Page 81 of Tears of Glass

“Got anything with ham, mate?”

Eli turns a little and catches my wide gaze. “Faith, have you got any ham in your bag?”

“Uh.” I can’t make myself move. My brain is whirling, wheeling, trying to process what’s going on.

What is this? I mean I knew Elijah helped people: Lewis etc, but walking down the river and feeding the homeless... who the hell am I fucking, Robin bloody Hood?

“Uh, I think I might have.” I shake myself and step up, smiling at Elijah, but it’s nervous and forced. I know nothing about this man. Nothing.

“It’s alright, Stephen, she’s hanging like a dog today.”

Stephen laughs and waits patiently while I dumbly root about for a ham sandwich.

The dog has its big brown puppy dog gaze settled on me. “What do you have?” I ask it, scratching it behind its ear and making its back leg thump on the ground.

“Marshal here gets special treats.” Elijah grins his dimple at me and opens the leather messenger bag slung around his chest, pulling out some sachets of wet dog food and a bone I didn’t even know he was carrying. Wake up, Faith.

Eli stretches up from the ground and I want to meet his eye, but I can’t. He steals all my thoughts, all my words. He’s unlike anything I’ve ever known, ever hoped to know. His heart is as big as a city; his love for people all encompassing, he’d save them at any cost. Even me.

“I love you.” I blurt my unspoken words clumsily into the air.

His smile is slow and Stephen claps and gives a little whoop.

“Right back at you, Faith.” The blues say everything I’ve been waiting for my entire life. They tell me to trust, to give, to gift everything I have to the man with the crazy big heart and even crazier life. He’s unashamed at his public declaration, then I remember what he said this morning when he woke me up. These are his friends, people he trusts.

The baroness’ son is friends with those who have nothing and it’s as easy to him as breathing. He turns from me and looks at Stephen, a worried crinkle creasing between his brows.

“Want me to talk to Bernie, see if she’s got room for you?”

Stephen shakes his head. “No. Not if Victor is still there.”

Eli rolls his eyes which is right up there on the cute list. “In a couple of weeks before it gets too cold?”

Stephen shrugs. “Maybe.”

Eli gathers his stuff and bends to squeeze Stephen on the shoulder again. “I’ll pop by soon, okay?”

“Are you bringing her again, she’s a nice perk to the view.” Stephen nods his head in my direction and I flush.

Eli grins, his eyes bright. “I might do, if she behaves.”

We turn and walk away. I’m silent, no words I contain can tell him how blown away I am by him.

“You buy all the sandwiches every Saturday?” I finally find some vowels and consonants to string together.

He nods his head. “Thanks to the Fairclough trust fund, but not every Saturday, just when I can fit it in.” He winks and falls into step at my side, our feet hitting the pavement at the same moment. Two people in time.

“Another reason to avoid being cut off.”

He shrugs and it’s disarming. “Ooh, luckily being a lawyer pays well. I could still afford it.” The smile he sends my way is wicked and my stomach clenches. “Better to spend the Fairclough fortune though.”

I nod. Actually, that’s a satisfying thought.

Slowly taking time for everyone, we work our way down the river, where so many people with nothing are spending their weekend. Elijah takes time to speak to them, some he seems to recognise, others he just graciously doles out sandwiches, too. I’m his glorified assistant, but I don’t care. I’m mesmerised, spun in a dream of the rich giving to the poor and everything being right in the world. Every so often when prompted, he introduces me as his girlfriend and it sends the caged bird behind the wire bars in my chest to flight. Eventually, we find our way to a soup kitchen under London Bridge I didn’t even know existed.

Bernie welcomes us with a hug and puts us to work. Eli does exactly as he’s told, and we serve and talk to folk who need us for a couple of hours until the kitchen is clean again and everything is put away.

“Thanks, Elijah.” Bernie wipes a plump arm across her forehead. “Always a pleasure to have his lordship for the day.”