Page 2 of Tears of Gold

“Your mother is in the conservatory,” Jennings tells Eli. “Can I bring you both some tea?”

Eli shakes his head. “No thank you.” Finally, he seems to snap out of the frozen clutches he’s been in since Jennings turned up and told us the awful news.

“Dinner shall be served at eight, in the dining room as per usual.”

Something about his words must reach Elijah under his fuddled state. “Dinner?”

“Yes, your grandmother has requested everything continue as usual.”

A low hiss escapes Eli’s lips. “Of course.” He turns, pulling me after him down the long hallway. “Mother!”

“Eli,” I whisper trying to pull on his hand. “Eli, calm down. What’s the matter?”

His face when he turns is a furious mask, with his eyes burning and his lips crimped into a tight line. “This is how it is, Faith. We shall continue as though nothing has happened. It was the same when my father left, and now Peter is dead and it’s the usual Fairclough crap. Everything must continue. Nothing should change.”

He stops and turns to me, his hands lifting my shoulders. “It stops now, Faith. Our lives are going to change forever, and I know you don’t understand that yet, but I do. Hell, if I’m going to not try my hardest to make things better.”

I lift my hand and cup his poor purple cheek. “So let's make things better. But, respect your mother. Find out the facts first. We have forever to make things right. Don’t start a war now; this isn’t the day.”

Leaning closer, he skips his lips lightly across mine. “And now you’re the calm one?” He smiles as much as his wounds will allow.

“As your wife it is my duty.”

He takes the pain and grins. A leak of blood springs from his bottom lip which makes me wince. “I’ll tell you all about your wifely duty, but not right now.” I don’t know how but he manages to wink one of his swollen eyes.

“Eli!”

He’s calmer when we turn back and begin to walk through the long and grand hallways of the stately home.

We both hesitate in unison at the door to the conservatory. We had our first kiss in there, under the sprinklers, impulsive and forbidden. Now the air seems stuffy and the flowers are fading as Autumn steals them away. I flick my gaze to Eli. He’s pale, a pulse beating fast beneath the skin of his throat.

“Come.” I step over the threshold leading him along by our clasped hands. “Jennifer?” I call tentatively. I’m guessing she’s not expecting to find me still hanging around. She probably hoped that when I ran the other night, I ran away for good. But I’m still here and it’s time for her to accept it.

We find her sitting at a round wrought iron table near the waterfall. Her back is ramrod straight, her eyes focused on something seemingly not in the conservatory. She doesn’t turn. She’s frozen like she has been carved from ice.

“Mother?” The echoing crack in Eli’s voice near on kills me.

She turns at last. Her gaze lands on his face, although if I’m expecting a reaction to the damage she finds there, I don’t get one. Her gaze slowly falls onto me.

Our hands are tightly wound, and even though I want to run from her penetrative stare, I don’t.

That’s got to be something.

“Peter’s gone,” she says.

He nods. It’s a minuscule movement.

“I don’t know what he was thinking really. He knows what these roads are like after rain.”

“I don’t know. You know Peter.” Eli stumbles when he realises his tenses are confused. “He had a mind of his own.”

Jennifer snaps out of her daze. “What are we going to do, Elijah? Everyone will find out about him now.”

Eli almost drops my hand but then he snatches it back up, tighter than before. I hold my wince in as he drags me forwards over the stone path, closer to Jennifer. “What on earth are you talking about, Mother?” There’s a calm undercurrent, but I know it’s more dangerous than if he were shouting.

“Peter. He always makes things so complicated.”

“Mother!” The roar from Elijah’s chest could shatter the glass roof above us.