."
"We also need to get our license soon if we are to be married on the date we chose."
"Yes, I promise," William said reaching across the table and taking her left hand in his. The diamond embedded in the golden rose of the engagement ring caught the light. William lifted her hand and brought it to his lips and kissed it.
"I had forgotten how much I love it when you do that."
William smiled broadly.
After William's difficult visit to the Super to finish his exiting paperwork, he joined Eliza at Patrick's bedside.
"William, I am glad you're here. I wasn't happy when I first saw you, but I am glad because I think it cut down on the implications of my involvement with criminals."
"It is good to see that you are almost back to normal," William said.
"Patrick, tell William what you told me," Eliza said.
Patrick had lost an immense amount of weight between his incarceration some months ago and the illness caused by poisoning.
"I had known Nathan prior to becoming his cell mate.
"What was Nathan in for?" Eliza asked.
"Embezzlement, money laundering, fraud," Patrick said weakening from the prolonged questioning.
"I had found some old arrest warrants for him and found his which was about four years old. He was sentenced to serve seven years in total," Eliza said. William made a face.
"Eliza, when did you find this information and more importantly where?"
Eliza smiled her "cat caught the canary look".
"I was at Scotland Yard earlier this morning and Oliver was good enough to pull Nathan Wert's file for me."
William shook his head. "Eliza!"He also gave her a look that said, "You are in for it later."
There Patrick picked up the narrative. "I was the one who discovered he was embezzling from his own company and had him thrown in jail. In the interim he developed consumption which means either he paid his physician to poison him which means he may have wanted to take me with him for ruining his life. However, if this were the case, why did they let me go?"
"I think you were poisoned by accident, Patrick," Eliza pondered. "Otherwise, they wouldn't have thrown you out."
"That's possible. I had a little time while I was at the station and with a little help from Fitzroy, (William gave Eliza a nod), we pulled records from the penitentiary. There have been some suspicious deaths of inmates happening for approximately four years," William said joining the conversation.
"What was the nature of Nathan Wert's business," asked Eliza.
Patrick coughed a bit into a handkerchief and was glad to see that his mouth or throat was no longer bleeding. The sputum was just remnants from the pneumonia which was still weakening his constitution.
"He was an illegal arms dealer. I was given the case by Nathan's estranged wife. She hadn't received her share of his profits and wanted to see why. So, she came to me a few years ago knowing I would be discreet."
William sniffed at that remark and Eliza looked at him.
"Did she have anything to do with the business other than obtaining a share of the profits?" William asked.
"Surely. Her father was a gun merchant during the American Civil War and managed to get arms across to the Confederacy despite the blockades."
"So, he just kept up the business once their Civil War was completed by providing guns and ammunition to gangs?" Eliza asked.
"Yes. However, once I found out that not only was his business illegal, but he had been embezzling from it he knew he was going to jail."
"What happened to his wife after he went to jail?"
"She was found innocent because she was a female and a spouse. She pled ignorance and got away with it."
"So, did she just go back to her father's? The assets were illegal, and I am sure seized," Eliza responded. She had winced when Patrick said the wife did not pay for her crimes simply because she was a woman.
"I don't know what happened to her. Nathan did not even know. I asked him the day after I found I was his cell mate."
"The crime was out of my jurisdiction but I'm more concerned as you said Nathan developed consumption while in prison," William said.
"That's what he told me. From my knowledge, Harold Middleton is no more a physician than we are. I would say, perhaps, he was a fraud as well."
"I'll have Fitzroy looking up Middleton's credentials. As soon as I have more information, we will let you know. Until then get some rest, Patrick."
"Yes, Patrick. Sleep well," Eliza rejoined.
She and William left the sickroom leaving the door just ajar. They went downstairs and sat down in the living room.
"Do you want a drink?"
"It's two o'clock, William, in the afternoon. I thought perhaps you would enjoy some tea or coffee?"
"Is that kind of wife you're going to make? Tracking my drinkin?" William said almost in a joking manner. He was still a little perturbed with her that she had been at Scotland Yard, once again, using resources that were not hers like Fitzroy.
"You're mad because I didn't tell you that I had been down to Scotland Yard early this morning about my findings before I came to you regarding Patrick."
William took a seat with his tumbler of whiskey and sat down in the chair next to the fireplace. Eliza looked at him affronted that he did not come sit beside her.
"William?" Eliza asked and then she got up and kneeled in front of him. She rubbed his upper right thigh.
He could never resist Eliza especially when she touched him. Yes, he knew the pleasures of knowing her in the biblical sense and those memories were hard to resist when he was attempting to reprimand her. Her hands on his thighs rubbing with just the right pressure…
"I'm sorry. I just didn't want to disturb your sleep. You haven't had much since you've been back, and I know that isn't all my fault." She was happy to see him smile at her.
"Eliza. I'm just as eager as you to solve Patrick's case, but they are hammering me at the station before I leave to close all my cases."
"You do realize that is going to be impossible before April?" They are punishing you for getting married and leaving them with unequaled replacement!" Eliza was infuriated.
"It is awful how they treated you, William. You are the best officer they ever had, and you are the most loved by your men. Fitzroy was just telling me this morning how much he would miss you again once you left permanently." She raised her eyes and looked into Willam's weary ones.
"He said to me, and I quote: "Eliza, it will be horrible for us once Inspector Wellington leaves permanently. He's been more of a father to me than my own. The men will definitely miss the Inspector."
Eliza's position at William's feet became jarred as William had risen and took a long walk around the room with his hands jutted into his pockets. She watched as he visibly calmed himself.
"I was going to tell you to stay out of Scotland Yard right now because it is still chaotic, and the Super is still pressuring me to do the impossible. The last thing he wants to see is you roaming the halls talking to the officers."
"William, if you can't handle me working with you at Scotland Yard which I know has been quite a bone of contingency with your Super and the Commissioner, how am I going to work with you in New York."
"I'm not sure at the moment, Eliza, but it may be different."
"William," Eliza said standing in front of him as he continued to pace back and forth in front of the sofa. William had to stop, so he would not run over her.
"What was the name of Nathan Wert's wife?" Eliza asked.
William was amazed at the swift change of subject in her mind. "Eliza, don't go to Scotland Yard again without me, understand?"
"Yes, I do, William. Now I am going to the City Records to research Nathan Wert's wife. What was her maiden name?"
"Catherine Bulloch," William said.
"I apologize for snapping at you earlier. I know you won't be like that when we're married," William said and took her hand and kissed it and then bent and kissed her lips lingering a small bit.
"I know you aren't really frustrated with me but thank you for apologizing."
It was late afternoon by the time Eliza arrived at London's City Register. There she researched the archives of births, deaths, civil arrangements, marriages, businesses, etc. It turns out that Catherine Bulloch was born 1858 to James D Bulloch who was an American Confederate Businessman/Agent who smuggled or somehow finagled deals with Britain to aid on the side of the Confederacy by providing small arms and other assorted weapons and goods.
Catherine, being only a small child during her father's work, married Harold J. Middleton in 1879 when she was 21 and was indoctrinated into her father's business as Catherine had no brothers. Only now the business centered around shipments of illegal small arms and other assorted weapons and goods to the many emigrated European/American gangs located mainly in New York.
Eliza was wondering how Harold J. Middleton had gained the necessary credentials to be a physician and allowed in prisons. She was not unaware that money greased many a palm and eased pathways into and out of the English prison system. William's frustration over the many cases in Scotland Yard were attestation to that.
She found the records on Harold Middleton and Catherine Bulloch that she needed. It was enough to at least discover the connection between Nathan Werth, Harold Middleton and Patrick Nash.
Excited with her discoveries as she bounded in the door of her home, she found William brooding with a mug in lieu of a tumbler of whiskey. Before she bounded through the doorway, she remembered to look at her watch. It was well past 5 o'clock. She was past the time she thought she would have returned so they could go to the church and obtain the special license in order to get married by April 24.
She treaded carefully into the room and William turned as he heard her in the doorway. He rose with his mug in his hand.
"Eliza," he said and bent to kiss her cheek. He waved his mug. "Let me return this to the kitchen or Ivy will have my head. Then when I get back we can go over what you found."
She turned her head and watched William walk out of the room and wondered why he was so quiet and not blustering with her tardiness. Last time this happened he kissed her and left for New York for almost a year.
William came back as quiet as when he left the room. He took a seat beside Eliza. He saw the file of papers she had brought back from City Records.
"Well, it looks like you were successful in your trip to City Records. What did you find?"
Eliza did not say anything at first. She turned her face to look at him and then he caught her eye.
"I know I am tardy for our appointment to get our marriage license today, but this couldn't wait if we want to solve Patrick's case and get on with our lives. So, I don't see how you can be cross with me."
William smiled and kissed her cheek.
"I'm sorry, Eliza. I'm not mad at you. I know we missed our appointment, and we can get another one tomorrow, but I just keep going over in my mind how many times this is going to happen? How a case or a situation will become more important than what we want or need? Is it any different than when I left?"
Eliza reached out and put her small hand into his large one.
"Of course it's different. We are working together to get to the same goal. I'm not arguing with you or defying you…"
"Only because you haven't yet. You decided to take on Patrick's case the minute you were told about it."
"William, the man fell ill at my door. What was I supposed to do turn him away when all his resources and assets have been taken away from him?"
William's chin lifted and his eyes crinkled up with a slight smile. He lovingly took Eliza's hand and kissed it.
"Let's get started. Maybe we can get the case solved by the middle of next week," William stated though with not much enthusiasm.
That night, William remained at Eliza's house and slept in her bed. They both decided waiting to make love again was futile since they may not get married after all in April. They still had the date set and intentions were good but Patrick's case and other closings may cause roadblocks to their marriage. Their desire for one another outweighed their heads. To be with each other and to confirm their love and intense long-held pent-up passion was paramount to any Victorian legal and religious binding they needed. In their hearts God had married them a long time ago; for they loved each other deeply.