Elsie

Chapter 26: The Truth

TW: Mentions of violence and sexual abuse.

Elsie paced the hall while the doctor looked over the woman's injuries. Clement had refused to leave the girl's side. Despite everything that Nora had told her, Elsie's desire for Eileen to be alright trumped her need for an explanation from Clement. She couldn't fathom the suffering that Eileen had endured.

A few minutes later, Clement emerged from the room, his eyes bloodshot and his hair a mess.

"Is she going to be alright?" she asked, with genuine concern.

"We won't know for a while," Clement took her hand and led her into a small sitting room on the second floor. He gestured for her to take a seat on the sofa, and she did so. Clement sat beside her.

"Her head wound is the most concerning of her injuries," he explained. "The doctor is uncertain whether there will be any lasting damage. The broken bone in her arm will have to be set. Everything else will simply have to heal given lots of time and rest."

Elsie nodded in understanding. Clement let out a deep breath and buried his face in his hands. "I could never protect her," he sobbed.

Elsie found herself placing a hand on his back, rubbing gently. He suddenly turned to her and grasped her free hand.

"Elsie, thank you for coming today. After what you saw last night, I..." he paused. "I should have told you about Eileen," he whispered, "but I was afraid, and it wasn't appropriate to discuss... but I swear to you that I never touched her... in that way."

Elsie bit her lip, trying to cast her doubts aside and give him a fair hearing. "Clement, I can see that you care for her a great deal. If you intend to court me, I must know what it is that makes this woman so special to you," she pleaded.

Clement took a shaky breath and glanced at her with red eyes. He nodded.

"What I am about to tell you," he warned, "it's unbefitting for a young woman– for anyone to hear."

Elsie's heart beat furiously in her chest, dreading the worst, but she nodded for him to continue.

"Eileen is my cousin by marriage. Her mother was widowed, and she married my uncle after the death of her husband. Then, Eileen's mother died just after the marriage, when Eileen was only six-years-old."

Elsie nodded when he took a breath.

"After my sister Betty died, my mother was practically hysterical. My father thought that it would be best if I were to go away for a while, and since I was not yet prepared to go to school, it was decided that I would be sent to my uncle's home in Boston. One afternoon, I decided to take a stroll, but the chill was greater than I had anticipated, so I turned back soon after I had begun. I re-entered my uncle's house and decided I would read a book, so I went up the stairs towards the room I was staying in to retrieve it. That's when I heard–" Clement choked, and Elsie rubbed his arm encouragingly. "I heard Eileen crying, and the sound–" another sob, "the sound was coming from my uncle's chambers."

Elsie's heart dropped. Her body began to shake and her hands were clammy, but she didn't interrupt.

"So I– I walked in," Clement trembled, "and what I saw... Elsie, at that moment, I can't describe the pure, unadulterated rage that I felt when I saw..."

"He forced himself onto her," Elsie quietly filled in for him when he couldn't say it aloud. Clement shuddered, his face falling into his hands. Elsie gave him time to recover himself.

"I flew at him," he finally continued. "I pulled him off of her and I attacked him. Elsie, I don't even know how many times I struck him in the face before some of the staff pulled me off of him. I– I didn't kill him," he clarified, "but I might have if I hadn't been stopped. My hands were covered in his blood."