Chapter Text
The sky still had a dreary look to it as Miss Liza Milner started out on her errands for the day. Her list for the day contained what she was to do for the last three days, as rain had halted her plans every time she was to go out. She was going to get through this today, unless the clouds broke open again. She glared and dared the sky to let loose more rain before walking.
She smiled and greeted numerous people on her way to the seamstress’s and the tailor’s. Both her dress and William’s trousers were completed, which was good as they had been waiting a while. It wasn’t great as it was her first stop. With the weight of the wool trousers and her dress, she should have made it the final one. Looking at the sky with its warning clouds, she was almost tempted to head back and drop them off so they wouldn’t get ruined. However, she wanted this done today, in one trip. She would do it.
On her way out of the store, she sidestepped a young child, who was scouring the garbage bin. Her heart ached a tiny bit, seeing one so young having to stoop low to provide for themselves. Especially out of the trash. She managed to see him pull out a half-eaten sandwich. Sniffing it, he must have deemed it edible as he wolfed down the food in three bites. Liza made herself continue so she wouldn’t be tempted to do something drastic.
Her errands ended up taking more time than she would have liked. The grocer had her order completed, so she shifted their clothing to get them on her arm. The butcher had the cut of meat she wanted, which went on top of the groceries. The bag and the clothing was getting heavier the longer she carried. The thread and canvas for her cross stitching was ready. She shuffled quite a bit before managing to get it into the crook of her elbow. Thanking the miss, she walked out and fussed a bit to make sure it was stable. The clouds weren’t letting up and she partially worried that she would have to cut her errand run short before getting home to make sure everything stayed dry.
Near a dirty puddle, William’s trousers started slipping off of the straps from her bags. “Oh, no, no no no no no,” she chanted, trying to right the falling pair from dropping right into a grotesque mixture of mud and fluids from multiple contributors.
Instead, another pair of hands stopped the fabric from falling into the dingy water. She looked in surprise to see the young boy from earlier catching William’s pants. Being so close, she saw the boy was older than she had originally thought. A possible teener that was already up to her shoulders, before he stood up right and straighten out his back. Mildly, she thought he might already be taller than her by two inches, and almost as tall as William. He looked at her hair, and her shoulder, but never into her eyes for more than a second. It was the exact opposite, yet so familiar to her.
“If you took the trousers and placed them over one shoulder to tie them at the opposite side of your hips,” he suggested, trying to look her in the face again and failing, “You would have one less thing to carry and something that might hold more items if you plan on continuing your day. The rain should hold off for another hour with luck.”
Oh, that was definitely familiar, and her heart tugged at her. William always told her that giving to the children would just lead to more issues. That children would come up to her for more until they would get angry if she couldn’t give them anything. This one, she noticed didn’t have others clamoring around him. She didn’t think he would be talking to other children about the nice lady on her way with groceries. It felt like he wouldn’t be talking to anyone about her today, or ever, maybe.
She wasn’t sure on what the outcome could be. On what William would think. On what she would be doing to this child, bringing him in with hope and then chucking him back out again like some animal a young child brings home in hopes of keeping them. But a part of her heart couldn’t bear to think about not trying at the least.
“Or, I could do this,” she said. The bag of groceries and the meat were placed on his arms, which immediately compensated for the new weight. Completely shocked, he watched her adjust the clothing and cross stitching materials so she could have an arm free. Liza then smiled at her new companion. “Come along. I have two more stops before getting home and starting dinner. And you did say there may be more rain in an hour, without luck.” She started walking and then heard his footsteps abruptly start to catch up. Her smile grew wider. “Now, if I am to be using you as an extra set of hands, introductions are in order. Liza Milner.”
She slowed down to look at him for an answer. “Llewellyn,” he stated, before realizing that she had given her last name as well, “Watts.”
“Llewellyn,” she repeated, “Welsh, if I remember correctly.”
“I’ll take your word for it, as all I remember is being named after someone that helped my parents a long time ago.”
“Oh?” she asked.
“I don’t know the full story, and I am unable to ask any more.” An orphan with literally no one. Dear God. She kept silent after that, unable to decide on a suitable topic.
No one batted an eye at her bringing along a young man when she walked into the bookstore. “Miss Milner,” the shopkeeper greeted, standing up, “I wasn’t sure if you were going to get here on time. Sky’s already darkening with another storm.”
“I wasn’t so sure myself,” she said, accepting the package of ink and paper that they had been waiting for. “Putting everything down to a half day of cloudiness wasn’t my intention.”
“Nor anyone elses. Most of my customers ended up doubling their orders in preparation for the next round of storms.”
“If I need to double the order, I will send William down to get it,” she joshed. They lightly laughed before saying farewell and heading out the door. Llewellyn followed, staring at a book laid down on a table before it fell out of sight. Liza had picked up on it, and the choice was interesting. “Greek Mythology?”
It took him a second to realize he was being addressed. “The story of Hephaestus has always fascinated me. Hera as well. The Roman versions of their stories aren’t as nice.”
The last stop was a quick in and out. It would have been William’s normal run, but his work at the station ran over a fair amount within the last week. Apparently, the heat spell lead to plenty of paperwork during the storms. He had a box of unwanted scraps that forced her to have Llewellyn take it instead, the groceries now hanging off an arm. They had to hurry back, the sky getting darker until they hit the boardinghouse. It was inside and just up the stairs that the first bolt of lightning flashed. “That was excellent timing,” she said, looking out one of the windows to see rain blasting the windows. “Perhaps Zeus was listening in.”
“I would not be sure if that is a good thing,” Llewellyn lamented.
-
William Murdoch finished his long day of paperwork to just be called out for a murder. With the body of a young man down in the morgue for the City Coroner to work on in the morning, he headed home to see his fiancee. The sudden downpour let him know that there wasn’t that much of a reprieve for the city. It also drenched him when he wasn’t expecting it, again. Getting up to their room, he heard Liza talking excitedly with someone. I didn’t know we were going to have a guest tonight. He figured it might have been a friend from the neighborhood, having stopped in for tea before their own dinner preparations. “Liza?” he greeted, unlocking the door.
“Hello, William,” she said, standing by the stove chopping something up. At their table was a young man, hunched over a steaming cup of what he figured was tea.
He didn’t recognize him. “Who is this?”
She smiled. “This is Llewellyn Watts. He helped me out today.” Although his hands and face had been cleaned up, his clothes were still slightly dingy. She brought in one of the street children. He didn’t let the sigh ring out, but she knew it had still happened within his body. “He caught your trousers before they fell into a mud puddle, then helped me to carry the groceries and your building materials back home.” He’ll give a positive note to the young man, that wasn’t something most street urchins did. They also didn’t walk home with the groceries, more that they just ran off with them. That still didn’t make him understand why he was sitting at their table.
The young man knew he was being talked about, and waved nervously at him. William nodded back. This was out of his areas of knowledge. “Liza?” he asked, trying to get his voice down to the lowest level he could manage for only her to hear, “How long did you tell him that he was going to stay here?”
“We haven’t gotten that far yet,” she said, not keeping her voice down, “We were waiting for you while trying to decide if the storm was thanks to Zeus or, what was the other God of Mythology you referred?”
“Thor, Norse God,” Llewellyn said. Liza turned back to William.
“Liza,” he intoned.
“William,” she mirrored back.
He took a steadying breath to keep himself from immediately arguing with her. “You brought home a child,” he said.
“Yes, William. I know we planned on waiting until we were married to think about children.”
That wasn’t what William was thinking about. He supported the idea of adoption, as he has seen those that flourish in made families. But, off the street. This young man could have seen his fiancée and fed a played up sob story to gain entry to their home. “You brought home a street child, someone that neither of us knew previously.”
“To be fair, William, that would also happen when we eventually have natural children as well,” she criticized, harsher than she wanted, but making him pull back a tiny bit.
He tried, “I understand that one wants to be sympathetic to many of the children wandering around without parents, but many of the children have decided to deceive those that lend them a helping hand.”
She tutted him off, “I don’t see him doing such a thing. Llewellyn gave me a useful idea on carrying more items, warned me about the storm coming within an hour, and didn’t ask for any money. Or anything during my errands.” The young man in question started shrinking in his seat at William’s objections, and Liza’s defense. “He didn’t even ask to come along, I shove the groceries into his hands and expected him to follow.”
“You what?!” His voice rose a few notches. William loved Liza, oh he does. He’s just not sure she has a straight head at the moment.
“I know what I’m doing, William,” she warned, her voice raising a few levels as well, “There were no other children running around today, and he doesn’t seem the type to have a group to go back to. He hasn’t been on the streets long enough to know not to be there as he would have been picked up by Constables almost instantly if one of the shop keepers called him in. He still has a genuine wish to help and not expect anything in return. Look at him, William.” She motioned to where he had been sitting, to find the chair empty. “Llewellyn?”
William frowned, moving forward to find where the young man had gone. His immediate thoughts of being taken advantage of while they were arguing died when he saw Llewellyn hiding under the table. There was a shakiness that he knew wasn’t there before. Even then, it was hard to tell as he made himself as small as possible. He also saw what Liza meant. His clothes weren’t as tattered as a street urchins were after months on the street. His shoes, however, were barely together thanks to a growth spurt. His hair had some form of care, even if it wasn’t recent. There was also a lightening bruise on his upper arm, only seen because his sleeve rode up from his state of distress.
“Oh.” Liza had knelt beside him. She carefully reached out and laid a hand on an arm. “Llewellyn.”
He brought his head up and glanced between the pair, eyes hitting theirs for a second. William hated the sliver of fear that he spotted when he caught a glance in his eyes. “I should leave,” he said, jerkily unwinding his body to attempt getting up, “It is apparent that my presence-”
“Stop.” Liza looked over at him. “We’ll talk about this after dinner,” William decided. He guided Llewellyn back into the chair while Liza poured two more cups of tea, for her and William. He took off his outer jackets, but left on the vest. The young man took the tea that he was given earlier and drank it. William sipped at his until Liza was asking for him to set up the table.
Dinner, while normally wasn’t a boisterous affair, was completely quiet. Liza tried talking to William about his cases for the day, but his answers were cut off. Given that his latest possible murder was that of someone around the age of Llewellyn, he wasn’t eager to share. It was after dishes had been cleaned up and put away that William sat across from the young man. He had Liza a few feet away, but not to interfere with his ‘interrogation’. “So, Llewellyn…”
It took him a moment to catch on. “Watts, sir,” he said.
“Llewellyn Watts. Your parents?” he asked.
“Accident, two years ago. Killed them both.”
That was cruel to him. “No one else?”
“My sister, she,” he paused, as the subject was a tender one for him, “She disappeared a few months after.”
William was interested in that. “Disappeared?”
“She went to work one day and never arrived.”
There might be something to that. Perhaps… “What was her name?”
Llewellyn angrily frowned at him. “Her name is Clarissa Watts, and she’s still alive.”
Touchy subject, don’t use past tense. He waited a moment for him to calm down. “Who took you in?” he directed. William got a curious look from that. “Orphanages would have reported you, at least, for being missing for so long.” There was a monthly list of names when children under the age were given for round up when possible.
“Miss Marks, our landlady,” he whispered, saddened, “She couldn’t let me stay with her anymore.”
He had someone that took him in, gave him shelter, but then couldn’t? William was concerned, but he wished he could say he was surprised. “Why?”
His arms crossed over his chest, in an effort to protect himself against memories. “Some of her borders have been getting violent. Her husband’s gone, and she has two young sons. I tried my best to stay quiet and in shadows, but I angered someone that made her fearful. I left, with the hope that the man won’t go after Danny and Huey.”
Those were names he could look into, but the stares he was getting from his fiancée meant that he wouldn’t be letting her know about it. Maybe he would be asking one of the newer constables to help him out on this. Landry might help him out on this. Boddy wouldn’t be able to keep his mouth shut around Liza.
“William,” the woman herself intoned. “I know what you’re thinking. You are not to ask any of the constables for help in investigating his background.”
He sighed out loud. She was excellent at reading his thoughts, however he projected it. Llewellyn sat at attention at the word Constable. William wondered if he was already at his height. “Constable? You’re a Policeman?” he questioned.
“Acting Detective at Station House Four,” he said.
Llewellyn had unwound at this, his hands lying on the table as he tried not to fidget. “How do I become a detective?”
William didn’t expect that. “You must pass a test and an interview after being a Constable for a number of years.”
“A number of years? How many?”
“That all depends. Some get away with five to seven years, others may need to be on the beat for ten.”
He groaned, “Ten years?”
“Some Constables that apply may never advance to Detective. Some go on to be Sergeants and Captains instead.”
He shook his head. “I want to be a detective.”
William asked, “Why?”
“I want to find my sister. Being a detective’s the only way to do it.”
He leaned on the table. “That is a bad answer.”
“But it’s the right one.”
The older man shook his head and caught his fiancee’s amused grin. “If you want to be a detective, it can’t be about you. Your problems, your issues. They must stop at the door when you go to work. If finding your sister is the only reason you want to become a detective, what happens when you’ve achieved that goal?”
He shrunk a little at that. “I would continue. There are others that go missing, that end up dead, killed. They deserve justice for what happened to them.”
He smiled, “That is the answer you should adhere to. Detectives solve crimes and bring the guilty to justice. There should not be anything personal behind it.”
Llewellyn let it roll around in his head. “I still have to be a Constable to become a Detective, don’t I?”
“Yes. It’s not as bad as it sounds.”
That drove a laugh out of Liza. “Don’t let him lie to you. When he started courting me, he had to run off at moments notice,” she revealed, coming back to the table, “He also came home smelling of the foulest of stenches.”
“Liza!” he said, a little outraged at her countering. Llewellyn giggled, a heart filled one that surprised the two. It might have been then William figured he knew what drew Liza to bring him home.