The Greatest Obsession

Chapter Eighteen: Baths & Neighbors

Upon waking up the following morning, Irina, Elijah had noticed, had left. He rolled over on his bed to find her space empty and cold. He couldn't have been sure when she'd fled but the fact that she had sent his heart into his throat and his stomach tightened. Elijah hummed wearily before hefting himself from the bed. Then, there came the guilt of being well rested because his body didn't ache as it had the past few mornings after nights of violent muscle spasms and lack of sleep.

Elijah turned to his vanity across the room and glanced at his nakedness. He'd never looked upon his flesh before and felt penetrated by regret, fear. He rubbed his arms and let the warm sun heat his back. The young man groaned to himself and picked out his clothes, opting for a pale brown waistcoat and vest, light gray trousers, black oxfords, and a silken pinstriped lavender and silver ascot.

No matter what dictated his thoughts, the presentation of his outfit was a priority for Elijah. He may have fumbled with the ascot and his buttons and may have poorly brushed his hair, but who would notice? All the man cared about was finding Irina, and then drawing a bath. Elijah planned on apologizing and finding a way to remedy his poor actions.

Elijah left his room and opened Irina's door to find it vacant, her nightgown laying on the bed. Roaming down the hall, after knocking on the bathroom door and receiving no answer, the twenty-three-year-old jiggled the handle. Irina wasn't present. Elijah wiped his mouth and took long strides to the stairs and sought out his fiancée in the parlor, then both of Abraham's empty studies, the dining hall, and the garden. The aggravated individual paused in the kitchen where Margaret sat by a boiling kettle.

"Margaret, where's Irina gone to?" Elijah asked a wisp of desperation in his voice.

The old woman looked up at Elijah, her forever stern face appearing confused. "She's gone out, dear. She's shopping."

"Did she act well this morning?"

"I would assume she was all right, Mr. Marks. What seems to be the matter?"

Elijah crinkled his brows and licked his lips. He coughed and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "No, I," he started, "I was just worried when I couldn't find her this morning. Did she say where she was going?"

"Ms. Irina said something about helping Father Orville set up for a funeral."

"A funeral? For whom?" Elijah inquired.

Margaret pointed to the paper. "Some poor old lad who washed up on shore two days ago. His children identified his body and said the old man's wife passed not too long ago. I would have thought he offed himself, but no, he had ropes tied to his feet and some nasty wound on his neck, probably someone tried to hold him down with crates. Poor chap. The bobbies are trying to investigate his case but it doesn't look to be in his favor."

Elijah paled. His initial thoughts pointed this murder specifically onto Haydn, due to the presence of the "nasty wound" on the victim's neck. He tried to hide the evidence, Elijah thought, producing a sad smile for the housekeeper awaiting his reaction. "God rest his soul. I hope they catch the man who did this." No, you lie.

The need to rush to the church and meet Irina crossed Elijah's mind, but he decided against it. Margaret was weary, now, and she'd catch on to the young master's behavior. Elijah wished there was someone he could entrust with the secrets of his life, but at that moment, he only had one of his secrets to tell his other secrets. That secret was a murderer whose sympathy it only chose Elijah to project on. He wished Arthur had never moved out of the country. Telling his cousin would have done nothing to help him, though. As open-minded as Arthur was, in the matters of the flesh, he would have praised Elijah. That was where the pair differed. God forbid if Abraham knew anything. The old man's love for him might have vanished altogether. Abraham was the most God-fearing man Elijah ever met so to explain to him that he committed the sin of premarital intercourse with his daughter would have blown up in his face.