The Eternal Summer
V. Welcome to the World
Summary: The world ends, but time keeps moving forward.
AN: This was only supposed to be a smutty fic. Then again, I said the same thing about Sins of the Flesh. I hope you enjoyed the ride, everybody! If you're wondering what becomes of your family, here is your family tree (I have given reader characters names because it's easier for me) - you might recognise some of the modern-day descendants!
Read now on Ao3 or below the cut:
It was the longest night of your life. You sat by the window for a while, looking out across the station. Elliott was sat on his porch, revolver in hand, waiting patiently for Quigley to make his move. He glanced back at you on occasion and his frown would soften, the grip on his gun would loosen slightly, and your heart would ache when you locked eyes with one another.
William, meanwhile, was trying to keep himself awake, reading one of Elliott’s books and occasionally standing up to stretch his legs. He was using a cane to balance himself thanks to the wound in his leg, but he refused to listen when you insisted he should stay seated.
By midnight, you were struggling to stay awake.
“Go to bed, [Y/n],” William said when he saw you trying to keep your eyes open. “You don’t need to stand vigil.”
You couldn’t care less about Quigley, but what you did care about was Elliott, who was letting his anger and his pride get the best of him.
But you were tired, and despite what Elliott said, you suspected Quigley was telling the truth about waiting until dawn, so you supposed a little sleep would do you no harm.
With Elliott waiting for Quigley and William guarding you, you had no warm body to hold as you drifted off, but you were so sleepy that you were able to make do with holding the pillow which now smelt of both Elliott and William.
You woke at dawn to the sound of gunshots.
You’d been so tired when you went to bed that you’d forgotten to change into your nightgown, and so it was in a rumpled dress that you came into the lounge to find William peering through the curtains to see outside.
“What’s going on?” you asked blearily.
“A man’s been shot. Stay away from the windows, [Y/n].”
“Who is it?”
“I don’t bloody know. Don’t worry, your boyfriend’s fine. What on earth is he doing?” William questioned as you both heard the sound of horses galloping out of the station. “He’s throwing his men at him like lemmings. Didn’t I just tell you to stay away from the windows?”
You were by his side now, looking through the other curtain to see what was going on. Elliott was crouched below a wagon, gun in hand, as three of his men rode out across the plains.
“He’s not here, he must be in the cutting,” you replied.
“If he shot that man from afar, he can shoot you too.”
You shook your head, your eyes still on Elliott.
“He won’t.”
William scoffed. “Oh? And what makes you so sure of that?”
“He said he wouldn’t.”
“You can’t trust everything men say, [Y/n].”
“Not even you?”
You surprised yourself at your own audacity, but William surprised you more when he didn’t react with anger. Instead, he chuckled and stroked your cheek.
“That’s different, darling. I’m your husband who loves you. Matthew Quigley is an evil man, a murderer - is he sending more men out?” William interrupted himself as he spotted another few men riding out on horses. “Has Elliott completely lost his mind? At this rate, he and I will be the only men left before Quigley even gets here.”
“Maybe… maybe I should go and talk to him. He always seems to calm down when I’m around. Maybe I can talk some sense into him.”
William frowned, but he shrugged. “Maybe you can suck his cock or something, that’ll calm him down.”
You blushed and ducked your head, and William just snorted.
“Don’t act coy, darling, I know you’ve been sucking his cock. Go on, go and see if you can talk some sense into that thick skull of his.”
You made your way out onto the porch, where Elliott was stood leaning against a pillar, staring into the distance with a frown so severe he might have been hoping to kill Quigley just by looking at him. He jumped slightly when you put your hand on his shoulder, but just as you’d predicted, the tension in his shoulders eased when he saw you standing there.
“What are you doing out here, sweetheart?”
He wrapped an arm around your shoulders and pulled you in close. You felt your own tension lifting too, as if all either of you needed to calm down was one another’s presence.
“We’ve been watching from inside. Are you planning on throwing men at him until you run out?”
Elliott chuckled, then kissed the top of your head affectionately. “If that’s what it takes. I’d rather expend ten men and kill him before he gets here than let him come and risk him getting to you.”
“Don’t sacrifice your men for me!” you insisted, fear rising in your heart as you thought of all the lives Elliott was willing to sacrifice for you.
“I can always hire more men, [Y/n]. There’s only one of you.”
You frowned. “There’s nothing special about me, El —”
“Don’t you dare say that!” Elliott hissed, interrupting you. “There is no one in this world like you, you understand me? Any man I hire can shovel cow shit or plough a field. No one else can do what you do for me.”
“There are whores in Melbourne…”
Elliott frowned at you, looking almost disappointed.
“Do you really think I’m talking about sex? Have you forgotten everything I told you at the graveyard yesterday?”
Elliott scoffed and shook his head.
“You really don’t know the effect you have on the people around you, do you? You don’t know what William and I were duelling for.”
“Then what?”
Elliott sighed and held you closer, looking out across the horizon as if the words to describe you were somewhere out there with Quigley and the dingos. And maybe they were, because he seemed to find them, and he looked down at you and smiled.
“You don’t know how bright you shine.”
You stared at him, stunned. You might have kissed him, but you knew your husband was watching through the window, and besides, your attention was drawn away when you heard the sound of a galloping horse coming closer, and you both looked to see Elliott’s two remaining men riding back into the station, dragging something along the ground behind them.
Elliott released his hold on you and met his men in the middle of the station. You watched from the porch as he bent over and you realised he was talking to not something, but someone that had been dragged across the dirt.
As Elliott taunted Quigley, you heard the thump of William’s cane as he came up behind you and put a hand on your shoulder.
“You should go back inside, [Y/n],” he said softly.
You shook your head, your eyes still firmly set on Elliott.
William’s grip on your shoulder tightened.
“Do as I say, [Y/n],” he said, more curtly.
You looked up at him then.
And somehow, in that moment, you knew.
Maybe you’d known all along.
“No.”
Before William had a chance to respond, you were dashing across the dirt to Elliott’s side. He was standing in a familiar position opposite Quigley, flagged either side by O’Flynn and Dobkin. Just last night you’d seen him standing in the exact same spot across from William, but this time his opponent was a lot more well-versed in duelling.
“Elliott, please don’t do this,” you begged, skidding to a halt at his side, grabbing his hands desperately. “Just let him go, nobody has to die —”
“Don’t worry, sweetheart,” Elliot said smugly, his eyes twinkling with mischief. “I’ll make it quick for him.”
“I don’t care about him, Elliott, I…” You felt a tear running down your cheek. You ignored it.
“Just survive this, okay? Survive this… and I’ll marry you.”
A grin broke out across Elliott’s face and he kissed you passionately, not caring that O’Flynn and Dobkin were nearby, that Quigley was standing opposite, or that your husband was watching from the porch. All he had to do was kill Quigley, and you’d be his.
“That’s the best good-luck token a man could ask for,” Elliott murmured when your lips parted. “Get yourself a safe distance away, sweetheart. I won’t have a stray bullet coming near you.”
“You’re an idiot,” you sighed.
Elliott grinned and winked at you.
You retreated back to the front porch, where William and Tommy were waiting for you. Your husband said nothing about the scene that had just transpired.
There was a long, tense moment as Elliott and Quigley stared one another down. It may have only lasted a few seconds, but it felt like hours to you as you stood, waiting…
And four shots rang out in quick succession.
It happened so quick, it took you a moment to register what had happened. Quigley was still standing - O’Flynn and Dobkin were on the ground - and Elliott was on his knees.
He fell back almost in slow motion, and you screamed.
You dodged the hands of both William and Tommy as they tried to hold you back, and the dust on the ground bloomed into clouds as you ran to Elliott.
One look at him was enough to know there was nothing you could do. His white shirt was stained red, blood pouring out from his torso.
One hand was still on the handle of his gun, which dropped to the ground when you lifted Elliott’s head from the ground to cradle him in your lap.
“Elliott… Elliott, please, look at me…”
The light was quickly fading from his eyes, but still he smiled when he looked up at you.
“[Y/n]…”
“Elliott, please - please, don’t die - please, I need you!”
You couldn’t see the way the morning sun reflected off your hair, shining as bright as you always shone to Elliott, and he wondered if dying gave him a glimpse into divinity, because surely you were an angel come to save his soul in the weeks before he died.
He could only hope he’d done enough for you. Loved you enough, taught you enough, shown you that you were worth so much more than you knew.
“Elliott, please, you’ve got to live, please,” you sobbed. “We’re gonna get married, remember?”
Elliott wheezed, attempting to laugh as blood filled his lungs.
“A mortal man can’t marry an angel,” he croaked.
You shook your head. He must have been delirious.
“I’m no angel, Elliott. I’m just a girl. And I… I love you.”
You sobbed harder, knowing it wasn’t enough. Your love would never be enough.
Elliott smiled, his head lolling towards your chest as his eyes fluttered closed.
“My angel…”
You screamed so loud, the birds in the trees were startled away.
This couldn’t be real. It wasn’t possible for a single human being to feel this much pain and survive. How could you survive, when your heart had been torn from your chest? Why would you want to, when the only good thing you’d ever known was an empty husk beneath you?
It wasn’t fair. None of it was fair. You had nothing your whole life, you were nothing, and you’d accepted that until Elliott came along and made you feel like you were worth something, worth love and affection - and he’d been torn away from you.
Torn away by an evil man for no reason at all - a man who, you remembered suddenly, was still standing. Still living. How many men had he killed? How many other women would grieve their lost loves now because of Matthew Quigley and his stupid fucking rifle?
You raised your head and, through your tears, saw Quigley standing with his back to you. He didn’t even care about the crying woman behind him. He was just watching as the last of the servants left, returning to their native land now Elliott was gone.
They could go. You didn’t care about them.
But there was no way Quigley was leaving this place.
You didn’t even hesitate. You grabbed the gun Elliott had dropped.
“Needle,” you mumbled.
You checked the barrel. Full but for one empty slot.
“Thread.”
You pointed the gun at Quigley’s back.
“Hole.”
You pulled the trigger three times for good measure, each bullet landing in his back, each hitting some organ or other and throwing Quigley to the ground before he even knew what was happening.
You tossed the gun aside. You didn’t care to check Quigley was dead. You only cared about Elliott, motionless in your arms, and even knowing he was gone, you pushed his hair out of his face to look at him.
It was the most horrendous sight. The eyes that usually blazed so fiercely, whether it be with love or lust or anger, were extinguished. You could barely even register that it was Elliott in your arms, he looked so unlike himself. You recognised the eyes, the nose, the cheekbones and the lips, but… the man you loved was gone.
You couldn’t tell how long you sat there, sobbing, clinging onto Elliott’s lifeless body as if as long as you held him, there was a chance he’d wake up again.
But he wouldn’t wake up, because he wasn’t asleep. You’d watched him sleep. Even asleep, he was alive. He breathed, fidgeted, responded to your touch. Now… nothing. Not a breath, not a twitch, not a sound.
He was gone, and he’d taken a piece of you with him.
You were only snapped back to reality when you felt a hand on your shoulder. You let out a yelp of surprise and held Elliott tighter, as if the hand belonged to someone who’d take him away from you.
“[Y/n]?”
The voice was so small, so tentative. You almost didn’t recognise your baby brother’s voice.
You looked up at him. He wouldn’t take Elliott away from you, would he?
You knew you should say something reassuring, but you had nothing. How could you reassure him when the world had already ended?
He was saying something, but you couldn’t even hear. It was like the world was on mute. All you could hear was your own breathing, your own sobs, and you couldn’t tell which had come last when you passed out.
---
Time passed in a haze. You slept, you woke, you cried until you slept again.
Sometimes you’d wake and see Tommy sitting on a chair nearby. Other times, you’d find William sleeping next to you. Once or twice, you woke and saw a man you didn’t know, a stranger in an army uniform. Food and water would appear on your bedside table, and you’d get as much down as you could before you began to feel sick.
Tommy would try and engage you in conversation, but you didn’t have the energy to talk. The soldier, whoever he was, didn’t talk to you.
William was usually asleep, though once you did wake to see him placing a bowl of soup on your bedside table.
Maybe none of them knew what to do with you. You didn’t know what to do with yourself.
After some days - you couldn’t say how many - you were awoken by someone shaking your shoulder, and your eyes fluttered open to see Tommy by your bedside.
“We’re going to the church in town soon, to - to bury Mr Marston with his wife. Will you come?”
You nodded groggily, and when you finally emerged from the lodge in a black dress Tommy had brought you from your luggage, you winced against the bright sunlight, having seen nothing but the muted light through the curtains for several days.
The station looked strange so empty. For so long there’d been the hustle and bustle of men at work, but now it was like a ghost town. At the gate, William was waiting for you with two horses, and somewhere beneath the numbness of your grief you thought he looked handsome in his black suit.
Tommy had his own horse and you sat behind William on another as you rode into town. You wrapped your arms around William’s waist and rested your head on his back from your side-saddle position. You closed your eyes, hoping that to look away from the landscape would ease the soreness you felt looking at the land Elliott had worked so hard for.
Later, you’d barely remember the funeral service. It was small; a lot of people didn’t like Elliott very much, and those that had had died at Quigley’s hands. The burial itself was even smaller; only you, William and Tommy. And fortunately so, because you might have embarrassed yourself with the way you broke down crying when you saw the tombstone. Only days earlier, you had stood on this very spot with Elliott, he promising a life of freedom for you and Tommy if only you’d marry him.
He had sworn never to come back here; now here he was forever.
Here lies
Victoria Marston
1826 - 1860
and
Elliott Marston
1820 - 1865
You calmed yourself eventually, but when the coffin was brought to be lowered into the grave, you broke down again, seeking comfort in William’s arms.
And he held you. Your husband was never one for public affection, but he held you.
“Would anyone like to say a few words?” the reverend asked when he’d finished his prayers.
You shook your head. You had no words to say. There wasn’t any combination of words in any language that could encapsulate the grief you felt, the love you had for him, the future you had lost.
William kept an arm around you the entire time. He sat you in front of him on the ride back to the station, guiding the horse with one hand while the other held you.
He told you to pack to return to Melbourne that night, so you braved crossing the threshold of Elliott’s house.
You gasped, but held yourself together when you saw that his lounge had been stripped almost bare.
In the bedroom, your breath caught in your chest to see the bed you’d spent so much time in with Elliott, but still your tears appeared to have run dry.
That was, until you opened the wardrobe, and you were hit by Elliott’s musky smell wafting from his clothes, still hanging in the wardrobe, waiting to be worn.
You fell to your knees and sobbed then, burying your head in his shirts, trying to cement the memory of his smell in your mind.
It wasn’t until William came to find out what was taking you so long that you were able to pull away. Even then, William had to lift you up and pull you away, ignoring your screams of protest as he parted you from your lost lover’s scent.
He guided you outside, told Tommy to keep an eye on you, and went back inside.
By the time the sun was beginning to set, William had packed your belongings and loaded up the wagon.
The journey back to Melbourne was torture. None of you well-adjusted to the Australian weather, you travelled by night, sleeping in the day, the men taking turns to stand guard against wild dingos.
Not that it mattered to you when you travelled; you just slept as much as you could, willing away the travel time until you arrived in Melbourne.
The house William had found for you both was not dissimilar to your home in London. William told you to get some rest while he unpacked, and when he deemed the job done, he found you sitting out on the balcony that led from your bedroom, looking out across the streets of Melbourne.
“[Y/n], I know you’re in shock,” William said, surprisingly soft for him, and you almost didn’t recognise his voice. “But we must talk about what happens next.”
You nodded. You still hadn’t said a word since Elliott’s death.
“After you fainted last week, the army arrived. Tommy took the blame for Quigley’s death. Two soldiers stayed behind after their platoon left, to help me with moving the station’s contents and… the bodies.”
William paused. You nodded, waiting for him to continue.
“I’ll sell the land tomorrow. Tommy tells me his former employer may be interested in it. We have until October before we return to London, and then we can put this whole mess behind us.”
You spoke for the first time. Your voice was hoarse and hardly more than a whisper, but William heard you.
“Tommy?”
“His employment reverts to me. I’ll keep him in my employ as a messenger boy for now, but he cannot return to London with us. He’s your brother, I know, and a hard worker, but his sentence is his sentence. I cannot be seen to revoke that for sentimental reasons. You understand that, yes?”
You nodded. You hadn’t expected anything more. In fact, you’d expected less. You were glad to know Tommy would be around at least until you left.
“Good girl, [Y/n].”
William placed a hand over yours. Your fingers twitched in a vague response, but otherwise you remained unmoved.
“I know you grieve for him — I do too. But we have work to do. I am still a judge of her Majesty’s court, and I have responsibilities; just as you do as my wife. I’ve given you time to recover from the shock, but tonight I expect you to resume your normal duties and serve your husband. Understood?”
You nodded again.
He left you alone.
---
Judge Turpin was starting to get irritated now.
It was four months since his cousin had died. Four months since he’d reunited with his wife. What he’d expected to be a joyous affair had been marred by the undoubtedly shocking end of Matthew Quigley’s rampage, and he’d been generous enough to grant you a week to process the difficult event. And just as he’d demanded on your return to Melbourne, you took his seed thrice daily in the hope of your belly quickening.
But still, you remained consumed by your grief. If this was how you reacted to the death of a man you hardly knew, he could hardly imagine how you’d react to his own death.
You hardly spoke. You never smiled, not really; not in a way that reached your eyes. Turpin would often come home from a day at court to find you’d not moved from the same spot all day.
And when he made love to you, there was no engagement, no thrill - you just opened your legs obediently and let him use you for his own pleasure.
It was getting boring and it was getting frustrating. So Turpin went to a doctor, who prescribed electrotherapy, but all that did was make you scream and cry, and that was worse than seeing you feel nothing, so he quickly put a stop to the therapy.
He was in the middle of giving a judgment in court when Tommy ran up to his bench and placed a note in front of him.
He paused, hoping Tommy had good reason for interrupting a judgment.
On reading the note, he quickly adjourned the hearing, leaving very stunned counsel in his wake as he dashed out of the courtroom.
He had shed his wig as he stood, but he was still clad in his judge’s robes when he entered the hospital and demanded to know where you were.
A nurse led him to your room, explaining the circumstances in which Tommy had found you unconscious in bed, a half-drunk bottle of arsenic in your hand. If it hadn’t been for Tommy’s quick thinking in inducing vomiting, you may have died. Instead, you were alive, but unconscious.
Turpin angrily sent the nurse away when he entered the room, demanding no one to disturb him. The door closed, he rushed to your side, and his heart broke to see you laying in the hospital bed, looking peaceful and serene as you slept, as if you had no idea the fear you’d struck into his heart.
“You stupid girl,” Turpin sighed. He sat perched on the edge of the bed and took your hand in his. Your fingers didn’t even twitch.
“Stupid, stupid girl,” he repeated. “Don’t you dare frighten your husband so. What on earth convinced you this was a good idea?”
Of course you didn’t respond.
Turpin stayed by your side for several days. Tommy brought him food, drink and fresh clothes. A clerk from the court came to take his instructions that he wouldn’t be hearing any matters until his wife woke up.
He read to you from the books the nurses had lying around. They mostly had silly romantic books, but by the end of Pride & Prejudice, Turpin found himself surprisingly invested in the story and glad that the two lovers had married.
When he wasn’t reading to you, Turpin spent a lot of time talking to you, or thinking to himself.
He knew why you were grieving so deeply.
He had loved his first wife, Charlotte, and yet she had fallen for a sailor boy. Lucy had loved Barker; Johanna had run away with Anthony.
And now you had fallen in love with Elliott.
Was he doomed to only love women who loved another?
He had punished Charlotte, yet she had run away anyway. So when he fell for Lucy, he sent Barker away, but still she rejected him. When Johanna believed she loved a boy she had only seen and not spoken to, this time he tried locking her away; but she only escaped.
Turpin didn’t want to do any of those things to you. Was he going soft in his old age? All he wanted to do was to bring you back from the deathlike trance you were in, to make you happy again. He hadn’t realised how much joy you brought into his life until it was extinguished, but extinguished it was and he wanted it back. He wanted his wife back.
“I don’t know what Elliott had that you don’t see in me,” Turpin whispered to you on the fourth day. “But I swear to you, [Y/n], if you tell me, I shall match it. I’ll be whoever you need me to be. I just… I need your light, [Y/n]. I need you to remind me of the goodness in the world. Can you do that? Can you stay good, stay pure, stay exactly as you’ve always been? Or must you change? Must your light be snuffed out by the evils of the world?”
You still didn’t respond.
Turpin bowed his head and sighed.
He hadn’t sung since that day in Todd’s parlour. He’d never been one to sing really, but he’d been lulled into a false sense of security that day. And today, he wondered if it might help him understand his own thoughts. So, with no one around but you, Turpin sung softly.
“I sit here, a man infatuate with love
Your ardent and eager slave
Please wake up, don’t leave me all alone
Your love is all I now need to know
Please tell me, my love, how I can show
I’ll love you until my grave
You set my heart and soul afire
One might think I’d be vexed
'Tis true, dear, love can still inspire
The blood to pound, the heart leap higher
What more can one require than love, dear?
More than love, dear…
Kindness?
Maybe kindness…
Care and kindness.”
He stopped suddenly, his attention caught by a strange movement: from beneath your hospital gown, something appeared to be moving around your abdomen.
Turpin gently lifted the gown to reveal your belly. It was protruding a little, perhaps from the poor diet you’d been eating since returning to Melbourne.
It moved again. An unmistakable wave of movement across your belly, as if…
As if there were something inside.
Hardly daring to get his hopes up, Turpin put his hand over your belly.
And then he felt it.
A kick. Definitely a kick.
Something - no, some one was moving inside you. A baby!
Finally, after so long trying, your womb had quickened!
Turpin dashed out of the room and flagged down a passing nurse.
“Nurse! Come quickly!”
“Is everything alright, Lord Turpin?” the nurse asked, slightly alarmed at the usually stoic man’s sudden sense of urgency. “Has Lady Turpin woken?”
“No, but I’m certain I just felt her womb quickening. Do you have a method of discerning if she’s pregnant?”
“Goodness! Yes, although I’ll have to fetch Dr Stephens, he’s the expert on maternity.”
“Then fetch him immediately!”
“Yes, sir.”
The nurse rushed off, and Turpin returned to your side. He beamed at you and took your hand in his, for once not caring to maintain any sort of stoic facade.
“I hope you can hear me, darling,” he said softly. “You’re pregnant. Do you hear me? Do you know? Can you feel him? Our child, growing inside you, an heir for our legacy…”
“Care and kindness, that’s what it takes
To make our love stronger
Care and kindness, what a wonder
Care and kindness…
Now we’ll have our child, the answer to my prayer
I feel a change in the air
Care and kindness that we’ll show him
And I’ll show you also
Stay forever, if you’ll have me
Care and kindness
Care and kindness
I know that you will love and
Raise my son and heir
Even when I leave
I’ll still be there
He’s there
Care and kindness that you give me
And I’ll give you, and we’ll give him, and he’ll give us
How it makes a man sing
Proof of heaven, as you're living
Care and kindness, love
Care and kindness, dear
Care and kindness, oh, care and kindness…”
You were confused when you woke up.
You weren’t supposed to wake up.
Wasn’t that what the apothecarist had said? One drink from the bottle and you’d sleep forever.
So why were you awake?
You opened your eyes and panic rose in your chest when you didn’t recognise the room you were in.
Someone was holding your hand. You turned your head to see William, sitting by your bedside, your hand in his and his head bowed as if in prayer.
Your finger twitched slightly, and his head shot up to look at you, wide-eyed.
”[Y/n]!” William exclaimed, relief evident in his voice. He grinned and held your hand to his lips. “You’re awake! My prayers have been answered.”
“Where am I?” you mumbled, your voice dry and hoarse.
“The Royal Melbourne, darling. You caused us all quite a fright. How are you feeling?”
“Um… okay, I think.”
You went to sit up, and William adjusted your pillows behind you to support you. He took your head in his hands, examining you as if to make sure he wasn’t imagining things.
“You’re sure? Are you hungry, thirsty? I’ve done my best to feed you while you’ve been asleep.”
“Yes, I’m fine - maybe a bit thirsty.”
“Of course. There’s water here.”
William poured a glass of water from the jug by the bed, and you glanced around the room.
It was mostly empty, and a bit miserable-looking. A stack of books lay nearby. You were dressed in nothing but a hospital gown, which had been pushed around your waist, and you tugged it down to cover your privacy.
“How long was I sleeping?”
“Four days. Here - drink.”
You must have really worried him, because you’d not seen William so eager to look after you before. He was like an entirely different person, his usual restraint gone, and you noticed when returning your empty glass to him that he was wearing only a shirt and trousers, nothing of his usual formal attire, and there was stubble on his cheek.
“Darling, I have to tell you something,” William said with a sense of urgency, taking both hands in yours. “And I must tell you now, so you’re not to interrupt me.”
You nodded.
“I know you fell in love with Elliott.”
Your heart dropped. This was it, he knew, he was going to divorce you for adultery —
“And yet, I know you didn’t try to leave me for him, much as he tried to convince you to. You showed me unwavering loyalty, even in spite of what your heart yearned for, and for that I thank you. I know I’m not the kindest husband, and though I provide for you, I can do better. I must do better. I swear to you now, [Y/n], with the Lord as my witness, I will do everything in my power to be the best husband I can for you, to honour Elliott’s memory, and… to be the best father I can for our child.”
He placed his hand tenderly over your stomach and smiled.
“I felt it, darling. The quickening. I saw him move and felt his kicks, only minutes before you woke. At last we’ll have the child we’ve yearned for.”
You felt paralysed with shock.
You were pregnant. You had a child inside you, a life, entirely dependent on you.
If you’d succeeded in what you’d tried to do, the child would have died too. You were so consumed in grief, you’d almost snuffed out the last trace of Elliott in the world.
The thought came to you so naturally, it was as if you just knew.
Maybe you did. Maybe a mother always knows.
Elliott was gone, but he was still with you. He’d left you with child.
Did William know? Did he want to know? Did the suspicion even cross his mind?
He looked so happy. Here he was, promising to be the best father he could be. If he even suspected the child wasn’t his, he would never react like this. He would probably force you to abort it to make room for his own child.
He couldn’t know. He could never know. The child would be Turpin, and he would never know who his real father was. It was a secret you had to carry to your grave, for all your sakes.
You looked up at your husband. He looked at you searchingly, waiting for you to respond to the news of your pregnancy.
“Can we call him Elliott?”
---
Thanks to some herbs from an apothecarist in Melbourne - not the same one who’d given you the useless bottle of arsenic, as grateful as you were for their negligence - you managed to make the two month journey back to London without regurgitating your meals any more than an expectant mother would normally do.
Your belly grew substantially over the journey, and though you’d managed to carry your own bags onto the boat in Melbourne, there was simply no way William was allowing you to attempt to carry them off again in London. You counted yourself fortunate that he didn’t insist on carrying you off the boat himself.
You’d said a tearful goodbye to Tommy in Melbourne, but you left knowing you’d see him sooner than expected; although he claimed there were no personal reasons for it, William had drawn up a law before you left that a convict who spends his sentence in the employ of the British army would receive a day off his sentence for each day served. It just so happened that shortly after enacting the law, he had Tommy enlist in the army, and therefore so long as he stayed safe and served the army well, he could return to London in as little as seven years.
You arrived in London just a few days before Christmas, and you were greeted with warm welcomes and congratulations by other churchgoers on Christmas Day, many of them pleasantly surprised to see Lord and Lady Turpin had safely returned from Australia and that you were heavy with child.
William forwent his usual New Year’s celebrations in favour of looking after you, since you were now so pregnant you could hardly get out of bed.
The New Year had hardly begun when you went into labour, and if you weren’t so distressed with your pain, you might have been amused at seeing the usually stoic Lord Turpin fretting with worry over you, refusing the doctors’ advice to leave the room. Instead, he insisted on staying with you, and made no complaints no matter how hard you gripped his hand in the throes of pain.
You were just about ready to pass out when finally you were free of the weight of the child, and William had to keep you awake as the nurse washed the baby, wrapped him up and handed him to you to nurse.
“Is he alright? Is he healthy?” William asked urgently, addressing the nurse but his eyes fixed firmly on the sight of you, sweaty and exhausted and utterly beautiful, holding your son to your breast.
“Yes and yes. And he is indeed a boy, congratulations!”
William beamed at you. “I never doubted it for a moment.”
Although he’d never say it to you, he had had doubts of the child’s paternity for months. And yet, looking down at him now, he realised he didn’t care if the child was half him or half Elliott. He was half you, and that was all that mattered.
William leant down and kissed the boy’s head tenderly.
“Welcome to the world, Elliott Turpin.”
Twenty Years Later
Being the eldest child was difficult sometimes. As the heir to the Turpin estate, Elliott had all the responsibilities, while his three youngest siblings were free to leave after marrying and start families elsewhere.
Elliott, though, stayed in the family home with his wife and young son. His wife, bless her, never complained - she liked having his mother around, she said. It was nice to have another lady around, especially when Elliott’s youngest sister, Eleanor, married and moved out almost as soon as she turned eighteen.
What he hadn’t expected was to lose his mother so soon after Eleanor left.
He had been the one to find her motionless in her bed.
And fortunately he had, because while in one hand she held an empty bottle of arsenic, in the other she held a letter addressed to him, and when he read the contents, he knew nobody could ever know the truth contained within, not even his wife.
Elliott —
I know I’m leaving early, but since my darling William left us ten years ago, I’ve been aching to follow him. In truth, I stayed only because my duty on this earth was not done. But now Eleanor is married, all four of you have families, and I’m needed here no more.
I must tell you a truth, Elliott, a truth I kept only to myself since before you were born.
You know you were named for William’s cousin, who we briefly stayed with in Australia in 1865, who was murdered before our very eyes.
But there’s more to your namesake than that.
For some time, William worked in Melbourne, while I stayed with Elliott at his station.
I fell in love with him.
If it weren’t for his death, I might have left William for him. But events transpired as they did, and I lost the love of my life. All I had left of him was the gift he’d given me: you.
The very moment I discovered I was pregnant with you, I knew he was your father. I wonder sometimes if a part of William knew too.
You knew William as a supportive if stern father, who laughed but reluctantly, and who adored me and all of you.
He wasn’t always like that.
The early years of our relationship were fraught with darkness, but that tale is done. That version of William died long ago.
He worked hard to become the man you knew. And he did it because of Elliott. He did it because he saw the love Elliott and I had, and although at first he was jealous, he took it as a lesson to become a better man.
I have loved every version of my husband. I loved Elliott too. Both these things can be true.
And of course I have loved you. I can never prove that Elliott is your father, but I have always known it.
You remind me of him sometimes. Your laugh is the same. He fancied himself an American cowboy, so you can imagine how it brought me both joy and sorrow to see you play Cowboys and Indians with William Jr, always insisting on being the cowboy.
But the resemblance I see most is in your family, the way you love them, care for them, protect them no matter what. If your father was anything, he was a protector.
He taught me to speak for myself. He showed me that I can make choices for myself. And it’s because of him that you exist, and that will always be the greatest gift of my life.
I love you, Elliott. Be the good man I know you are.
All my love,
Your mother, [Y/n] Turpin
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