HI Folks! Here's next to the last chapter in this small part of Wiliam and Eliza's life together in New York. I have a story that Ivy begins to tell Eliza about herself, and I just want to clarify that this is my own invention and that there is no other information regarding Ivy. Please let me know if you are enjoying this story or whatever. Again, I started something, and it seems to have written itself. Thank you to everyone who reads and comments or just reads. I appreciate it. Love - Carebearmaxi
Frightened
Chapter 10
Ivy answered the door.
"Hello. Thank you very much," Ivy said as she took the box from the delivery person standing on the stoop. She then accepted a piece of paper from the person standing there.
With a smile, Ivy said turning to Caroline McAlroy purposely, "Must be the bill." She surreptitiously slipped the paper into her apron pocket
"Order looks complete. Thank you. I will be sure to give this to the mistress of the house." Reaching in that same pocket she found a couple of coins and handed them to the delivery person. Ivy continued to smile until she closed the back door.
Ivy gasped then as she turned around to place the groceries on the table behind her. Caroline McAlroy had sneaked up behind Ivy to stand between her and the table still with the loaded gun trained at Ivy's heart. Eliza followed Caroline's movements and maintained her loaded gun trained on Caroline.
Maneuvering around the gun and Caroline, Ivy lowered the box she held in her arms to the kitchen table, and said disgustedly, "Now, I have to put these away. Can't have the meat go rotten because you have a gun pointed at my head."
Caroline's round face almost fell with that remark-almost. Then she said roughly, "OK, Mrs. Potts put those away. I will be watching the whole time, so no monkey business."
"You forget Caroline if a bullet finds its way into Ivy one will find its way into you," Eliza said with the utmost confidence. If William had seen her at this moment, he would have been proud of her composure because inside Eliza was neither apathetic nor calm. As Eliza stood in her own kitchen in a standoff with this villainous woman, Eliza almost doubled over with a pain from her back and abdomen. Eliza did not blink an eye, but silently signaled to Ivy to do something so they could move. Eliza nor Caroline, for that matter, knew who delivered the groceries or saw what Ivy really slipped into her apron pocket. I'll be damned if I am going into labor while this horrid woman holds the only woman I have known as mother hostage. This woman will hang before I let that happen. Oh William please be all right!
William walked determinedly back into his office. The only men that stood there were the ones from his precinct like Lionel Carlyle and a few others that he knew were absolutely loyal to him. There were others from two other precincts who had been tested in the early months of where they stood in the immigrant gang wars.
He walked straight up to Carlyle and asked, "Did you get the message to my wife?"
"Sir I believe there was some strife happening at your house right now," stated Lt. Carlyle bluntly.
"Strife. What do you mean?" William responded growing concerned and seething underneath his calm exterior.
"I had to pretend I was the grocery delivery person as I handed the box of food sitting on your stoop to an older woman whom I have not met, sir."
"That would be Ivy. She's like my mother-in-law. Love her like she's my own mother," he added in an undertone. "What else?"
"Her statements were logical but stilted as if she was choosing her words and responses carefully…"
"Like she was being held at gun point?" William interjected. "Damn! Did you see Mrs. Wellington?"
"No I could not see her from where I stood. I did manage to give this woman your note. I can't be sure if your wife has seen it yet, though."
"I understand, Lieutenant. Good work. I am going to send you back there with a contingent of men. Go around the back as you did before as you did say that Rory Franklin has been acting the bodyguard for McAlroy's wife. Do whatever you can but get my wife and Ivy out of there alive."
"Caroline McAlroy?"
"I don't care what happens to her. If she survives this, she's going to jail or worse. Just like her husband."
Meanwhile back at the Wellingtons' house, all the ladies had made their way back to the living room.
"This is horrible!" Ivy complained. "Lizzie you need to sit in your condition!"
Ivy went to help Eliza back up into her chair and whilst doing that slipped her the note that came with the "groceries". Ivy noticed a mild sheen of perspiration on Eliza's forehead. Oh my God! Now is not the time for my dear girl to go into labor Ivy thought.
"Thank you, Ivy. Could you just hold the gun like this on our guest here while I get comfortable and read the bill," Eliza said as she lowered herself into the chair managing to keep a wary eye on Caroline should she try to do anything untoward.
"Yes, my dear. I can do that," Ivy answered while Eliza had begun to read the "bill".
"I'll just be a second. The grocer has had at times overcharged us for necessities."
Caroline stood silently holding the gun on Ivy.
"Everything fine, Lizzie?"
Surreptitiously Eliza swallowed hard has yet another pain hit her. She licked her top lip and answered when the pain dissipated, "Just fine, Ivy. One more minute."
Eliza opened the "bill" and was very relieved to see her husband's neat handwriting.
Dearest Eliza,
The raid will be tonight. Chip O'Riordan pulled strings, and it will happen tonight. Under no circumstances are you going to be there. I am hoping you will keep your promise concerning what type of mother you would be when you agreed to be my wife. Again, I repeat if you are as a good a mother as a private investigator our child will grow up knowing it is loved.
Speaking of our child, I hope we will greet him together. However, if anything happens to me, and I do not survive this night, I have left instructions with Chip. Please see him in the unfortunate event of my demise.
Soon, Lieutenant Carlyle should be there with a small contingent of men to arrest Caroline McAlroy. They are under strict orders to do what has to be done.
Now, my wife, my love, Eliza, I just want to say that the last two years of being married to you have been the best of my life. I would not trade one day of meeting you at such a tender age of 19 as I was then you a beautiful, stubborn, intelligent, sixteen-year-old. That first day I was hooked and my love for you only increased. The fact that you are my wife and carrying my child has only multiplied my love for you.
Hopefully we will have more years together…
Remember always that I love you.
Faithfully and ever lovingly yours,
William.
Eliza wiped a tear from her eye and then right on cue another labor pain stabbed her. She did not make a whimper but tugged on Ivy's skirt.
"I got this, Lizzie," Ivy said proudly. It had been a long time for Ivy, but she had held a gun before. However, Ivy pushed the memory of that other time away from her mind and concentrated on the barrel of this gun pointed at Caroline.
"I guess you don't mind doing this all afternoon and evening, "Caroline jabbed. "I figure the raid is tonight and that's what that note contains that your husband has informed you."
"Well, that's only part of it, but yes, the raid is tonight. I wonder, Mrs. McAlroy, if the real criminal mind is here in this room and not leading the charge at the docks," Eliza jabbed back sarcastically. She raised her eyebrow in quizzical fashion to further play with this woman's mind and show her temerity.
"I wouldn't be so smart as that, however, I am the one to detain you from warning your husband or giving him any clue as to what will really happen."
Eliza was going to ask the obvious question of "what will happen tonight" when the back door of the house whooshed open, and the heavy rushed footsteps of Lieutenant Carlyle and other officers trampled into the living room seizing Caroline McAlroy who dropped the gun in fright. It fired off a shot that went through the living room and landed in the wall just above Eliza's head shattering the glass of her and William's wedding photograph knocking it off the mantel.
Carlyle's men had Caroline on the floor on her stomach with her hands bound in the back with shackles. She was fighting them tooth and nail when Eliza rose and shouted, "Wait!"
Lt. Carlyle protested, "The Chief said to do whatever had to be done to detain her."
"Yes, I am sure. However, she indicated that there will be something else happening at the raid tonight. I was going to coerce her into telling me, so that someway I could warn my husband, but you interrupted me before that could happen. Please let her speak and then you can take her away with alacrity."
Eliza turned her eyes back to Caroline and took a seat as another pain enveloped her.
"Please, Caroline, let these men know what will happen tonight and, perhaps, both our husbands' lives will be spared."
Caroline scowled. Her round face with its inlaid features seeming to sink deeper into her flesh.
Caroline brushed off the hands that had been holding her captive. One officer helped her to her feet as she could not raise herself with her hands shackled.
"Well, I guess you have a point Mrs. Wellington. It may save both our husbands."
"Get on with it," proffered Lt. Carlyle roughly.
Caroline McAlroy shook off the officers' hands that prevented her from running away when she cleared her throat as if she were addressing an assembly of business men not a bunch of police officers and one very concerned police officer's wife.
"The raid was going to be a peaceful affair with just a small contingent of the leaders there. Jimmy would be included with this, but somehow Rory, our spy, said the coppers would be there arresting and causing a ruckus with it. So, the tables will be turned. When you all or your cohorts go to dock 54, the entire gang from four sections of the city will sneak up behind you and kill you all!" Caroline finished with such a flurry of words shouted vehemently that Eliza was actually afraid for William.
Eliza looked away and quietly, said, "Get that woman out of my house!"
Ivy sat and placed the loaded pistol on the end table. She sighed loudly that the ordeal was over without anyone getting injured.
"Lt. Carlyle?"
"Yes, Mrs. Wellington," Lionel stepped a few steps back into the living room.
"Are you going to Dock 54 after you process Mrs. McAlroy?" Eliza asked.
"Oh the men know what to do with her. We were given implicit instructions by your husband. Why do you ask?"
"Take me with you?"
"The Chief will have my head if I show up with you! Pardon my saying, but I warned him as I will warn you that you are carrying his child and endangering his life and yours. The Chief would not allow it."
Eliza stood up and put her hands behind her at the small of her back and rubbed it, trying to alleviate the remnants of some pain. She had not experienced a pain for a few minutes now, so she thought perhaps it had been a false alarm. She had been told that could happen with the first baby.
"Of course, you're right, Lt. Carlyle. William would kill me himself if I should appear at the docks," Eliza said chuckling a bit. I have to find some way of getting there even if it's to say goodbye Eliza thought morosely.
Stop it, Eliza! Pull yourself together! Your husband will return, and you will have your son, and he will grow up with both parents.
"Thank you, Lt. Carlyle. You had better get back to the precinct to warn the others of the latest development."
The moment the door was heard to have been shut Eliza sprang into action.
"Lizzie, you're in labor, I want you to sit down. Those pains are going to get worse before they get better."
Eliza turned on Ivy in surprise and asked, "What labor? Just because I had a few twinges and was sweating doesn't mean I was in labor."
"If you'll pardon my expression, the hell it doesn't!"
This time Ivy was galvanized into action and proceeded to prepare the bed for the lying-in. She would contact the doctor when it was nearer the time of the birth. Ivy was alarmed as Eliza who had disappeared from the living room returned dressed in a light jacket, gloves, and a hat pinned to her damp blonde hair. It was June in New York City after all.
"Eliza Scarlet Wellington! Where do you think you are going?" Ivy said as Eliza whisked by her en route to the door of the house.
"I'm going to William. You didn't really believe that I was going to sit around and, perhaps, never see my husband alive again, did you?"
"All I know, missy, is that you are in labor whether you believe that or not. William will never forgive me if anything happens to you or that child you carry. You were shot once, and you are lucky to be alive and still carrying that precious babe. If you don't think of yourself, think of the child you carry and then think of William."
Eliza had stopped and gripped the doorknob during this barrage of vehemence from Ivy. Eliza knew Ivy was right, but Eliza's instincts hardly ever failed. Just because she had been baking a little human being for the last nine months did not mean she could not be of any use to her husband before he walked into the trap. She knew that Lt. Carlyle and a few others would do anything in their power to ensure William's safe return, but Eliza could only feel secure if she were there in the flesh to witness it.
She turned from the door and faced Ivy. She took two steps and took Ivy's hands in hers.
"Ivy, I love him so much. He was almost taken away from me once and by the grace of God opened his eyes and came back to me. I went and sat by his bedside for a week willing him out of his coma. When it did, I was so grateful to God. This time, however, I want to be sure if anything happens I'm there. Essentially all three of us," Eliza said gazing at her bump and running a hand over it while tears burned in her throat and welled in her eyes.
"I can't bear to be without him," Eliza said quietly.
Ivy hugged Eliza and patted her back as she could feel Eliza's tears release and her neck wet.
"Lizzie, sit down, please, for just a minute. I want to tell you a story…"
"Not about my childhood and what a horrid child I was. I think…"
"No. This one is about me. Something that only your mother knew about me, and I swore to her secrecy and she took the secret to her grave. I think, though, I should tell you."
Eliza was torn between getting out the door to William and listening to Ivy for whom she loved and would gladly listen any other time.
"Ivy, I know what you are doing. You are using this as a delay tactic, so I will decide or be coerced into not meeting up with William."
Ivy took Eliza's hand as they sat on the couch together facing each other.
"I was married once and had a child."
Almost immediately, Eliza opened her mouth to ask the immediate questions that suddenly flooded into her mind.
"Ivy…"
"Let me finish and I am sure all your questions will be answered. Ok?"
Eliza smirked. "Ok. Fine."
"I knew your mother, Lavinia, since we were children ourselves. I grew up the oldest of five children. The only girl of your mother's servants, my mom and dad. Your mother and I were friends. Your mother never cared about the class difference. That's kind of why you never had much contact with your mother's parents. They both frowned on Lavinia and discounted her when she married your father. "
"That's why. I had always wondered why I never saw them after I was 5".
"Now you know. Anyway, your mother and I were the same age. When she turned 16, she was getting ready for her debutante ball, and I had become her personal servant and dresser. I was also 16 and attracted to boys."
Eliza got the feeling that this story was going to be a long time in ending and rose.
"Ivy, dear, I really want to hear the end of this story, but I need to find William. Oooo!" Eliza exclaimed holding her side as she sat back down.
"You're having that baby soon, so you are going nowhere my girl!" Ivy converting back into mother hen mode.
"Look. I will be patient and listen to your story. I am very intrigued about your husband and your child," Eliza said momentarily forgetting the pain while it was gone. She did unpin her small straw hat and placing the pin back into the hat laid it on the seat cushion beside her.
"Ok, Ivy," she smiled. "Tell me more."
"As I was saying I was getting your mother ready for her debutante ball when she announced that I should accompany her because she could not bear to go alone."
"How wonderful! I knew mother loved you for a reason," Eliza stated intrigued by this story.
"Well, I had to sneak into one of her dresses and alter it myself as my mother and dad were very upset that I was actually attending and attending in secret from the master and mistress of the house."
"You look very much like your mother and possess both your mother's curiosities of the world and how it works as well as your father's more analytical mind. That is why you are so successful. You did grow your mother's heart after William was shot. I knew he was in love with you the first time he saw you. I digress."
After a moment, Eliza gripped Ivy's hand as the pain had returned with a bit more intensity.
"Do, please go on, Ivy," Eliza interrupted. I am very interested."
"Are you ok? You had another pain, didn't you?" Ivy interjected before continuing.
"Yes, but I will be ok. I don't want to get in bed yet," Eliza said.
"All right. You tell me when. It's already for you including the birthing chair if you want it."
Eliza's eyes widened. She had heard of a birthing chair in her research regarding pregnancy and birth but she was appalled wondered how Ivy came by one and actually put it in her room in case she wanted to give birth that way.
"You can tell me later, how you managed to get one
of those hideous items in my home."
"Don't malign it unless you've tried it."
Eliza just made a face. "Go on, please, Ivy. I want to hear about your story."
There was a knock on the door then and before anyone arose to answer it, a young police officer barged into the living room surprising both Ivy and Eliza in the process.
"Officer Dunstan, what are you doing here?", Eliza asked.
"I'm sorry to interrupt, Mrs. but I thought you should know that Chief has been informed of the change of plans."
Eliza rose again, forgetting about Ivy's story, and the thought of William in danger rose again to the forefront of her mind.
"Wait!" Eliza exclaimed.
Office Dunstan waited as Eliza heaved herself up. She momentarily held her stomach as Ivy laid a restraining hand on her forearm, but Eliza was determined as always. When Eliza was determined then no one could stop her.
"I promise. I will be all right. I want to hear the rest of your story."
"Be careful. Love you very much," Ivy said as she embraced her and accompanied her to the door.
As soon as the door closed, Ivy said a little prayer that Lizzie would return having not already given birth in some dark and dingy dockside and united with William.
Eliza and Officer Dunstan were stepping into the cab headed for the docks when Eliza experienced an even more intense cramp in her abdomen. It was so severe she actually voiced her pain and clutched her belly.
"Mrs. Wellington, I would guess you have gone into labor. There is no way you are making it the long distance trek to the docks to see your husband. I am taking you back to your house and in bed. Bobby, turn around," Office Dunstan said forcefully.
"But….all right….please get a message to William with what's happening.
Eliza gripped the handle of the door and then she shrieked.
"No! Do not do that! I do not want anything to distract him and get him killed. Promise me…Ahh… Officer Dunstan…. do not tell him.
Another pause while she sweated and managed to stay silent during another pain.
"When he comes home he will be surprised," Eliza managed finally with a weak smile that did nothing to hide her discomfort nor the worry over her husband. That thought made it bearable that she could not be with him in this fight.
It hit Eliza again like it had never hit her before. She would be a mother soon maybe even this night if the baby should come quickly. By some time tomorrow she would finally be holding the blessing of her and William's love.
As the cab turned the short distance for home, Office Dunstan could feel her pain and offered his hand which Eliza took hesitantly giving the young police officer a questioning look. One that said he knew what she was experiencing even if it was only vicariously.
"Don't worry, Mrs. Wellington, I have three children. I held my wife's hand through all three and I thought she would break it. She didn't. So feel free to grip as hard as you want. I know, though, you would rather be holding the Chief's hand. I am sure you will be soon."
Eliza smiled and blew out a breath.
"Thank you, Officer Dunstan. I am grateful."
Bobby turned the last corner back to the Wellingtons' home.
Before Eliza could alight from the cab, she gripped Officer Dunstan's arm as the remnants of the labor pain just passed caused her legs to be wobbly and shaky.
Officer Dunstan-Louis-bade Bobby to wait for him while he saw Mrs. Wellington into her house and be sure she was not alone.
"I'll be here, Louie. God Bless and safe arrival for you and your little one."
Eliza responded with difficulty. "Thank you, Bobby. God Bless you, too!"
Louis Dunstan saw her up the steps and knocked on the door as Eliza was a little too shaky to find her house key located somewhere in her small leather bag. Luckily, Ivy came to the door immediately and helped Eliza into the house and directly into her bed.
"Thank you, Officer?"
"Dunstan, ma'am…Louis Dunstan."
"Thank you, Officer Dunstan. I am glad to see my girl back here."
"No problem, ma'am. Take care Mrs. Wellington."
Ivy then closed the front door and supporting Eliza with an arm around her waist they walked slowly to the bedroom wherein all was prepared for the latest addition to the Wellington household.