The Stowaway

XXXVI

"Mama!" whined Rachel from behind Katy, tugging on the skirt of her dress.

Eliza decided to intervene as she shuffled past Katy and scooped Rachel up. "Where did you leave your doll, hmm?" she asked the little girl.

***

Eliza was taking tea with Katy in the drawing room some time later when Mr and Mrs Banes finally returned from their outing.

Rachel and Lizzie were on the floor between them playing, and Harrison was sleeping in the cradle that Mr Banes had commissioned for Katy for Christmas.

"Katy!" cried Mrs Banes. "What a surprise!"

"Are you well?" asked Mr Banes immediately. "Are the children?"

"Yes, yes," assured Katy. "Rachel forgot her doll, and so we turned around. I sincerely hope you won't mind housing us for another night, before we try to depart again tomorrow?"

"Of course not!" gushed Mrs Banes. "You know we would have you and the children as long as we could keep you." She smiled sincerely. "You rooms will not have been turned over yet, so all will be fine." She turned her attention to Eliza. "Now," she said with determination, and Eliza felt the blood drain from her face.

Dear Lord, what now?

"Eliza, you look absolutely dreadful. You are not fit to be seen," Mrs Banes said bluntly.

Eliza blinked. "You are too kind, Mama," she replied dryly.

Katy, the traitor, smirked. "You both have the same lack of tact sometimes," she whispered to Eliza. "As you recall, you called me fat before you knew I was seven months along with Harrison."

Eliza rolled her eyes. "You are on my side, remember?"

"What your mother means to say, Eliza, is that the stress and the lack of sleep is showing," her father tried to say a little more tenderly.

"You must look your best for dinner tonight," urged Mrs Banes. "We have invited a special guest, and I am sure he will not want to see you looking like you have pressed charcoal underneath your eyes."

Eliza scowled, knowing just what her mother was up to. Why would she not let it go? Why was she insisting on forming a match with that horrid clergyman? Perhaps she was foolish to think that Mrs Banes had given up on Mr Pole after a few months without mentioning him.

"Mother, if you have invited that damned parson for dinner again, I will subtly set the tablecloth on fire, declare it an act of God, and send him running from this house. Do not think I won't!" declared Eliza angrily.

Mrs Banes scoffed. "Stop being so dramatic. I have learned my lesson, and our guest is not the parson. But it is a surprise, so upstairs with you!" she instructed. "I will have a bath prepared, and I will help you to look your best."

***

Eliza really had no idea who her mother's guest could be, and she participated reluctantly as Mrs Banes cleaned her hair and face, and then dressed her up in something utterly ridiculous.

Plymouth was a large harbour, so there could have been five and eighty gentlemen at any one time with fortune and name enough to please Mrs Banes. Eliza promised herself that she would be her usual charming self, and that would settle the issue of every having to entertain them again.

But even she had to admit when her mother did a good job. Mrs Banes had excellent taste, and fortune enough now to satisfy the dreams she had when Eliza was little of dressing her up in expensive finery.

Eliza's gown was lilac in colour, with faux roses sewn at the bodice and sleeves. A matching flower was fixed in her hair, which was clean and shiny, and smelled of the lavender soap Mrs Banes preferred.

Mrs Banes had carefully powdered Eliza's face, blurring the shadows under her eyes, and covering the freckles that had remained behind from her months at sea. Eliza had grown quite fond of them, but Mrs Banes disliked that they gave away that she had spent a long period in the sun.

"You look so beautiful!" exclaimed Katy, who was also dressed in a fine blue gown for dinner.

Eliza scowled, but Katy always took it in jest.

"Parson or not, I will set fire to the table when I hate this man, Mother," warned Eliza.

Mrs Banes smiled coyly, suggesting that she did not believe her.

"Ladies," said Mr Banes, knocking at the door. "Our guest has arrived."

Even her father seemed excited, which unsettled Eliza. His excitement was what put doubt into her mind. She knew that her father would never force her to marry someone, so why now did he seem pleased to be shopping potential suitors to her?

"Let us get this over with," snapped Eliza as she gathered up her skirts in a huff and pushed her way out of the door.

"That's the spirit!" cheered Mrs Banes facetiously.

Eliza made her way swiftly downstairs, scowl on her face, and she rushed to the drawing room doors, before her mother could prevent her from saying anything rude or unladylike upon entering.

She all but pulled the door from its hinges, fully prepared to make her best attempt at belching, before her eyes settled on the guest who was standing by the fireplace.

It was not an overdressed, pompous prat.

It was an underdressed, moronic prat.

Eliza's heart all but stopped beating as she stared at him, willing her mind to tell her that this was all a dream, and he really was not standing right there in the drawing room.

It couldn't be, after all this time.

His black eyes found her in an instant, and she felt her legs wobble. Eliza quickly gripped the back of one of the settees for balance as she willed herself not to look away.

"Eliza," he breathed, before clamping his lips shut. He looked upon her with an anguish she had never seen before, not even when she had looked into his eyes on the day that he had told that they needed to end their acquaintance.

Eliza could see his pain and his regret, but she couldn't sympathise. Perhaps it was selfish of her, but what he had forced her to endure these last six months had been nothing short of agonising.

What on earth was he doing here? Had he changed his mind? A traitorous part of her heart leapt at that thought, but she hurriedly pushed it aside. Eliza would never allow such naïve hope to enter her thoughts again.

Instead, she allowed anger and hurt, months' worth of torture, to fill her, resulting in all sorts of irrational thoughts and desires that begun to consume her head.

He was so awkward, so unused to this situation, that she could see that Tom really did not know what to say to make things right.

Fortunate for him, Eliza had a way to fill the silence. Stepping forward, she said, "Do you know how you always used to tell me that if I needed to be sorry about something, that you would tell me?" she whispered, trying to make her voice as tender as possible as she subtly balled her hand into a fist. She walked closer and closer, and watched as Tom stiffened.

Tom nodded. "Yes," he replied quietly.

Eliza was suddenly before him, staring up into his eyes, and the nerve of what she wanted to do flickered for the briefest of moments. But no, she had suffered, and she deserved this.

Quicker than anything, Eliza threw her fist up into his nose, feeling the crunch of bone beneath her knuckles. "WELL THEN, ALLOW THAT TO BE AN EPIC REMINDER!"

----

Hope you enjoyed it!

I forced myself to stay awake and finish this chapter as I won't be able to write tomorrow night as I'm going to ELTON JOHN WOOHOO!

So now I'm writing this author's note with one eye open as the other one prepares for sleep hahaha.

Night guys xxx

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