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Eliza stepped into the tub and immediately felt relief. The water was perfect, leaving a tingling sensation in her cold toes. A few moments later, it may have only been tepid. Too soon would have been too hot. She didn't sink into the water right away-- she reached for the scrub brush, soaped it vigorously, and then proceeded to scrub every bit of her body. She washed her feet last, balancing herself as she did so. Then and only then did she slip under the water. It was still deliciously warm; the delayed satisfaction elicited a deep sigh of delight. Ivy had calculated just enough water to come up to her shoulders. Her day's salary managed to pay some bills, Moses, and more coal so Ivy could heat the water for this much-deserved early bath. A luxury, indeed, but one she could afford by helping to find the wealthy Lord Noseworthy's son in the Opium den. The case had taken a few days longer and required Moses' help, therefore charging a higher fee. With the extra funds, she had stopped at the local apothecary's, where she procured a lavender tincture to put in the water. The chemist said she would sleep like a baby after a short soak. Eliza needed it.
She leaned back and rested her head on the back wall. Ahhh. She was delighted to have this. Her father negotiated this bathing room with Mrs. Parker's consent to add plumbing when her mother first fell ill. Her mother had used it often in the hopes it would be a tonic for her illness. Not everyone can boast about a separate bathroom; some still took their monthly baths in a basin in the kitchen. But Father had not only managed to build the room off the kitchen instead of upstairs but also installed a small coal stove to keep the room warm for when you stepped out of the bath. It was a treat to be able to soak like this. Ivy had helped Eliza out of her dress and corset and promised to check on her in 20 minutes. Any longer could be detrimental to the body, so Ivy claimed.
But Eliza always wanted to soak longer, especially as a child, even though the water would have been tepid by the time she had had her turn.
As an adult and head of household, she only needed to share the water with Ivy, who preferred a short, colder bath. Better tonic for the skin, she said.
Eliza felt her eyes getting heavy, and she allowed herself to close them for a moment, her head resting on the back wall. The lavender was sublime. But she didn't want to sleep in the tub. She wished to remain awake for the entire 20 minutes to enjoy every luscious second.
She had only closed her eyes a moment, listening to Ivy cleaning up in the kitchen, when she noticed the noises had ceased. It was quiet for a while, then she heard footsteps approach the door, and the knob began to turn.
"oh, Ivy, it's not 20 minutes already?" She groaned, eyes still closed.
"20 minutes since what?" A very Scottish voice said.
Eliza's eyes shot open. "William! What...are you doing!" Eliza automatically crossed her arms over her chest and sunk deeper into the tub. There were enough bubbles left from her soap that she was not visible through the water, but how long would they last?
"How did you get in here?" she exclaimed, "Where's Ivy!"
"I dunno where she is; she didn't answer the door. So I let myself in through your back door; she is not in the kitchen right now. I heard a noise in here and came to see..." William never finished his sentence. Eliza's voice reached a higher pitch, "Get out! Can't you see I'm taking a bath!"
"I do see that," William responded, calm and relaxed like he had the upper hand. "it's a very modern bathing room." He looked around the room, avoiding eye contact.
"Father wanted modern facilities when Mother got ill," Eliza said, her voice still a bit stressed. She continued to hide under the soap bubbles, her arms protecting her breasts. He walked over to the small coal stove, Eliza watching him closely. "It's very nice," he said, looking at the warm-coloured wood walls and single kerosene lamp on a table near the sink. "Henry did a good job; the stove is a smart addition." His jacket was off, and he was just wearing his waistcoat, shirt and tie, which he began loosening. "You've got it warm in here," he said.
"Well," Eliza gestured sarcastically with a barely exposed hand, "bath." She pointed to the tub.
"Yes," he said, eyes dancing and scanning the water's surface, "Bath."
Eliza's eyes widened. Was he trying to sneak a peek?
"What are you doing here?" Eliza said impatiently.
"I came to check on you after today's big break in your case."
"How do you know about that?"
"I have my sources."
"Why are you so interested anyway?"
"Lord Noseworthy came by to tell me we could close his missing persons claim for his son. My inquiries managed to get him to confess he'd sought out private resources. Then he proceeded to render his complaints about how Scotland Yard failed his expectations."
"So you're here to complain that I'm making Scotland Yard look bad because I found him so quickly?" Eliza gave a smug smile despite herself. Despite being naked in a tub of hot water. With William looking at her. His come-hither look vanished, and he glared at her.
"So you were wandering through opium dens, looking for this boy? Should I waste my breath on how dangerous that is?" he said with some annoyance. She hadn't told William about her traipsing about in the seedier sects of London. He would only worry.
"That's the real reason you came by, to take a strip off me for doing my job? Or rather YOUR job."
"Interesting choice of words," he mumbled, ignoring her dig.
"Moses did a fair bit of the leg work," she lied. He helped her narrow down the dens to the three most likely, and she found the strung-out boy herself.
"That's not what I heard."
"So you are spying on me."
"Tryin' to," he smiled, hands in pockets staring at her from across the small room.
The tension in the room changed from mutual agitation to….something else.
A soap bubble popped in front of Eliza's right shoulder. William noticed, and she suddenly felt a bit panicked.
William gave a small smile. He then rolled up his sleeves and slowly approached Eliza in the tub. His tie was loose and hung around his neck. He then began to open the top button of his shirt.
Eliza backed away from his approach, still covering her chest. She thought brazenly that she could handle William, no matter what he intended to do.
Even if she was naked and stuck in the tub.
William stopped in front of the tub and looked down into Eliza's face, never wavering in his gaze. The tub was elevated, so he was not as tall as he would be had it been placed on the floor. He stood closer than he should, but she stared back, holding her breath, wondering what he planned to do. There were tiny beads of sweat on his forehead, and his ears were red. Eliza's face was flushed from the heat. William reached down with his right hand and held Eliza's left cheek. His hand felt cold against her face, but she didn't flinch or move away. They stayed like this for what seemed an eternity, he gently rubbing her damp hair with his fingertips.
"Mo ghradh," he finally mumbled.
"What?" Eliza whispered.
Then he suddenly reached down into the water with his left hand–
"William!"
Eliza sat upright, splashing water over the side, eyes wide.
The bathroom was empty. William was gone.
Eliza looked around, confused. Then she heard a latch turn, the door opened slowly, and she covered herself again. That's when she noticed no soap bubbles on the water surface. None at all.
Ivy's head poked around the door. "Oh, you're awake."
"Was I asleep?"
"You were. I came in after 10 minutes to check on you and you were snoring a bit. I decided to let you rest, poor girl, you seemed to need it," Ivy said.
"Asleep," Eliza said, "I was asleep."
William had been a dream.
Ivy reached for the towel hanging by the stove and helped Eliza out of the tub. "Working as hard as you do that you need an early bath, it's not right. You'll sleep better in your bed."
"I'm not certain I want to sleep any better than I just did," Eliza mumbled, wrapping the heated towel around her.
"What?" Ivy asked, not hearing her clearly.
"Nothing, I'm a bit groggy, can't think straight," Eliza said dismissively, and she rubbed an eye like a tired child.
"You shouldn't have tried that tincture you bought. It probably was too strong for your disposition. I've just the thing that can set things right," Eliza let Ivy help her into her sleeping gown.
Eliza lay awake in bed after drinking the warm milk Ivy had made for her. Earlier, while she brushed her hair, she analyzed her dream. She postulated that noises around her may have caused her mind to devise dream-like reasons for them. First, the sound of Ivy opening the door may have caused her brain to conjure up William coming in to check on her.
Second, her face had been resting against the tub. Perhaps the sensation of the cold surface translated to her dreaming William's cold hand was holding her face. Although him playing with her hair felt very real. And third, the water had lost much of its heat, so perhaps her mind helped her escape the cooling water by fabricating an image of the Detective Inspector reaching into the soap bubbles. Such a scandalous move would surely shock her awake, as it did.
One hundred brush strokes later, and her head on her pillow, she still could not answer one final question: Why did her brain manifest William?
Why not her father or even her mother? He'd never been in that part of the house before; to picture him there made no sense. And she's pretty confident she didn't tell him at all about this case. Perhaps her fatigue mixed with the lavender played games with her thoughts, creating weird dreams.
It had been oddly real. And even more odd was that Eliza was disappointed he hadn't actually been there.
But her mind was swirling something else around and around, keeping her awake. Before she went up the stairs to her room, she asked Ivy, "Have you ever heard the words, 'mo graw,' Ivy?"
Ivy looked at her quizzically. "'Mo grah thu' means 'I love you' in Irish, 'Mo gra' would be 'my love'."
Eliza looked a bit shocked. "Would it be the same in Scottish Gaelic?"
Ivy put a sly smile on her face. "You could ask Inspector Wellington, he might know a bit o' Gaelic from when he was in Glasgow as a boy."
Eliza gave her a bit of a glower.
"Why, where did you hear it?"
"Oh, I heard it spoken on the street," Eliza lied. Ivy knew instantly she was fibbing, but she couldn't say if the Inspector had said it to her or not. It certainly seemed to embarrass her.
So Eliza stared at her ceiling, trying to figure out why her mind had conjured up a Gaelic endearment from William.
"Well," she said aloud, "William would never intrude on my bath, or behave, in such a way with me. Ever."
Somehow, this thought did not help her fall asleep any faster.
She dreamt of popping soap bubbles for the rest of the night.